Fandom (Glitch Techs Xpanded Universe) GTX: Gnu Fork

[Lord Moldoma]

lunged at Zoe with its incisor teeth bared

Zoe caught the oversized lower jaw and upper jaw of the equally oversized rodent, expertly manipulating her own machine body, even if it was merely a heavily modded commentator robot, and slammed it on the ground behind her over her shoulder, judo-throwing it while maximizing the nature of her robotic body's abilities. It was almost as if she had done this before, although, perhaps being in underground robot fighting circuits helped a bit in that regard.

She then proceeded to aim a legdrop down at the poor glitch, leaping in the air and slamming her full mechanical bodyweight onto it.

Her fighting style was one that was coveted as being hard to learn due to it being less of a flashy, remote robot brawling style, and more of an actual body art, known as "Maxim-Mechanica" or "The Full-body Robotic Art" she had trained to manipulate her battle body, and downloaded dozens of files (and of course had Dee remove any unnecessary safeguards) to use her body's mechanical nature to her advantage. Anyone who couldn't afford or wasn't willing to implement esoteric weaponry onto their combat body only had a few choices, and in her case, the clear choice was either scrap the Commentator Bot (which wasn't really an option) or learn to use it in a way that weaponized the nature of it's on hand machinery to 100% efficiency.

Immediately, it became apparent that she had some serious demons to drown, the way she fought was indicative of someone who had come ready for a fight.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Zoe caught the oversized lower jaw and upper jaw of the equally oversized rodent, expertly manipulating her own machine body, even if it was merely a heavily modded commentator robot, and slammed it on the ground behind her over her shoulder, judo-throwing it while maximizing the nature of her robotic body's abilities. It was almost as if she had done this before, although, perhaps being in underground robot fighting circuits helped a bit in that regard.

She then proceeded to aim a legdrop down at the poor glitch, leaping in the air and slamming her full mechanical bodyweight onto it.

Her fighting style was one that was coveted as being hard to learn due to it being less of a flashy, remote robot brawling style, and more of an actual body art, known as "Maxim-Mechanica" or "The Full-body Robotic Art" she had trained to manipulate her battle body, and downloaded dozens of files (and of course had Dee remove any unnecessary safeguards) to use her body's mechanical nature to her advantage. Anyone who couldn't afford or wasn't willing to implement esoteric weaponry onto their combat body only had a few choices, and in her case, the clear choice was either scrap the Commentator Bot (which wasn't really an option) or learn to use it in a way that weaponized the nature of it's on hand machinery to 100% efficiency.

Immediately, it became apparent that she had some serious demons to drown, the way she fought was indicative of someone who had come ready for a fight.

Gadg8eer took all of two seconds to stare at the floor before getting up. He was knocked to the floor again in short order, but on the third try he braced his entire body for a shock and stood firm. The fourth attack was the kicker, as upon being hit by "Grenokunoichi" (Gadge knew the name had been replaced with "Kaerunoichi" and the gender confirmed as female... the original voice was gender-neutral... in the released version of Nobi Grossout Melee) he rapidly extended his fist outwards, striking the glitch in its froggy nose.

"K-O!" said Helpheus. "Okay, you'll want to pay attention for this part, attacking monsters not withstanding."

The smaller entity tried to struggle against Zoe while Gadg8eer was quick to grab Kaerunoichi's scarf-like tongue and look it straight in the eye. "NOT. NOW. Got it?" he commanded, clearly unhappy with it.

"Never mind then. Hinobi's primary technology is Plixel Tech, as I'm sure you're aware. How much do you know about how it works, however?" Helpy-Morpheus explained.

"PLixels, or Plastoid Liminal Voxels. They're mesomachines, really small robots of various microscopic scales, powered by a proprietary energy storage and transmission method owned by Hinobi." Gadg8eer tried to recall.

"In a sense, yes. It goes deeper, however. PLixel mesomachines are the size of photons and constructed from quark matter. Needles to say, its complicated. Combined with traditional electronics, PLixels form the majority of Hinobi's consumer, commercial, military and internal product lines." Oakley Sunglasses Helpy explained.

"Okay, but what does that have to do with... this?" Gadg8eer said, giving a quick glance to the ninja frog warlady.

"What do you think I'm made of?" Helpy pointed out. "Or the glitches in here that you're fighting?"

"Wait. Glitches are digital."

"So are you, registered owner of Non-Fungible Cryptoken PLixelf #10."

"Oh, crap. Can I... what happens if I glitch?"

"PLixelf Engineering Manual, page 8." Helpy responded, a book appearing in his hand. "To prevent glitches in PLixelf avatars, users will in a sense become the glitch; Their thoughts will, digitized, immediately serve to transform the user from a frail human into a Player Character glitch controlled by the transferred, converted consciousness. To prevent any unwanted incidents, PLixelfs are attached to Hinobi-integrated Non-Fungible Cryptokens. Among consumer uses, this also prevents the accidental De-Rezzing of a human being. Should this fail, please ask your Hinobi branch manager to unlock your equipment's quarantine to release the accidentally-captured human, and be sure to follow protocol after releasing the unfortunate bystander or technician and any other glitches containied in your equipment."

"Okay, that's good, but..." Gadg8eer ponted out, "does that mean glitches are sentient? Or are they AI?"

"Due to interaction with online connectivity, and with real people, glitches are often capable of surprisingly sentient actions. If possible, reasoning or negotiating with glitches is currently considered the first step in a Hinobi Glitch Technician's troubleshooting process. If this fails, please proceed to step 2, 'actually shooting trouble'. Please note that glitches are derived from software, which is software-locked to prevent the RAM and CPU usage of any glitch intelligences from surpassing that of a small insect. As a result, any attempt to reason with a glitch should be done under the assumption that they act on preprogrammed behaviors and the backstory in their lore, provided that they are produced by a gaming-focused product." Helpheus reacted.

