Fandom (Glitch Techs Xpanded Universe) GTX: Gnu Fork

[Lady Moldoma]

Once he was finished he charged right at Zoe

Zoe answered Boomerang Beetle's charge with a square strike aimed in a straight swing at his face via her bat, attempting to take advantage of his own momentum to use it against him.

"I was right about the ambush, but you'd think they'd send something more worth using for an ambush." She says, simultaneously as she counters the charge.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Zoe answered Boomerang Beetle's charge with a square strike aimed in a straight swing at his face via her bat, attempting to take advantage of his own momentum to use it against him.

"I was right about the ambush, but you'd think they'd send something more worth using for an ambush." She says, simultaneously as she counters the charge.

"Yeah, good point!" Gadg8eer responded, though he didn't have any time to contemplate at the moment. His glo-yos took pot shots at Boomerang Beetle, as the forever youngster kept the boss distracted by dodging while de-rezzing barrels.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Zoe answered Boomerang Beetle's charge with a square strike aimed in a straight swing at his face via her bat, attempting to take advantage of his own momentum to use it against him.

"I was right about the ambush, but you'd think they'd send something more worth using for an ambush." She says, simultaneously as she counters the charge.

"Yeah, good point!" Gadg8eer responded, though he didn't have any time to contemplate at the moment. His glo-yos took pot shots at Boomerang Beetle, as the forever youngster kept the boss distracted by dodging while de-rezzing barrels.

A Baseball bat to the face plus his own momentum equaled Boomerang Beetle being sent Flying back. The bat Took 3 units off of Boomerang Beetle's health bar, after getting up the boss threw his horns at Zoe due to her being the more immediate Threat than Gadg8eer, whos glo yos if they hit took 1 bit of health off when they hit.

 

[Gadg8eer]

At that moment, a voice spoke in Gadg8eer's XR goggles' bone-conductive headphones. "The current time is @208 or 9:00 PM local, Gadg8eer."

"9 already?! Where's the other techs?!" he said, annoyed that they were taking far too long to have a comfortable level of risk for him. He couldn't back down now, not with the town at stake, but he was starting to get worried. The sirens were still going in the distance, suggesting things were not going well for anyone else either.

---

Meanwhile, Dave and Zeke were in a much, much more pressing matter. One of the bridges destroyed by the barrels, a former rail bridge which now only hosted a bike trail and a natural gas pipeline, was among the bridges damaged. The air was thick with smoke as the fire department of Christina Lake, the BC Gridworks employees who managed the pipeline, and Dave and Zeke struggled to put out the flames and repair the bridge.

It took them well over 20 minutes to do so, after arriving another 20 minutes after they left their departure points, but only now did they begin to see results.

Finally, by 9:07 PM, the last of the damage to the bridge was repaired with System Restore.

"Thanks for the help." the fire chief told the two technicians. "I have to ask, how did you get police clearance? You Techs usually aren't allowed to get involved with DCR."

Damage Control and Repair. Hinobi may equip their Techs with System Restore, but the tech was seeing even heavier use by emergency services.

"I'll let you know once I know for sure, but it's because we suspect this wasn't done by your average anti-corporate terrorists." Dave explained.

"Eco-Terrorists then?" the fire chief assumed. "Did they attack the smartgrid mainframe?"

"No, and they possibly still are in the process of doing so." Dave explained. "All I know is that we might be dealing with a new type of Glitch-based cyber-terrorism and warfare tactic."

"Why here, then?" the chief asked.

"If I knew I would tell you, but from my military training I'm guessing we're a test field for something much worse. Possibly a smartgrid-based malware vector. See, this is why I don't trust the government alone to deal with hacking. Glitch Troubleshooting is a very demanding skillset, yes, but we fill it with the best of the not best because there's a need for quantity as much as quality, you can't take away Hinobi's rights to go after hackers without a new plan in place to fill the gap. Corporate is shit but you can't tell me this isn't a good reason to admit I have a point."

"Whatever, Davenport." the fire chief dismissively said. "Not my problem. Just don't think I didn't notice that Hinobi shipping container that's been sitting in a siding for the last two days."

"What container?" Dave said, surprised.

"Hinobi brought a container on a train car in from the States and parked it near the river in the industrial park. I assumed you already knew. Guess they don't tell you as much as they should after all." the fire chief said, and turned and walked to his truck.

"Zeke, has there been any reports on that?"

"N-no, but I did notice there was some chatter in Washington? I didn't think they were going to send him here!"

"Zeke, listen to me very carefully. Send who here?" Dave said.

"It's... it's Bolypius, sir. They've moved him here from Washington State to 'get him away from important infrastructure'." Zeke explained.

"Oh fsck." Dave facepalmed. "The idiots in Legal are really going to try this shit again?"

---

...and back at the City Works...

