Fandom (Glitch Techs Crossover) Glitch Techs × RP

[Gadg8eer]

"Oh I was just crushing these miserable Insects under my heel. They won't last too much longer!" Snare responded "As soon as I find them they're History!"

"No, Let zem go for now. AND HELP ME DEAL VITH ZESE OZER INTERLOPERS!!!" Doctor X practically shouted.

"Ugh fine. Just let me fire off this last attack and I'll be there." And with that Snare fired his Lethal charged up attack at where he saw Zoe and Gadg8 last

"We shall meet again!" Snare yelled shaking his fist before he teleported out of the city works

"You worthless piece of scrap metal, Do you really think you can defeat ME? FETT!?" Fett looked at the glitch king and marched towards him to pummel him.

"Oh I was just crushing these miserable Insects under my heel. They won't last too much longer!" Snare responded "As soon as I find them they're History!"

"No, Let zem go for now. AND HELP ME DEAL VITH ZESE OZER INTERLOPERS!!!" Doctor X practically shouted.

"Ugh fine. Just let me fire off this last attack and I'll be there." And with that Snare fired his Lethal charged up attack at where he saw Zoe and Gadg8 last

"We shall meet again!" Snare yelled shaking his fist before he teleported out of the city works

"You worthless piece of scrap metal, Do you really think you can defeat ME? FETT!?" Fett looked at the glitch king and marched towards him to pummel him.
Archive of Original Video

 

[Gadg8eer]

[OST - Now I Have Your Power]

The Mortar Mortality seemed to halt, freezing Fett in place, as a jumble of different sprites appeared at the end of where the blast would've emerged, a harmless visual error for an attack that couldn't occur.

"Hinobi learned after they created me that there was no point in creating a game that would never end. No code is without a killscreen past the discoveries made with mine. Your code is explicitly meant to be disabled by the interference of an NPC. I know not of the meaning of why your code is that way, nor do I know what weapon they used, so this is an approximation, that code is not a part of you, but the vulnerability is. I have bound the weapon to emerge from my head's hitbox, in some senses my head therein acts a tertiary arm. Regardless, I noticed all of the variables in your code had been checked positive. Your target should not possess this weapon, your code interprets me as a player." Bolypius began to walk over to the detached arm and picked it up, absorbing it.

"But that's your limitation. For as little as I can know as a computer, I have some semblance of common sense, just enough, even in this form, to recognize lucidity of my existence."

"Who the [EXPLETIVE REMOVED] do you think I am?!" At that moment it reconstituted it's own code, it's other arm launching out, expanding rapidly from the absorbed code of its opponent, into a mass of destructive black matter, like massive volatile, rapidly-glitching soot tags.

[OST - Now I Have Your Power]

The Mortar Mortality seemed to halt, freezing Fett in place, as a jumble of different sprites appeared at the end of where the blast would've emerged, a harmless visual error for an attack that couldn't occur.

"Hinobi learned after they created me that there was no point in creating a game that would never end. No code is without a killscreen past the discoveries made with mine. Your code is explicitly meant to be disabled by the interference of an NPC. I know not of the meaning of why your code is that way, nor do I know what weapon they used, so this is an approximation, that code is not a part of you, but the vulnerability is. I have bound the weapon to emerge from my head's hitbox, in some senses my head therein acts a tertiary arm. Regardless, I noticed all of the variables in your code had been checked positive. Your target should not possess this weapon, your code interprets me as a player." Bolypius began to walk over to the detached arm and picked it up, absorbing it.

"But that's your limitation. For as little as I can know as a computer, I have some semblance of common sense, just enough, even in this form, to recognize lucidity of my existence."

"Who the [EXPLETIVE REMOVED] do you think I am?!" At that moment it reconstituted it's own code, it's other arm launching out, expanding rapidly from the absorbed code of its opponent, into a mass of destructive black matter, like massive volatile, rapidly-glitching soot tags.

 

[Gadg8eer]

*Ele did NOT know what was going on. She just quietly decided to roll with it, taking some candy from her pocket and munching it. She just enjoyed candy.*

(( Um, wrong set of characters. Elextrixtr is with Hum and Pentifer, Nightwolf is with Ed, Crux and Gadg8eer. I'll just assume you got confused and let you make a response. Your last post with Nightwolf was this one. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. ))

 

[Gadg8eer]

But Whilst Hum was Holding the Doctor Hostage, The other Councilors were not sitting idly

"Do you Mortal Worms really think you can Defeat me?" Yokai stood up, he Spun his Weapon, The Yari of Darkness (Called the Spear of Darkness in the American Dub) Causing Multiple Fireballs to Appear around the Demon King.

Yukhoe Flew up and hovered around the room, Ready to Spit his Trademark Acid Balls.

Sirius Floated Smugly with his arms Crossed and a Sneer on his face. Surrounding him was a Literal Purple Aura of Malice, his Trademark "Koketsu Power" An Energy Fueled by Malicious Intent, Something the Colonel held no Shortage of.


Quickly, Dr X Ran towards the Escape Vehicle he had Stored out back for this exact Occasion, His trademark X-Saucer A grey and Blue saucer that Could Interface with any of his Machinery, The Madman's Ride began to rise, The Signature Agonizing Sound of the X Saucer Blaring for Anyone Awake within a 10 Mile Radius to hear. Before Flying off, The Saucer opened up, Dr X Waggled his eyebrows, The Ship closed up again and Flew off. It's sole Passenger already Planning his next attack. And to Remove the Feathers, And the tar, off of himself.

*Ele just stood there, absolutely shocked and flabbergasted.*

At that moment, Yukhoe released a volley of green, glowy-looking acid at Elextrixtr... "Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" the giant beetle king said, buzzing around the arcade's surprisingly tall interior.

Across the street, the Sixer in the Militech truck took video of the situation to relay to Gavin.

Elextrixtr
Achievement Unlocked!
Me and the Bros at 3 AM trying to get Tech Support - 3000 XP

Pentifer Darksoul
Achievement Unlocked!
Me and the Bros at 3 AM trying to get Tech Support - 3000 XP

 

[Gadg8eer]

But Whilst Hum was Holding the Doctor Hostage, The other Councilors were not sitting idly

"Do you Mortal Worms really think you can Defeat me?" Yokai stood up, he Spun his Weapon, The Yari of Darkness (Called the Spear of Darkness in the American Dub) Causing Multiple Fireballs to Appear around the Demon King.

Yukhoe Flew up and hovered around the room, Ready to Spit his Trademark Acid Balls.

Sirius Floated Smugly with his arms Crossed and a Sneer on his face. Surrounding him was a Literal Purple Aura of Malice, his Trademark "Koketsu Power" An Energy Fueled by Malicious Intent, Something the Colonel held no Shortage of.


Quickly, Dr X Ran towards the Escape Vehicle he had Stored out back for this exact Occasion, His trademark X-Saucer A grey and Blue saucer that Could Interface with any of his Machinery, The Madman's Ride began to rise, The Signature Agonizing Sound of the X Saucer Blaring for Anyone Awake within a 10 Mile Radius to hear. Before Flying off, The Saucer opened up, Dr X Waggled his eyebrows, The Ship closed up again and Flew off. It's sole Passenger already Planning his next attack. And to Remove the Feathers, And the tar, off of himself.

