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[=Nightshade=]

Yeah, so this roleplay is essentially Mortality Doctrine meets Ready Player One. Yep; another sci-fi roleplay by me!

Discussion: https://pokecharms.com/threads/virtual-discussion.22227/#post-849095

Aster Formaci was in Math. Was she doing math? No, she was braiding her bangs. Why? Because she’d gone on ahead while the teacher was flapping her lips. She must’ve done half the workbook in the first three-quarters of the hour-long period. She didn’t want to be there, in the classroom. She wanted the next three hours to just disappear so she could get home to her GameLock and log into iWorld. She wanted the enhanced hearing of her Avatar’s bionic ears, or the feeling of wind slipping between metal feathers as the bore her onward. She wanted to play war games, to fly through space in the overpriced spacecraft she’d spent nearly all her credits on, to reach different worlds where the VR is so lifelike she could almost believe it was reality.

She wanted to see where the seams were and pop them open. She wanted to hack the war games so instead of a sword she had a laser gun. She wanted to jump to light speed in atmosphere, a nearly impossible feat.

But instead, Aster had to sit through an hour of English after Math, then Science after English, then her coding elective. The side door to the Math classroom opened, and in came a government official. She smirked. It’s a HATE agent. Higher Association for True Excellence. Kind of an unfortunate title if you ask me. They were widely known as H8ters. Ha. Funny. Not really. She snapped to attention when the HATE agent spoke in quiet tones to the teacher and lamented her pathetic human ears when she couldn’t make out their words.

The H8ter spoke. Aster found herself thinking the stupid nickname despite herself. “Would Aster Formaci come with me, please?”

Aster paled. Then she pressed her lips together and stood. There was no way the government had matched her IRL identity to her Avatar who hacked illicitly. She’d put in a fake name and everything when registering. This was... an exercise, most likely. Or maybe she’d been marked as promising, whatever. Point was, maybe it was a good thing.

That thought was wiped from her mind as she stepped outside the classroom and the H8ter’s hand came down to hold her bicep in a viselike grip. “We know who and what you are, Aster,” she whispered as the sixteen-year-old was marched through the halls. “Or should I say... /ignis\?”

My Avatar name! Aster thought in horror. She kept her face blank, impassive. But inside, she was a train wreck. Are they arresting me? How did they—

“Yes, Aster. We know your Avatar. And we need your Avatar. Not specifically, no. But your hacking skills. I’ll explain once the others get to the meeting place.”

The meeting place was the principal’s office. Aster couldn’t help but feel like she’d gotten into something worse than prison.

 

[Void_Nugget]

Stiles was working on some simply code, he was supposed to be doing an essay but he had already set up a computer bot to do it for him so was messing around hacking into several different systems, today he thought he would try his luck with the HATE servers, he was caught last time, in fact HATE had caught him before in a few cases but he always got in, he just wasn't very stealthy once he was in the system. But this he made it in, he thought about looking around the servers when a HATE agent walked into his class, "how did they get here so fast I only just entered their systems" he muttered. The agent walked upto him "come with me" he said and lead Stiles to the principal's office, there was another girl all ready there but he just stood and waited to find out what was going on.

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara twirled her pencil around as she gazed at the board. She had finished the test a while ago, a test she had barely studied for. She wasn't worried that she would fail, she had an ability to cram and get good grades. In fact, she was one of the best students in the class, along with being the fastest typer. Typing came naturally to her, her programmer father had introduced technology at a young age. Ever since then, she had taken up anything technology as a hobby, especially gaming. Her schedule once she got home was usually the same. She would hurriedly finish her homework before logging into iWorld. iWorld was the only game she hadn't gotten bored of while playing constantly. The game had an immense variety of choices, and it was the perfect blend of fantasy and realism. Though she had sometimes hacked while playing past games, she had yet to hack in iWorld. She was determined to do everything legit and still succeed, a feat that was not hard for her thanks to her natural talent and past experience. She was, what you could call, obsessed with the game. However, she, viewing obsession with a negative connotation, called herself intrigued.