"9 already?! Where's the other techs?!" he said, annoyed that they were taking far too long to have a comfortable level of risk for him. He couldn't back down now, not with the town at stake, but he was starting to get worried. The sirens were still going in the distance, suggesting things were not going well for anyone else either.

Gadg8eer quieted down and slipped into the building, hoping Zoe could handle the level boss herself while he looked for a way to shorten this conflict. Inside, a massive garage had been built to service and fuel school busses and other government vehicles. However, instead, the main open space that would have been in the garage was crawling with Glitches of video game minions attending to a large entity resembling the Wormgate from Wormgate Institute. Upon seeing it, he closed his left eye and winked his right, another command he'd set up. It silently took a digital photo of what he was looking at and b-mailed the image to Dave.

He was going to look for the mainframe before anyone spotted him, when he saw the two men tied to the support pillar in the middle of the garage, and made a mental note to try and save them before anything else if everything went south. Then, he quickly ducked past the doorway and tiptoed over to a door labelled "Server Room" with a Hinobi security keypad on it. Fortunately, it clicked open thanks to recognizing him as an authorized repair technician, and he was about to enter when he heard footsteps approaching. Gadg8eer looked around in a hurry and spotted a wheeled cart that seemed to belong to the janitors, with cloths that kept items hidden under the top of the cart. He took no delay in ducking into the space and waiting to see who was approaching...

(( @Sir Loin: Anyone you want to bring in? ))

 

[Sir loin of beef]

At that moment, a voice spoke in Gadg8eer's XR goggles' bone-conductive headphones. "The current time is @208 or 9:00 PM local, Gadg8eer."

"9 already?! Where's the other techs?!" he said, annoyed that they were taking far too long to have a comfortable level of risk for him. He couldn't back down now, not with the town at stake, but he was starting to get worried. The sirens were still going in the distance, suggesting things were not going well for anyone else either.

---

Meanwhile, Dave and Zeke were in a much, much more pressing matter. One of the bridges destroyed by the barrels, a former rail bridge which now only hosted a bike trail and a natural gas pipeline, was among the bridges damaged. The air was thick with smoke as the fire department of Christina Lake, the BC Gridworks employees who managed the pipeline, and Dave and Zeke struggled to put out the flames and repair the bridge.

It took them well over 20 minutes to do so, after arriving another 20 minutes after they left their departure points, but only now did they begin to see results.

Finally, by 9:07 PM, the last of the damage to the bridge was repaired with System Restore.

"Thanks for the help." the fire chief told the two technicians. "I have to ask, how did you get police clearance? You Techs usually aren't allowed to get involved with DCR."

Damage Control and Repair. Hinobi may equip their Techs with System Restore, but the tech was seeing even heavier use by emergency services.

"I'll let you know once I know for sure, but it's because we suspect this wasn't done by your average anti-corporate terrorists." Dave explained.

"Eco-Terrorists then?" the fire chief assumed. "Did they attack the smartgrid mainframe?"

"No, and they possibly still are in the process of doing so." Dave explained. "All I know is that we might be dealing with a new type of Glitch-based cyber-terrorism and warfare tactic."

"Why here, then?" the chief asked.

"If I knew I would tell you, but from my military training I'm guessing we're a test field for something much worse. Possibly a smartgrid-based malware vector. See, this is why I don't trust the government alone to deal with hacking. Glitch Troubleshooting is a very demanding skillset, yes, but we fill it with the best of the not best because there's a need for quantity as much as quality, you can't take away Hinobi's rights to go after hackers without a new plan in place to fill the gap. Corporate is shit but you can't tell me this isn't a good reason to admit I have a point."

"Whatever, Davenport." the fire chief dismissively said. "Not my problem. Just don't think I didn't notice that Hinobi shipping container that's been sitting in a siding for the last two days."

"What container?" Dave said, surprised.

"Hinobi brought a container on a train car in from the States and parked it near the river in the industrial park. I assumed you already knew. Guess they don't tell you as much as they should after all." the fire chief said, and turned and walked to his truck.

"Zeke, has there been any reports on that?"

"N-no, but I did notice there was some chatter in Washington? I didn't think they were going to send him here!"

"Zeke, listen to me very carefully. Send who here?" Dave said.

"It's... it's Bolypius, sir. They've moved him here from Washington State to 'get him away from important infrastructure'." Zeke explained.

"Oh fsck." Dave facepalmed. "The idiots in Legal are really going to try this shit again?"

---

...and back at the City Works...



Gadg8eer quieted down and slipped into the building, hoping Zoe could handle the level boss herself while he looked for a way to shorten this conflict. Inside, a massive garage had been built to service and fuel school busses and other government vehicles. However, instead, the main open space that would have been in the garage was crawling with Glitches of video game minions attending to a large entity resembling the Wormgate from Wormgate Institute. Upon seeing it, he closed his left eye and winked his right, another command he'd set up. It silently took a digital photo of what he was looking at and b-mailed the image to Dave.