"You are nothing to me..." Yokai said, and launched an attack at Hum - a burst of (as famous streamer Mitch Williams called it in meme-worthy fashion) "Evul Shadow Energiez" that were in every Famicomb, Hinobi Entertainment System, Super Famicomb, and Super Hinobi Entertainment System game thanks to the built-in FX chip used back then - from the gleaming point of the Yari of Darkness. "Your head will look good on a pike. Die, mortal!" the Demon King shouted, retreating in a pre-programmed pattern as the burst of Evul Shadow Energiez flew towards HardModeWarez.

HardModeWarez
Achievement Unlocked!
Me and the Bros at 3 AM trying to get Tech Support - 3000 XP

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

At that moment, Yukhoe released a volley of green, glowy-looking acid at Elextrixtr... "Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" the giant beetle king said, buzzing around the arcade's surprisingly tall interior.

Across the street, the Sixer in the Militech truck took video of the situation to relay to Gavin.

Elextrixtr
Achievement Unlocked!
Me and the Bros at 3 AM trying to get Tech Support - 3000 XP

Pentifer Darksoul
Achievement Unlocked!
Me and the Bros at 3 AM trying to get Tech Support - 3000 XP

*Pentifer snapped Ele out of her current state, cursing in what sounded like Latin as he yanked her away from the acid.*"ELE I GET YOURE GRIEVING BUT NOW IS NOT THE BEST TIME TO BASICALLY SHUT DOWN LIKE A PC ON LOW BATTERY!"*He shouted, causing Elextrixtr (Ele) to quickly snap out of it and immediately attempt to climb some stuff to straight-up try and body slam that stupid bug guy into the ground.*

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

Eventually, DPortEd turned his new vehicle off Highway 3 (known in city limits as "Central Avenue") to the right and headed southeast. Finally he arrived at the Abbeyfield Communal Home, where Gadg8eer lived.

---

Lobby, Abbeyfield Communal Home
2028-06-29@460.81 Winks

Gadg8eer played Big Dream$, a game about building a business and real estate empire in New York (created in protest of the short, brutal reign of "King Argon I of America"; trying to act like a "Reality TV" actor from the 00s in the game was a reasonably fast way to guarantee losing) on his Neo GamePlayer. He hadn't gotten far, but he was glad his employees had a comfortable schedule and his only indulgence was a full-dive VR tank that both entertained and restored energy of his character. Getting the tank had paid off despite the high in-game price tag, as he was able to forgo all other furniture except a fridge and toilet and invest into his business.

It wasn't particularly comforting at the moment, though. The storm outside had settled down to persistent rain, with the forecast calling for the day to remain wet and cold. Most people would be upset, but the rain was what was keeping him calm, in a weird way. Playing the game in question was just to ignore it for the time being.

With the built-in XR goggles of his PLixelf permanently part of himself, he was surprised when Germaine and Nightwolf came down the stairs until he remembered that his HUD should have clued him in that this was normal. "Oh... Hey, crux. Did stack get a new avatar or is this a guest?"

"A guest, I suspect, although I can't say for certain." horcruxiteDowel explained. "Something strange, almost unbelievable, seems to have happened to my new acquaintence. I know you probably think whatever it is is bollocks, but I implore you to let me handle this."

"Oh, scrap." Gadg8eer stated.

"What?" Crux asked.

"Um, nothing." Gadg8eer lied. "Can I come with you if I promise not to judge your friend?"

"I suppose, but you had better mean that." Crux warned.

"I promise, this time I mean it." he assured her.

And so, they headed back outside and to the address of a small ramshackle home from the 1960s which over its existence had changed owners more times than the town it was in had elections during the same period. It's newest owner seemed to have kept to themselves, and a window had been left open beside an aluminum-shelled iqBook laptop on a desk. The screen had darkened, and an eerie moon-like glow came from a small device on a table on the other side of the room.

"Who lives here?" Crux asked her roommate.

"Heck if I know. Um... Can I have a moment to do something?" he asked.

"Oh for god's sake. Fine, we won't watch you." Crux told him.

"What? Ew, no. Plus, I don't think I have to do that anymore, anyway." he responded.

"At all? And here I am looking at the ATTA-Boy in the corner, wondering if you could even get that old thing to interface properly with you." she sighed.

"Huh?"

"You're called Gadg8eer, I thought you knew?" she said, surprised.

"Knew what?"

"The old cold war portable computers." she pointed out, "Advanced Telecom Terminal Apparatii."

"In Canadian English?"

She rolled her eyes. "The ATTA-Boy? The UK's famous Pip-Boy clone?"

"That was a thing?!"

"Well, yes. They used to use them in the BCC, before the dawn of even NetSettler, as portable Teletext terminals."

"What for?"

"I'm not quite sure. Apparently they were a very specialized tool with a very specific purpose, technical assistance house calls. The telly repairmen used them when I was 6, as far as I recall. That disappeared when the Web replaced teletext." she elaborated as much as she could.

Spoiler: Error, HCP-404: Please contact Hinobi Tech Support if critical information has been lost.

"You know what? I think I'm probably going to have to do this at some point anyway, so... Operator, what does GlitchDB say about the ATTA-Boy over there?" he sighed. A tooltop HUD thing appeared, revealing the owner of the device as having the Hinobi ID Elextrixtr.

"Oh my word. How did you hack that?" Crux asked.

"I, um... I didn't." he explained. "Hinobi Technologies apologizes for any inconvenience this minor Glitch may have caused, and I will now reset your system mem-"

At that moment, a beat-up '24 Hella entered the alleyway and honked. DPortEd opened the door and waved. "Eight, what are you doing at Elextrixtr's house?"

"Oh, good." Gadg8eer sighed. "Crux and a friend of hers were looking for something... strange. I gotta memory reset them."

"Eight, there's no-" DPortEd started to say, before he remembered just how old he was getting. "Oh, fsck. Eight, you can't do memory resets on telepresent customers until you unlock more of the skill tree."

"Oh. Um..." he nervously looked at Germaine. "Crux, can you pretend you saw nothing and just let him do the flashy thing? You don't even like technology. Unfortunately, the cool secret society is pretty much exclusively technological."

She just gave a compassionate but knowing smirk. "Daniel and I never told you what we do for a living, did we?"

"You knew?!" Gadg8eer asked.

She took out a small, high-tech looking device and pressed a button on it, making herself and Nightwolf visible. "British Crown Communications, Correspondent Two-Three-Eight. Germaine S.R. Ackenbridge, at your service. It's not my preferred life, but I'll take Clarke's Third Law over spreadsheets any day of the week."

"You said you were a librarian!" Gadg8eer responded.

"Who do you think owns the libraries if not the Parliament? I've reaffirmed more Nobipedia sources in a week by reading archived books than people bothered to check in their life!" she complained, but sighed. "But then the BCC isn't exactly MI-6, I suppose."

"Germaine." Skipper suddenly said from the driver's side window of Eddy's car.. "I'm sorry, but this is for the good of humanity."

"What are you talking about, Skipper?" DPortEd said, surprised. "This is finally our chance! Hinobi ignored this too long, if BCC is reporting on this, it means the problem with Bolypius is-"

"Erasing memory." Skipper said, and cast flare- I mean, triggered a memory reset.

"Oh, hallo, Eddy." Germaine (horcruxiteDowel) said, oblivious. "Why is that old device glowing green? Good heavens, it's an old ATTA-Boy! I didn't know they sold them in Canada!"

"Elextrixtr has an ATTA-Boy?" DPortEd said, oblivious.