"What happens if they're unlocked?" Gadg8eer pointed out.

"Hinobi technicians can unlock the software locks on a captured glitch for continued technical support purposes." Helpy said, holding up a photo of a girl, a boy, a robot and a red bird in a polaroid-looking PLixel photograph.

"What if a Glitch isn't gaming-related?" he pointed out to the machine.

"I'm sorry! That information is currently limited to technicians in other Hinobi tech support divisions." Helpy said in an oddly chipper and unsurprisingly familiar annoying voice, as if it had momentarily reverted to an earlier software version. Looking and sounding serious again, Helpy announced "Round 2!" Around them, the infinite white plain suddenly shattered and fell into a misty void, save for a platform which Zoe, Gadg8eer and the two glitches were standing on. "Fight!"

The pre-emptive jet of water to Gadg8eer's chest sent him skidding across the ground towards the edge of the platform...

 

[Lord Moldoma]

"PLixelf Engineering Manual, page 8." Helpy responded, a book appearing in his hand. "To prevent glitches in PLixelf avatars, users will in a sense become the glitch; Their thoughts will, digitized, immediately serve to transform the user from a frail human into a Player Character glitch controlled by the transferred, converted consciousness. To prevent any unwanted incidents, PLixelfs are attached to Hinobi-integrated Non-Fungible Cryptokens."

"Shit... Explains why Dee thinks I need to get one if I ever have the chance. A full Plixel avatar is literally something out of a video game. With that kind of power I'd probably be able to take on a whole army of the shabby ass battlebots we're playing around with in underground matches and win..."

Among consumer uses, this also prevents the accidental De-Rezzing of a human being. Should this fail, please ask your Hinobi branch manager to unlock your equipment's quarantine to release the accidentally-captured human, and be sure to follow protocol after releasing the unfortunate bystander or technician and any other glitches containied in your equipment."

"You guys are gonna make a buck with a lot of furries whenever you guys release that tech. I should know, my fanbase is made of them."

reasoning or negotiating with glitches is currently considered the first step in a Hinobi Glitch Technician's troubleshooting process

"My first instinct when I see an animal isn't exactly to talk to it. Maybe you should've asked me to pick something who can talk back!" Zoe lets out to Helpy.

"Round 2!" Around them, the infinite white plain suddenly shattered and fell into a misty void, save for a platform which Zoe, Gadg8eer and the two glitches were standing on. "Fight!"

Zoe immediately closes the distance again, and shoves her hands directly into verminotr's mouth, grabbing its jaws again, and this time forcing her leg down its throat and out the other side.

After throwing it aside and letting it dissipate into plixel particles, she held up her skirt and a big cloud of white exhaust blew out. She audibly sighed through her mic. This was how she dealt with the buildup of heat. Evidently she couldn't fight for long periods.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"Shit... Explains why Dee thinks I need to get one if I ever have the chance. A full Plixel avatar is literally something out of a video game. With that kind of power I'd probably be able to take on a whole army of the shabby ass battlebots we're playing around with in underground matches and win..."

"You guys are gonna make a buck with a lot of furries whenever you guys release that tech. I should know, my fanbase is made of them."

"My first instinct when I see an animal isn't exactly to talk to it. Maybe you should've asked me to pick something who can talk back!" Zoe lets out to Helpy.

Zoe immediately closes the distance again, and shoves her hands directly into verminotr's mouth, grabbing its jaws again, and this time forcing her leg down its throat and out the other side.

After throwing it aside and letting it dissipate into plixel particles, she held up her skirt and a big cloud of white exhaust blew out. She audibly sighed through her mic. This was how she dealt with the buildup of heat. Evidently she couldn't fight for long periods.

Grenokunoichi's jaw dropped.

"Uh..." Gadg8eer said.

"Yeah, that's going to give me nightmares. Good thing glitches can be, for lack of a better word, fixed. You aren't actually supposed to kill them. Well, not that you can. As you can guess from the Flunky Quest series, you're supposed to weaken them and then de-rez them with your Glitch Tech gauntlets. De-rezzing them utilizes Hinobi Anti-Virus technology, trapping the glitch in your File Quarantine. To help you out, try using the System Restore on the poor critter."

"I was also talking about- never mind." Gadg8eer wisely chose not to judge any further. He looked at the pair of gauntlets on his hands, and began dealing with the GUI as quickly as possible. Worst-case scenario, he was going to have to do this on the fly, so Gadge figured he had better learn the system. He hovered his poindex finger over one of the icons, finding it was some sort of blaster tool according to the PLixel tooltip his SpyWear goggles provided. Oddly it was inacessible. "What are these grayed out icons?"

"Hinobi uses an employee rewards program for lower-level techs. It's a minimum-wage job, sadly, we legitimately can't afford to staff every tech on the planet for more, but the perks are worth it if you already have a financial safety net." Helpy explained. "That's also why both of you are prime candidates."

"I guess?" Gadg8eer said, swiping to the left to find that his pair of Glo-Yos could be toggled individually on each gauntlet, and then another, the De-Rez Beam, and finally the last available icon, the System Restore. He aimed it where Verminotr had been and used it, restoring the creature to existence. "Hey, um... Can we just call it off?" he asked the glitch, "You kind of just got Fatality'd horribly, I actually feel bad for you."

Verminotr took a quick look at Zoe, then back at Gadg8eer, and nodded.

"We used to catch the electrical signals that make up disembodied glitches, admittedly. Ever since Hinobi scientists perfected the failsafes used in PLixelfs, Glitches have - unfortunately - adapted in response." Helpy explained.

"Adapted?!" Gadg8eer responded.