He was going to look for the mainframe before anyone spotted him, when he saw the two men tied to the support pillar in the middle of the garage, and made a mental note to try and save them before anything else if everything went south. Then, he quickly ducked past the doorway and tiptoed over to a door labelled "Server Room" with a Hinobi security keypad on it. Fortunately, it clicked open thanks to recognizing him as an authorized repair technician, and he was about to enter when he heard footsteps approaching. Gadg8eer looked around in a hurry and spotted a wheeled cart that seemed to belong to the janitors, with cloths that kept items hidden under the top of the cart. He took no delay in ducking into the space and waiting to see who was approaching...

(( @Sir Loin: Anyone you want to bring in? ))

( Gadg8eer Yes)

Gadg8eer did see someone enter, to be accurate he saw Three Someones enter, first he saw what looked like an elderly and frail Humanoid robot who's head was a Cog for some reason enter, then he saw what looked like a cybernetic Gorilla with a futuristic Visor like what that one guy wore on Space Trek and he saw someone who looked like a male version of Atom girl in all black and a helmet that somehow had a widows peak and on the sides was Yellow with stripes, these were Cog man, RoboGoreilla, and Snare respectively.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

his horns at Zoe due to her being the more immediate Threat than Gadg8eer, whos glo yos if they hit took 1 bit of health off when they hit.

Zoe’s immediate response, was to throw the stolen S. Star weapon, countering one of the horns mid-aid, before sidestepping with fluid, minimal movement, hardening her stance and swinging her bat full force to redirect the other horn back at its user, boomerang beetle. Her footwork rotated her about half a diameter, her body twisting along with the trajectory of the swing to move its entire velocity in tandem with the parrying attack and send the horn rocketing directly backwards.

Her efforts were of course to keep the eyes of her opponents on her since she reasoned that Gadg8 might not so easily handle himself against a stage boss. She assumed his build was mainly utility, and beyond that, his stated interest in city building and more casual games led her to the conclusion that he might not’ve had the same fighting instinct she did.

in truth it was as much of a decision to carry the combat end for his sake as it was hers. She personally didn’t understand half of the technology that’d be so easily understood by someone like gadg8eer. So having him play the locksmith while she swung her heart out on a bunch of digital Phantasms was fine by her.

She had emotions to get out, an entire backlog of them at this point. A lot of fear of her own mortality, her own mental vulnerabilities, and her own lack of self worth or respect for the world around her, which mixed together in a cavalcade of volatility. Luckily, at least for now, she seemed to be able to manifest it as motivation for combat.

Sometimes she wondered, with how insecure she was, how she ever got successful streaming. Other virtual Beetubers didn’t even invite her to stuff anymore because of how poor her social skills were, especially in perspective to how in the zone she was when it came to actually playing games. Though in all honesty, she had always rationalized it narcissistically as a type of jealousy of her prowess.

What was her goal now, in the end of all of this, what was she looking for?

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Zoe’s immediate response, was to throw the stolen S. Star weapon, countering one of the horns mid-aid, before sidestepping with fluid, minimal movement, hardening her stance and swinging her bat full force to redirect the other horn back at its user, boomerang beetle. Her footwork rotated her about half a diameter, her body twisting along with the trajectory of the swing to move its entire velocity in tandem with the parrying attack and send the horn rocketing directly backwards.

Her efforts were of course to keep the eyes of her opponents on her since she reasoned that Gadg8 might not so easily handle himself against a stage boss. She assumed his build was mainly utility, and beyond that, his stated interest in city building and more casual games led her to the conclusion that he might not’ve had the same fighting instinct she did.

in truth it was as much of a decision to carry the combat end for his sake as it was hers. She personally didn’t understand half of the technology that’d be so easily understood by someone like gadg8eer. So having him play the locksmith while she swung her heart out on a bunch of digital Phantasms was fine by her.

She had emotions to get out, an entire backlog of them at this point. A lot of fear of her own mortality, her own mental vulnerabilities, and her own lack of self worth or respect for the world around her, which mixed together in a cavalcade of volatility. Luckily, at least for now, she seemed to be able to manifest it as motivation for combat.

Sometimes she wondered, with how insecure she was, how she ever got successful streaming. Other virtual Beetubers didn’t even invite her to stuff anymore because of how poor her social skills were, especially in perspective to how in the zone she was when it came to actually playing games. Though in all honesty, she had always rationalized it narcissistically as a type of jealousy of her prowess.

What was her goal now, in the end of all of this, what was she looking for?

Getting hit with his own Horn took one unit of health off of Boomerang Beetle's healthbar because hitting a renegade or a machine overlord with their own weapon usually didn't do much, in Warmth Woman's case it actually healed her but I'm getting ahead of myself, anyways the other horn hit the Shinobi star causing it to fall on the ground.