"What's an ATTA-Boy?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Oh, fsck." Skipper said, realizing things had gone exactly NOT AT ALL according to plan. And worse, her aging battery would need a full recharge to use Memory Reset again. "Nightwolf. I need your help. They don't understand what they're about to tamper with."

"...Huh? Oh, okay. Yeah I can help. Can't promise I won't make mistakes."*Nightwolf shrugged, tail twitching as she cracked her knuckles. She took a few seconds to assess the situation and just huffed.*"...I don't think it's a good idea to mess with that."*She spoke up so casually it was kinda funny.*

 

[Gadg8eer]

"...Huh? Oh, okay. Yeah I can help. Can't promise I won't make mistakes."*Nightwolf shrugged, tail twitching as she cracked her knuckles. She took a few seconds to assess the situation and just huffed.*"...I don't think it's a good idea to mess with that."*She spoke up so casually it was kinda funny.*

Eddy raised an eyebrow. "What-"

"It's nothing, Edward, I assure you." Crux tried to quell his natural questioning.

"Crux? Are you feeling okay?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Of course, why?" she lied.

"Because you never discourage asking questions! 'The road to Hell is Engineered with Ignorance?' is your quote!" Gadg8eer pointed out to her.

At that moment, Skipper snapped at Crux's satchel, snatching the cassette tape drive and darting into the darkness to escape.

"That... is very bad." Crux said after an awkward moment.

"Why?" Gadg8eer asked, skeptical. "Even ignoring that you're apparently a BCC Reporter and never told me because of opsec, this would still the first time you ever seem to have lied to me, because for some reason, you're out here. In person." he responded. "Who is Nightwolf?"

"What on Earth are you talking about?" she said. Gadg8eer suddenly but loosely grabbed her wrist, only enough to feel the skin contact of his firm grip. She gasped, then realized that meant this wasn't just her VR equipment. "How?! If I had used my Sonic Screwdriver, it would have been..." she said, then opened a VidWindow. "That was not that long ago. Dave, someone wiped my memory. Check your logs."

"I don't use smartglasses, Skipper is my assistant." he told her.

"Wait, I'm checking mine.." Gadg8eer said, looking through the logs. "You meant the LLM-transcribed voice chat logs, right?"

"No, but you don't have access to that if Hinobi did wipe us. It'll just say the information is '[REDACTED]', like in Star Captain. Or the HCP Foudation wiki."

"Okay, but it says here that the erased part was wiped by... you?" he asked.

DPortEd took a glance at Gadg8eer's VidWindow of the logs, then opened his own via his OG Hinobi Tech Gauntlet.

"So... What do your logs say?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Memory wipe activated on civilian Nightwolf Primal, and 3 GAME Mechanics... DPortEd, horcruxiteDowel and Gadg8eer, not that long ago, but why would I wipe myself?" Ed said, confused. "...is this Skipper's MAC Address?" he said, and swiped to the left to see more of that entry. "MOTHER-" he caught himself. "Gadg8eer, Crux, we need to track down Skipper. She wiped all of four us, according to my device logs. As for... Nightwolf, I assume?" he said, looking to her, "Follow me, please. I think I can fit you in to disguise yourself by becoming a Technician, but I hope you'll be the last because I can only explain away so many Sapient Glitches in 24 hours before they start asking questions about why my paperwork says I have more techs than I originally asked for." he sighed. "If I sound grumpy, I just need coffee, looks like I'll be working early this morning too."

They walked over to DPortEd's new used "pre-owned" Hella and got into the seats. The cramped nature of the vehicle and size of the occupants meant that Ed and Nightwolf sat in the driver and front passenger seats while Crux and Gadg8eer sat in the rear left and right seats.

Ed pressed a couple buttons on his Gauntlet, and the vehicle's C₂H₂O₄-infused biogasoline-electric motor spun up. He began driving manually, when something unexpected happened. "This 2024 Archer Hella was constructed to prioritize DriveNet protocols when available. As of... June 29, 2028... DriveNet covers all public roads in North America and sizeable amounts of private road systems. Please connect your primary computing device or dedicated Personal Area Network hub to the vehicle and select your destination."

"Yeah, no." he responded, using his credentials to enter Manual Drive mode.

"This 2024 Archer Hella was constructed to prioritize DriveNet protocols when available. As of... June 29, 2028... DriveNet covers all public roads in North America and sizeable amounts of private road systems. You have activated... Manual Drive... which is no longer available to public users. You have linked... two... valid credentials for activating Manual Drive... Welcome aboard, Mister... Davenport... to your own personal Hella."

"...all that for a pun? Honestly. Writers these days." Crux grumbled.

"Not much fun in providing voice samples - for an LLM to pretend it's you forever - otherwise." DPortEd mused.

As the car finished loading it's bloated Chinese infotainment firmware, which seemed to be taking abnormally long, the Hella's windshield started displaying a HUGE number of AugReal layers. "Oh no..." Gadg8eer realized, "You didn't install an adblocker?!"

"ON A CAR?!" Ed loudly stated in disbelief. "I'll fix it at the shop, we've got bigger problems." he said, and stepped on the pedal.

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

Eddy raised an eyebrow. "What-"

"It's nothing, Edward, I assure you." Crux tried to quell his natural questioning.

"Crux? Are you feeling okay?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Of course, why?" she lied.

"Because you never discourage asking questions! 'The road to Hell is Engineered with Ignorance?' is your quote!" Gadg8eer pointed out to her.

At that moment, Skipper snapped at Crux's satchel, snatching the cassette tape drive and darting into the darkness to escape.

"That... is very bad." Crux said after an awkward moment.

"Why?" Gadg8eer asked, skeptical. "Even ignoring that you're apparently a BCC Reporter and never told me because of opsec, this would still the first time you ever seem to have lied to me, because for some reason, you're out here. In person." he responded. "Who is Nightwolf?"

"What on Earth are you talking about?" she said. Gadg8eer suddenly but loosely grabbed her wrist, only enough to feel the skin contact of his firm grip. She gasped, then realized that meant this wasn't just her VR equipment. "How?! If I had used my Sonic Screwdriver, it would have been..." she said, then opened a VidWindow. "That was not that long ago. Dave, someone wiped my memory. Check your logs."

"I don't use smartglasses, Skipper is my assistant." he told her.

"Wait, I'm checking mine.." Gadg8eer said, looking through the logs. "You meant the LLM-transcribed voice chat logs, right?"

"No, but you don't have access to that if Hinobi did wipe us. It'll just say the information is '[REDACTED]', like in Star Captain. Or the HCP Foudation wiki."

"Okay, but it says here that the erased part was wiped by... you?" he asked.

DPortEd took a glance at Gadg8eer's VidWindow of the logs, then opened his own via his OG Hinobi Tech Gauntlet.

"So... What do your logs say?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Memory wipe activated on civilian Nightwolf Primal, and 3 GAME Mechanics... DPortEd, horcruxiteDowel and Gadg8eer, not that long ago, but why would I wipe myself?" Ed said, confused. "...is this Skipper's MAC Address?" he said, and swiped to the left to see more of that entry. "MOTHER-" he caught himself. "Gadg8eer, Crux, we need to track down Skipper. She wiped all of four us, according to my device logs. As for... Nightwolf, I assume?" he said, looking to her, "Follow me, please. I think I can fit you in to disguise yourself by becoming a Technician, but I hope you'll be the last because I can only explain away so many Sapient Glitches in 24 hours before they start asking questions about why my paperwork says I have more techs than I originally asked for." he sighed. "If I sound grumpy, I just need coffee, looks like I'll be working early this morning too."

