Fandom (Glitch Techs Xpanded Universe) GTX: Gnu Fork

[Gadg8eer]

“Gadg8… what does the digital handbook say that sub-HP-damage does to a glitch?” Zoe turns her head to gadget, her display only showing the image of a single translucent vector of a photograph of an eye.

“Is it painful for them?”

Gadg8eer hadn't seen this side of her, but he damn well understood it. The fact the flood would have doomed the whole town to poverty meant he was no less angry than she was. He opened the manual and did a search, but didn't find anything useful on the subject. "Hmm... I mean, being continuous about it would be cruel but..." he said and then gave a vengeful smirk before striking Shinobi Man with his left hand yo-yo.

"Agh! You little brat!" Shinobi Man yelped, glitching a bit due to his health meter dropping below zero.

"Looks like it. The manual does say glitches are as intelligent as a chimp at their smartest, and if we're not supposed to treat them like inanimate objects I doubt the labs are going to do anything horrible either, so... Like she said. Imprisonment?" he asked, "Or should we beat the truth out of you? Because you just threatened the livelihood of this entire town and as far as Hinobi knows, glitches don't have motivation outside of their programming, so either someone reprogrammed you, or something very fishy is going on, and considering Hinobi built every piece of hardware we have on us including the ability to wipe memories and doesn't seem to be taking any action to keep us from investigating, I can't help but assume they're just as surprised and disturbed by this as we are, and very interested in ensuring we find out whatever we might find out. We need to know, nobody who knows about us is likely to want to stop us, and the reason that its a bad idea to negotiate with terrorists is because people who kill and kidnap hostages to get their way never keep their word. Computer program or not, you do understand what I'm saying, right?"

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Gadg8eer hadn't seen this side of her, but he damn well understood it. The fact the flood would have doomed the whole town to poverty meant he was no less angry than she was. He opened the manual and did a search, but didn't find anything useful on the subject. "Hmm... I mean, being continuous about it would be cruel but..." he said and then gave a vengeful smirk before striking Shinobi Man with his left hand yo-yo.

"Agh! You little brat!" Shinobi Man yelped, glitching a bit due to his health meter dropping below zero.

"Looks like it. The manual does say glitches are as intelligent as a chimp at their smartest, and if we're not supposed to treat them like inanimate objects I doubt the labs are going to do anything horrible either, so... Like she said. Imprisonment?" he asked, "Or should we beat the truth out of you? Because you just threatened the livelihood of this entire town and as far as Hinobi knows, glitches don't have motivation outside of their programming, so either someone reprogrammed you, or something very fishy is going on, and considering Hinobi built every piece of hardware we have on us including the ability to wipe memories and doesn't seem to be taking any action to keep us from investigating, I can't help but assume they're just as surprised and disturbed by this as we are, and very interested in ensuring we find out whatever we might find out. We need to know, nobody who knows about us is likely to want to stop us, and the reason that its a bad idea to negotiate with terrorists is because people who kill and kidnap hostages to get their way never keep their word. Computer program or not, you do understand what I'm saying, right?"

Shinobi man decided to take a moment to Weigh his Options, Either Get beaten up even worse than he already was or Blab not enough to Ensure Defeat for the council

"The Council won't be happy with this." Shinobi man muttered under his Non-existent Breath "yes." The Ninja answered Gadg8 and Zoe reluctantly "listen, something Big is going down at the Public works yard. Some Real Crazy stuff ya hear me?"

 

[Lord Moldoma]

“It’s unlikely you’ll be in danger if we de-rez you now and let the R&D deal with it.” She keeps her foot planted not going to make the mistake of letting him pull a frieza with his legs and arm missing.

“Guess we gotta make our way to the public works yard.”

She tosses the shuriken to the side a few meters away, just far enough to be comfortably out of shinobi-man’s grasp. “I wanna keep that shuriken. It’s not a bad melee weapon or a bad ranged weapon; is it gonna de-rez if he does?” She asks.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

“It’s unlikely you’ll be in danger if we de-rez you now and let the R&D deal with it.” She keeps her foot planted not going to make the mistake of letting him pull a frieza with his legs and arm missing.

“Guess we gotta make our way to the public works yard.”

She tosses the shuriken to the side a few meters away, just far enough to be comfortably out of shinobi-man’s grasp. “I wanna keep that shuriken. It’s not a bad melee weapon or a bad ranged weapon; is it gonna de-rez if he does?” She asks.

"De-Rezzed, Heh heh, may as well be Dead with no Rematch judging from what I saw your little sidekick do to that Robot." Shinobi man talked.

"Hahahahaha, you're not the first to Admire my Weapon." Shinobi man Commented before his expression went dark "And Loot it off of me."

 

[Gadg8eer]

Shinobi man decided to take a moment to Weigh his Options, Either Get beaten up even worse than he already was or Blab not enough to Ensure Defeat for the council

"The Council won't be happy with this." Shinobi man muttered under his Non-existent Breath "yes." The Ninja answered Gadg8 and Zoe reluctantly "listen, something Big is going down at the Public works yard. Some Real Crazy stuff ya hear me?"

"Okay, how crazy? And if you can say that, even though you're a glitch, is that because Hinobi is lying about exactly how sentient glitches get? Or did someone do something that Hinobi isn't aware is possible?" Gadg8eer asked.

“It’s unlikely you’ll be in danger if we de-rez you now and let the R&D deal with it.” She keeps her foot planted not going to make the mistake of letting him pull a frieza with his legs and arm missing.