A tiny smile took her face, as she remembered the feeling of flight. Her dual-colored wings beat as the wind rushed past her. Her hair flowed in the breeze, though short enough that they didn't affect her flying. Her long sleeves draped behind her as she spiraled to avoid a stray bird, and a delighted giggle escaped her as she sped forwards. She felt a sense of freedom as if the worries from real life were vanishing by the second. No matter how many times she flew, it was always an exciting experience. Her daydream was quickly cut short when the door opened and a HATE agent entered the room. She wasn't concerned, she hadn't done any large-scale hacking lately, and her past ones weren't trackable to her. However, as the agent opened their mouth and ask for her, concern started to seep in.

As they marched around the school, the agent began talking. They knew her Avatar name, but that was alright. A lot of people knew so she wasn't worried. They also said they needed her hacking skills, a surprise that was somewhat pleasant. She stayed silent as they approached a door. She soon realized they had stopped at the principal's office. She opened the door to find a boy and a girl sitting there in silence. Questions began forming, as she stared at both of them. One of them looked around her age, the other looked younger. She didn't know everyone in the school, far from it. She had her core of friends and stuck with them. Though she had a lot more friends in the game, elite friends on course, she didn't know all of them in real life. I wonder if any of them is a friend of mine in-game. Either way, they must be good at hacking to be here also. That or, they got in trouble.

 

[Clunpsy]

Jason stared at the clock. He had only answered one question on his test. It wasn't that he was stuck on anything, it was just that he couldn't care less. He wondered if he was going to get a letter home. Maybe he could make the excuse that he was ill, or he could skip class entirely. A HATE agent walked through the door. Jay thought about how much hacking he had done in the past few weeks, which wasn't much. The HATE agent asked for him. Eh, to hell with it. He thought as he got up and followed the agent out of the room. The agent pulled him, but Jason didn't move. Jay realised this was when he was supposed to be dragged to the principal's office and get a telling off for hacking. How did they even know? On queue, the agent started talking. "We know your Avatar name, so don't think about saying you aren't the right person." This is ironic, but you must be a cheater to figure me out. Jay thought. He started moving with the agent and they soon came to the principal's office. He went in, to find three others there. Probably hackers that have been caught like me. Jason hadn't said a word yet, but when he did he didn't even say anything smart. "Sooooo. Why are we here again?"

 

[=Nightshade=]

(OOC: gonna continue with the plot, if you haven’t posted in the RP yet, you can be a late addition)

Aster glanced up at the others who’d come in. They were all older than her, and most were taller than her by a lot due to her 4-foot 11-inch sixteen-year-old frame. She was glad she’d made her Avatar a good six inches taller than she was IRL. A boy with curly brown hair asked what they were there for. “Your guess is as good as mine,” Aster replied darkly. She longed for her Avatar’s bionically enhanced ears and eye, but she wasn’t in the Game. Hopefully she could weasel her way out of this so she could log in soon.

The H8ter who’d taken Aster from her class stood with a sigh. “We don’t have time to waste. There are a few more of your kind we may need to track down, but for now, you four will have to do.”

“Oh, fantastic,” Aster muttered.

“Sarcasm has no place here, young lady,” the H8ter snapped. “We have a little problem.” Aster was about to make a snide remark, but the HATE agent cut her off. She settled for a disbelieving snort. “You all know about the AIs embedded within iWorld, correct? They are what make the Game so realistic. However, a small group of them have achieved sentience and are causing havoc within the Game. They are severing the connection from consciousness to body, then taking over bodies and continuing. That is as much information as I have clearance to divulge.”

Another H8ter took over. “We need the four of you, and any other proficient hackers we can find, to scour iWorld from top to bottom,” he said. “Find the Glitches—the sentient AIs—and eliminate them. The fate of the human race relies on you.”

“So,” Aster groaned. “No pressure, then?”

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara listened to the HATE agents speak, with a growing smirk on her face. Yes, the fact that that some AIs somehow achieved sentience was alarming. Yes, her favorite game was being changed as they spoke, but she saw this as an opportunity. They seemed desperate, and that meant she could bargain. "So..." She began to speak, as she leaned against the wall. "You're asking a big task from us, what exactly are we getting in exchange, and what are the dangers?" She asked. "Also, why us and not older people or the game's creators? Is there something special about us, you called us 'your kind' and you also mentioned you were only allowed to tell a certain about of information. I'm guessing there's at least one more person higher up who will tell us this later?" After asking the questions, she stopped to catch her breath. "If you want us to do something so complex, you'll at least give us special items right?" she finally asked before she stopped talking. She was, perhaps being overly inquisitive at the moment, but what kind of person dropped the line 'the fate of the human race relies on you' and then doesn't answer questions?