They walked over to DPortEd's new used "pre-owned" Hella and got into the seats. The cramped nature of the vehicle and size of the occupants meant that Ed and Nightwolf sat in the driver and front passenger seats while Crux and Gadg8eer sat in the rear left and right seats.

Ed pressed a couple buttons on his Gauntlet, and the vehicle's C₂H₂O₄-infused biogasoline-electric motor spun up. He began driving manually, when something unexpected happened. "This 2024 Archer Hella was constructed to prioritize DriveNet protocols when available. As of... June 29, 2028... DriveNet covers all public roads in North America and sizeable amounts of private road systems. Please connect your primary computing device or dedicated Personal Area Network hub to the vehicle and select your destination."

"Yeah, no." he responded, using his credentials to enter Manual Drive mode.

"This 2024 Archer Hella was constructed to prioritize DriveNet protocols when available. As of... June 29, 2028... DriveNet covers all public roads in North America and sizeable amounts of private road systems. You have activated... Manual Drive... which is no longer available to public users. You have linked... two... valid credentials for activating Manual Drive... Welcome aboard, Mister... Davenport... to your own personal Hella."

"...all that for a pun? Honestly. Writers these days." Crux grumbled.

"Not much fun in providing voice samples - for an LLM to pretend it's you forever - otherwise." DPortEd mused.

As the car finished loading it's bloated Chinese infotainment firmware, which seemed to be taking abnormally long, the Hella's windshield started displaying a HUGE number of AugReal layers. "Oh no..." Gadg8eer realized, "You didn't install an adblocker?!"

"ON A CAR?!" Ed loudly stated in disbelief. "I'll fix it at the shop, we've got bigger problems." he said, and stepped on the pedal.

*Nightwolf just sat in the back with clear confusion, just wanting to figure out what was going on.*

 

[Gadg8eer]

"You are nothing to me..." Yokai said, and launched an attack at Hum - a burst of (as famous streamer Mitch Williams called it in meme-worthy fashion) "Evul Shadow Energiez" that were in every Famicomb, Hinobi Entertainment System, Super Famicomb, and Super Hinobi Entertainment System game thanks to the built-in FX chip used back then - from the gleaming point of the Yari of Darkness. "Your head will look good on a pike. Die, mortal!" the Demon King shouted, retreating in a pre-programmed pattern as the burst of Evul Shadow Energiez flew towards HardModeWarez.

HardModeWarez
Achievement Unlocked!
Me and the Bros at 3 AM trying to get Tech Support - 3000 XP

MisterEightySix ?

 

[Gadg8eer]

"She's right. We might not know whether a God exists or not... but it's safe here and, um... Hinobi is more concerned with capturing glitches that, well, could hurt people? You don't, um... seem like your instability trying to process all this is like how Bolypius became evil." iQ said over the radio.

"How did they turn evil?" Elextrixtr asked, knowing she was still pretty new to the job.

"Having always been a fan of 3D platformers, like Pentifer's first game, I know it's at least deep enough to be referenced by the soul of the sinner Krystal Meth in the dual-series shared universe of Hotel California and Pointy-Horned Boss. So you DO understand morality, I assume. The idea is, we - as in ALL Game Mechanics - haven't lost anyone yet. We have Glitches showing up regularly everywhere in the world, 24/7/365 since Charles Babbage invented the first pre-PLixel machine we might know as a computer, especially after Hiro Hamada invented the first mesomachines in San Francisco in the 1930s and those Glitches were suddenly even worse than a hypothetical non-mesotech glitch that could range from a clock error destroying the world to security flaws that extend down to the very core of all electronics except mesoelectronic devices." Hum explained. "Hinobi would probably want you captured so far, but they're not the bad guys. I know you're not a danger, and I know Hinobi will heed that if you've been around long enough to prove them wrong. Unfortunately, that was not the case with Bolypius before we managed to convince it there was a reason to hate us. The exact details aren't known, but Operation Rad Raygun was what created and tested Bolypius, only for it to become too powerful and break free. Every failed attempt to capture it led to it becoming more hostile. By now, there's probably little chance it isn't plotting something, but I can't exactly blame it. I certainly wouldn't be okay with being created and then told not to ever do what I thought I was created to do..."

---

Flashback
My name is Giovanni Hinobi. I inherited the company from a long line of Japanese businessmen, but my mother was Italian and did not approve of the government of Mussolini. My parents fled their homelands to the United States in the 1930s.

I pen this email to all of you, future employees of Hinobi, to explain the real reason we give childish and harmless backstories to video games, before I attempt to cheat death one last time. Know that I do so not to avoid my fate, but to have time to try and spare all my successors the consequences of our Hubris. If I fail, I apologize for unleashing what I have wrought.

The first video game, Ping, was also the first instance of our rivals, the Arasaka Troubleshooters, being publicly visible. They took advantage of Glitching phenomenon's link to Ping to try and prove they were the Japanese megacorp to beat, however without system restore they were quickly billed as murderers when our beloved creative figure Dr. Gunpei was mortally wounded. Fortunately he backed up his notes, we have attributed every advancement based on his pioneering work to him for decades to cover up that he died long before the realization of the Game Bee.

In 1987, we tried to fight back. We managed to obtain the source code for Arasaka's secret weapon... Project Delamain.

We sought to... dreamed of... creating the hardest, most innovative video game ever conceived...

We succeeded.

---

"He also succeeded in cheating death, but only for, like, a few years. The email is older than I am, I was 2 when he passed on. Incidentally, the only non-employee he sent it to was Gatoshi Mitsubachi, an unknown yet famous person who created the cryptokens we use as currency, BeeCoin. Gatoshi Mitsubachi is wanted by the authorities in several countries for the creation of Bolypius, Giovanni Hinobi died with a legacy of shame, and that's why Biotechnica is the only one of these corporations who creates life and modifies people. System restore has prevented any deaths since Giovanni survived the confrontation that nearly killed him and killed Dr. Gunpei in the 1960s. Not even Hinobi could trust Hinobi to be Geneforgers, and anyone else didn't have a snowball's chance in whatever the Atheist equivalent of Hell is to get government approval to create medical technology. Well, except Rayari and Crusader's medical branch, but they aren't exactly 'Tech Support'... they make artificial species and aircraft, respectively, although Crusader is a special case because their founders August Dunlow and Anthony Tanaka were the gay orphans who shot Hitler so they have big shoes to keep filling via exhorbitant amounts of charity donations - usually to hospitals and medical research goals like making PLixelfs. Anyway, that's why our hospitals all have Biotechnica's logo on the equipment, but most stuff elsewhere is either Hinobi, Volpe, Quill, microDyne or Blume." Hum finished, both the explanation and double-checking his equipment. "Try not to actually force yourself to pay attention, it should be easier for your code to absorb the info if you just let it bubble to the surface when it becomes relevant."

Finally, he knocked on the door of the Hello Bunny-themed pink Tech Van. "Hey, Tobi? Juan? You in there?"

"She's right. We might not know whether a God exists or not... but it's safe here and, um... Hinobi is more concerned with capturing glitches that, well, could hurt people? You don't, um... seem like your instability trying to process all this is like how Bolypius became evil." iQ said over the radio.

"How did they turn evil?" Elextrixtr asked, knowing she was still pretty new to the job.