"There's nothing artificial about intelligence, as one of our experts used to say." Helpy cryptically referenced. "Fortunately, de-rezzing is now capable of working on weakened glitches. Try to bring them just short of death, if the glitch is defeated it becomes a bolt of electrical energy and tends to then cause more trouble by finding a new piece of hardware to absorb a digital form from."

"Oh. How intelligent do glitches get?" the boy questioned.

"In a sense you are one, but in the wild - so to speak - they can be as intelligent as the Hinobi-compatible software is designed to be. Fortunately, human minds are not Hinobi-compatible software - compatibility layer notwithstanding - and for obvious reasons it needs to stay that way." Helpy responded, and turned to Zoe. "As for robots, Zoe here is of interest for multiple reasons, but I've been advised to explain her desire to full dive into the Hiverse was one concern. Turns out that could lead to some very sticky problems. See, here's the thing. Glitches aren't rare. If the public knew that, they'd stop using PLixels entirely. It may not seem like it but that goes beyond Hinobi. If Glitches were allowed to run around unimpeded in today's high-tech society, the world would literally end. Even if Hinobi goes bankrupt, the world's governments already have contingency plans, so make sure that you follow all laws, regulations, and bylaws because having super gadgets isn't an excuse for illegal or immoral activity. Hinobi can't and won't protect you from something like CSIS or the CIA. However, getting rid of PLixels entirely is calculated to be impossible now; humanity depends on computers, electronics, the internet, smartphones and even things like robots and the latest generations of farm equipment, and glitches exist regardless of whether those devices are Hinobi or anyone else."

"Too long, didn't read?" Gadg8eer asked.

"We want to hire you because it's in Hinobi's best interests to keep our customers alive and safe from glitchy video game minions appearing in reality, and we have historically not been able to do that by making our products safer. It will be your job to weaken, capture and deliver glitches back to your local HQ." Helpy finished explaining. "There is one last thing. Round 3! Discourse!"

At that moment, a crowd of simulated people from The Simians 5 appeared.

"Whoa, that was so rad!" one stereotypical-sounding teenage boy said.

"That squirrel is so CUTE when he's not being mean!" a little girl cheerfully acknowledged.

"You saved us from those things!" an impossibly beautiful woman exclaimed. "My hero!"

"Are you superheroes or something?" a police officer in a generic 1950s cop uniform asked. Immediately the glitch Simians paused so Helpy could explain.

"Normal law enforcement are NOT aware of Hinobi's product quality issues. Only reveal your true purpose to other Hinobi Employees, local military and national guard, intelligence organizations such as the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service and Central Intelligence Agency." Helpy responded. "If anyone else, including police asks, the most truthful answer is... Tech Support."

The Simians were unpaused and a generic-looking "typical male fantasy" Glitch Tech - whose AR profile appeared to inform them that his username was "ManLeeChin" and approached them between Zoe and Gadg8eer. "Fear not! I know this is a bit hard to grasp, but I'm with Tech Support. As part of my duty, I will now Reset your system memory to alleviate any trauma. And remember... Hinobi Technology Corporation apologizes for any inconvenience this minor glitch may have caused!" the vaguely over-heroic caricature said, and visibly activated the System Memory "reset". A tiny loading icon appeared over the Simian's heads for a second and they proceeded to go about their boring, ordinary business.

The illusory(?) battleground disappeared, leaving Zoe and Gadg8eer in the training room again.

"That last part - the apology - is important, company policy. For some reason it helps people unconsciously adapt to whatever problems we fix." Helpius finished. "Otherwise they get confused and even paranoid when things aren't quite what their memory says it should be."

"Wait... Fixing problems... I have one question." Gadg8eer told the floating H with sunglasses.

"I'll do my best to answer!" Helpy said in the chipper voice he was usually known for.

"What are the stats for PLixel Technology affecting things like food production in famine-affected areas and other beneficial stuff?" Gadg8eer asked.

"Enough that if it disappeared, climate catastrophe and mass starvation would ensue. Not to brag, but without Hinobi's research and development, Africa would likely still be in extreme poverty." Helpy explained. "And that concludes our tutorial! Your gauntlets have been activated, and you have each earned 10,000 XP! Feel free to spend them in our gift shop after your local Branch Manager confirms you're hired. Provided you choose to take the job, of course."

"Heck yeah!" Gadg8eer said, pumped by the idea of getting paid to do something actually helpful. He still had his doubts that Hinobi could remain Lawful Neutral forever, but for now he was satisfied their existence was benign. He turned to Zoe, curious about her decision about things.

 

[Lord Moldoma]

You aren't actually supposed to kill them. Well, not that you can. As you can guess from the Flunky Quest series, you're supposed to weaken them and then de-rez them with your Glitch Tech gauntlets

"I don't know, he seemed pretty dead before Wiz... I mean.. Gadge... Revived him." She says, strangely deciding to drop her nickname already. Maybe horribly destroying the glitch had let her work off some steam.

"Was he... Alive after I kicked a hole through him? Did he have to feel what that was like?" She asks.

Fortunately, de-rezzing is now capable of working on weakened glitches. Try to bring them just short of death, if the glitch is defeated it becomes a bolt of electrical energy and tends to then cause more trouble by finding a new piece of hardware to absorb a digital form from.

"So you want me to fight glitches in a way that's... Constructive and designed to keep them alive?" She asks. "That... Sounds easy enough..." She tells Helpy "They're not able to die, so technically there's not really anything I can do that'd make my current methods unable to be used consistently." She says.

"If you want me to be able to fight on the same level, I have to maximize how this body works. You do realize this android isn't exactly made for combat even after all of the... totally legal upgrades I've had made for it... Right?" She asks.

but I've been advised to explain her desire to full dive into the Hiverse was one concern. Turns out that could lead to some very sticky problems.