“Guess we gotta make our way to the public works yard.”

She tosses the shuriken to the side a few meters away, just far enough to be comfortably out of shinobi-man’s grasp. “I wanna keep that shuriken. It’s not a bad melee weapon or a bad ranged weapon; is it gonna de-rez if he does?” She asks.

"De-Rezzed, Heh heh, may as well be Dead with no Rematch judging from what I saw your little sidekick do to that Robot." Shinobi man talked.

"Hahahahaha, you're not the first to Admire my Weapon." Shinobi man Commented before his expression went dark "And Loot it off of me."

"Wait... you.... do know... what you are, right?" Gadg8eer realized, wording it as a question so he could be sure.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"Okay, how crazy? And if you can say that, even though you're a glitch, is that because Hinobi is lying about exactly how sentient glitches get? Or did someone do something that Hinobi isn't aware is possible?" Gadg8eer asked.

"All I can say is that You won't be dealing with the Average 'Glitch' whatever that means anymore once the Clock Strikes Twelve." Shinobi man responded

"Wait... you.... do know... what you are, right?" Gadg8eer realized, wording it as a question so he could be sure.

"Oh I know who I am. I am more than a So called Glitch, I am Shinobi man! The Greatest Ninja who has ever lived you Pint Sized whelp!"

"Pick up! What has happened Shinobi man!?" Doctor X asked

 

[Gadg8eer]

"All I can say is that You won't be dealing with the Average 'Glitch' whatever that means anymore once the Clock Strikes Twelve."

"Operator, time and date please?" Gadg8eer asked.

"It is currently 8:10 PM on Thursday, August 10th, 2028." spoke a feminine computer-generated voice.

"...okay, so that's bad but not too bad." Gadg8eer pointed out.

"Oh I know who I am. I am more than a So called Glitch, I am Shinobi man! The Greatest Ninja who has ever lived you Pint Sized whelp!"

"Hey, I never said you aren't any of those things just because you're a Glitch! I'm trying to ask do you know what a Glitch is? Because it sounds to me like you don't. This isn't some alternate dimension or computer simulation, you didn't go down a hallway or take the elevator to the floor above you that can't exist without the floor you came from. You're in the lobby, you're walking out the front door. This is the real world, the ground and foundation your world was built above and can't exist without." Gadg8eer explained.

"Is he crazy? Or just broken?" Shinobi Man asked Zoe. "I honestly can't tell if he's biological or a machine."

"Look, I know this sounds hard to believe and will be painful to accept, but... You're a Glitch! You're a video game boss! You were brought to life by malfunctioning nanobots we put in video game consoles! You're real now, but the world you came from never was!" Gadg8eer responded.

"...you are a sad, strange little boy, and you have my pity." Shinobi Man responded.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"Operator, time and date please?" Gadg8eer asked.

"It is currently 8:10 PM on Thursday, August 10th, 2028." spoke a feminine computer-generated voice.

"...okay, so that's bad but not too bad." Gadg8eer pointed out.


"Hey, I never said you aren't any of those things just because you're a Glitch! I'm trying to ask do you know what a Glitch is? Because it sounds to me like you don't. This isn't some alternate dimension or computer simulation, you didn't go down a hallway or take the elevator to the floor above you that can't exist without the floor you came from. You're in the lobby, you're walking out the front door. This is the real world, the ground and foundation your world was built above and can't exist without." Gadg8eer explained.

"Is he crazy? Or just broken?" Shinobi Man asked Zoe. "I honestly can't tell if he's biological or a machine."

"Look, I know this sounds hard to believe and will be painful to accept, but... You're a Glitch! You're a video game boss! You were brought to life by malfunctioning nanobots we put in video game consoles! You're real now, but the world you came from never was!" Gadg8eer responded.

"...you are a sad, strange little boy, and you have my pity." Shinobi Man responded.

"...Okay I'm Just going to assume Zat You've been Compromised.." Doctor X commented in the Background.

 

[Lord Moldoma]

"I honestly can't tell if he's biological or a machine."

"Neither can I. They didn't do a super great job of explaining why transferring someone's mind to a plixel body is any different from transferring their mind into a fully digital format."

She turns to Gadg8eer."It feels like it'd be easier to try and come up with an elaborate story or some sort of faux explanation for where he is and why he's here. Glitches would be a lot easier to capture if they didn't understand what was going on. Or they thought they were in an alternate dimension and we were some sort of force of authority meant to return them home." She says. "good creative writing practice."

"Anyway, I think we've gotten all we can out of this..." She moves her hand to her gauntlet and taps to switch to the de-rez function. "Any objections before I send this guy back into the network?" She asks Gadg8.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"Neither can I. They didn't do a super great job of explaining why transferring someone's mind to a plixel body is any different from transferring their mind into a fully digital format."

She turns to Gadg8eer."It feels like it'd be easier to try and come up with an elaborate story or some sort of faux explanation for where he is and why he's here. Glitches would be a lot easier to capture if they didn't understand what was going on. Or they thought they were in an alternate dimension and we were some sort of force of authority meant to return them home." She says. "good creative writing practice."

"Anyway, I think we've gotten all we can out of this..." She moves her hand to her gauntlet and taps to switch to the de-rez function. "Any objections before I send this guy back into the network?" She asks Gadg8.