Boomerang Beetle's health bar=18 units out of 28.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

Zoe had already begun running by the time the horn had hit, dragging her bat across the ground in one hand, and swinging down to toss the S. Star in the air, quickly and smoothly transitioning to a wide swing that sent the S. Star careening towards Boomerang Beetle. She then continued running to hopefully close the distance between the two, in the hopes of taking advantage of her weapon’s suitability for melee combat.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Zoe had already begun running by the time the horn had hit, dragging her bat across the ground in one hand, and swinging down to toss the S. Star in the air, quickly and smoothly transitioning to a wide swing that sent the S. Star careening towards Boomerang Beetle. She then continued running to hopefully close the distance between the two, in the hopes of taking advantage of her weapon’s suitability for melee combat.

The star hit Boomerang Beetle, removing 4 health bars which was normally the type of damage you could only do with a Renegade's Weakness but due to its speed being amplified by being hit with a baseball bat which I assume can amplify thrown weapon lethality 4 units of damage happened.

Boomerang Beetle's health bar=14 units out of 28

 

[Lady Moldoma]

Taking advantage of the brief hit-stun, Zoe slid just a little as she finally entered melee range. She gripped the bat with both of her hands, before unleashing a torrent of hits, swinging downwards sideways and upwards from multiple angles onto her opponent.

She finished off the brutal combo with a frontal kick to the solar plexus, aiming to knock her opponent onto his back.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Taking advantage of the brief hit-stun, Zoe slid just a little as she finally entered melee range. She gripped the bat with both of her hands, before unleashing a torrent of hits, swinging downwards sideways and upwards from multiple angles onto her opponent.

She finished off the brutal combo with a frontal kick to the solar plexus, aiming to knock her opponent onto his back.

Said Combo was needless to say Effective, each hit from the baseball bat did about 3 units of damage and considering that boomerang beetle was only on 14 units of health and though he fought well trying to counter by punching Zoe the brutal combo whittled him down to Two units of health, the hit to his solar plexus sent him tumbling down to his back.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

Zoe tanked several of the hits from his incomplete counter. Which did manage to tear up her clothes a bit and leave some dents in her body. However she only seemed to move with even more agression in response. “Crack this!” She shouted, before bringing the bat down on the head of her now earthbound opponent.

After sufficiently brutalizing her opponent, she seemed to calm down just a little. Even though there was a certain level of exhilaration from the built in electrochemical stimulation that a vr suit would provide for her real body back home.

She examined the menu and activated system restore on herself momentarily while she was out of combat.

Recognizing her heat sinks were at their periodic limit, she lifted up her skirt, from which a large cloud of exhaust emerged. Blowing out onto the floor. She went over to pick the S. Star back up and then make her way deeper in after gadg8eer, aiming to provide any needed support.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Zoe tanked several of the hits from his incomplete counter. Which did manage to tear up her clothes a bit and leave some dents in her body. However she only seemed to move with even more agression in response. “Crack this!” She shouted, before bringing the bat down on the head of her now earthbound opponent.

After sufficiently brutalizing her opponent, she seemed to calm down just a little. Even though there was a certain level of exhilaration from the built in electrochemical stimulation that a vr suit would provide for her real body back home.

She examined the menu and activated system restore on herself momentarily while she was out of combat.

Recognizing her heat sinks were at their periodic limit, she lifted up her skirt, from which a large cloud of exhaust emerged. Blowing out onto the floor. She went over to pick the S. Star back up and then make her way deeper in after gadg8eer, aiming to provide any needed support.

Getting hit in the head with the baseball bat was the final blow for boomerang beetle, who as Zoe was checking the menu and system restore exploded like a typical Atom Girl Z boss in a series of Explosions with his body disappearing in the final explosion

 

[Gadg8eer]

Getting hit in the head with the baseball bat was the final blow for boomerang beetle, who as Zoe was checking the menu and system restore exploded like a typical Atom Girl Z boss in a series of Explosions with his body disappearing in the final explosion

Boomerang Beetle burst into pixelated explosion sprites and was immediately derezzed automatically by Zoe's gauntlet, which displayed a quick "+90000 XP" and "Completion Rank: SSS++" for notification and for effect respectively. Though to her likely annoyance, it was listed that she had only reached the penultimate completion rank and not reached the ultimate ranking, which was "SSS+++" and required a kill time that would have required a One-Hit-Kill fighting move or a headshot with a Hinobi Zapper or Hinobi Light Scope.

( Gadg8eer Yes)

Gadg8eer did see someone enter, to be accurate he saw Three Someones enter, first he saw what looked like an elderly and frail Humanoid robot who's head was a Cog for some reason enter, then he saw what looked like a cybernetic Gorilla with a futuristic Visor like what that one guy wore on Space Trek and he saw someone who looked like a male version of Atom girl in all black and a helmet that somehow had a widows peak and on the sides was Yellow with stripes, these were Cog Man, RoboGoreilla, and Snare respectively.