"Get off my ass." She gets more serious in tone this time around. "If Hinobi can make the world a fundamentally better place with their hundreds of billions of dollars, and give me a body I don't hate, and I'll consider it. 'Til then, that's my main goal, plain and simple."

He turned to Zoe, curious about her decision about things.

"Wh-What're you looking at me for, kid? Do you have a problem with people who got Bardi? B-Baka." She seemed totally serious as her robotic face blushed.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"I don't know, he seemed pretty dead before Wiz... I mean.. Gadge... Revived him." She says, strangely deciding to drop her nickname already. Maybe horribly destroying the glitch had let her work off some steam.

"Was he... Alive after I kicked a hole through him? Did he have to feel what that was like?" She asks.

"Yes but not really. I'm a computer program based on the exhibited intelligence of PLixel Glitches, so I can inhabit multiple bodies for the purposes of serving as a tutorial. Glitches in the field, however..."

"So you want me to fight glitches in a way that's... Constructive and designed to keep them alive?" She asks. "That... Sounds easy enough..." She tells Helpy "They're not able to die, so technically there's not really anything I can do that'd make my current methods unable to be used consistently." She says.

"If you want me to be able to fight on the same level, I have to maximize how this body works. You do realize this android isn't exactly made for combat even after all of the... totally legal upgrades I've had made for it... Right?" She asks.

"Upgrades are available by collecting XP to spend. Hinobi founded the Glitch Techs division on January 1st of 2001 after Y2K caused issues in Flunky Quest Red and Blue. By the release of Flunky Quest StrikeGold and QuickSilver in August of 2001, most of the kinks had been worked out by gamifying the division's labor. Turns out gamers are pretty lazy unless you give them something to work towards that isn't possible in a normal life. Not that you'll be required to do this all the time, it is only a job after all. For now, 10,000 XP sould be enough to select your basic tools!"

"Get off my ass." She gets more serious in tone this time around. "If Hinobi can make the world a fundamentally better place with their hundreds of billions of dollars, and give me a body I don't hate, and I'll consider it. 'Til then, that's my main goal, plain and simple."

"No, no, you're misunderstanding it! The issue is related to our hardware, not your mistake. I'm just a computer but you should ask your branch manager for further details about why Glitches are an issue." Helpheus explained, "Aside from that, the Hinobi Central Processor - HCP for short - is-"

"HCP? As in the Horrorterror Containment Protocols?! Wait a second... This kind of is the GTX Agency! You even wipe memories!"

"Does the GTX Agency use a holodeck based on video games? Do they hire someone off the street to debug consumer electronics?" a voice said nearby. Dave was standing in the now-open doorway. "You know me, kid. You've been in here dozens of times to buy stuff. Yes, we've had to wipe your memory, but we've had to wipe everyone's memories at some point. Police, fired technicians, shareholders... but there is an upside." Dave said, and aimed his Gauntlet at Gadg8eer, who was about to flinch when Dave gave him a compassionate smile. "Don't move, I'm restoring a memory."

A spinning circle appeared over Gadg8eer's head, similar to the speech bubble with the dots that had been used on the Simians displayed by Helpy earlier. After a couple seconds, Gadg8eer blinked and said "Holy crap. A Glitch Tech wiped my memory when I was 13. No wonder I've felt like my childhood was crap after the 9-1-1 cyberattacks and the Cyberwar against Osama and Al-Djinn, you faked two and a half years of my life?!"

"Not me, a Branch Manager - an official one - over in Kelowna in 2003. Guy doesn't even work there anymore, last I heard he got fired and memory-wiped for what happened to you and your family." Dave explained. "Honestly, I've been looking for an excuse to restore your memories for years, you were the only one who apparently never reacted well to the early memory wipe tech out of everyone its ever been used on, and believe me, that's not gone unnoticed. Speaking of..." he said, turning to Helpy. "Computer, command console. Exit."

"Reset initiated. Thank you for choosing Hinobi Portals 11 as your operating system. See you soon!" Helpy said, and de-rezed back into the training simulator's data banks. A shutdown noise followed the remark.

"As you can guess, you two aren't your average techs, and this isn't your average Hinobi store." Dave responded. "If it was, our awful former city council would be too much of a threat to standard Glitch Tech procedures. We're all outcasts here, it turns out. As for why Hinobi is so interested in each of you..." Dave said, motioning to follow him.

As they walked to his office, Dave continued explaining. "Ever heard of Bolypius?"

 

[Sir loin of beef]

The Arcade Kingdom! A.K.A The Skullfort.


Meanwhile 2 Streets away from Gnu Forks is a Recently Renovated Storefront turned Arcade beloved by the local geeks with a seeming Gimmick of resembling the Iconic skullforts of the "Atom girl" Arch-villain the Diabolical Dr X. Though we could go over such classic games as "Invader Simulator" "Smashozaurs" and "Sock-em rockers" we instead head to the backroom, wherein lurks 5 of the worst Villains this world has ever seen, The council of doom! We start off our list with their Demented leader, the aforementioned Dr X! Himself. To his Immediate right is the world's wickedest Goat, Yokai! The mighty mite king Yukhoe! The self proclaimed Empress of evil Madame Vile and last but not least the leader of the shadow syndicate Colonel Sirius! All of them recognizable to Gamers, all of them up to no good!

"Vadies and Gentlemen, I would like to begin zhis meeting by announcing zhat zo far zhe Arcade is a resounding success!" Doctor X announced "people are spending their money on our attractions and nobody seems to suspect a thing about our intentions."

"that's easy for you to say Bub, we haven't even launched a single attack yet and I'm tired of it, you said this alliance would allow us to conquer all our worlds and this mundane world as a bonus prize!" An insectoid man, the aforementioned when I introduced the council Yukhoe complained

"Oh come now Yukhoe, Rome wasn't built in a day." A man named Colonel sirius said

"Easy for you to say, it took me about that long to rise to power." A Ram man smirked sinisterly.