"Well, since his programming clearly won't let him realize why we're opposing him... Shinobi Man, I didn't destroy or kill that Marksman Jim. He's just trapped inside my Tech Support equipment after I de-rezzed him, probably my RumblePack, since if he... it? She? Well, whatever, was in my gauntlets like they would be for Zoe then I can't think of a reason why my guantlets are slimmer and more glove-like." Gadg8eer explained. It was also because Zoe had a HUD too but her gantlets were still bulky despite a small nobiGlas: GT Gauntlet Mk. 2 label on the side and a lack of the screen seen on the Gauntlets worn by the other Techs at Gnu Forks, suggesting that the containment of Glitches, not the screen, was the main reason for the bulk of the devices. Of course, Shinobi Man didn't need to know that part.

"He's not going to come to harm to the best of my knowledge and Zoe's knowledge, and neither will you, unless you know something we don't about what our employers do with Glitches, but since you don't even seem to understand how any of this works I doubt that's a valid excuse for what you're trying to do. So, I mean, no reason to panic, but we can't just let you go when you tried to flood the entire industrial park and we're supposed to capture Glitches in the first place. I guess the best way to put it is... We and the corporation Hinobi Technologies that we work for apologize for all the problems your not-so-minor glitching has caused, and Zoe will now de-rez your Plixels. Oh, and don't worry, unlike our fight it won't hurt."

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"Well, since his programming clearly won't let him realize why we're opposing him... Shinobi Man, I didn't destroy or kill that Marksman Jim. He's just trapped inside my Tech Support equipment after I de-rezzed him, probably my RumblePack, since if he... it? She? Well, whatever, was in my gauntlets like they would be for Zoe then I can't think of a reason why my guantlets are slimmer and more glove-like." Gadg8eer explained. It was also because Zoe had a HUD too but her gantlets were still bulky despite a small nobiGlas: GT Gauntlet Mk. 2 label on the side and a lack of the screen seen on the Gauntlets worn by the other Techs at Gnu Forks, suggesting that the containment of Glitches, not the screen, was the main reason for the bulk of the devices. "He's not going to come to harm to the best of my knowledge and Zoe's knowledge, and neither will you, unless you know something we don't about what our employers do with Glitches, but since you don't even seem to understand how any of this works I doubt that's a valid excuse for what you're trying to do. So, I mean, no reason to panic, but we can't just let you go when you tried to flood the entire industrial park and we're supposed to capture Glitches in the first place. I guess the best way to put it is... We and the corporation Hinobi Technologies that we work for apologize for all the problems your not-so-minor glitching has caused, and Zoe will now de-rez your Plixels. Oh, and don't worry, unlike our fight it won't hurt."

"Alright since I clearly don't have a choice I'll play Along." Shinobi man decided

 

[Lord Moldoma]

"and don't worry, unlike our fight it won't hurt."

"I make no promises about how much it'll hurt. HAPPY DEATH DAY!" Zoe says, modulating her voice into a horiffic mechanical echo, as if she's decided that her entire purpose is torturing this one plixel construct while displaying a pretty horrific face graphic on her screen.



She de-rezzes Shinobi Man in one go.

"I hope he ends up paranoid..."she falls over, arms spread as a bunch of steam shoots out of her skirt where her vents are. "Bastard deserves it."

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"I make no promises about how much it'll hurt. HAPPY DEATH DAY!" Zoe says, modulating her voice into a horiffic mechanical echo, as if she's decided that her entire purpose is torturing this one plixel construct while displaying a pretty horrific face graphic on her screen.

View attachment 1129059

She de-rezzes Shinobi Man in one go.

"I hope he ends up paranoid..."she falls over, arms spread as a bunch of steam shoots out of her skirt where her vents are. "Bastard deserves it."

"NOOO!!! I SHALL RETURN!!!" were the final words Shinobi man said before Getting De-rezzed

 

[Gadg8eer]

"I make no promises about how much it'll hurt. HAPPY DEATH DAY!" Zoe says, modulating her voice into a horiffic mechanical echo, as if she's decided that her entire purpose is torturing this one plixel construct while displaying a pretty horrific face graphic on her screen.

Spoiler: Notes on Horror Titles of the Glitch Techs Expanded Universe

None of these were published or developed by Hinobi, but all are playable on Hinobi's consoles. Each is either an indie game or a product of a much smaller company, and the developers play by Hinobi's development guidelines due to the danger Glitches present.

