[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]

"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]

"What's with the elves anyway? I've collecting the things and feeding them, but then you can use them as a one time power up. And they're just gone after that. Lowers your score too..."

[vengeancechild]

"I have no idea. I've been trying to ignore them, except when I have to help name the stupid things. I think I've seen something that looked like one in Alouette's stuffed toys, but it didn't fly around and give upgrades."

"Next level here is apparently 'death by plantborg'." The sheer crazy is getting amusing, in a twisted way.

"Let us know when you get to Weil," says Techno, quietly.

Middy nods. "We've roughed out a simulation, but we can add information from the game to make it better."

"Are we still hooking X up to this?" Techno asks. Because X seems to be actually getting some sleep now.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"That sounds like a bad B movie."

"There's no way they could attack us here or Mars, so the base invasion level can be ignored. Know anyone named Colbor?"

[vengeancechild]

"It looks like one, too."

"They could attack an entrenched front line area, but we're usually expecting that. Here's out of the question because of the way the Nexus is. Mars... would be difficult, and they'd be stupid to try it."

Zero frowns at that, thinking. "The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't think I know them. There are a few thousand Reploids just on Mars now, so I don't know everyone."

Zero shakes his head slightly in response to Techno. "Let him sleep. The problem's a little different than I thought." He'll pause his game to get up and go to the bedroom, returning with a blanket to tuck around X.

Middy, meanwhile, is running a quick search through a list of colonists. "There's a Colbor listed in the Mars Colony data," he says.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Forte's frowning at his screen by the time Zero returns.

"Rescued him from Harpuia," is all he says, and from the way he's pressing the buttons, that's who he's fighting right now. He doesn't think some random colonist will need rescue like is happening in the game, but Harpuia showing up at all is worth mentioning.

[vengeancechild]

Zero just nods, frowning slightly as he resumes his game. They knew Harpuia and the others would be in here somewhere, after all. "I haven't seen them yet in this one, but the next part's a direct attack on the human settlement. And getting a lot of no thanks for saving the squishies from burning to a crisp, since they don't want any 'bots there." At least they had Lightbots to take care of that kind of stuff.

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

"Maybe we're lucky and by then they've switched sides."

"Faf's name got typoed." That's all he's saying for that level.

"Phantom plants bombs. Though hitting them with a sword should not defuse them." But then that is game logic.

"Levi is in a computer area, little late to stop me from destroying everything."

[vengeancechild]

"And they spell yours b-a-s-s," Zero points out. And then blinks and stares at his game screen. "I just found out how Niege knew so much about Hunter activities. We figured someone on the inside was leaking her information. It must have been Kraft..."

Zero snerks in response to disarming bombs by sword. "No, it shouldn't." But then he's back to thinking about the rest... "I think I'll have to tell Blues about some of this. He might know what to do..."

[builtforbattle.livejournal.com]

Forte rolls his eyes. He'd heard about that at some point. "As far a musical names go, Bass isn't a bad one." As long as it's pronounced correctly.

He's not sure what to think of the elf X, but since their X is right there on the couch sleeping, he files that oddity away as unimportant. "I'm guessing since the Copy being dead caused a lot of problems, that me going after him now will end in him getting away." After all, what would the other games have in them if the supposed big bad was killed off so quickly.

[vengeancechild]

Zero nods. He can't imagine what would be in the other two games otherwise, either. "Kraft's the one in charge of Weil's troops here. Mega's not going to like how many there are. Weil's got him completely whipped. He's only following because he doesn't believe there's any hope... if we could get to him, the command structure falls apart. And this game has one good chance to do that. And a chance to take a shot at Weil that the game won't even let you do..."

"After that there's been a level with an artificial sun turning things into desert, an electromagnetic weapon... it seems the settlement is dependent on an environment control system it could disrupt. And a..." he pauses and blinks at the one he just read... "an undersea drill submarine packed with explosives meant to drill into the earth and set off a massive earthquake... the hell..." His frown deepens. "Arcadia's an island. That's... ... It's like what Epsilon almost did with the missile. Like Weil can't even notice this stuff would hit everyone."