 

[Void_Nugget]

Stiles chuckled to himself as the girl asked her questions, he stepped forward slightly "it has to be us as we are all hackers, they don't want the 'important' people doing it cause there are dangers and they know we'll do it as I assume we will go to jail if we don't. Also why ask for items when it's so much easier to just generate them yourself" he said simply before playing on his watch, or at least what looked like playing, what he was actually doing was hacking one of the HATE agent's phones to check on who these other kids were, he smiled "so Kiara, I'm pretty sure the only thing we're likely to get is maybe a clean slate and out of a prison cell in some maximum security hell hole" he said.
@Keen Kitsune

 

[=Nightshade=]

My Avatar could be killed if I do this, Aster thought. But if I don’t, my true body could be killed. This could be the end of /ignis\, Aster, both, or neither. And I’m gonna damn well try to make sure it’s neither.

Aster stood. She didn’t know whether these people were her friends or enemies. She didn’t know whether she knew them or not. Many people’s Avatars looked nothing like them. For all she knew, these people could’ve been one of her online friends. Or they could’ve been one of her online nemeses. She turned to the H8ter who seemed to be in charge. “Where do we log in from?” she spat. “Obviously, you’ve got us cold. Do you have a special padded room for us too, just in case we lose our minds?”

The HATE agent smiled mysteriously. “In a way, yes. If you would accompany us to headquarters, we will provide you with pro-model GameLocks.”

Aster raised an eyebrow. Seemed too good to be true. Pro-model? Those were thousands of dollars! But if it was true, it would be the most realistic gaming experience she’d ever have. “I say we do it.” All cold, calm, collected decisions went whoop! Out the window. They had her at pro-model GameLock. “I’m /ignis\, by the way. Latin for fire. My Avatar’s alias. I would prefer my true name to be kept confidential.”

And she was sure it would be kept confidential. She’d just coded a security system over every site she’d registered with her true name. Which was only two; the one where the doctors put the name from her birth certificate. And apparently the government servers had it too. Nope. No one else was going to know who she was. No one else was going to have the ammunition needed to turn her in.

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara watched a muscular boy step up and talk. Though he did have a point logically, she wanted to get hers across also. "First, I believe it's more than just our reputation. They have money, have you seen how popular the game is? They could easily pay others to do it and stay quiet. Also, this is going to be very dangerous, between sitting in a jail cell and going on a suicide mission, I know my choice. Also, while you may hack your own weapons at certain times, I have my own personal code of conduct. I promised myself I would never hack for personal gain in iWorld. It's quite easy to be successful in-game if you invest in time and effort. And the fact that actual in-game items could be designed specifically for me is an exciting thought." After speaking, she remembered how he fiddled with his watch and suddenly knew her name. Interesting, I wonder what other tricks he can do with that watch. She didn't mind that they could find out her name, many people already knew. Nothing harmful could be traced back to her real name anyway. Before she could start spewing out options again, the short girl stood up. Apparently the pro-model was enough to convince her. When she introduced herself as /ignis\, the mostly black-haired girl raised an eyebrow. She had heard the name before, maybe even played with her before, but she couldn't remember any exact situations. "Well, if we're already introducing ourselves. My real name is Kiara, and my Avatar's alias is Yin-Yang," she said. Though they hadn't been in the office for long, she was starting to feel a bit bored. Out of habit, her hand reached up to twirl her white streak of hair, an action to keeps her hands moving while boredom started to creep in.

 

[Void_Nugget]

Stiles turned to follow the agent, "well I guess we're off then, I'm Stiles by the way, my avatar name is Escanor, and for your information I don't usually have weapons or items it was just a suggestion" he muttered slightly, he was trying to figure out /ignis\'s name but she had some good defenses up, maybe he would try again later, he yawned slightly and then processed something "hang on I know Yin-Yang, I've played with you online once I don't remember what but I have you on my friends list definitely, your that Nephilim right" he said with a smile "now I know why I couldn't hack into your info, I didn't even consider you were a fellow hacker", he said simply chuckling slightly.
@Keen Kitsune

 

[=Nightshade=]