"Ooh like that impresses any of us." Madame vile said in a sarcastic tone.

"Enough!" Dr X shouted "Soon Ve shall launch our conquest of zis world! Vith no heroes to get in our way ve'll be completely unstoppable! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

 

[Lord Moldoma]

"Ever heard of Bolypius?"

"Everyone's heard the story by now." Zoe begins. "It's an ancient internet creepypasta at this point."

"Pretty sure it got put it to bed with the revelation that it was probably just a weird version of the Arcade game 'GALE' that had been mistranslated or was a prototype copy, and everyone went home and stopped caring."

"But considering what I've just been through, I'd have to assume that it really was a Psychadelic Digital Intelligence that could manipulate the subconscious minds of players. And that you guys covered it up, right?" She asks.

"I can only assume that a glitch from a game that already pushes the boundaries of what a game should be able to do couldn't be any good. So you probably consider it a high ticket item to pin down."

"Whatever the case, I think I get why you would've picked me and Gadge. His body is inherently already on the forefront of technology when it comes to combat modularity. And I have the experience, both in game and from underground bot-fighting rings to keep up even if I'm working with less than ideal hardware."

 

[Gadg8eer]

"Everyone's heard the story by now." Zoe begins. "It's an ancient internet creepypasta at this point."

"Pretty sure it got put it to bed with the revelation that it was probably just a weird version of the Arcade game 'GALE' that had been mistranslated or was a prototype copy, and everyone went home and stopped caring."

"But considering what I've just been through, I'd have to assume that it really was a Psychadelic Digital Intelligence that could manipulate the subconscious minds of players. And that you guys covered it up, right?" She asks.

"I can only assume that a glitch from a game that already pushes the boundaries of what a game should be able to do couldn't be any good. So you probably consider it a high ticket item to pin down."

"Whatever the case, I think I get why you would've picked me and Gadge. His body is inherently already on the forefront of technology when it comes to combat modularity. And I have the experience, both in game and from underground bot-fighting rings to keep up even if I'm working with less than ideal hardware."

"Oddly, not exactly. GALE is actually related, though. Bolypius is actually a dummied out boss who was cut from GALE, who escaped from a malfunctioning prototype in the late 70s. See, here's the thing. That tutorial you just took is the upgraded version 2.0, that was released just weeks before Bolypius was caught in 2019. Everything you saw was designed to prepare techs for that possibility, for one simple reason. Bolypius could not be defeated, it was too powerful, because it was a scoring-based game. The goal of its game was to lose to Bolypius after struggling to not lose for as long as possible." Dave briefed them.

"Wait, you're saying video games have been based on player rewards and storylines and multiplayer since before I was born..." Gadg8eer started to think carefully.

"...because point systems made glitches with no weaknesses and Bolypius was the last straw in that respect? Exactly." Dave responded.

"But you said Bolypius was caught almost a decade ago." Gadg8eer pointed out.

"9 years. Hard to believe it's already 2028, I thought we'd have flying nuclear-powered cars or teleporters and moon bases by this point when I was a kid." Dave reminisced, "That's relevant. Bolypius' cutting edge tech was memory erasure itself. Apparently Hinobi Corporate thought a game you couldn't remember how to win would solve the issue of the shelf life of arcade games. For a number of reasons that's why you have to prefer staying out of sight or passing off your activities as ordinary tech support, and only resort to memory wipes as a last resort. We've had 50 years to work out the bugs of that tech, but considering both of you have had your memories wiped in the past, do you really want to risk it?"

Gadg8eer shook his head as Dave used his gauntlet's ID to unlock his office.

"Now, as for why Bolypius is important yet no longer a threat... Glitches have always been an issue, but here's the rate of glitch incidents per capita between 1945 and today..." Dave said, and called up an image on the big screen TV opposite from him.



"The top of the vertical graph is around 10 Glitches. You can see the spikes caused by Project Mobile - the so-called Rockwell Incident - in the late 40s, the energy crisis of the 70s and its effects on PLixels even as they were first being commercialized, and the big one. Y2K. Despite what you've heard, part of the issue was also Flunky Quest Rouge, Bleu, Verde and Jaune, while the majority was related to non-Hinobi companies like Quill and bad developers like Bob Eloni or Derek duShaan not following safety guidelines. I'll let you come to your own conclusions first."

 

[Gadg8eer]

The Arcade Kingdom! A.K.A The Skullfort.


Meanwhile 2 Streets away from Gnu Forks is a Recently Renovated Storefront turned Arcade beloved by the local geeks with a seeming Gimmick of resembling the Iconic skullforts of the "Atom girl" Arch-villain the Diabolical Dr X. Though we could go over such classic games as "Invader Simulator" "Smashozaurs" and "Sock-em rockers" we instead head to the backroom, wherein lurks 5 of the worst Villains this world has ever seen, The council of doom! We start off our list with their Demented leader, the aforementioned Dr X! Himself. To his Immediate right is the world's wickedest Goat, Yokai! The mighty mite king Yukhoe! The self proclaimed Empress of evil Madame Vile and last but not least the leader of the shadow syndicate Colonel Sirius! All of them recognizable to Gamers, all of them up to no good!

"Vadies and Gentlemen, I would like to begin zhis meeting by announcing zhat zo far zhe Arcade is a resounding success!" Doctor X announced "people are spending their money on our attractions and nobody seems to suspect a thing about our intentions."

"that's easy for you to say Bub, we haven't even launched a single attack yet and I'm tired of it, you said this alliance would allow us to conquer all our worlds and this mundane world as a bonus prize!" An insectoid man, the aforementioned when I introduced the council Yukhoe complained

"Oh come now Yukhoe, Rome wasn't built in a day." A man named Colonel sirius said

"Easy for you to say, it took me about that long to rise to power." A Ram man smirked sinisterly.