• "ToyFactory" is based on Baldy's Basics, Poppy Playtime and TinkerQuarry
  • Also influenced by Bendy and the Ink Machine and Five Nights at Freddy's.
  • Horror game about an evil haunted toy factory that kidnaps children to put their souls into "cursed" dolls, "evil" teddy bears and other humanoid toys supposedly animated by evil forces (the exact words being "the ToyFactory's products are powered by the forsaken children"), and grind up their now-dead bodies into "candied hams".
  • If the ToyFactory spawned as a Glitch, the affected (real) children would simply look like the haunted toys (which are purposefully cute rather than creepy already but infamously the player is encouraged to shoot first and ask questions later while searching for the "missing" kids right in front of them) but act normal, removing the only link to the perceived danger and eventual dawning horror the player would normally be led on by. This is backed up by the effects of such glitches as Chomp Kitty and Nogrog, which would be lethal in a darker story but are not lethal to the kids Chomp Kitty noms or to Nix and Bergy when Nogrog uses ice magic on them. That said, an elementary school suddenly overrun by adorable living toys that act like kids without any supervision is bound to be enough of a threat to the masquerade that some Techs would be called in to figure out and resolve the situation.
• "Purgatory" is Limbo and Inside mixed with The Binding of Isaac.
  • Heavily inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy, Dark Souls and the movie They, making heavy use of fear of the dark and enemies hidden in the shadows in aggrevatingly unfair places that ensure you will die horribly over and over.
  • If spawned as a glitch, the game's save point system relies on beds and so the result of getting hit is waking up in the last bed you slept in. Don't ask how that's possible, just let the Groundhog Day Loop plot start looping and figure out how to make it stop.
• "Graveyard Shift at Ralphie's" is obvious, though it releases a decade after its real life counterpart.
  • Instead of the souls of murdered children, the animatronic robots are attacking because (spoiler alert) the AI in them is programmed to provide joy to children that is incapable of understanding the concepts of regret and redemption, and the player is a former convict who spent 20 years in prison for killing the 13 year old boy who (insert bad thing here) his daughter at her 13th birthday party, thus the AI considers him a threat to children.
  • Due to its plot, the only people that the Glitch Animatronics would attack is anyone wearing a uniform that resembles that of a security guard... including police, military, fire rescue, paramedics, marching bands, astronauts, anyone in a costume of any of the former for any reason, and actual Hinobi and Hinobi-contracted Glitch Techs.
• "CAVETALE" is Cave Story meets Undertale/deltarune.
  • While not horror, Gadg8eer always hated the fact that you couldn't save Carrol in the best ending, only because "YoU cAn'T rEsSuReCt ThE dEaD, tHaT's EsCaPiSm AnD tHiS iS a UniQuE aRtIsTiC tWiSt To FoRcE yOu To SuFfEr ReAlItY jUsT lIkE tHe 1000 OtHeR sToRiEs WiTh An AnTi-EsCaPiSm ThEmE!!!!1! rAwR! CrY aNd SuBmIt To ThE MiSeRy Of GrImDaRk AnD eDgE oR yOu'Re A tOxIcLy MaScUlInE aNd-Or dEvIl WoRsHiPpInG mAdMaN!" was driven down his throat 1001 times and after having his brain get stomach-pumped he was sick of even the slightest amount of anti-escapism in stories of all sorts. Especially video games.
  • Due to CAVETALE not being horror, and the fact that PLixels can't damage biological matter (again, see the Chomp Kitty and Nogrog examples for the canon basis), Carrol the Dreemurr is only truly evil in the "Immortal Soul" (neutral) run of CAVETALE. The "Omnicide" route gives the same fate to her as Flowey got (begging to live), while the "Demigod" route redeems her but The Corruption that killed her the first time is still present and she dies again because of it (the Gaster experiments are replaced with a plot about The Corruption having killed Carrol and her brother when she tried to rescue said brother, and a scientist trying to use The Corruption to revive those that it originally was fatal to).
• "Necromorphobia" is Dead Space.
  • Contains elements of Warhammer 40k and Resident Evil.
  • If spawned as a Glitch, the Geophage (ersatz Bretheren Moon) is already a known Glitch; creating such a thing without pre-determining a way to easily defeat it in the real world would be outright suicidal, so in 2002 a giant robot was built in case anyone was stupid enough to create a giant eldritch cosmic horrorterror. Codenamed "Lowbrow", the Hinobi XLR Tech Van Mecha Dock is a giant robot that costs tons of XP but is programmed to be super-effective against anything remotely resembling the works of H.B. Meinkraft and is digged by chicks across the world. It was first used to destroy the first Glitch based on the Geophage (which materialized in space because a malfunctioning BeeTube broadcast satellite materialized it during a famous streamer's run of Necromorphobia) in the same year that Dead Space released in the real world.
    • The Mecha Dock actually predates the Hinobi Motors Tech Van by a couple decades, and was first tested using such vehicles as a 1972 Botch Piranha, a 1986 DAC Pinball cabover semi-truck tractor, a 1998 Mozza Miasma, a 2003 Crysis Motors GT Bruiser, and a 2015 Hinobi Motors Speedster before the Hinobi Tech Van was first announced in 2019.
• "Naught's Goat Pie Bakery and Faerground" is The Park.
  • If spawned as a Glitch, the villain would be on par with Bolypius, but possibly worse. Fortunately that doesn't seem to have happened... yet.
    • I honestly can't think of a good way to de-grimmify The Park so I'm just going to imply that the Naught's Goat Pie Bakery and Theme Park in the eponymous game-within-a-roleplay is actually about a "haunted" theme park (well, actually haunted but by the ghosts of dead park guests) and the mother hoping to save her son from that fate only to be turned into the doom of the child she was trying to protect, followed by some other suitably not-child-friendly version of that thing where the villain offers "join me or die!" (suicide or fight an unwinnable boss fight in this case) that leaves mother and son trapped in the park forever as ghosts, with the horror being the implication that anyone who eats the park's famous "goat pies" is doomed to the same fate...
• Helix the Copy Katt is essentially what Bendy and the Ink Machine would have to be for The Living Tombstone's Build Our Machine to have accurate lyrics (it was made before the whole series was complete, assuming cartoon characters coming to life to kill their abusive creator was the plot rather than "turn people into cartoons to make money from the improved quality").
  • Also takes inspiration from Cool World, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Cuphead, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Tiny Toon Adventures, Bonkers, Animaniacs and The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat.
  • If spawned as a Glitch, Helix is an angry cartoon cat with a grudge against all animators for toying with the lives of their creations. Her crusade of Rage Against the Author would only be worsened if she became aware of the fact that despite things not being what she thought they were, in practice there is no difference and (to her) is a justification of her wrath.