"Escanor." Aster snapped her fingers. "The demon. I remember your Avatar from one of the war games I played. Hacked a laser gun from a different game into the medieval game. Couldn't hit you to save my life. Now I know why." She shook her head, and her ponytailed black-brown hair slapped her in the face. She irritably brushed it back. "And Yin-Yang. I coulda sworn I'd seen your avatar before, too..." She frowned. "Can't remember at the moment." Her fingers were itching to jab at a virtual keyboard and swipe holographic screens around in front of her bionic eye. The motions of hacking came as easily as breathing, and the actual code almost as so. But she got a lot more joy from hacking than from breathing. Breathing was just so... mundane. Anyone could do it. But hacking, and hacking well? That took skill, skill that these other individuals possessed enough of to receive the attention of the government. She'd have to tread carefully.

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara listened as the boy introduced himself as Stiles, and then Escanor. She was decently surprised when she realized she also remembered him. When he stated that he remembered her, even her race, she turned to look at him. His following statement of her not seeming like a hacker didn't offend her. It was better to be underestimated than overestimated, and she hadn't hacked in iWorld yet. She nodded to confirm the previous statement of her Avatar's race but didn't speak aloud as Ignis began to speak. She was quite relieved to know that she had remembered his race also. The fact that Ignis didn't remember any specific interactions with her was also fine to her. It wasn't easy to remember every face you came across, especially when there were so many online. "Well, I guess I'll come along," she said, as she also turned so she could follow the agents. "This seems more fun than sitting in jail, or something boring like that. I'm sure we'll get told more information once we're in the base?" she asked.

 

[Clunpsy]

Jason wasn't paying attention to much happening. All he even heard were introductions and hackers. He didn't think he had ever played with any of these people, but he vaguely remembered one. He had been messing around in a war game, and one of the opposition seemed to either be hacking, or glitching out. Whichever one it was, Jay didn't care. What happens if I do this? Maybe I'll get paid a lot of money. Maybe I'll get thrown into jail. Maybe I'll get brutally murdered. Always wondered what being dead was like. Jason decided to follow the others. None of them knew him, so he should have introduced himself. He didn't. "Guess I'll come with ya. No harm in having a little fun." Maybe there was harm involved, but Jay didn't know for sure.

 

[Schrift]

Inside the principals office the monitor flashed to life as a deep voice came from the speakers, "hello this your captain speaking, if you look to your government officials you will realize one of them is called Gabe Itch that would be the tall one. I am Hugh Jass and we will be flying you to your cells in Area 51." A laugh came out of the monitor, which followed by a more severe voice, "Are you done yet kid this ain't some blogging channel now get out of the school server." . who ever was on the monitor could be heard from outside the office. "Your captain is now landing with his co-pilot, what's your name again?". The demanding voice of the man came back on, "Don't make me tase you kid".

The door opened as the retort came as" Don't make me reveal your search history". A pale skinny boy followed by a drone walked through with a tall, angry man. "Someone take him before I tase him". The boy gave the man a mocking look, before touching the drone and tapping on some random places before saying "If you talk one last look at the monitor you will see Agent Clarence's search history". The Clarence gave him a surprised stare, "How do you know my name?". "Well you did kidnap a kid who hacked into the pentagon for fun, so it would be easy to know your name" he replied.

 

[=Nightshade=]

Aster gave a laugh as the new kid came in. As she recalled, she was pretty sure he was in her English class. What was his name again? “You hacked the Pentagon? Nice. Been trying to get into the CIA for a while now; just recently bypassed the third firewall. Think there’s probably a few more to go.” She rubbed her temples. “Giving me a headache.” She turned to the agent who seemed to be in charge. “So? When are going to go?”

“Now,” the agent whose name appeared to be Clarence said. “Follow us to the plane. It’ll be a couple hours flight. When we get there, if the others managed to do their jobs, there should be a few others. Now get your annoying butts moving; I have other things to do than babysit a bunch of highschoolers.”