Gadg8eer silently used his goggles' interface to see if there was anything available to him that wasn't his own personal equipment, his default weapon yo-yos, or the most basic of a Tech's diagnostic and containment tools, and found that (though he didn't know it) the one thing that had changed since the late New 10s when Hector and Miko were new to the job was that the Profiler from such games as Smart_watch had been standard for all new technicians since the botched initial release of Cybershock 2020 had needed to be cleaned up.

Using the software tool with his SpyWear XR goggles, he could detect devices nearby that were hidden from him by the same cloth he was himself hidden by without risking being discovered, much like the aforementioned Cybershock 2020's upgraded simulated version of the Profiler. He took control of a nearby security camera, panning it to silently observe the three Machine Overlords...

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Boomerang Beetle burst into pixelated explosion sprites and was immediately derezzed automatically by Zoe's gauntlet, which displayed a quick "+90000 XP" and "Completion Rank: SSS++" for notification and for effect respectively. Though to her likely annoyance, it was listed that she had only reached the penultimate completion rank and not reached the ultimate ranking, which was "SSS+++" and required a kill time that would have required a One-Hit-Kill fighting move or a headshot with a Hinobi Zapper or Hinobi Light Scope.


Gadg8eer silently used his goggles' interface to see if there was anything available to him that wasn't his own personal equipment, his default weapon yo-yos, or the most basic of a Tech's diagnostic and containment tools, and found that (though he didn't know it) the one thing that had changed since the late New 10s when Hector and Miko were new to the job was that the Profiler from such games as <I>Smart_watch</I> had been standard for all new technicians since the botched initial release of <I>Cybershock 2020</I> had needed to be cleaned up.

Using the software tool with his SpyWear XR goggles, he could detect devices nearby that were hidden from him by the same cloth he was himself hidden by without risking being discovered, much like the aforementioned <I>Cybershock 2020</I>'s upgraded simulated version of the Profiler. He took control of a nearby security camera, panning it to silently observe the three Machine Overlords...

Gadg8eer saw that The Machine Overlords seemed to be Guarding the Portal device and the men that had been tied up after cog man whooped their butts, and they also seem to be on the lookout for any intruders...

 

[Gadg8eer]

Gadg8eer saw that The Machine Overlords seemed to be Guarding the Portal device and the men that had been tied up after cog man whooped their butts, and they also seem to be on the lookout for any intruders...

Gadg8eer reached into the right pocket of his RumblePack and pulled out a small plastic rounded rectangle... I MEAN WIRELESS MOUSE!

Okay, yeah, not that impressive. Still, slipping the power switch on the mouse to the on position, it linked up to Gadg8eer's PAN (Personal Area Network) hosted by his RumblePack, and he quickly tapped the rims of his goggles once with both hands, activating Incognito Mode. He'd never actually used the mode for the typical reasons people did so, both for obvious reasons and because Incognito Mode only prevented cookies and visited websites from being in your browser history, but in AugReal mode it did also prevent your interfaces from being visible to anyone but the user as well. So when a translucent AugWindow labelled as a "HidWindow" appeared to him, none of the glitches (at least, in theory) would be able to see it.

Which meant he had more intuitive access to the wireless security cameras installed throughout the building as long as he could get line of sight for his Profiler.

He panned the camera he'd commandeered and found that in spite of his instincts, this wasn't necessarily like a mission in Smart_watch where various electronic devices were strewn throughout the room for player convenience. Instead, the few devices that were usable as bootstrapped weapons in such a game - like vehicles or wifi-enabled landmines - were either absent or labelled as "ERROR 404: SmartNode not found" as Gadg8eer realized why he'd been told the smartgrid wasn't coming on until midnight... It meant he couldn't just turn this into a game of Smart_watch: Anonymous or Cybershock 2020 because, with the exception of the cameras that had to remain active 24/7, none of it was designed to function without relying on the grid. The smartgrid was distributed, but in maintenance or setup mode as it prepared to activate at midnight for the first time ever, so even though it would perpetually remain on once activated, for now he was restricted to the security desk feeds that were integrated into the Profiler via AgentBVR, a third-party application that allowed for property owners and authorized officials to remotely access security feeds, but had been bought outright by Hinobi and - having served its purpose for several years now - was due to be discontinued as a piece of software at the end of the next month in favor of the global adoption of the ubOS smartgrid standard pioneered by Hinobi in Chicago, San Francisco and London.

Of course, even in the face of the world's most powerful tech giant, Grand Forks' previous cabal of repeatedly-elected city council members had kept the company out to such a degree that even when the contract was forced through by the Federal government of Canada, the municipal leaders purposefully impeded the actual launch of ubOS³ in Grand Forks from occurring... until it had cost the city the very "quaint pacific northwest town" feel they were trying to maintain and the changing of the guard was forced.

