[Backdated, see below]

[hacker_twins]

(Continued from here after Release 88 made the first post unusable)

The only thing that grates on Techno worse than when people notice how obviously he resembles Forte, is when it dawns on them he resembles both Forte and Mega. He isn't really sure how to feel about the person responsible being dead, as now he'll never get to have that nice loud 'what the hell were you thinking' talk he'd sometimes fantasized about.

But for now the Twins skirt around that topic and onto one of pets, as they follow Zero towards X's room.

"I still think we should get a puppy."

"We live in a treehouse, Middy. Canines can't climb."

Comments

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Seeing as Forte's build was based off Mega's, this Forte hasn't put much thought into the resemblance there. Or maybe he is blocking the horrid thought of someone combining their designs into one.

He also doesn't have anything to say about the pet conversation, if he's not tuning them out to think about other things. Like what they were going to do if X doesn't get scared out of his poor sleeping habits. It isn't his problem if X wants to skimp on sleep until he falls over, not normally anyway. But he guesses he owes X for fixing him. That and the fact that X could hurt their efforts if he didn't get enough sleep on a regular basis.

[vengeancechild]

Luckily for that, the twins soon dart off on a detour to get the needed equipment. They catch back up just as Zero reaches X's door. He knows the access code, of course, and stores his armor to be quieter before letting himself in. The twins follow the hint on storing armor. This was going to be tricky enough unless X was a really sound sleeper.

The main room of the apartment-like area is cozy and for the most part neat and clean. Roll had intervened with X's habits early, trying to make sure he wouldn't be as messy as Rock, and it would seem she'd mostly succeeded. The room is clean and one can find the floor, but it's also slightly more cluttered than Roll might have liked, in a comfortable and relaxed way.

The walls are in a soft creme with blue trim, the carpet a darker blue. There's an overstuffed and comfy couch and a few beanbag chairs, a TV, and a video game system. Zero and X have played a lot of multi-player FPS/Puzzle games here, sometimes with others joining in. There's a coffee table for snacks, though right now all that's on it is a folder of what looks, at first glance, like art sketches.

More than one wall has an arrangement of family pictures hanging on it. There are two other doors, one going to a small bath, and the other to the bedroom... If X is in here, it would seem he really did go to bed.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

The images are.... silly, good teasing material, but he can't poke fun at people who aren't around. He'll... just have to save it for when they got back. If they came back...

As for humans, nothing is special about them as far as Forte's concerned. He has nothing against them, but there's nothing for them either. They're different and they get some props for creating robots, but he's never had a problem taking one out if it suits his needs. He does the same with 'bots. He figures it equals out in its own way. That doesn't help X though.

"Ever think that when talking about your alt, he was talking about his own version of that weird little copy they have," he ponders aloud as the thought suddenly hits him. Copies. It's always copies.

[vengeancechild]

"Even if he was confused about that, Forte... he still thought he'd been abandoned..." says X.

"So," says Techno, fidgeting, "do you still need us for anything?"

"Maybe," says Zero, dashing the Twins' hopes of sneaking out of this mess. "When I was talking to Gospel, the idea of a VR 'punching bag' of Weil came up. Think you could set up something like that?" When X starts to say something, he continues with, "It won't really be human, just a simulation. And we won't tell Rock."

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Forte is still snickering. Zero saying what is going through his mind doesn't help. "It's like they turned you into a magical girl. All that's left is a sparkly transformation sequence of some kind, and hell, nothing says it doesn't have that. Maybe you are a girl in these- no, male pronoun, never mind."

He digs out another, still looking for any mention of Weil and only finding more things worth laughing over. "Might explain why you look so pissed off on all of these."

[vengeancechild]

"You'd be pissed, too, if you had to fight in girl's underwear, surrounded by sparkling fairies," says Zero, who's snickering by now too. Hey, he can laugh at himself... when it's an alt in an outfit he has no intention of ever being forced into in any way.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Well, we have four game's worth of info of possible future events to get ahead of anything Weil plans. Maybe we can use it to speed things up and get to the point of his defeat quicker."

[vengeancechild]

"A real life videogame speedrun," says Zero, and nods. "Getting even one step ahead of that bastard would be better than being ten steps behind all the time."