 

[Schrift]

"My name's Yamato, I tried to hack into the CIA but gave up after the 4th firewall. But I did hack into Disney land once, let me just say that mickey mouse ain't gonna be that pg if you know what I mean". He said smiling at her. He walked towards the door but then hit his head into the frame. "What the hell AQA I thought you would've told me there was something in front!!" he shouted rubbing his bruise. "I thought you had that one" the drone replied. "Well I obviously didn't if I am on the ground, just cause I'm a blind person able to hack doesn't mean I can walk out a door" he retorted, pointing at his eyes. "Well I guess it is dumb how I'm able to hack but not able walk through a door without almost getting a concussion" he sighed. He grabbed onto his drone pulling himself up, "Can you activate my Sole guider?". "Fine, but I get to be a dragon in stasis" the drone said. "Dumb AI always wanting more than they deserve and while your at it stop looking at the boy with big muscles, I don't want to be dealing with a broken toaster" he smirked.

 

[Clunpsy]

Wow... Never would have thought a blind person would be good enough at hacking to get here. I wouldn't want to ever have to be on the opposition to any of these guys, if I wasn't a hacker myself. Jay noticed that the short girl had only said her Avatar name. He was about to make a comment on it, but he had said neither his Avatar name nor real name, which would make him quite hypocritical. Yamato seemed like a funny guy, to him. The only thing Jason found remotely wrong was that he was kind of bragging about the entire Disney Land thing. Of course, Jason found it hilarious. Then he remembered something. Did that agent call us annoying? I haven't even said anything worthwhile. He even said he was babysitting us. Authority probably got to his head. Jay got tired of not saying anything. "I'm Jason. You can call me Jay if you can't be bothered to say an extra syllable. I'm still struggling to get past the third firewall of CIA, but I'm getting there, ok? And don't rub it in. If you do, I'll try not to grab the nearest chair and smash it on your not-so-thick skulls. No promises, though." His threat would have been mildly intimidating, if he didn't have a chin wide grin when he was saying this.

 

[Void_Nugget]

Stiles sighed and cracked his kneck, all this standing was causing his body to get random pains, he much preferred sitting. He followed the agent out as he fiddled with his watch, he was monitoring a bit he had made this morning that would operate some basic grinding of easy money making online. It was his main source of income and bots were one of his strong points, he also got a notification that his essay bot had finally finished, so he sent the finished essay to his teacher before turning to see if the others were following.

 

[=Nightshade=]

“Wo-o-o-ow,” Aster said, drawing out the word sardonically. “Is this the new system of authority? How many firewalls of the CIA we’ve broken through? That’s kind of ridiculous.”

The agent cleared his throat pointedly. With a sarcastic eye-roll, she followed him.

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara watched as two people entered, one claiming to have hacked into the pentagon. Her lips twitched into a half-smile for a moment, as she remembered many of her past hackings. She had hacked the government before on multiple occasions. Usually the harder the challenge, the more determined she got. However, hacking the government had never proved interesting to her. It wasn't as if she had set out on a mission while hacking, or that getting government secrets would somehow improve her gameplay. She hacked for the thrill it provided, to simply to relieve stress at other times, or if it was beneficial to her. Though she had hacked many times in the past, some big and some small, they were almost never traced back to her, only small ones that wouldn't have large consequences were slightly traceable if one dug deep and long enough. When the boy bumped into the door-frame, she realized he was blind. The drone was able to talk and probably helped him move around. As she listened to Yamato talk about his hacking, she almost let out a sigh. Yes, there were technically in a gathering of hackers, but there were agents around. Even if they figured out some of her misdeeds, the more kept hidden the better. They all started talking about their CIA hacking, but thankfully Ignis quickly pointed out how stupid it sounded. "So, how many more minutes until we get there?" she asked the agent, as she continued to follow behind.

 

[=Nightshade=]

The agent cast a disdainful glance over his shoulder at the posse of highschoolers he was leading to a limo. "I told you, a couple hours. Once we get to the airport. Hurry up, there's no time to waste."

"Ooh, limos," Aster murmured. "High class. Guess the government has everything, now don't they."

The H8ter sighed. "Just get in the car. I have things to do. You know, that have at least a slight amount of importance. Move it."

(OOC: once the chars are in the car, I'm going to timeskip to the gov't base)

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara rolled her eyes as she slid into the car. "Well sorry," she snapped with sarcasm. "I don't usually listen to idiots," she continued to say in the same huffy tone. Is he saying we're not important? This guy really is annoying. Well, the second I'm out of this mess, this guy better watch his back. With her face turned away from the group, a chilling look took her face, but only for a split second. With the moment gone, she shifted into a comfortable position before staring out of the window.