The result was that instead of getting the proper resources to host the system, the city was saddled with a used supercomputer they bought second-hand from the University of BC, the Krei Z-XP. Made in the early 90s by the now-defunct Krei Tech Industries, the system barely met the requirements for the software it was meant to run, but having spent a lot of money on a pretty museum piece, the city wasn't going to budge on getting the machine to do what was wanted even if the technology in question shouldn't be able to handle it. Fortunately for GNU Forks, PLixel-based adaptors such as the Flashcast Omnidaptor Puck - a small Hinobi Digital Media Integration (HDMI) cable dongle designed to use Hinobi's NobiCast wireless protocol - and the standard Glitch Tech diagnostic cable had allowed even the oldest systems to be retrofitted to work indefinitely as whatever purpose the devices were able to meet. In addition, NobiCast protocol wireless became a standard built-in feature on all new WiFi-enabled and 5G cellular devices after 2020. The advancements were able to come to the rescue, making the installation a lot easier than it otherwise would be for Zeke and the other experienced Techs.

As for the location of the old system, it was behind the "Server Room" door he'd unlocked, in a locked and very chilled room - the machine had to stay liquid-cooled via the city's water supply even in emergency situations - at the south end of the building. It was powered by solar panels on, and a few turbine kites attached to, the roof of the City Works Yard, along with several water turbines added to the riverbed downstream of the confluence of the Kettle and Granby rivers to the east of the Works Yard. The exact locations of all that, however, was a mystery until the smartGrid was first activated, and obviously Zoe and Gadg8eer wouldn't have time to wait for that to happen.

What was interesting was that in spite of all this, the portal in the center of the room wasn't just a glitch - though it was indeed a Mapper Glitch - but a glitch that, apparently, seemed to be derived from Hinobi Telecommunications Transfer Protocol; Secure (a.k.a the "https://" in urls) rather than any traditional video game glitch. Specifically, it seemed the portal was, quite literally, a physical manifestation of a port in a computer's software.

It was then that a large moving entity began to emerge from the portal, as Gadg8eer noticed the glitches guarding the portal stepping well clear of its entry ramp.

"About dang time dagnabbit!" Cog Man responded, apparently frustrated.

It quickly became apparent what he was referring to, as a large armored vehicle moved out of the portal and onto the concrete floor, its sheer weight cracking the cement that was formerly as smooth as a glider as it settled onto the workshop floor. Atop the large nuclear-powered (well, in-lore, anyway) gigatank, protected by a plexiglass jar and a few force fields, was the final arrival to the party, so to speak.

From a futuristic-looking luxury car nearby, a mysterious figure emerged. One that was mysterious not because of who it was, but what he was.

"Vell, then you have vinally arrived to join our takeover... Mecha-Clone-Hitler-Stalin." Dr. X said to the giant battle tank containing the preserved brain of a WWII genetic hybrid-clone that sourced 50% of its evilness DNA from the two infamous dictators... in the Hinobi 3D shooter game Wolfenvania which was set in one of those sci-fi retro WWII AUs where the bad guys won WWII.

Like his other commands, Gadg8eer had one that auto-saved the last 30 seconds of video from cache even if he wasn't actually recording. He activated it and sent it directly to Dave, with the words You said glitches aren't supposed to be allowed to think at a human's level. How the shell do you explain this? as a text message.

---

Dave, Skipper and Zeke were already across the repaired bridge, running as fast as they could on foot to try and reach the "ground zero" of the City Works Yard, but the paved road and the heat of the long days in the late June sun made the already long distance through the rural outskirts to the industrial park all the more excruciating.

"Motherhacking- I need to... get back to... the gym.. or something... this run is killing my lungs!" Dave huffed, bending over to hold his knees while he caught his breath standing up.

Zeke wasn't fairing much better. "I... think... I... need..." he said, and took a big puff from his inhaler. "...to start going to the gym..."

Skipper, while not limited in stamina, was partly solar-powered and would need to drain her batteries when the sun set. Indeed, the sun was already behind the mountains in the distance that bordered the west edge of the valley Grand Forks was situated in, its glow only just barely still lighting up the sky as twilight set in. Despite this, it was the robot service dog that was the one to suddenly bark twice and display a "TxT" on her outdated low-res faceplate.

"You got a pager text?" Zeke pointed out.

"I did? That's odd. I haven't been paged for business in over 10 years. You young guys made me switch to BuzzApp because your relatives use it, and all our clients switched to vRoom meetings back during the co.vid malware outbreak."

"Wasn't that the entire two years where we had to go without computers, TVs, phones and video games because of an evil laughing skull that was shown on the news?"

"I thought you were 19 when that happened?" Dave asked, confused.

"...there was a fire." Zeke said both nervously and vaguely.

"Skipper, who sent the text?" Dave asked his companion.

"You have... ONE.... new messages." Skipper told him. "To play your messages, tap my nose!"

