Fandom (Glitch Techs Xpanded Universe) GTX: Gnu Fork

[Lord Moldoma]

...but when the top barrel was gone, a spooky-looking 2D sprite of a rather pensive 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!

[Transition to OST - Leaving the Devil On Read]

The shuriken that Zoe had stolen earlier came screaming through the air, piercing straight into the Fleshball's eye, as she had exited the van the moment it appeared.

"Whatever the hell they've got planned, there's gotta be more. Toss me one of your yoyos and get de-rezzing, I can hold off whatever they send." Zoe says, running in with her bat dragging on the ground. "Start from the top down, these things follow volatile physics rules." She jumps, mounting the Fleshball and tearing the Shuriken out to reuse for later.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"Oh no...intruders outside! I need to warn the bosses!" The Lookout minion, A mighty mite said before pulling out a walkie talkie "My liege! We have intruders outside, they're currently fighting those Fleshball thingies! I'm sounding the alarm!" Said the mighty mite before proceeding to slam a red Alarm Button.

 

[Gadg8eer]

[Transition to OST - Leaving the Devil On Read]

The shuriken that Zoe had stolen earlier came screaming through the air, piercing straight into the Fleshball's eye, as she had exited the van the moment it appeared.

"Whatever the hell they've got planned, there's gotta be more. Toss me one of your yoyos and get de-rezzing, I can hold off whatever they send." Zoe says, running in with her bat dragging on the ground. "Start from the top down, these things follow volatile physics rules." She jumps, mounting the Fleshball and tearing the Shuriken out to reuse for later.

Gadg8eer tried to explain he couldn't. "Uh, my yo-yos and your bat are our melee weapons, like in bMod. We can't unequip them because each one is summoned by and paired to the gauntlet that-"

"Oh no...intruders outside! I need to warn the bosses!" The Lookout minion, A mighty mite said before pulling out a walkie talkie "My liege! We have intruders outside, they're currently fighting those Fleshball thingies! I'm sounding the alarm!" Said the mighty mite before proceeding to slam a red Alarm Button.

One of Gadge's yo-yos slammed into the mighty mite's hand just before it could slam the button, and the other yo-yo into the giant bug's head.

 

[Lord Moldoma]

Gadg8eer tried to explain he couldn't. "Uh, my yo-yos and your bat are our melee weapons, like in bMod. We can't unequip them because each one is summoned by and paired to the gauntlet that-"

She groaned. "Fine then. I'll do it with my bat." She says, Proceeding over to the mite while dragging her bat. "I wonder what XP you're worth..." She asks, the upper part of her screen going dark apart from her eyes.

She lifts up her bat and brings the bat down onto the mite's head, one-tapping it. Her gauntlet, thankfully auto-de-rezzing it before she can get too brutal. Her face switches, preforming a faux spitting animation.

"I set my gauntlet to auto-de-rez at low health while we were in the car... It's more efficient that way..." She says. "And... I know you're squeamish... So..." She trails off

 

[Gadg8eer]

She groaned. "Fine then. I'll do it with my bat." She says, Proceeding over to the mite while dragging her bat. "I wonder what XP you're worth..." She asks, the upper part of her screen going dark apart from her eyes.

She lifts up her bat and brings the bat down onto the mite's head, one-tapping it. Her gauntlet, thankfully auto-de-rezzing it before she can get too brutal. Her face switches, preforming a faux spitting animation.

"I set my gauntlet to auto-de-rez at low health while we were in the car... It's more efficient that way..." She says. "And... I know you're squeamish... So..." She trails off

Gadg8eer nodded and set up a turbo mode on using an automation app he'd already had installed his goggles, then began back-to-back derezzing barrels of explodium.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Gadg8eer nodded and set up a turbo mode on using an automation app he'd already had installed his goggles, then began back-to-back derezzing barrels of explodium.

De-Rezzing the Barrels would not be an Easy task, the demon that had emerged after the first barrel was de-rezzed wasn't the only one of his kind, Others lurked amongst the Barrels, others who would Promptly begin to attack our heroes.

 

[Lord Moldoma]

Playing for point defense, Zoe flung the shuriken into the air and slammed her bat down on it, angling it into the concrete which caused it to ricochet several times off of the nearby walls, each fly-by bisecting a fleshball like a crazy tactical sawblade being flung around.

She leapt simultaneously as the shuriken flew through the air into the rough condensed center of its own paths. This leap was timed in tandem with the shuriken's precisely angled ricochets, wherein she would strike the shuriken midflight and redirect it into another fleshball, with just the right angle to continue the chain.