"I have some news too, but almost all of it's bad. This starts with humans fleeing Arcadia because Weil's having anyone who disagrees with him killed. And it says that was triggered after someone killed Arcadia's 'leader'. We know the leader's Weil, but... you know who he just set up as a figurehead. So at some point he's going to pull the same trick again and killing that Copy is going to play into his plans. The fleeing humans don't want anything to do with 'bots, because they blame us for the whole mess. Again."

"Second, the humans are trying to flee to a place that doesn't exist. The game says it was made by the Eurasia colony crash. It didn't crash for us, it ended up on the moon. Lumine took it back over not long after the Giga City mess."

"The only good news is I guess I can tell Quick he can tell Plum that Neige probably isn't dead yet. She's with the ones fleeing in this game."

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Well I'm just getting rescue missions and information gathering that ends in everything getting destroyed. And something about energy for the resistance's base, but we don't need that."

"You think it could be the force energy driving them all crazy?"

[vengeancechild]

Zero shakes his head slightly. "We've actually got an energy surplus, thanks to how Gate's space shield works. And it could be... Something has, and it's either that or Weil did something to them. Or both." He blinks and mutters a swearword. "Things look different in game sprites, but I've seen Pegasolta Eclair. We both have. He was one of the ones with Harpuia earlier.

"Hmm. I don't think this level can exist. It's supposed to be a research lab, more than a century old, used to make Cyber Elves. We don't have those, and certainly no over-a-hundred year old labs full of failed experiments kept in cryo for no reason... did they even have cryo that worked as far back as 1996? It's just not possible."

"At least the boss seems saner than the others, though he still doesn't say anything that useful. Just says the stuff so far is only the beginning, and to make a list of excuses for not being able to save the one human-habitable place left on Earth."

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"We should take every opportunity we get. It gave him time to give some crazy speech, didn't it?"

"By that game, he must be completely out of his mind. Wily sounds sane in comparison." Which is a scary thought in and of itself.

[vengeancechild]

"Yeah, right after Kraft kidnaps Niege to try to protect her. Weil'd have to do a lot worse than tell me I don't want to kill a human in front of Niege... She's a reporter, I'm sure she's seen worse."

"Yeah. At least Wily had just enough sanity not to try to blow up the planet while he was standing on it. The boss for this stage has to be crazy too. What other kind of person signs up for a suicide mission to blow themselves up..?"

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Hm. Point." And that could give them more chances to get to the kids.

"In a factory captured to generate energy. One of the missions not likely to happen for us. If we can lure him in with one of his soldiers like we did with Harpuia... but which ones are his?" He doesn't remember any of the bosses saying they belonged to Phantom. Though one, Maha Ganeshariff, didn't say whose army he was a part of. But an elephant that swung around like a wrecking ball doesn't seem like a good fit for Phantom.

He frowns as he goes back to playing. Just because they don't want it to get to that point doesn't mean they shouldn't see what else happens.

[vengeancechild]

Zero thinks about that as he finishes Tech Kraken's stage and goes on to the next. "If he's in charge of stealth troops, then they might not be obvious 'game bosses'. Maybe Shadow can help come up with ways to lure out a ninja..."

"And there's always the option of attacking the location anyway, even if we don't need the energy, on the chance it will lure Phantom out."

He just shakes his head at the next one. "Cities a century ago didn't have computerized city-wide security systems, so I think I've hit another that won't happen. For that matter, I don't think any before Arcadia did, at least for us."

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Survival of the strongest. If they're too stupid to move, let it crush them." Not that the game would let you do that.

Blah blah blah, emo cutscene, blah blah intro level, blah, oh hey Harpuia again. That's good.

"Huh, game you gets rescued by Harpuia in the beginning of this. That's a good sign." It meant they could come around after all, though getting that to happen before any self-destructing is what they need.

[vengeancechild]

"They make a big deal in the game about there not being anywhere else they can go, but that won't be true for us. I say let the Lightbots deal with that. And Repliforce. Rescuing squishies is what they do."

Zero nods. "And if that code X passed along really does speed things up, maybe that will happen before the second game."

".. they stuck in a lot of boring crap just trying to get to Ragnarok. Finally at a repeat fight with a bunch of guys who should be dead already."

"... and it's Weil controlling the thing. I should wonder how the hell a human survived that, but I'm not at all surprised." He pauses the game, since the twins wanted info from that and they're busy at the moment. Setting the handheld down he checks on X.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Unless something comes up where we need to gather information from a hidden area before they do, Anubis Necromancess. Reploids escaping by plane is the most likely out of the missions."