"Having always been a fan of 3D platformers, like Pentifer's first game, I know it's at least deep enough to be referenced by the soul of the sinner Krystal Meth in the dual-series shared universe of Hotel California and Pointy-Horned Boss. So you DO understand morality, I assume. The idea is, we - as in ALL Game Mechanics - haven't lost anyone yet. We have Glitches showing up regularly everywhere in the world, 24/7/365 since Charles Babbage invented the first pre-PLixel machine we might know as a computer, especially after Hiro Hamada invented the first mesomachines in San Francisco in the 1930s and those Glitches were suddenly even worse than a hypothetical non-mesotech glitch that could range from a clock error destroying the world to security flaws that extend down to the very core of all electronics except mesoelectronic devices." Hum explained. "Hinobi would probably want you captured so far, but they're not the bad guys. I know you're not a danger, and I know Hinobi will heed that if you've been around long enough to prove them wrong. Unfortunately, that was not the case with Bolypius before we managed to convince it there was a reason to hate us. The exact details aren't known, but Operation Rad Raygun was what created and tested Bolypius, only for it to become too powerful and break free. Every failed attempt to capture it led to it becoming more hostile. By now, there's probably little chance it isn't plotting something, but I can't exactly blame it. I certainly wouldn't be okay with being created and then told not to ever do what I thought I was created to do..."

---

Flashback
My name is Giovanni Hinobi. I inherited the company from a long line of Japanese businessmen, but my mother was Italian and did not approve of the government of Mussolini. My parents fled their homelands to the United States in the 1930s.

I pen this email to all of you, future employees of Hinobi, to explain the real reason we give childish and harmless backstories to video games, before I attempt to cheat death one last time. Know that I do so not to avoid my fate, but to have time to try and spare all my successors the consequences of our Hubris. If I fail, I apologize for unleashing what I have wrought.

The first video game, Ping, was also the first instance of our rivals, the Arasaka Troubleshooters, being publicly visible. They took advantage of Glitching phenomenon's link to Ping to try and prove they were the Japanese megacorp to beat, however without system restore they were quickly billed as murderers when our beloved creative figure Dr. Gunpei was mortally wounded. Fortunately he backed up his notes, we have attributed every advancement based on his pioneering work to him for decades to cover up that he died long before the realization of the Game Bee.

In 1987, we tried to fight back. We managed to obtain the source code for Arasaka's secret weapon... Project Delamain.

We sought to... dreamed of... creating the hardest, most innovative video game ever conceived...

We succeeded.

---

"He also succeeded in cheating death, but only for, like, a few years. The email is older than I am, I was 2 when he passed on. Incidentally, the only non-employee he sent it to was Gatoshi Mitsubachi, an unknown yet famous person who created the cryptokens we use as currency, BeeCoin. Gatoshi Mitsubachi is wanted by the authorities in several countries for the creation of Bolypius, Giovanni Hinobi died with a legacy of shame, and that's why Biotechnica is the only one of these corporations who creates life and modifies people. System restore has prevented any deaths since Giovanni survived the confrontation that nearly killed him and killed Dr. Gunpei in the 1960s. Not even Hinobi could trust Hinobi to be Geneforgers, and anyone else didn't have a snowball's chance in whatever the Atheist equivalent of Hell is to get government approval to create medical technology. Well, except Rayari and Crusader's medical branch, but they aren't exactly 'Tech Support'... they make artificial species and aircraft, respectively, although Crusader is a special case because their founders August Dunlow and Anthony Tanaka were the gay orphans who shot Hitler so they have big shoes to keep filling via exhorbitant amounts of charity donations - usually to hospitals and medical research goals like making PLixelfs. Anyway, that's why our hospitals all have Biotechnica's logo on the equipment, but most stuff elsewhere is either Hinobi, Volpe, Quill, microDyne or Blume." Hum finished, both the explanation and double-checking his equipment. "Try not to actually force yourself to pay attention, it should be easier for your code to absorb the info if you just let it bubble to the surface when it becomes relevant."

Finally, he knocked on the door of the Hello Bunny-themed pink Tech Van. "Hey, Tobi? Juan? You in there?"

---

((I replaced the video with a wikipedia link because it's gone from everywhere.))

 

[MisterEightySix]

"You are nothing to me..." Yokai said, and launched an attack at Hum - a burst of (as famous streamer Mitch Williams called it in meme-worthy fashion) "Evul Shadow Energiez" that were in every Famicomb, Hinobi Entertainment System, Super Famicomb, and Super Hinobi Entertainment System game thanks to the built-in FX chip used back then - from the gleaming point of the Yari of Darkness. "Your head will look good on a pike. Die, mortal!" the Demon King shouted, retreating in a pre-programmed pattern as the burst of Evul Shadow Energiez flew towards HardModeWarez.

HardModeWarez
Achievement Unlocked!
Me and the Bros at 3 AM trying to get Tech Support - 3000 XP

((This was supposed to be posted like a week ago, but I was away for the weekend and didn't have the time on Saturday that I thought I would. Have at it, everyone.))

Now, normally, Hum would have taken the time to learn Yokai's attack patterns and mount a counter-attack. The sword he now carried was from Fallen Wonder, a personal favorite of Hum's, and a game which we would understand as a Metroidvania, not too far off from Cave Story. But instead, Hum simply waited for a moment as the inky blast careened toward him. At the last second, he swung the shimmering obsidian sword in a wide arc, dissipating Yokai's attack into tiny wisps of shadow that flowed into the cracks in the blade like centipedes scurrying into the ground. Perhaps a light-based attack would have worked better, but Yokai wouldn't be much of a Demon King if he had access to that sort of thing.

"And let me guess..." Hum replied, "There's 'nothing' that can defeat you? Funny you should say that, because this sword is from a game that's all about how people can get worked up over nothing. False rumors, people who fail to arrive, certain victories turning into crushing defeats... games like that can have a lot to say. But the thing about this particular sword is, it doesn't care about any of that philosophy. It doesn't care about story or motivations. It cares about one thing and one thing only: Making the number go up. And would you look at that? Seems your number's up."

Just as before, Hum leapt at Yokai, his body wreathed in tendrils of smoke and shadow, slashing at him with the Derezite Blade and hoping two things: One, that his HCP could keep functioning without any sudden "surprises"... and two, that the Yari of Darkness didn't have an advantage over swords like in Dragon Seal.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

((This was supposed to be posted like a week ago, but I was away for the weekend and didn't have the time on Saturday that I thought I would. Have at it, everyone.))

Now, normally, Hum would have taken the time to learn Yokai's attack patterns and mount a counter-attack. The sword he now carried was from Fallen Wonder, a personal favorite of Hum's, and a game which we would understand as a Metroidvania, not too far off from Cave Story. But instead, Hum simply waited for a moment as the inky blast careened toward him. At the last second, he swung the shimmering obsidian sword in a wide arc, dissipating Yokai's attack into tiny wisps of shadow that flowed into the cracks in the blade like centipedes scurrying into the ground. Perhaps a light-based attack would have worked better, but Yokai wouldn't be much of a Demon King if he had access to that sort of thing.

"And let me guess..." Hum replied, "There's 'nothing' that can defeat you? Funny you should say that, because this sword is from a game that's all about how people can get worked up over nothing. False rumors, people who fail to arrive, certain victories turning into crushing defeats... games like that can have a lot to say. But the thing about this particular sword is, it doesn't care about any of that philosophy. It doesn't care about story or motivations. It cares about one thing and one thing only: Making the number go up. And would you look at that? Seems your number's up."