"Boop." Dave said, tapping her nose affectionately.

"New message. Sent by..."

"Gadg8eer!"

"...on... Wens-day... June... Twenty-Eighth... of... Invalid Year... at... Two Hundred... Fifteen... Winks..."

Spoiler: You said glitches aren't supposed to be allowed to think at a human's level. How the shell do you explain this?

"Vell, then you have vinally arrived to join our takeover... Mecha-Clone-Hitler-Stalin." Dr. X said to the giant battle tank containing the preserved brain of a WWII genetic hybrid-clone that sourced 50% of its evilness DNA from the two infamous dictators... in the Hinobi 3D shooter game Wolfenvania which was set in one of those sci-fi retro WWII AUs where the bad guys won WWII.

Dave and Zeke looked in each other's direction without turning their heads, worried expressions on their face.

"I think we might need to borrow some transportation. How good were you at Highway Robbery Online, again?"

Zeke glanced over at a nearby driveway, where a nice-looking 2025 convertible with a combustion engine was parked. The normally feeble and unassuming nerd pushed up his square-rimmed glasses, triggering the hidden LED lights that gave the SCARY SHINY GLASSES effect of your average dramatic anime scene. "Very."

"I'll leave a note for the owner that it was an emergency, then." Dave responded, and took out a Stick-Em Note and his executive ballpoint pen.

---

As Gadg8eer secretly watched the two glitches laugh a stereotypical 8-bit villain laugh, he was about to see if he could at least trigger the activation of the smartGird by using the camera in the server room, when he heard an unmistakable large crashing noise from the door he'd entered through. Something was happening with Zoe.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

Zoe had bashed an entry into the portal room with her bat. She tossed it up and then caught it, pointing it forwards at her new opponents. "HEY, ROBOT ASSHOLES! YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF NERVE COMING INTO THIS TOWN AND MAKING YOURSELVES A THREAT TO THE POPULACE! I'M THE ALPHA AND OMEGA OF KICKING YOUR ASS, SO CONSIDER ME ASIMOV'S LAWBRINGER!" She hopes this will at least draw their attention

She internally sweats '4 on 1... I'm not super used to that, but I've carried the occasional team in Oversight Squadrons. So I reason that it can't be too hard... Gadg8 is probably figuring out how to shut down that portal... All I need is to give him enough time to figure something out... Trust is an important part of work relationships... Now... Let's see... Robo Gorerilla... He looks like a brute-y type, I bet I can bait him to figure out how he fights. And Cogman is inherently a glass cannon, so maybe I can utilize his lack of coordination against the bastard...' She dashes immediately towards Robo Gorerilla, trying to get a feel for the weight of his movements by juking him to attack her.

"Come and get me ya' big monkey!" She shouts out, baiting a punch to see if the top-heavy design is just for show or not. For once she sounds like she's having fun with this, although her movements are still as deliberate and minimalistic as ever, presenting no obvious weakpoints in her stance that could be abused by an onlooker.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Zoe had bashed an entry into the portal room with her bat. She tossed it up and then caught it, pointing it forwards at her new opponents. "HEY, ROBOT ASSHOLES! YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF NERVE COMING INTO THIS TOWN AND MAKING YOURSELVES A THREAT TO THE POPULACE! I'M THE ALPHA AND OMEGA OF KICKING YOUR ASS, SO CONSIDER ME ASIMOV'S LAWBRINGER!" She hopes this will at least draw their attention

She internally sweats '4 on 1... I'm not super used to that, but I've carried the occasional team in Oversight Squadrons. So I reason that it can't be too hard... Gadg8 is probably figuring out how to shut down that portal... All I need is to give him enough time to figure something out... Trust is an important part of work relationships... Now... Let's see... Robo Gorerilla... He looks like a brute-y type, I bet I can bait him to figure out how he fights. And Cogman is inherently a glass cannon, so maybe I can utilize his lack of coordination against the bastard...' She dashes immediately towards Robo Gorerilla, trying to get a feel for the weight of his movements by juking him to attack her.

"Come and get me ya' big monkey!" She shouts out, baiting a punch to see if the top-heavy design is just for show or not. For once she sounds like she's having fun with this, although her movements are still as deliberate and minimalistic as ever, presenting no obvious weakpoints in her stance that could be abused by an onlooker.

And it did get their attention, all three of the robots turned their heads towards who they thought was a girl with a TV for a head. Her proclamation caused Robo-Goreilla to chuckle

"Heh-heh, she sounds a lot like you Snare."

"Oh shut up she sounds nothing like me." Snare retorted before Zoe Called ISO and Robo-Goreilla responded by trying to slam her in the face with a fistful of brute strength. Snare and Cog man looked at each other knowing that She had baited the giant Ape into a fight.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

Her response was swift and smooth-flowing, she artfully used the oversized nature of Goreilla's attack to launch herself back through blocking with her bat, one hand on the end of the implement and one on the handle, strengthening the resistance enough to parry it, and using the knockback to her advantage to gain distance. Her feet skid, sliding as she moved backwards.