Forte blinks at the screen as well. "So he is..." How odd.

[hacker_twins]

Techno switches the hacked video feed from the computer screen to the TV to make it easier to watch, and tries to see if he can get sound.

There, in a small and very neat room, is Copy X. He has a desk. He has a couple of datapads of 'paperwork'. And he has blocks. Occasionally, he'll pause in reading, and rearrange the blocks. Sometimes in rows by color, sometimes grouped by color. Once, feeling adventurous, he put them in alphabetical order by the names of the colors. One constant is that he always puts them in a very neat and ordered pattern.

He's also not in armor. The tunic-top he wears even has a slight resemblance to the robes of the game's Elf!X, though not as long. And the camera angle is just right to show that they end at mid-hip and have matching pants. He resembles both Rock and X a great deal, older in appearance than the first and younger than the second... but he doesn't have the messy hair of either Lightbot. It's trimmed shorter and slicked back, as obsessively neat as everything else.

"And she's... he's one of Fafnir's," says Zero. "That name problem is going to get annoying." He's studying the copy, but figures they might as well plan, too.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Forte would answer that it's their inherent naivety, which meant Weil was partially telling the truth about the copy being a Light based model, but he's more interested in what's happening on screen.

They have their answer to where to find Anubis and more importantly, Fafnir. "Now isn't that covenant."

[ww_arcadia]

Zero nods. "That will narrow down the search."

---

"I'll inform Fafnir," says Harpuia. "With your permission, of course."

"Of course," Copy X says. "It would be a waste to have them damaged by this. Go."

Harpuia leaves, and Leviathan starts to leave with him, but...

"Leviathan... none of Phantom's forces are on assignment right now. I think you have time to finish your lunch." There's almost a slight pleading in the copy's voice, as if he doesn't really want to be left alone.

"As you wish, Master," Leviathan says, collecting her bowl and resuming the spot on the floor from earlier.

Copy X looks over one of the datapads as he eats. "Hydroponics are now operating at full capacity, but food resources are still going to be tight. I don't like that."

"I'll see if I can set up some traps for fish," says Leviathan. "It might not help much, though. Half a billion humans need a lot of food."

---

"I think I have an idea," X says softly from the couch.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Joy," he replies sarcastically. The games wouldn't be so bad if he ignored the crazy plot and now it fit into what was going on now. By itself it was still ridiculous, but it was a fun ridiculous.

He gets his own, petting Gospel who's still waiting outside for him.

[vengeancechild]

The Twins, still close enough to hear that, decide not to wander off. "You said you'd gotten to Weil," says Middy.

"We'll want to see that," says Techno.

"For reference purposes," says Middy.

Zero shrugs. "Fine." And since he can't think of anywhere else suitable, he'll just head for his own room here. Since he doesn't really live at the warehouse, the room's a bit of a relic of his bachelor days. White cinderblock walls, little thought about decoration other than to drag in a couch and a TV, and some furniture made of cinderblocks and boards, or in a couple cases milk crates. There are also a couple beanbag chairs. And a bit of dust.

The twins fuss for a bit until they find a way to use a scanner to access the archaic handheld game's data and replicate the screen display information to the TV. Once they've accomplished that, Zero will flop onto a slightly dusty beanbag chair and unpause the game.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"If there's not a fifth, he should be dead." There's a silent 'as well' in there that he doesn't feel like saying. It's not often you're able to see your own grave, and he's not about to poke Zero about it.

[vengeancechild]

It's definitely not pleasant. Zero's already thinking they need to work on some way to kill Weil that doesn't end up a suicide mission. "Hmph. Should be. But if he's using that force energy... even if it kills him, it would still be there. The crash site will need quarantined and cleaned up." He's mentioning that partly just in case he isn't there to bring it up when it happens. He had no plans to die if he could avoid it, but...

He shakes his head and decides not to think of that any more. Tossing the fourth game's cartridge to the Twins so they can access data off it for their simulation, he debates whether to play the first or the third. He'd like to see the beginning of this, but... they'd probably have time to play through them all, and Forte's already played the first one. Might as well play them in reverse order. If Forte's done with the second before he's done with the third, there are a couple extra copies in that box... he'll pull out the Japanese version of the third game just to make it easier if it comes to that. He can read Japanese dialogue if he has to.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"With little boingy balls on the top. It's very cartoony."