Just as before, Hum leapt at Yokai, his body wreathed in tendrils of smoke and shadow, slashing at him with the Derezite Blade and hoping two things: One, that his HCP could keep functioning without any sudden "surprises"... and two, that the Yari of Darkness didn't have an advantage over swords like in Dragon Seal.

You Know How Every Attack in Power Rangers Results in Some Kind of Explosion? Hum's Attack Sparked Some Little Explosions and Disarmed Yokai of the Yari of Darkness Much to the Dark lord's Shock. he Looked at The Spear, Then at Hum, His hand Glowed with Shadow Energy,

"Your Blade is Impressive Little Mortal, To be Able to Disarm me in a Single Blow is a Feat Little to none can Do." Yokai Scowled

"But Your Beginner's luck has Run Out." Yokai Blasted Shadow Energy at Hum. "No One Can Beat me."

 

[Gadg8eer]

*Nightwolf just sat in the back with clear confusion, just wanting to figure out what was going on.*

DPortEd noticed and tried to cheer the newbie up. Hey, no need to sit in the back, if you don't want to. It'll be cramped back there with Crux and Gadge." he said politely. "So where are you from, Ms. Primal?"

"Edward, you do know asking that is illegal." Crux told him.

"Not in Canada. Restricting identification to non-contractor government employees only is a UK law. Speaking of, you never did say where you went after London fell." Eddy pointed out.

"Recovery has been slow. Fallen London is still an apt name." Crux admitted. "Which is why I'm in a hotel in Glasgow."

"The Polis?" Eddy said, surprised.

"Daniel is a GameDec on one of the upper arcology floors." Crux explained. "I must admit, I'm curious why you were wandering around, Nightwolf. Do you know where we are?"

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

DPortEd noticed and tried to cheer the newbie up. Hey, no need to sit in the back, if you don't want to. It'll be cramped back there with Crux and Gadge." he said politely. "So where are you from, Ms. Primal?"

"Edward, you do know asking that is illegal." Crux told him.

"Not in Canada. Restricting identification to non-contractor government employees only is a UK law. Speaking of, you never did say where you went after London fell." Eddy pointed out.

"Recovery has been slow. Fallen London is still an apt name." Crux admitted. "Which is why I'm in a hotel in Glasgow."

"The Polis?" Eddy said, surprised.

"Daniel is a GameDec on one of the upper arcology floors." Crux explained. "I must admit, I'm curious why you were wandering around, Nightwolf. Do you know where we are?"

"...Im not very good with locations, to be honest. Directions aren't my thing as a result."*Nightwolf sheepishly admitted.*"As for where I'm from, I.. dont really like talking about it."

 

[Gadg8eer]

"...Im not very good with locations, to be honest. Directions aren't my thing as a result."*Nightwolf sheepishly admitted.*"As for where I'm from, I.. dont really like talking about it."

"I would at least like to explain something." Crux responded. "I was originally telecommuting via the shared domain I, my brother, and Gadg8eer have in the Hiverse. I used my Sonic Screwdriver - at some point - to shift into reality as a temporary PLixelf. Cost a small fortune to have even temporary access, but it was certainly worth it. My timer is half the usual length, however, from a second user. Which suggests I also did so for Nightwolf. I'm running it on pay-per-use, but I do have a daily limit on my contract before I am forced to pay full rate."

"Hold on. You're saying that a Glitch was in the Hiverse?!" Gadg8eer asked, confused.

"It's not impossible, just rare to hear about. Glitches are cause for using Memory Reset but they do occur in the Hiverse. Hinobi has a method of sandboxing that is supposed to detect Glitches and quarantine them automatically. So far, the only Glitches that don't do this are pop-up ads, malware and inanimate game items." DPortEd explained, as they pulled up in front of the store.


Eddy placed his hand on a palmprint reader, and the rear entry door produced a portal to the Glitch Techs HQ. It was as brightly lit as ever.

If Gadg8eer had known that the next time he saw it, a friend would be dead, he would have tried to have a more in-depth conversation with Zoe about it.

"Welcome to Glitch Techs HQ. The local branch, anyway. We're just the local HQ, the real big places are... different." Eddy explained to Nightwolf.

"Can I..." Gadg8eer asked, gesturing to his wrists and the microTech duoGlas gauntlets he wore.

"Sure." Eddy said, and gestured towards the Commissary.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Gadg8eer approached it, placed his gauntlets' palm above the wireless datasync pad on the machine.

Cashout!
You just earned $734.77 BeeCoins! You also earned 73,477 XP!!

"Woah, funky on-screen unsound effects!" Gadg8eer said, impressed by how deep Hinobi's system felt. "Hinobi pays us in BeeCoins? Aren't those a cryptocurrency?"

"Sometime during the early Recall Wars, the USD was replaced with BeeCoin, then the BeeCoin market value plummeted. To save the world economy, President Meyers decided to peg the value of the old USD and the value of BeeCoin to each other. At a rate of one cent and point-zero-one BeeCoins per XP, so it doesn't require conversion.

"...what was the Recall Wars?" Gadg8eer asked, troubled.

"Arasaka and IOI went bankrupt, right? And so now they're only back to prevent Hinobi having a monopoly. Hinobi's proprietary tech, though, some of it was made open source by Myers' administration. Under Argon, Hinobi was able to outcompete those other companies in the first place, and it might not seem like it, but when it came to franchise owners and affiliate repair shops, the licensing fees were like extortion. I love their tech too, but fsck Recall Wars Hinobi. Point is, Arasaka and IOI both had access to Memory Reset, and they tried to use it for a lot more than Glitch containment. That's the REAL reason why we supposedly lived in a post-truth era from 2017 up until Argon was impeached for election fraud."

"Oh. Cool. Well, not cool, but... You know what I mean." Gadg8eer told him. "What's the exchange rate of BeeCoin with Canadian dollars right now?"

"It's been stable since around... 2026? Should be about a thousand dollars, maybe slightly more."

"Awesome!" Gadg8eer said, and then realized conversion was unnecessary. "Is it possible to convert money to XP?"

"Yeah, but the rates are awful." Eddy explained.

"How awful?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Well, they aren't bad bad, but you know how in Oversight Squardrons 2, they monetized the hell out of stuff in ways that make you spend more money than you planned?" Eddy told him.

"Sort of? Which specific example? Microtransactions are, in my opinion, a pretty broad spectrum." Gadg8eer pointed out.

"$6.95 CAD for 500, $17.32 for 1250, you get the idea. They only let you purchase them in bulk so they can make you feel like unspent XP is a waste. Trust me, it's not. Saving up XP has it's own perks." he responded.

"...fair enough. How much is the maximum I can afford to convert? Tech-wise I have everything I'd ever want." Gadg8eer realized.

"You'll want to check the skill tree, the crafting recipe catalogue, and the item shops." Eddy explained. "When you're done, come see me in my office. For now, both of you can follow me there." he said, turning to Crux and Nightwolf with a disarming, slight smile.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Gadg8eer approached it, placed his gauntlets' palm above the wireless datasync pad on the machine.

Cashout!
You just earned $734.77 BeeCoins! You also earned 73,477 XP!!

"Woah, funky on-screen unsound effects!" Gadg8eer said, impressed by how deep Hinobi's system felt. "Hinobi pays us in BeeCoins? Aren't those a cryptocurrency?"