"Ooh like that impresses any of us." Madame vile said in a sarcastic tone.

"Enough!" Dr X shouted "Soon Ve shall launch our conquest of zis world! Vith no heroes to get in our way ve'll be completely unstoppable! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

At that moment, the city's bylaw officer stepped into the store. "Hey, I need to talk to the owner." he said, barely glancing up from his clipboard at what he assumed were Halloween costumes. "Official city business."

 

[Lord Moldoma]

let you come to your own conclusions first.

“My main conclusion is if you were to reveal to me that my entire consciousness at this point was always inside this robot, and my human equivalent is out there playing games and streaming right now. And you just so happened to copy their sentience into a robotic body to have them work for you indefinitely for a goal that would never come, I’d not be surprised. Your company did fake two years of someone else’s life and has done however many other heinous acts you’re not bothering to tell us about… the fact that I seem a lot less well versed in this supposedly hidden world than the supposedly less-gaming-experienced boy wonder here is suspicious in its own right. But since I’m questioning my existence right now, I’ll just keep my mouth shut like your good little snarky deuteragonist.” Zoe says, not intentionally breaking the fourth wall.

“it’s last Tuesdayism in action. What can I assume is real?”

 

[Sir loin of beef]

At that moment, the city's bylaw officer stepped into the store. "Hey, I need to talk to the owner." he said, barely glancing up from his clipboard at what he assumed were Halloween costumes. "Official city business."

Dr X froze for a moment, blinked and quickly began talking "Oh, uh Vhy Yes zhat vould be me, Vhat seems to be ze problem officer?" The mad doctor asked doing his best to appear as an ordinary old man in a Halloween costume instead of an egomaniacal scientist out to conquer the world

 

[Gadg8eer]

-

"What?" Dave said, confused. "Oh, the memory wipe? Yeah, it does that. You witnessed the incident that led to the shutdown of Cardiff Electric in 2009. Hinobi wasn't even involved in that. Remember this if you have to, if you actually lost your memories you'd never function, so your system memory is referring to whether your memories are ones you're consciously aware of and which ones only your unconscious is aware of."

"No, she's got a point, how did nobody get their brains corrupted?!" Gadg8eer asked.

"Souls heal?" Dave shrugged. "The issue in your case, Gadg8eer, was locking up too much time. There's built-in limits on our equipment for that reason."

"And Zoe?" Gadg8eer asked. "I remember hearing about Cardiff Electric shutting down, but what did someone do to her memory?"

"Not to her. She's been memory-wiped but that's not the reason she's important to the mission and better for everyone as a Tech." Dave said, and opened a file to show her. "You never got a straight answer from Dee about why she couldn't build a VR rig. This is why..."

Spoiler: Dee's Testing Logs

Yeah, that thing? It's not happening. I didn't think it'd go so badly. That poor monkey lost his lunch, I'm still not sure I didn't scramble its brain with the upload attempt! I don't know what to tell Zoe, but I can't bring myself to hurt a test subject.

"She sent this to Hinobi in a bug report because she was testing an open source counterpart to PLixelfs. 'It' is referring to the proposed NeuroLink project, Hinobi cancelled it after asking her what she meant." Dave sighed. "Don't get me wrong, Hinobi is a corporation, just remember we all make mistakes and tough decisions, and this isn't about judging you. Let me explain the graph... The end point at the top of the chart that doesn't even reach 2028 before skyrocketing through my brand new bezel every damn time is not good. Bolypius' escape was a big thing, so Hinobi Corporate and the rest of the tech industry assumed capturing it would lead to relative stability. As far as the eggheads can tell, it hasn't changed anything at all. We no longer have the records to figure out what else happened 50 years ago that was overlooked and causing the rising glitch rates the whole time. Which means, as far as we can tell, we are in an Age of Hinobi... the only other company that can afford a dedicated support team is Sidney who uses it at the parks in Florida and California. Cities as small as this one require a Hinobi branch to operate. Smart_watch wasn't just a game, it was a mod of the employee-exclusive game Glitch Techs Simulator to wipe all references to technicians and Hinobi for obvious reasons, and the tech that was simulated in Smart_watch was barely a step away from reality even then. Now it is reality."

"Smart_watch was literally about hacking city infrastructure!" Gadg8eer complained.

"Hypothetically, but so can everything. Believe me, there are people watching the watchdogs, Hinobi is not free to do whatever it wants, so you can rest easy knowing that nobody has actually been killed by PLixel Glitches. It's the one piece of software that nobody can avoid, all PLixel technology is coded to react differently to biological material so that even in the worst case scenario, a direct fatality is impossible. Structural damage is still an issue, but keeping the kill-death ratio at zero is important enough to publicly release PLixelf conversions. With luck, nobody will die because of this runaway freight train. It's also why, even knowing kids are sometimes better at games than teenage counterparts, branch managers can't hire below the age of 13 anymore. Here's the bad news..."

"...bad news?" Gadg8eer nervously asked.

"Grand Forks is NOT ready. The reason glitches haven't overrun this town, in spite of this being a third party repair shop, is because this town's infrastructure hasn't been upgraded in over a decade. I can't fund a Glitch Techs HQ, and Hinobi wasn't allowed to because of a local bylaw." Dave explained.

"Oh yeah, the current council said they'd repeal that at the end of the year." Gadg8eer recalled.

"Well, once they do, we still can only max out at 6 technicians. That's the same number as a town like Greenwood with 500 residents has, for a population of 4000, while a similar location to Grand Forks would have around 10 technicians under normal circumstances. In short... We're about to be overrun by Glitches once the new smartgrid technology is in place here."