The move was such a jump scare that Gadg8eer, who always screamed and flinched when unexpectedly finding out that no, ToyFactory was NOT suitable for children and was very much a cheaply-made horror game marketed to children only because of the popularity of streamer bait jump scare games, that, well...

View attachment 1129059

In fact, such games as ToyFactory, Purgatory, Graveyard Shift at Ralphie's, UNDERSTORY (well, its "Omnicide" ending at least), Necromorphobia, The Mother is Possessed by the Monster and Forced to Helplessly Kill Her Own Kidnapped Son at the End Naught's Goat Pie Bakery and Faerground (Gadg8eer hated just reading the VG Tropes page entry for that one so much he wished he could delete the game from reality itself and only ever referred to it by the former, false name), and Helix the Copy Katt were so deeply horrifying to him that he instinctively lashed out, giving a sudden scream as he his right yo-yo flung straight at the monitor of Zoe's robot body...

"NOOO!!! I SHALL RETURN!!!" were the final words Shinobi man said before Getting De-rezzed

Shinobi Man was confused by the attempt to scare him and the unexpected strike, flinching long enough that he wouldn't realize whether he had been de-rezzed or not for a couple seconds...

 

[Lord Moldoma]

Zoe took the strike to the face, it left a crack on her screen, causing the feed to become somewhat distorted around the crack.

She silently stood up, and sighed. Her screen was seemingly shaded out all for a single glowing white eye that appeared in the upper left center. It was a dorceless expression.

"We'll discuss this later." She says pointing her bat out at Gadg8, before going to collect the stolen shuriken weapon and get back to the van.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Gadg8eer felt like he'd just screwed up permanently, and simply turned away from the van in sadness and guilt, walking towards the part of the concrete sidewalk that rose over the berm keeping away the floodwaters. He almost felt like diving in, but was kind of worried about Zoe losing points and knew it wouldn't even be permanent anyway... Why did I even want this if its so painful I'd throw it all away if I could? he wondered to himself sadly, when suddenly an explosion ripped though the bridge they'd driven over to get there.

"Ack! What the hell?!" he shouted at the flash of light blinding his night vision goggles and forcing him to cover his goggle lenses with his hands and close his eyes. When he opened them, he saw the flaming wreckage of the bridge to the downtown core.

"Oliver? A- I mean, Zoe?" Dave asked, still on the conference call. "I know you're not in the mood to cooperate with each other right now, but we've got a serious problem. Whoever's behind all this just blew up every bridge in Grand Forks that crosses the Kettle River... I know what I said earlier, but... Right now the town is depending on you and we can't send you backup. Not even emergency services. The helicopter is at least an hour away, and judging by what they said and what they actually did, I wouldn't count on the City Works even surviving until midnight without you."

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Zoe took the strike to the face, it left a crack on her screen, causing the feed to become somewhat distorted around the crack.

She silently stood up, and sighed. Her screen was seemingly shaded out all for a single glowing white eye that appeared in the upper left center. It was a dorceless expression.

"We'll discuss this later." She says pointing her bat out at Gadg8, before going to collect the stolen shuriken weapon and get back to the van.

At the City Public Works Yard!

Back at the City Public Works yard Doctor X was busy making some last Minute Adjustments to the "Portal" that had been hooked up to the Old mainframe, well not Last minute. It was 8:10 PM But still. Snare was also In the Portal room standing with his arms folded.

"Doctor X! Doctor X! We have some Information you should Know!" One of Two Beings that resembled two of the Renegades from Atom Girl Z said as they stormed in.

"VAT IS IT!?" Doctor X shouted angrily

"You know how you haven't been able to contact Shinobi man for a few minutes?" Boomerang Beetle, one of the Renegades Asked

"Ja, vat of it?" Doctor X Replied

"Well uhh the Lookout guy just spotted him getting Defeated with Contemptous ease by a girl with a TV for a head And an ambiguously Cybernetic little boy wearing a baseball cap backwards* And they seem to be on their way here" Torpedo Octopus Answered Bluntly

"BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" everyone turned their heads to see snare laughing and Smiling.

"I knew that Wannabe Mcninja would unlike me fail Spectacularly just not that Epically." Snare boasted

"Zhis is Concerning news, yesss. If they could Defeat one of my Machine Overlords with ease then we have a problem."

"I bet I could deal with them easily." Snare spoke up

"Are you sure? Zat's zhe same thing you said before you confronted Atom girl and guess vat happened?" Doctor X replied

"Oh please she's only defeated me due to dumb luck! I'm far more powerful than she is." Snare retorted angrily

"Also we've detonated every Bridge that goes over this backwater Towns local river." Boomerang Beetle commented

"Hang on Znare- Zat is good newz" Doctor X smiled deviously

*Yes Torpedo Octopus thinks that you're supposed to wear the brim of a baseball cap in the back

 

[Lord Moldoma]

I know you're not in the mood to cooperate with each other right now

"Cooperation's not the problem for me right now. That's why I said we'll discuss this later. At least the kid's reflexes are on point. The problem is that the van won't start on account of the safety features 'cause of the blown out tire." She says.