"Sometime during the early Recall Wars, the USD was replaced with BeeCoin, then the BeeCoin market value plummeted. To save the world economy, President Meyers decided to peg the value of the old USD and the value of BeeCoin to each other. At a rate of one cent and point-zero-one BeeCoins per XP, so it doesn't require conversion.

"...what was the Recall Wars?" Gadg8eer asked, troubled.

"Arasaka and IOI went bankrupt, right? And so now they're only back to prevent Hinobi having a monopoly. Hinobi's proprietary tech, though, some of it was made open source by Myers' administration. Under Argon, Hinobi was able to outcompete those other companies in the first place, and it might not seem like it, but when it came to franchise owners and affiliate repair shops, the licensing fees were like extortion. I love their tech too, but fsck Recall Wars Hinobi. Point is, Arasaka and IOI both had access to Memory Reset, and they tried to use it for a lot more than Glitch containment. That's the REAL reason why we supposedly lived in a post-truth era from 2017 up until Argon was impeached for election fraud."

"Oh. Cool. Well, not cool, but... You know what I mean." Gadg8eer told him. "What's the exchange rate of BeeCoin with Canadian dollars right now?"

"It's been stable since around... 2026? Should be about a thousand dollars, maybe slightly more."

"Awesome!" Gadg8eer said, and then realized conversion was unnecessary. "Is it possible to convert money to XP?"

"Yeah, but the rates are awful." Eddy explained.

"How awful?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Well, they aren't bad bad, but you know how in Oversight Squardrons 2, they monetized the hell out of stuff in ways that make you spend more money than you planned?" Eddy told him.

"Sort of? Which specific example? Microtransactions are, in my opinion, a pretty broad spectrum." Gadg8eer pointed out.

"$6.95 CAD for 500, $17.32 for 1250, you get the idea. They only let you purchase them in bulk so they can make you feel like unspent XP is a waste. Trust me, it's not. Saving up XP has it's own perks." he responded.

"...fair enough. How much is the maximum I can afford to convert? Tech-wise I have everything I'd ever want." Gadg8eer realized.

"You'll want to check the skill tree, the crafting recipe catalogue, and the item shops." Eddy explained. "When you're done, come see me in my office. For now, both of you can follow me there." he said, turning to Crux and Nightwolf with a disarming, slight smile.

(( Captain Wyldstorm Reply to this one, the next one will take place at the same time as your next post.

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

"I would at least like to explain something." Crux responded. "I was originally telecommuting via the shared domain I, my brother, and Gadg8eer have in the Hiverse. I used my Sonic Screwdriver - at some point - to shift into reality as a temporary PLixelf. Cost a small fortune to have even temporary access, but it was certainly worth it. My timer is half the usual length, however, from a second user. Which suggests I also did so for Nightwolf. I'm running it on pay-per-use, but I do have a daily limit on my contract before I am forced to pay full rate."

"Hold on. You're saying that a Glitch was in the Hiverse?!" Gadg8eer asked, confused.

"It's not impossible, just rare to hear about. Glitches are cause for using Memory Reset but they do occur in the Hiverse. Hinobi has a method of sandboxing that is supposed to detect Glitches and quarantine them automatically. So far, the only Glitches that don't do this are pop-up ads, malware and inanimate game items." DPortEd explained, as they pulled up in front of the store.

View attachment 1235789
Eddy placed his hand on a palmprint reader, and the rear entry door produced a portal to the Glitch Techs HQ. It was as brightly lit as ever.

If Gadg8eer had known that the next time he saw it, a friend would be dead, he would have tried to have a more in-depth conversation with Zoe about it.

"Welcome to Glitch Techs HQ. The local branch, anyway. We're just the local HQ, the real big places are... different." Eddy explained to Nightwolf.

"Can I..." Gadg8eer asked, gesturing to his wrists and the microTech duoGlas gauntlets he wore.

"Sure." Eddy said, and gestured towards the Commissary.

*Nightwolf just quietly shifted uncomfortably.*"...So basically this means I'm basically something that shouldn't be in this world..?"*She tried to summarise. Her ears flicked slightly in confusion.*

 

[Gadg8eer]

*Nightwolf just quietly shifted uncomfortably.*"...So basically this means I'm basically something that shouldn't be in this world..?"*She tried to summarise. Her ears flicked slightly in confusion.*

"Mmm, it's sort of a coin flip." Eddy explained. "You aren't some sort of monster, clearly. Most Glitches are captured because they're mindless machines, not actually people. They might sound like people, but put them under the microscope of a Voight-Kampf... "Emotional Stress Test"... and you start to realize they're incapable of perceiving the very thing you just did. You questioned what that might mean. That means you're not just a Turing-limited program, but an actual Sapient Glitch. As far as that goes, there's something that concerns me. You aren't a danger, fortunately, but as of two days ago only one Glitch has ever been known among technicians as Sapient. That Glitch was Bolypius, and it was undoubtedly hostile, might even still be." Eddy said.

"As of yesterday, however? That number increased to 2, and the person who owns that house we were at is an employee of mine, Elextrixtr." Eddy continued. "She figured out that a new glitch, one seemingly unrelated to you, is Sapient. And then you showed up. That's not your problem, but it raises a lot of questions and I'd like to figure out what we're dealing with. Because something in this region, the Pacific Northwest of North America, attracts Sapience and near-Sapience in Glitches, and it seems to have suddenly put the pedal to the floor as far as fueling whatever engine is producing smarter Glitches. Worst part is, we have no idea what."

"I think I'd like to chime in. Another Sapient Glitch?" Crux asked. "Night's benign nature aside, that's very troubling."

"Yes, Pentifer Darksoul to be fair. You'd think he's evil but he's just a raunchy comedy platformer hero, and even then he doesn't seem to like swearing or telling crude jokes around Ele. Can't say I blame him, I know that look he got; I wore it when I met my wife. Potential fatherhood does strange things to the mind of a responsible man. Anyhow... A word like "demon" or a name like Nightwolf Primal doesn't imply hostility just because, so as far as we're concerned you're human-adjacent. Rather I'd like to ask something. If you don't feel comfortable explaining where you came from yourself, is it okay to run you through a Glitch Scanner? It would help, mainly because I don't recognize you from any game I've ever seen, and that's extremely unusual, given we practically live in a surveillance state regardless of nation in the real world. Hinobi Inspectors would already be here if they cared about benign Glitches like you, and while you're fairly rare, there are plenty of times non-Sapient Glitches have been... domesticated? The manual never was totally clear on that. Beyond the scan, there's not much to do in regards to you, though I would like to know if Ele was aware of your existence, if it's okay to inform her of you. If you have any questions, though, you can feel free to ask them now. I'm sure this is more than a little confusing for you."

 

[Gadg8eer]

Gadg8eer approached it, placed his gauntlets' palm above the wireless datasync pad on the machine.

Cashout!
You just earned $734.77 BeeCoins! You also earned 73,477 XP!!

"Woah, funky on-screen unsound effects!" Gadg8eer said, impressed by how deep Hinobi's system felt. "Hinobi pays us in BeeCoins? Aren't those a cryptocurrency?"

"Sometime during the early Recall Wars, the USD was replaced with BeeCoin, then the BeeCoin market value plummeted. To save the world economy, President Meyers decided to peg the value of the old USD and the value of BeeCoin to each other. At a rate of one cent and point-zero-one BeeCoins per XP, so it doesn't require conversion.