 

[Gadg8eer]

Dr X froze for a moment, blinked and quickly began talking "Oh, uh Vhy Yes zhat vould be me, Vhat seems to be ze problem officer?" The mad doctor asked doing his best to appear as an ordinary old man in a Halloween costume instead of an egomaniacal scientist out to conquer the world

"When exactly was this building constructed, Mister... ?" the bylaw officer questioned.

 

[Lord Moldoma]

Yeah, that thing? It's not happening. I didn't think it'd go so badly. That poor monkey lost his lunch, I'm still not sure I didn't scramble its brain with the upload attempt! I don't know what to tell Zoe, but I can't bring myself to hurt a test subject.

“That bitch… she had a monkey and she didn’t tell me…” Zoe sighs.

“So… I guess that begs the question. How come you guys can transfer peoples consciousnesses into plixelf bodies, but she couldn’t put mine in something equally artificial and just adapt the technology. Did the technology not exist back then?”

“And what am I gonna tell my Bardiel Syndrome support group, or all of my fans? To just give up? The smartest person I know. A girl who turned a robot with a big fragile box on its head into a death machine, couldn’t do it.”

She leans up against the wall, the eyes on her robotic body shading out.

“I’m thinking…” she says.

“Fine by me then. I don’t need to hear anything else. Where’s that weapon upgrade shop?” She asks. “And are the weapons compatible with this ramshackle body of mine?” Her voice was dead serious for once.

“I wanna be able to punch at a level that’ll give me the chance to put up a fight without having to shove my foot down any more unusually sized hamsters.”

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"When exactly was this building constructed, Mister... ?" the bylaw officer questioned.

"Xavier, you can call me Mr X for short. Now as for Vhen zhis little building vas established, vell ve opened up a month ago and finished up Construction around Zat time."

 

[Gadg8eer]

"Xavier, you can call me Mr X for short. Now as for Vhen zhis little building vas established, vell ve opened up a month ago and finished up Construction around Zat time."

The bylaw officer scribbled something onto his paper notepad. "Yeah... about that... We have no record of this establishment of yours... Arcade World Reloaded... applying for any permits. In fact, according to the neighboring businesses, your store just appeared one day. Care to explain?"

 

[Sir loin of beef]

The bylaw officer scribbled something onto his paper notepad. "Yeah... about that... We have no record of this establishment of yours... Arcade World Reloaded... applying for any permits. In fact, according to the neighboring businesses, your store just appeared one day. Care to explain?"

"We hired fast construction workers that's what we did pipsqueak!" Yukhoe snapped at the bylaw officer

"Yes it's as he said, even we didn't think they'd be able to get construction done that fast, we didn't have time to apply for any of your stinking permits." Madame vile barked.

"Ze construction industry is quite fast these days compared to my boyhood." Dr X sighed Wistfully. "Vouldn't you agree?' He asked the officer

 

[Gadg8eer]

“That bitch… she had a monkey and she didn’t tell me…” Zoe sighs.

“So… I guess that begs the question. How come you guys can transfer peoples consciousnesses into plixelf bodies, but she couldn’t put mine in something equally artificial and just adapt the technology. Did the technology not exist back then?”

“And what am I gonna tell my Bardiel Syndrome support group, or all of my fans? To just give up? The smartest person I know. A girl who turned a robot with a big fragile box on its head into a death machine, couldn’t do it.”

She leans up against the wall, the eyes on her robotic body shading out.

“I’m thinking…” she says.

“Fine by me then. I don’t need to hear anything else. Where’s that weapon upgrade shop?” She asks. “And are the weapons compatible with this ramshackle body of mine?” Her voice was dead serious for once.

“I wanna be able to punch at a level that’ll give me the chance to put up a fight without having to shove my foot down any more unusually sized hamsters.”

"NeuroLink was cancelled entirely because it was too invasive to ever be safe, even by Glitch Tech standards. From what I understand, PLixelves are a more holistic approach, but also extremely energy intensive to create." Dave said. "Also, unfortunately you'll have to sign an NDA. Hinobi really doesn't want to ruin its reputation and people would panic if they knew all advanced technology is prone to summoning cackledemons and vampire lords if you so much as sneeze on your game console."

"What?!" Gadg8eer gasped, a bit worried about having a Hinobi product as a body. "You mean that my new form means I could spread glitches if I sneeze or something?!"

"Figure of speech. No, you have an antivirus and a sandboxed operating system. That's why I'm still a third party repair shop owner, Hinobi's software/hardware interactions are terrible, but people have known for years you can prevent issues by installing good open source alternatives. Anyway, just tap the EULA and NDA agreements on your systems..." he said, and waited for both trainees to become official technicians before answering the last question. "Welcome aboard! The XP store is in the main atrium, with the big holoneon-looking signs."

 

[Gadg8eer]

"We hired fast construction workers that's what we did pipsqueak!" Yukhoe snapped at the bylaw officer

"Yes it's as he said, even we didn't think they'd be able to get construction done that fast, we didn't have time to apply for any of your stinking permits." Madame vile barked.

"Ze construction industry is quite fast these days compared to my boyhood." Dr X sighed Wistfully. "Vouldn't you agree?' He asked the officer

"That new PLixel construction technique? Mmn." the bylaw officer did a scribble. "I must have missed your permit, the new system is going online today. Next time, I recommend applying before you build?" he said grumpily, and left without another word.

Once in his car, the bylaw officer mumbled to himself about talking to Dave over at GNU Forks about the issue. Once he was done kicking out the homeless people he looked down on from the benches so they couldn't sue the city when the anti-homeless spikes were implemented at midnight, he'd ask the electronics store owner if PLixels could build structures overnight...

 

[Lord Moldoma]

NeuroLink was cancelled entirely because it was too invasive to ever be safe, even by Glitch Tech standards

"Yeah.. I don't buy it... But whatever..." She says, giving a single simple response after signing the NDA.