 

[Schrift]

Yamato walked towards the cars, "So you going kidnap some teenagers, to stop crazy AI from stealing people's bodies?" he asked Agent Clarence. "It's more than that" he mumbled before pushing him into the car, his head hit the top of the door frame. "I swear to god I wi--" the door was slammed into his face. "Hey AQA where are are you?" he asked, but no response came. With his sole guiders activated he could see Kiara, but no drone. He settled down, reassuring himself that AQA was ok. He waited for the others to get in the car. "If we're not going in the next five minutes I'm gonna hack something, I don't know what but I will hack something" he muttered. "Do you have a crush on the big kid back there?" he asked Kiara, his white eyes shooting at her.

 

[Clunpsy]

Jason shrugged. The short girl had made a fair point. It was pretty dumb that they were talking about who's hacked what. He didn't really care about it, so it naturally left his mind as he approached the cars. His pace slowed down the closer they got to the cars. The agent next to him saw how slow Jay was walking. "Hurry up. I'm not going to wait for you." Jay shrugged and asked, "Should I care?" He stepped into the car. He kinda felt bad for Yamato after he hit his head, but he wasn't one to show sympathy very often. He crossed his arms after sitting down, and kicked at the seat in front of him.

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara heard a bang before the car door slammed. She turned to see it was Yamato, but almost rolled her eyes when he asked if she had a crush on 'the big kid'. From the way he glanced her direction, something was aiding his sight. To what extreme, she didn't know. "I can assure you, romance is the farthest thing from my mind at this moment," she said. Boredom started to settle in again, so she reached up to twirl her white streak. She shifted again so that she faced the window. If they were going to be stuck in a car for a long time, she wanted at least to be able to see outside.

 

[Void_Nugget]

Stiles followed the others and bent down to get in the car nearly banging his head due to his height. "Bloody limos" he muttered to himself as he sat down next to Aster, he glanced at his watch, he was looking through some old data files when the face of a anime style Female with red hair popped up on his screen, it was his AI assistant who also doubled as a follower type thing when he was in The Game. "Escanor why are you sat in a limo with all these people" she said, "good morning to you too Yuuki" he sighed "we've all been hired by the government, have you finished checking for viruses?" he asked "yup, all done, who's the chick" Yuuki asked glancing at Aster, "just another hacker, now shush" he said before turning if his watch and leaning back.

 

[=Nightshade=]

When everyone had gotten into the limousines, they drove off to the airport. For Aster, time passed as if through water. She did what the agents said reluctantly, with sarcastic snorts punctuating every time she spoke, but the fire was gone. She didn't want to resist, really. After all, there was a pro-model GameLock waiting for each of the young hackers if they could make it to the base without annoying the H8ters to the point where they were all strangled. As yet another limo posse pulled into the government base, Aster couldn't help but crane her neck to look around at all the crisp, clean, chrome buildings. They were escorted into one of the buildings, then down a looooooong staircase leading underground.

"So, where are we going, exactly?" Aster asked calmly, trying to disguise the fact that the long, thin fingers of fear were trickling down her back.

The agent cast a disdainful glance over one shoulder. "The Game room. You aren't the only ones we've recruited. It's all hands on deck right now. Now come on."

"Touchy, touchy," Aster murmured, but followed the agent down the twisting dirt stairs.

 

[Schrift]

In the corridor Aster seemed to be asking a lot of questions, which made Yamato more worried about AQA "Where is my drone?" asked Yamato, he was getting quite annoyed AQA wasn't here still. "Kid I keep telling you, he is still at the limo so stop being a brat." Agent Clarence replied. "So I'm a brat?" he said, now losing patience. He threw a small, metal hockey puck on the floor. But unlike normal pucks, this one folded three metal slabs that locked into the floor. "Well tell me if a brat can do this", the small device, emitted a not so small light, that was equal in power. "What the hell kid" shouted Clarence rubbing his eyes, multiple guards in the corridor lifted their guns at Yamato, but he was barely fazed. "Where is my drone?" he repeated, his voice now in a low tone. Clarence spoke into a small microphone on his shirt before AQA was brought into the corridor with a confused agent. "There kid you happy?" he asked looking quite annoyed. "Finally, took you long enough, good luck getting that out of the ground though" he replied acting quite smug.