"...what was the Recall Wars?" Gadg8eer asked, troubled.

"Arasaka and IOI went bankrupt, right? And so now they're only back to prevent Hinobi having a monopoly. Hinobi's proprietary tech, though, some of it was made open source by Myers' administration. Under Argon, Hinobi was able to outcompete those other companies in the first place, and it might not seem like it, but when it came to franchise owners and affiliate repair shops, the licensing fees were like extortion. I love their tech too, but fsck Recall Wars Hinobi. Point is, Arasaka and IOI both had access to Memory Reset, and they tried to use it for a lot more than Glitch containment. That's the REAL reason why we supposedly lived in a post-truth era from 2017 up until Argon was impeached for election fraud."

"Oh. Cool. Well, not cool, but... You know what I mean." Gadg8eer told him. "What's the exchange rate of BeeCoin with Canadian dollars right now?"

"It's been stable since around... 2026? Should be about a thousand dollars, maybe slightly more."

"Awesome!" Gadg8eer said, and then realized conversion was unnecessary. "Is it possible to convert money to XP?"

"Yeah, but the rates are awful." Eddy explained.

"How awful?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Well, they aren't bad bad, but you know how in Oversight Squardrons 2, they monetized the hell out of stuff in ways that make you spend more money than you planned?" Eddy told him.

"Sort of? Which specific example? Microtransactions are, in my opinion, a pretty broad spectrum." Gadg8eer pointed out.

"$6.95 CAD for 500, $17.32 for 1250, you get the idea. They only let you purchase them in bulk so they can make you feel like unspent XP is a waste. Trust me, it's not. Saving up XP has it's own perks." he responded.

"...fair enough. How much is the maximum I can afford to convert? Tech-wise I have everything I'd ever want." Gadg8eer realized.

"You'll want to check the skill tree, the crafting recipe catalogue, and the item shops." Eddy explained. "When you're done, come see me in my office. For now, both of you can follow me there." he said, turning to Crux and Nightwolf with a disarming, slight smile.

As Nightwolf, Crux and DPortEd closed the door to the manager's office, Gadg8eer scrolled through the various ways he could upgrade. "Data recovery?" Gadg8eer said, looking at one particular skill. The skill said "Access NSA dragnets to retrieve defense-motivated backups of deleted personal or publicly available data. Also enables you to recover data on extremely old hard drives which have not been previously networked. Only works on mechanical storage drives such as Hard Disk Drives (HDDs)."

The cost? 250 XP. For him it was an easy choice. For most techs, it was Boring, but Practical. In a job as awesome as theirs, why waste it on "practicality"? But Gadg8eer didn't want to just play superhero. He tapped the icon to add it to his cart and kept scrolling.

 

[Gadg8eer]

The next item he came across was in the big one. The vehicle store. Gadg8eer browsed through until he found something he liked.

"The deLeón? Villefort sells vehicles through this? Huh. I didn't think that would be an option. And it's got to be more affordab- 5.2 million XP?!" he groaned, and with a sigh he added it to his wishlist and closed that tab.

Lastly, he found something which empassioned his retail therapy. Two somethings. "A necklace with prayer beads. Resurrects NPCs... for use on dead customers... Player beads?" he rolled his eyes, "...for dead party members. Exclusive to PLixelf Series 1 and Series 2 NFT Holders." he said, realizing what this could do. "Don't worry, Zoe." he whispered to himself. "I won't let you die either."

He added the Prayer Bead Necklace for 1000 XP, and the Player Bead Necklace to the cart, which was a more hefty 20000 XP.

 

[MisterEightySix]

You Know How Every Attack in Power Rangers Results in Some Kind of Explosion? Hum's Attack Sparked Some Little Explosions and Disarmed Yokai of the Yari of Darkness Much to the Dark lord's Shock. he Looked at The Spear, Then at Hum, His hand Glowed with Shadow Energy,

"Your Blade is Impressive Little Mortal, To be Able to Disarm me in a Single Blow is a Feat Little to none can Do." Yokai Scowled

"But Your Beginner's luck has Run Out." Yokai Blasted Shadow Energy at Hum. "No One Can Beat me."

"Luck?" With another swing, the attack was absorbed, just like the first. "If I wanted luck to be a factor, I'd have picked another-- oh, right, that attack's supposed to do the tennis-ball thing, isn't it? Yeah, that wasn't actually fair of me, my bad. Just give me a second."

Hum turned a dial on his gauntlet a couple of notches. With a flash of PLixels, the blade vanished from his hand, replaced with a long red high-tech-looking rifle bearing the words "GYRO LABS" crudely painted on the side. An intense white glow emanated from the wet dungeon walls under the weapon's seams - the type of glow that makes nerds on the internet grind their teeth when they find out that "light" is an element, but "gun" (usually) isn't. Hum cocked the rifle and held it up to his face, readying a surge of holy-but-only-by-anime-standards searing solar energy and aiming it down the sights, directly at Yokai's chestplate.

"That's better. You might feel a light burning sensation."

With that, he pulled the trigger.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"Luck?" With another swing, the attack was absorbed, just like the first. "If I wanted luck to be a factor, I'd have picked another-- oh, right, that attack's supposed to do the tennis-ball thing, isn't it? Yeah, that wasn't actually fair of me, my bad. Just give me a second."

Hum turned a dial on his gauntlet a couple of notches. With a flash of PLixels, the blade vanished from his hand, replaced with a long red high-tech-looking rifle bearing the words "GYRO LABS" crudely painted on the side. An intense white glow emanated from the wet dungeon walls under the weapon's seams - the type of glow that makes nerds on the internet grind their teeth when they find out that "light" is an element, but "gun" (usually) isn't. Hum cocked the rifle and held it up to his face, readying a surge of holy-but-only-by-anime-standards searing solar energy and aiming it down the sights, directly at Yokai's chestplate.

"That's better. You might feel a light burning sensation."

With that, he pulled the trigger.

And it was a Direct hit!

I Mean, Hum was at Point blank Range, How do you miss at that Outside of Funny Cartoons?

Point is, Hum Scored a Pretty Decent hit on Yokai, Knocking the Reincarntion of Yamata No Orochi into a Wall, Cracking it. And Oh Nah, Hum got the Demon King on all Fours.

"Ah...I See it now." Yokai Got up, Stumbling and Ablaze with Solar Energy. "Susano-o's Cunning flows through your Veins." A big angry Step, "Along with Amaterasu's Blessing." Yokai Looked down and Saw a Hole in his Armor's Chestplate, And Burn Marks on his skin and the Sides of the hole.

 

[Gadg8eer]

*Pentifer snapped Ele out of her current state, cursing in what sounded like Latin as he yanked her away from the acid.*"ELE I GET YOURE GRIEVING BUT NOW IS NOT THE BEST TIME TO BASICALLY SHUT DOWN LIKE A PC ON LOW BATTERY!"*He shouted, causing Elextrixtr (Ele) to quickly snap out of it and immediately attempt to climb some stuff to straight-up try and body slam that stupid bug guy into the ground.*

Yukhoe, unexpectedly, made a break for it. He too had parked his "Beetle-copter" pod thing out back, and aimed to get away knowing there were not even any likely traps (Dr. X tended to hesitate if the escape route was rigged, so Yukhoe waited until the Doctor exited stage left before the Beetle King left has the building) remaining.