"Lucky enough, my screen is mostly just for display. None of my cameras are damaged." She says. "That being said. What exactly are we supposed to do? Did your boffins build in a 'rebuilding the wall of china beam' into the gauntlet?" She asked. "Because if so, why wasn't that in the tutorial?" She searches through her tech gauntlet's basic options.

"Either way." She opens the car door and walks over to Gadg8. "Kid, wake the fuck up and quit staring off into space, we got a city that's on fire."

 

[Gadg8eer]

At the City Public Works Yard!

Back at the City Public Works yard Doctor X was busy making some last Minute Adjustments to the "Portal" that had been hooked up to the Old mainframe, well not Last minute. It was 8:10 PM But still. Snare was also In the Portal room standing with his arms folded.

"Doctor X! Doctor X! We have some Information you should Know!" One of Two Beings that resembled two of the Renegades from Atom Girl Z said as they stormed in.

"VAT IS IT!?" Doctor X shouted angrily

"You know how you haven't been able to contact Shinobi man for a few minutes?" Boomerang Beetle, one of the Renegades Asked

"Ja, vat of it?" Doctor X Replied

"Well uhh the Lookout guy just spotted him getting Defeated with Contemptous ease by a girl with a TV for a head And an ambiguously Cybernetic little boy wearing a baseball cap backwards* And they seem to be on their way here" Torpedo Octopus Answered Bluntly

"BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" everyone turned their heads to see snare laughing and Smiling.

"I knew that Wannabe Mcninja would unlike me fail Spectacularly just not that Epically." Snare boasted

"Zhis is Concerning news, yesss. If they could Defeat one of my Machine Overlords with ease then we have a problem."

"I bet I could deal with them easily." Snare spoke up

"Are you sure? Zat's zhe same thing you said before you confronted Atom girl and guess vat happened?" Doctor X replied

"Oh please she's only defeated me due to dumb luck! I'm far more powerful than she is." Snare retorted angrily

"Also we've detonated every Bridge that goes over this backwater Towns local river." Boomerang Beetle commented

"Hang on Znare- Zat is good newz" Doctor X smiled deviously

*Yes Torpedo Octopus thinks that you're supposed to wear the brim of a baseball cap in the back

Snare raised an eyebrow. "It is? Because you're the boss, I follow orders, and you never said not to blow the rail bridges."

"Not to vorry, Znare, I vas vell avare of zat vhen I gave ze order... Zhere are no rail bridges vithin the city limits! MWAHAHAHAHA!" Dr. X laughed maniacally.

"...I'm really starting to doubt this guys' just crazy." one of the two janitors at the city works said to the other, both tied up as hostages against the support column of the City Works. "Eccentric, sure, but acting like a spy movie villain or not, he's not illogical. I think he might actually have that genius evil plan he keeps bragging about..." he worryingly said, as quietly as he could.

"What do we do?" the other janitor asked.

"Hey! Be quiet, or I'll show you a thing or two about why you shouldn't gossip!" said the robot watching them, the frail and elderly yet spry old steampunk robot known as Cog Man (based on Top Man and TopMan.EXE) who had kicked their asses in a epic martial arts battle... well, more like an epic martial arts curb-stomp battle, because even with their mops and brooms as weapons and knowledge of the building's layout, the two were taken down and tied up by the weird evil cosplayer's apparently actually-functioning humanoid robots.

Neither of them being gamers, the 55 year old and 49 year old janitors never guessed the connection between these "robots" and their leader and an old video game series their kids may or may not have played back in the 1980s and 1990s, since to them Dr. X seemed like a generic movie mad scientist and not a character copyrighted by Hinobi Technologies...

"Cooperation's not the problem for me right now. That's why I said we'll discuss this later. At least the kid's reflexes are on point. The problem is that the van won't start on account of the safety features 'cause of the blown out tire." She says.

"Lucky enough, my screen is mostly just for display. None of my cameras are damaged." She says. "That being said. What exactly are we supposed to do? Did your boffins build in a 'rebuilding the wall of china beam' into the gauntlet?" She asked. "Because if so, why wasn't that in the tutorial?" She searches through her tech gauntlet's basic options.

"System Restore, it's under the Settings & Troubleshooting tab for both the van - to repair it - and your gauntlet so you can repair things like damaged structures. We're rebuilding the bridges, yes, but with the sheer amount of damage and the number of locations, we're looking at a minimum of 15 minutes if we repair and use the east bridge to get to the Industrial Park, 30 minimum if we don't want to be spotted by whoever is pulling these Glicthes' strings and take one of the other routes. I'm not completely confident that we have 15 minutes to spare, they've broken their word twice already." Dave explained.

"Either way." She opens the car door and walks over to Gadg8. "Kid, wake the fuck up and quit staring off into space, we got a city that's on fire."

As she finished climbing the ramp in the sidewalk over the flood barrier, she suddenly realized why he was still staring into space... they also blew up the bridge on the main highway across the Granby River. The police and fire department were too busy dealing with the severing of a major transport route to be able to handle.

"...even if we would have 15 minutes, Dave... we actually don't. They got Highway 3. Unless someone's east of town already, Zoe and I are on our own until then." Gadg8eer realized, and turned to Zoe. "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to do anything to hurt you. I was scared, I didn't know what to do... but screw it, we've got a town to save."

He then quickly pulled up the System Restore option and used it to repair Zoe's robot TV head, then ran over to the van to repair the tire in the same vein. He got into the vehicle and just silently waited for Zoe to get back in.