"DOUBLE KILL! TRIPLE KILL! QUADRUPLE KILL! KILLSTREAK! MASSACRE! HOOOOOOLLLLLLYYYYY SH*******T!" echoed out the built in combo announcing function on her gauntlet.

it ended off with her catching the shuriken in one hand by the hole in the middle, and spinning it around a little bit more before stabbing it into the ground.

 

[Gadg8eer]

De-Rezzing the Barrels would not be an Easy task, the demon that had emerged after the first barrel was de-rezzed wasn't the only one of his kind, Others lurked amongst the Barrels, others who would Promptly begin to attack our heroes.

At that moment, another KidWindow, like the one that had notified Gadg8eer of the time back at the shop, sprung up with a system message. "Warning, your bCloud Drive is almost full." a female computer voice read it to him.

"What? Why?! This is NOT a good time!" Gadg8eer complained, and de-rezzed an entire triple-layered stack of barrels.

"I'm sorry, I don't know that one." the voice responded as he then de-rezzed the top barrel of another stack.

Playing for point defense, Zoe flung the shuriken into the air and slammed her bat down on it, angling it into the concrete which caused it to ricochet several times off of the nearby walls, each fly-by bisecting a fleshball like a crazy tactical sawblade being flung around.

This leap was timed in tandem with the shuriken's precisely angled ricochets, wherein she would strike the shuriken midflight and redirect it into another fleshball, with just the right angle to continue the chain.

View attachment 1132469

"DOUBLE KILL! TRIPLE KILL! QUADRUPLE KILL! KILLSTREAK! MASSACRE! HOOOOOOLLLLLLYYYYY SH*******T!" echoed out the built in combo announcing function on her gauntlet.

it ended off with her catching the shuriken in one hand by the hole in the middle, and spinning it around a little bit more before stabbing it into the ground.

"Operator, list my bCloud files by size, starting with the largest!" Gadg8eer said, yelping the last line as a horned behemoth of a demon was taken out by the shuriken as it emerged from behind a street-cleaning truck.

"The largest file is 2028-06-28@158.bvid at 14 Gigabytes in size and still downloading." the Operator responded, but this time not audible to anyone else, as Gadge contunied trying to get rid of all the barrels before there were some serious issues.

"From wher- Ohhhh. Operator, that's a wrap!" he shouted, triggering one of his automation macros.

"Affirmative. Recording ended. Recording saved." the AI told him.

"Create macro labelled Something Fishy #1 and assign the voice trigger No, that's probably just a red herring." Gadg8eer whispered, and tapped the X in the upper right corner of the system warning.

"Trigger created. Would you like to record this macro?" the voice told him as he motioned to Zoe to follow him.

"Yes." he said quietly, walking to the nearest door of the City Works building.

"Recording." the voice told him, and he hid behind a parked school bus that was parked with its rear bumper near a back entrance of the City Works building.

"Save the most recent video file. Copy the file to my personal backup drive. Email a copy to DPortEd, with BCC to the Grand Forks RCMP. Ask whether to upload the file to BeeTube, or to BeanoTube, or to not upload." Gadg8eer explained, looking back to see if Zoe was still following. "End recording."

"Transfer in progress. Do you wish to run the macro now?" the AI asked, oblivious to the fact that saying yes would make the entire point moot.

"No." Gadg8eer responded.

"The second largest file is Source_QuickSilver.grf.8zip, at 10 Gigabytes in size." the AI explained, still listing the largest files.

"Skip all." Gadg8eer told it, and then took a peek around the back of the school bus. A security camera was enabled over the door, which suggested the masterminds of this were using the security systems to their own advantage. Using the built-in Safe Mode feature of his gauntlets, he hacked into the camera and turned it to look the other way, then did the same for the electronic keypad on the door to unlock it. "Hey, Zoe? Ladies first?" he said, pointing to the unlocked steel door.

 

[Lord Moldoma]

"The largest file is 2028-06-28@158.bvid at 14 Gigabytes in size and still downloading." the Operator responded, but this time not audible to anyone else, as Gadge contunied trying to get rid of all the barrels before there were some serious issues.

“You’re probably not supposed to be recording this.” Zoe notes to Gadg8. “Kinda eats away at the whole upholding normalcy thing.” Zoe says, picking up her shuriken and promptly deciding to follow gadg8eer

"Hey, Zoe? Ladies first?"

“Right. I’ll tell you if they’ve set up an ambush on the other side.” She says, taking both hands on her bat and stepping inside the public works building.