She taunted him again, attempting to lead him closer. "Is that all you've got, monkey? Dance for me! Dance more!" She shouted. Baiting another attack, expecting either a charge, leap, or another punch, and preparing something in her head for each.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Her response was swift and smooth-flowing, she artfully used the oversized nature of Goreilla's attack to launch herself back through blocking with her bat, one hand on the end of the implement and one on the handle, feet skidding as she moved backwards. She taunted him again, attempting to lead him closer. "Is that all you've got, monkey? Dance for me! Dance more!" She shouted. Baiting another attack, expecting either a charge, leap, or another punch, and preparing something in her head for each.

"IS THAT ALL YOU ARE?? JUST TALK???" Robo-Goreilla barked angrily before he Yelled, Charged, Leaped, and prepared to slam Zoe in the face again with another fistful of brute strength, In that order.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

Yelled, Charged, Leaped, and prepared to slam Zoe in the face again with another fistful of brute strength, In that order.

Zoe moved to the side, deftly strafing out of the way of the attack, and revealing the fact that she had used the leverage of being thrown back moments ago to position herself in front of Cogman, knowing his durability wouldn't hold up if Robo-Goreilla flung himself full force at her, missed, and went tumbling into his own ally, as he just did.

She did have to wonder though, was the points system intelligent enough to consider an unwitting assist for her point count. It didn't really matter though. She was immediately back to thinking about what her next move would be, and how she could plan her own movements accordingly.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Zoe moved to the side, deftly strafing out of the way of the attack, and revealing the fact that she had used the leverage of being thrown back moments ago to position herself in front of Cogman, knowing his durability wouldn't hold up if Robo-Goreilla flung himself full force at her, missed, and went tumbling into his own ally, as he just did.

She did have to wonder though, was the points system intelligent enough to consider an unwitting assist for her point count. It didn't really matter though. She was immediately back to thinking about what her next move would be, and how she could plan her own movements accordingly.

"Well, he's dead." Snare commented nonchalantly as Robo-Goreilla quite literally blew cog man up by running into him.

"It would be funnier if I had a running bet on how long it would take Robo goreilla to realize something was up. My money's on somewhere between same time next year and 2 weeks from now." Snare thought

Robo Gorilla meanwhile had no idea that he was being bated. What he knew was that there was an explosion chain going on like when a machine overlord was beaten in classic Atom girl and that Zoe was still standing much to his rage, so he changed up his strategy, instead of charging with one fist, he charged with both of his hands balled up.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

She moved her hands up to the sides of her head, and frazzled out her fingers into open palms. Her face flashing up the symbol "笑" in an alternating white and black with the background. "Aww! That's too bad, you wanna try again?" She asks, Before immediately turning tail and running towards Mecha-Clone-Hitler-Stalin, in an attempt to bait Goreilla again, knowing her bat probably couldn't break through the armor said opponent with repeated hits, but that Goreilla's pure raw power probably could.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

She moved her hands up to the sides of her head, and frazzled out her fingers into open palms. Her face flashing up the symbol "笑" in an alternating white and black with the background. "Aww! That's too bad, you wanna try again?" She asks, Before immediately turning tail and running towards Mecha-Clone-Hitler-Stalin, in an attempt to bait Goreilla again, knowing her bat probably couldn't break through the armor said opponent with repeated hits, but that Goreilla's pure raw power probably could.

"I'LL DO MORE THAN TRY! I'LL DO AND SUCCEED YOU LITTLE WIMP!" Robo goreilla shouted as if "loud" was his only volume which it kinda was when he was ticked off. And he of course charged after Zoe because he did not realize blindly charging at her wasn't going to work. Mecha-Clone-hitler-stalin upon looking at Robo-Goreilla and where he was going decided maybe his current position wasn't the best and tried to move out of the way. Doctor X made a note to bring back Cogman later, right now Robo Goreilla's strategy of 'Just charge and use brute force' was starting to aggravate him though granted Zoe was starting to piss him off too due to reminding the bad doctor of Atom girl.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

Zoe took out her S. Star, and tossed it ahead of her before allowing it to fall horizontally and then slamming her bat into it, parry-boosting it into the treads on the left side of Mecha-Clone-Hitler-Stalin's body, which splt across, causing said glitch's treads to sling out in an explosion.

"Everyone who's played Wolfenvania knows that you take out MCHS's treads first to slow him down!" She shouts, jumping on top of the tank and turning to taunt Goreilla. Her face once again flashing up the symbol "笑" in an alternating white and black with the background. She made sure that she was right in front of the main-batterie on top of MCHS, but still between Goreilla and MCHS' center, planning on leading the two into neutralizing eachother with their core attacks.