"Where were you?" He asked AQA as they approached the game room, "In a limo, waiting for you" was the reply. Yamato shrugged off the reply, knowing it was a lie. In the game room multiple GameLocks, but one of them really looked appealing to Yamato. He walked up to it and pulled out a sheet from his pocket. He placed it over the front of the GameLock, before AQA sprayed a black paint over it. "Who said graffiti was old" he laughed, before Clarence shouted "What is your issue kid, you've blinded a government agent then proceed to vandalize an expensive GameLock owned by the government.". "Touch my stuff and I'll touch yours" he laughed before rejoining the group.

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara sighed as she watched Yamato's antics. First, he blinded an agent, then he painted a government GameLock. She wouldn't be surprised if he was the first to "accidentally" die. They were working for the government, possibly giving their lives, and this was unfolding in front of her. The drone must be very useful to him, for him to pull a stunt like that. Either that, or he was just not thinking. I mean, he has already revealed so much and the more he reveals the more they'll watch for. She continued to walk down the stairs, praying that somebody wouldn't trip and fall which would probably end up in all of them rolling down the stairs in a tumbled heap. Her hands fluttered around, checking herself to make sure she had everything. She wasn't about to pull out an assistant of sorts or a gadget, not while they were so close to the game room. Of course she had helpers, she was sure everybody around her had helpers. But at the moment, the more they underestimated her the better. She sighed as they continued to go down the seemingly never-ending stairs that just had to be dirt. The upper building had looked so polished and clean, and then they had gotten here. "You know, if we don't get there soon, I might start to think you're bringing us down here just to murder us," she said, her tone serious. What if they made up the problem to persuade us here. Then the limo ride was to actually bring us and now this is for our past crimes. She pursed her lips in frustration. Even though she wasn't the most athletically inclined, if they were going to kill her, she wouldn't go without a fight.

 

[=Nightshade=]

The agent let out an irritated sigh. "I assure you, everything I have told you is true, albeit highly confidential. We don't want to panic the public."

"Even though it's their brains that are being taken over?" Aster interrupted pointedly. "Now that's hypocrisy."

It seemed to Aster that she'd successfully completed her mission to drive the agent insane, along with some "help" from the other hackers, and she smiled in satisfaction. "Get. In. A GameLock," the agent growled out, evidently having some... issues. Aster shrugged. That was one command she didn't have a problem with. She selected a GameLock, opened the door, and prepared for the deluge of sensory overload that would come with the next five seconds. A sideways grin quirked the side of her face; the Game was her life. Tiny shocks ran up her arms and legs as she walked into the foamy substance inside the GameLock. There was a momentary feeling of panic as her eyes were covered by the colorless substance and she dimly heard the door slide shut. Then, light!

Aster blinked a couple of times as her Avatar spawned on a blank field and her tag appeared above it. By looking up, she could see the bold red letters hovering above her. /ignis\ She breathed a sigh of gratification. I am home! She shifted the metal wings on her Avatar's back, focused her bionic hearing experimentally on different things around her, pulled up holograms using her bionic eye. Blinking the holograms out of her vision, she waited for the others to appear.

 

[Void_Nugget]

Stiles had been watching his surroundings and fellow hackers intently he often did, when they reached the room he smiled, these were definitely worth it, the models were very nice. After being instructed to he entered a GameLock and prepared himself for the sensory overload. Then all he could see was light.

Stiles blinked several times as he adjusted to the surroundings, looking down at his glowing arm he smiled, this definitely felt better he glanced up at his avatar name Escanor before hearing a familiar voice from his right "hey boss, took you long enough" he sighed "huh hello Yuuki, guess I'll introduce y..", he started to say, before Yuuki raised a finger "no need" she said before walking over to Aster, "hello /ignis\ my name is Yuuki, I am an advanced AI assistant created by Forsythe Stilinski" she said with a smile on her face, Escanor face palmed and made his way over, "hey, yeah this is Yuuki" he said before he created a ball of energy in his hand that acted like a holographic interface, "good location, don't think I've been here before" he said before absorbing the interface back into his arm.
@Night's Shadow