"He's probably tricked them to use them and something bad will happen." Though Weil tricked someone and something bad happens has been happening the whole time. At least the game doesn't care about him killing the soldiers besides giving him a low score, and he doesn't care.

He fights Harpuia and... suddenly looks very uncomfortable, sinking into the beanbag chair more.

[vengeancechild]

If Zero hadn't been in the middle of a boring at-base status report scene, he might not have noticed. As it is, he risks a glance over at the rustle of the beanbag. "Something wrong?"

Glancing back at his own screen, he notes he's being told all missions are done, but there's a missile factory next. That was contradictory. And to save his game and get some sleep and they'd call him. He's played enough RPGs to know that that means there's about to be some kind of disaster. Any time you get a 'free stay at the inn' the town burns down or something, it's a rule.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"They're clunky and look like they've taken a step back as far as tech goes. Unless teleporting has become a lot different, it seems like a way of controlling people's access to it." Internal teleporters were so much simpler and faster to use. No new system of teleportation is worth downgrading it like this unless it was to purposely make it harder to use.

"That's probably right. Easier to make a new one then find anything left from the first one after all the time between games."

He glances up from the game for a second, thinking it's an odd time for drinks unless Zero needs a break from the crazy game. "Uh, sure."

[vengeancechild]

He'll hand one over on his way back to his own beanbag chair... and then tilts his head as if he heard something. Oh, that was great timing... "Fire lizard message. Iris is going to help Roll get the food ready, Colonel's busy, so Alouette's on her way here."

At least it gave him something else to think about other than the crap game... and the crap 'poetry' one of the NPCs had spouted off and that had made him feel like someone just walked across his grave... Fighting ends. Tomorrow offers the promise of peace. But to those who fall and vanish with the night sky, dawn never comes...

"Damn foreshadowing, anyway..." He start hooking one of the other game systems up to the TV, though he plans to send Emerald to fetch some other game for Alouette to play than any of the ones in the box.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

-....the sword? If that's the case, we might want to replace some of the earlier missions with something similar, to stall until we get the kids back so it can't skip ahead too far. After that, it can speed up all it wants.-

[vengeancechild]

-The one that came with the LOL went poof when that wore off, but not before I'd had scans made of it. Good point. We don't want things to jump ahead so fast we can't change the stuff we want to change. There's another problem with the kids... if they start to remember, isn't Weil going to find out because of the force energy? He's likely to figure it out before they do, which would put them in danger...-

-Looks like game Harpy's better... and not happy at being helped. S...he thinks we want something in return... rants about losing his position and calls himself 'used goods'... now it's a Lightbot rant about defending humans... and there goes Harpy. Ran off to save the squishies from Weil, even though repairs weren't completely done yet.-

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Forte simply facepalms. Of course, never give a scientist ideas unless you want them to make them reality.

-Must be. The second was some idiot named Elpizo, and too much of his mess revolved around people listening to him when they shouldn't. I think there's enough common sense around here to keep any of that from happening.-

Gospel thinks it's pretty good and makes more sense than normal graffiti.

[vengeancechild]

-Never heard of him, which sounds like it's a good thing.-

Alouette adds more red dots to the hill in the background, around the crater, and says to Gospel, "That's where Weil got blown up. Mum's not looking because of the mess."

-The hell... game-me's a copybot.- Zero is confused now, but there's Omega.. or Zero? to fight anyway. It's only after that that he can piece it together. -No, wait... game-me had to get a new body for some reason, and Omega is game-me's original body with... I guess maybe just the virus and some basic AI because he's a psycho and dumb as a brick. And I guess we can write off him existing at all... unless Weil makes a copybot-me to take his place somehow.-

-Harpuia showed up to help fight him. Leviathan and Fafnir too...-

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Forte wonders what Zero means by that but leaves it for another time. He nods at the rest.

-I could take the games to Lumine while you get to work on some of that. What about her?- He motions to Alouette at the yawn.

[vengeancechild]

-Let me make the bet first- says Zero, with an amused half-smile. -And I think she'll take a nap soon... I'll just wall paint with her or something until then.-

-Bet made. You can take the games to Lumine, and I'll call Gate here. Lumine and Axl are down in the commons somewhere. I'll talk about the weapons until Alouette's asleep and then get to the other stuff.-