She walked off to the XP Store. Depending on how things went, she could think of any number of weapons or abilities she'd like to get her hands on. Flame cannons, a hardened tactical bat, a giant bucher's knife, any number of things. She just hoped to god it wasn't a gacha system. She tried to keep her mind occupied with that thought in the meantime.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"Yeah.. I don't buy it... But whatever..." She says, giving a single simple response after signing the NDA.

She walked off to the XP Store. Depending on how things went, she could think of any number of weapons or abilities she'd like to get her hands on. Flame cannons, a hardened tactical bat, a giant bucher's knife, any number of things. She just hoped to god it wasn't a gacha system. She tried to keep her mind occupied with that thought in the meantime.

Fortunately, it indeed was not a Gatcha system. That said, it did have another catch that he noticed while browsing the list. "My jetpack needs fuel?! Weak..." Gadg8eer grumbled as he looked over the list of options, choosing the Double Yo-Yo ability from Buddy Bear's Toyland 64 as his starting weapon for 10000 XP, and then stepped aside for Zoe to take her pick.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"That new PLixel construction technique? Mmn." the bylaw officer did a scribble. "I must have missed your permit, the new system is going online today. Next time, I recommend applying before you build?" he said grumpily, and left without another word.

Once in his car, the bylaw officer mumbled to himself about talking to Dave over at GNU Forks about the issue. Once he was done kicking out the homeless people he looked down on from the benches so they couldn't sue the city when the anti-homeless spikes were implemented at midnight, he'd ask the electronics store owner if PLixels could build structures overnight...

"Vhy yes exactly." Doctor X replied calmly. "Now vhere vere ve? Oh yes, ze plan" Doctor X declared as he suddenly pulled out a remote like device and pointed it at a SHES console hooked up to a nearby TV which immediately started Glitching as a glitch came out of it...

"Where am I? Who brought me here?" A Renegade in a mini Mecha that wasn't there a minute ago asked.

"Fett...I am Doctor X and I have a job for you..."

 

[Lord Moldoma]

Zoe searched through. Taking note of all of the things she could get ahold of.

She chooses the Big Shot Bat from Nobibound, the Hinobi translation of the classic game “Father 2” about a group of children using the power of music to save the world from an evil time eating alien named “GUILT.”

“Aha. I can’t wait to bash some glitches in with this thing…”

 

[Gadg8eer]

Zoe searched through. Taking note of all of the things she could get ahold of.

She chooses the Big Shot Bat from Nobibound, the Hinobi translation of the classic game “Father 2” about a group of children using the power of music to save the world from an evil time eating alien named “GUILT.”

“Aha. I can’t wait to bash some glitches in with this thing…”

"Then you're registered and ready. Be here at 9 AM tomorrow for your first day- Hold on." Dave said, and turned around to answer a call using his Gauntlet. "Gnu Forks, your Friendly Neighbourhood Computer Store. Dave speaking. Hold on, slow down... What do you mean they blew up the Death Scream? Aw, fsck!"

"...huh. That's the name of that weird small craft store on Market Avenue themed after Wicca and New Age stuff." Gadg8eer explained to Zoe as Dave cursed under his breath.

"Who's they?! What the hack is an Aluminum Christmas Tree?!" Dave asked the person on the other end of the call. "Well I hope you have an ATM in that glorified brite-lite because that thing wasn't even fully paid off yet." he glanced back to Zoe and Gadge for a second. "Yes, I'll send someone over, just don't forget I pay taxes too, you son of a glitch! If this system breaks, I and the rest of the town helped you pay for it and got nothing-"

At that moment, a robot dog of some sort came running around a corner to comfort the man. He reached over and gave the bot a pet as he tried to calm down.

"Yes, fine, they're on their way. I'll send you a bee-mail when it's done." he sighed, and turned back to Zoe and Gadg8eer. "Here, I put a marker on your Hinobi Glitch Positioning System... yes, it's a stupid name, blame the eggheads at Hinobi... for a major issue that needs to be solved by midnight."

"Wait, hold on... Operator, what time is it?" Gadg8eer asked when he saw the map. A small interface labelled "KidWindow" appeared in front of him to display the time.

"It's now at 61 Beets in Hiverse Time, or 5:28 PM local time here in Grand Forks." a feminine computer voice stated.

"Speaking of which, we need to close up. Are you two good to take the night shift?" Dave inquired.

"Night shift?" Gadg8eer said, surprised. "But you're only open during the day, aren't you?"

"Our product never sleeps, so neither can our tech support schedule. The security system will recognize you and let you in if you need to spend more XP, and overtime applies to XP gains too." Dave said, motioning to follow him. They entered a garage with a small fleet of vehicles, two of them clearly from Highway Robbery: Los Almas and Crawl-Out '76. The remaining ones were Dave's Hinobi Motors Plixeltruck, which Gadg8eer had never realized was more than just a great custom job, and a green Perfectly Generic version of the standard Hinobi Motors Tech Van. "Here, take these perfectly generic keys." he said, tossing a green key fob to Zoe and then to Gadg8eer.

"...I don't have a driver's licence." Gadg8eer pointed out.

"Well, as the manual says... When in doubt, use the autopilot." Dave explained.

"Manual? What manual?" Gadg8eer asked, but Dave was already pulling away in his truck, a vehicle-generated portal appearing to allow access to the city streets. "Operator, remind me to ask Dave about that manual when I next see him. That, and what he meant by they blew up that shop, since I didn't hear any sirens." Gadge sighed. "Well, Oliver, you always wanted to live like a fictional character... I guess this is how it starts."

GTX: Glitch Techs Xpanded Roleplay
Season 1, Episode 1: Keep Slaying and Nobody Explodes!

Gadg8eer turned and looked at Zoe. "Do you want the driver's seat, or should I figure out how the self-driving mode works?"