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara looked around the room, a mixture of disbelief and suspicion on her face. She was alive, and here were the pro models as promised. After two of the group mates entered and didn't seem to die, she approached the black and white one. She stepped inside, feeling the model's shocks before the coolness of the substance. Her eyes closed as it had many times before, and soon she opened her eyes. She looked up, happy to see her avatar name Yin-Yang. The yin was black, while the yang was white, and the hyphen a gray. She looked back down at herself and stretched out her wings. Her devil tail swished as the halo hovered above her head and around her horns. She let out a tiny giggle of excitement, she was finally back in her element. She would admit, the pro models felt nice. However, she couldn't help but wonder if the pro models allowed them to feel more pain also. Oh well, she could worry about that later. Her wings flapped to lift her slightly off the ground, a simple trick that had taken her a while to learn. She glided over to the other two, her multi-colored eyes nearly glowing as she assessed their characters and the A.I. standing next to them. "I like your wings," she noted, staring at Ignis' metal wings. "Do they function like regular wings?" she asked, curious at how metal wings actually worked. It would be handy if one didn't feel the pain their wings might go through, but on the other hand that could cause a crash or other problems.

 

[=Nightshade=]

/ignis\ smiled slightly and waved at Escanor’s AI assistant. When Yin-Yang asked how her wings functioned, she grinned sheepishly. “Nah. They’re too heavy. Each feather has a tiny rocket thruster in it that propels it to make small adjustments in flight path. So they’re more like a jetpack, really. But I can feel them enough to coordinate myself.” She looked around, waiting to see if anyone else would pop into existence. She couldn’t help but think of her comrades as their Avatar names; they looked so different than their IRL selves, it was almost as if they were entirely different people. She thought of herself as a different person in the Game as well. But if she tried hard enough, she could see the seed of Kiara in Yin-Yang, the piece of Stiles in Escanor, and a teensy bit of herself in /ignis\.

Also, it was just easier to remember when their tags were hovering above them.

 

[Schrift]

Yamato walked up to the remaining GameLock and pulled out a wire from the back of AQA. He plugged it into the side of the GameLock before entering, himself. When he saw light he knew he was in the game. He looked above him and there it was, RAIIJU. Next to him was a Raven with a mist like appearance. Above the raven had the name Nakama. He ran to the others, "Sick you guys have wings" he said looking at the wings of /ignis\ and Yin-Yang. "All I got is bandages and a Raven." He pointed at AQA, "Anyway what are we supposed to do?" He asked.

 

[Clunpsy]

Jay followed the group and smiled when he saw the GameLocks. He didn't hesitate to choose the gold painted one when they were told to enter. His breath slowed now that he knew they got to use the pro models. His eyes flickered as he was emerged into the colourless substance in the GameLock. The shocks didn't bother him, as he had gotten used to it. There was nothing for a moment, but soon his eyes were surrounded by light.

He looked up. His Avatar name floated above him. Denny_Motor He spun around as he heard the others chatting. Denny_Motor tapped his boots and they grew four wheels each. He rolled over to the group, with his arms behind his back. A robotic ant the size of a thumb crawled out of his shirt up to his head. Denny_Motor smiled and let it onto his gloved hand. He chuckled when /ignis\ explained the metal wing situation. "This is a Smart. Accurate. Laudable. Louse Yift - I call her Sally. She's my pet friend assistant thing. She helps me to not be stupid when I need to." Sally clicked her mandibles together as if he could understand her, which he couldn't without some sort of translator.

 

[Kitsune Kiara]

Kiara stared, a bit excited as she watched more people join them. She listened to Ignis's explanation of how her wings worked. It must be heavy, I wonder if that means she's really strong or maybe she altered them to weigh less. She watched as people introduced their pets and assistants. She herself had three kitsunes, each with three tails. One was black, the other was gray, and the last one was white. They were all around the size of a young kitsune, but they could combine with each other to grow bigger and stronger. However, she felt no need to introduce them or call them to her at the moment, as they weren't in dangerous territory yet. Not to mention, she wasn't sure they'd take kindly to everyone. "I'm not sure what we're going to do, now that we're all gathered they'll probably send instructions soon. Also, just to be clear all the hacking I do from this moment onward is not for my personal gain," she said, randomly. She knew they probably wouldn't understand her little honor code, but she made sure that she had at least put it out there in the internet. It was a tiny bit of reassurance that she wasn't breaking her personal guidelines for the government's benefit.