 

[Gadg8eer]

“You’re probably not supposed to be recording this.” Zoe notes to Gadg8. “Kinda eats away at the whole upholding normalcy thing.” Zoe says, picking up her shuriken and promptly deciding to follow gadg8eer

"Yeah, but I wanted to be sure Dave and his bosses know exactly what happened, and to be prepared if it turns out the Techs have a corruption problem." Gadg8eer responded. "Speaking of... Operator, copy macro labelled Something Fishy #1 and label it Something Fishy #2, and assign the trigger phrase Speak of the devilfish. Replace BCC to the Grand Forks RCMP with CC to CSIS. Remove upload question. Save macro."

"Confirmed." the AI responded. "Would you like to run the macro now?"

"Test run." Gadg8er stated.

"There is no video currently recording. File copied. Test email sent to DPortEd succesfully. Test email sent to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service public tip hotline. Macro executed successfully."

"Alright, now we have a Plan B and, of course, a Plan A." Gadg8eer said, "Operator, speak of the devilfish."

"Macro executed successfully." the AI explained.

“Right. I’ll tell you if they’ve set up an ambush on the other side.” She says, taking both hands on her bat and stepping inside the public works building.

(( That's you cue if you want to take it, Sir Loin. ))

 

[Sir loin of beef]

"Yeah, but I wanted to be sure Dave and his bosses know exactly what happened, and to be prepared if it turns out the Techs have a corruption problem." Gadg8eer responded. "Speaking of... Operator, copy macro labelled Something Fishy #1 and label it Something Fishy #2, and assign the trigger phrase Speak of the devilfish. Replace BCC to the Grand Forks RCMP with CC to CSIS. Remove upload question. Save macro."

"Confirmed." the AI responded. "Would you like to run the macro now?"

"Test run." Gadg8er stated.

"There is no video currently recording. File copied. Test email sent to DPortEd succesfully. Test email sent to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service public tip hotline. Macro executed successfully."

"Alright, now we have a Plan B and, of course, a Plan A." Gadg8eer said, "Operator, speak of the devilfish."

"Macro executed successfully." the AI explained.



(( That's you cue if you want to take it, Sir Loin. ))

Zoe's concerns about a potential ambush were not unfounded, the moment the door opened a group of 2 Gummies, 2 Rat-men from Brawlociraptors, and Boomerang Beetle would be revealed to be waiting for her, de-rezzing the Barrels and fighting off the Demons hadn't been a quiet affair. The Gummies stacked themselves up on top of each other and ran towards Zoe aiming to ram her despite the fact that these were gummies. The rat men followed aiming to brain her with crowbars.

 

[Lord Moldoma]

She slams her bat down on top of the gummies, them having stacked themselves allows her to smash both in a single blow.

She then parries both crowbars with her bat, forcing the downwards-moving hooks back upwards. Which she then holds horizontally, twisting it to interlock the crowbars, and then sweeping the legs of her briefly occupied rat-man opponents with her bat, aiming for their shins. Her movements were swift, smooth, and minimized a need for long or drawn out motions, despite the inherent swinging-nature of her fighting style, she maintained a sense of fluidity.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

She slams her bat down on top of the gummies, them having stacked themselves allows her to smash both in a single blow.

She then parries both crowbars with her bat, forcing the downwards-moving hooks back upwards. Which she then holds horizontally, twisting it to interlock the crowbars, and then sweeping the legs of her briefly occupied rat-man opponents with her bat, aiming for their shins.

Both Gummies were taken out by the attack and the Rat-men were struck in the shins, most of the henchmen had been swiftly Curb-stomped right then, but the fight was not over yet, while Zoe had Battled the Mooks Boomerang Beetle had taken this time to fill up his health bar while Zoe was distracted with the regular enemies. Once he was finished he charged right at Zoe

 

[Lord Moldoma]

Once he was finished he charged right at Zoe

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

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

 

[Gadg8eer]

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

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

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

 

[Sir loin of beef]

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

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

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

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

 

[Gadg8eer]

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Why here, then?" the chief asked.

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

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

"What container?" Dave said, surprised.

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Sir loin of beef]

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Why here, then?" the chief asked.

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

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

"What container?" Dave said, surprised.

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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



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

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

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

( Gadg8eer Yes)

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

 

[Lord Moldoma]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Sir loin of beef]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[Lord Moldoma]

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

 

[Sir loin of beef]

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

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

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

 

[Lord Moldoma]

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

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

 

[Sir loin of beef]

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

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

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

 

[Lord Moldoma]

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

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

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

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