 

[Lord Moldoma]

"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to do anything to hurt you-"

"It's fine." She stops him mid-sentence. Her screen blacked out before her normal display face reappears. "All you did is what I would've done if something scared me. You fought instead of fleeing. So I can't get mad at you for that."

"Besides. My screen gets cracked all the time. That screen with the one eye is an error screen, sort of like a BSOD. Dee says she's so used to the normal BSOD and Error graphics that something has to be freaky for her to recognize anything's wrong."

He got into the vehicle and just silently waited for Zoe to get back in.

"Right. It's your town we gotta save. But you know the routes better than I do. We should probably make our way to the Public Works yard. I don't wanna trust Shinobi Man, but if he wasn't lying, then we could be putting innocent lives at stake." She says, getting into the van after Gadg8.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"It's fine." She stops him mid-sentence. Her screen blacked out before her normal display face reappears. "All you did is what I would've done if something scared me. You fought instead of fleeing. So I can't get mad at you for that."

"Besides. My screen gets cracked all the time. That screen with the one eye is an error screen, sort of like a BSOD. Dee says she's so used to the normal BSOD and Error graphics that something has to be freaky for her to recognize anything's wrong."

"That... actually sounds kinda cool." Gadg8eer admitted, though he'd pick something more illogical then off-putting, like the thing that TV stations showed when nothing was being broadcast, such as the "rainbow rectangle thingy" or the "spinning 1950s Film loading cursor" that let you know it wasn't intended for a computerized, digitized, PLixelized world.

"Right. It's your town we gotta save. But you know the routes better than I do. We should probably make our way to the Public Works yard. I don't wanna trust Shinobi Man, but if he wasn't lying, then we could be putting innocent lives at stake." She says, getting into the van after Gadg8.

He nodded. "Van, can I call you Vanessa?"

"This Hinobi Affiliate Tech Van is not equipped with fully-customizable AI names, but is available at any Glitch Techs HQ Commissary for 5000 XP. Would you like to add it to your Hinobi Wishlist?"

"For how much?!" Gadg8eer asked. "Never mind. Van, we need to get to the City Works! Floor it!"

"There is a thunderstorm warning in effect for the Greenwood and Grand Forks service areas, please be advised that some glitches may cause or be empowered by various strong weather conditions. Take caution around all electrical and non-Hinobi electronic equipment, and make sure to take into account any reactions glitches exhibit when exposed to electrical hazards. In addition, there is a flood warning in effect for the Grand Forks service area. Do not interfere with or attempt to repair any issues related to flooding, and follow any instructions given by city, provincial and federal officials to protect you and the public from non-Glitch-related hazards and collateral damage. These messages can be repeated on request if needed. Additionally, police directives require this Hinobi Motors Tech Van to display clear emergency markings for the duration of the flood warning. Thank you for understanding." the van said (again) but with emphasis on the important parts.

"What. The. HELL?! This is an emergency and the police can't get here any more! I said MOVE!" Gadg8eer shouted.

"There is a thun-"

"OKAY! SHUT THE F*** UP!" he said, looking angrier than he had when he first met Zoe but then sighing. "Zoe, you do have a valid driver's license, right?"

 

[Lord Moldoma]

"I have a digital one on file... You do know that it's illegal to not have a digital one if you have one, right? They're tied to distinct username IDs... Provincial law... I did my research before coming here so that I wouldn't immediately get flagged for something." Zoe states.

"I may not be a functioning member of society more so than I am an entertainer with nothing better to do, but I try to keep my stuff legal, and I still need a drivers license if I ever wanna go somewhere and public transportation isn't available." She says. "I don't have money to bail me out like top influencers and hypebeasts like ISpinMeat or BryceGunk do..." she says, punctuating it with a raspberry.

"If you want to try and walk the distance, we can go for that. But it is raining, and my body is made of metal."

 

[Gadg8eer]

"I have a digital one on file... You do know that it's illegal to not have a digital one if you have one, right? They're tied to distinct username IDs... Provincial law... I did my research before coming here so that I wouldn't immediately get flagged for something." Zoe states.

"I may not be a functioning member of society more so than I am an entertainer with nothing better to do, but I try to keep my stuff legal, and I still need a drivers license if I ever wanna go somewhere and public transportation isn't available." She says. "I don't have money to bail me out like top influencers and hypebeasts like ISpinMeat or BryceGunk do..." she says, punctuating it with a raspberry.

"If you want to try and walk the distance, we can go for that. But it is raining, and my body is made of metal."

"If you're not waterproofed, we definitely need to drive there." Gadg8eer advised, worried what they would do if the flood barrier broke and Zoe's RoBody was submerged. "Van, manual mode. Please?"

"ZoeIRL is confirmed as registered as a licensed driver in the American state of Texas. Checking Canadian records... Prior insurance and criminal records state ZoeIRL is only allowed to drive in British Columbia as a Class 5 driver. This vehicle is currently configured to... Perfectly Generic Vehicle! ...format, which requires at least a Class 5 license. License check successful." it said in a sped-up voice, and the electric motor activated along with the standard Hinobi Portals 11 startup noise. "Welcome to your Hinobi Motors Tech Van, ZoeIRL. Would you like to remember your login on this device?"

Before Zoe said yes, Gadg8eer suddenly spoke up. "Zoe, um... I don't want to pressure you, but I just thought of something. If something happens to your robot, and you have it register you, you're the only one who would be able to drive this, and I'd be crap out of luck." he explained, "Like I said, I don't want to pressure you. If you don't want to take responsibility for any of this, I don't blame you for backing out now. I'll get there on my skates and do my best to stop them, this was never something we were obligated to do or something you couldn't do in a Hinobi Store wherever you live. This town is pretty crappy and the only reason I feel it deserves to be saved is because I've lived here since I was 6. This is my home, I have to try and maintain it, but you don't need to do this unless you want to. Just realize if we do stick to this, I'm probably going to depend on you more than you will me. That's all."

 

[Lord Moldoma]

"That's reason enough." Zoe says. "Hinobi gave me the offer, so I took it. The fact of the matter is, if I step out, you're completely out of any ability to protect your town. What kind of person would I be if I did that? Gamifying hunting glitches or not, I've already taken steps towards making this my new job. And god knows I don't have anything better to do, so what would it say about me if I abandoned you now?" She asks.

"Besides, if this job'll be thankless, then the least I can seek is your approval." She says. "I assumed when we first met that you were just some nepotism kid from a corpo family who had a hard light body, something I'd kill for. But that's clearly not the case. I'm not mad at you, and I probably came off a little bit hard because I'm not good with social stuff." She says.

"All bodies are perishable, robotic, human, or hard light. That's just the way things are. I'd be a coward if I noped out right now."

"That... And I'm really paranoid about my memories now." She says.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"That's reason enough." Zoe says. "Hinobi gave me the offer, so I took it. The fact of the matter is, if I step out, you're completely out of any ability to protect your town. What kind of person would I be if I did that? Gamifying hunting glitches or not, I've already taken steps towards making this my new job. And god knows I don't have anything better to do, so what would it say about me if I abandoned you now?" She asks.

"Besides, if this job'll be thankless, then the least I can seek is your approval." She says. "I assumed when we first met that you were just some nepotism kid from a corpo family who had a hard light body, something I'd kill for. But that's clearly not the case. I'm not mad at you, and I probably came off a little bit hard because I'm not good with social stuff." She says.

"Yeah, I know it sucks that it's super luxurious to have something like this right now. I don't know if they allow it, but if they do and you ever need me to loan you XP or cover some of it without being paid back, I'll do it if it's to get you a PLixelf too. One thing I've never wanted is to be able to say got mine, screw you and actually mean it, if someone really needs help and the ability to do so is right in front of me... I've shared chocolate bars I bought with the homeless, of course I'll do what I can." he assured her. "It's not like it would kill me to help."

"All bodies are perishable, robotic, human, or hard light. That's just the way things are. I'd be a coward if I noped out right now."

"No... when it comes to that last one, not if they have no health meter like in the Hiverse. That's basically what they did." he explained, and then addressed one of the common sci-fi tropes of the previous decade. "As for the long term, you did hear that the Webster Jim Deep Space Probe proved in 2021 that we had entropy all wrong, right? The universe is either so old that its origins are lost, or it never began because it always existed. Either way, half the reason they were able to make PLixels better than comparable technology... which I thought meant like VR and/or robot bodies but probably includes Glitches too... is because either way they now know the math that lets this kind of tech be more stable than the old stuff, and at least mathematically it's a 100% probability. Living forever is only living forever if you have a world to live in the whole time and there is 0% chance of any failure."

He did make the effort to defend his position without falsely rationalizing it. There's a reason people say immortality approaches divinity, even if the reality is not even close to it, but there's not much difference between gods and monsters, and he wanted to establish he was neither and hopefully never would be either. "For me it's not whether I die that's the question; It's how painful failure will be if someone who otherwise could kill me decides they don't mind trying to give a fate much, much worse. Honestly I'm okay with that, but then that's why I signed up for the Hinobi Texpo competition, even if it was a long shot. What I'm not okay with is letting other people take a bullet for me when I could take a bullet that could save someone else's life with the guarantee that, even if the worst happens and I have to respawn, it won't end my existence. Everyone is afraid of death instinctively, so if I have to risk unbearable pain to save lives, but there's no risk of broken bones or permanent injury, I'd be the real coward to not attain this when I know I'll use it for everyone's benefit and not just my own. Too many people get lazy about morality and say that immortality is evil because people with it don't actually help anyone, without thinking of how to best use it and then trying to get it. After that, if someone's idea of what's best is to be selfish, people should always question why they want to have this. Honestly this job is perfect, otherwise I get the feeling I'd be traveling the world anonymously helping people who are being oppressed, like being a genius who becomes a superhero by not being useless instead of by being flashy."

"That... And I'm really paranoid about my memories now." She says.

"Yeah, I guess we just never noticed this whole time that ever since PLixel Tech started being implemented on mass scale, we've basically been trapped in Enter the Netwerks Online because the machines are too buggy to properly oppress anyone..." he admitted.

Finally, Zoe slowly stopped the vehicle in the parking lot of the City Works Yard, where various barrels were scattered around...

Gadg8eer hopped out to take a look, his HMD giving the same readings as the barrel on the roadway. "These barrels are definitely all Glitches..." he said, and de-rezzed the top-most barrel of the nearest stack first...

...but when the top barrel was gone, a spooky-looking 2D sprite of a rather pensive angry Fleshball from GORE 3D was staring back at him, it's 2D existence necessitating that it always face him, and was absolutely ready to attack!

En-Eee-Dee-Em. *hits you with dem sweet lix*