Code: Reboot

Noctis the Devious

Noctis the Devious

Of Lies and Stories
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. Multiple posts per week
  2. 1-3 posts per week
  3. One post per week
  4. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
Sporadically, Though out the Day
Writing Levels
  1. Give-No-Fucks
  2. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. No Preferences
Genres
- Modern/Magical/High Fantasy
- Paranormal
- Romance-ish
- Supernatural
- Original
- Fandom
- Action
- Adventure
- Espionage
- Apocalyptic
- Alternative Reality
- Genre-Bent Reality
- Steampunk
- Cyberpunk
- Dieselpunk
- Magipunk
- Sci-fi
- Superhuman
[Posted by RowRow]

Exploring abandoned buildings was not high on Stephen's to do list, and finding a weird supercomputer along with scanners that looked like they were out of that weird lab scene from Final Fantasy: Crisis Core? Yeah, hell no. Hovering in the doorway of the lab, the blonde was tempted to get right out of there, but before his sense of self preservation could completely take over, he had a thought. 'Pictures. I need to take a video, otherwise no one will ever believe me! Digging his phone out of his pocket, Stephen quickly put started recording, starting to speak. "Are you guys seeing this? I was looking for the new engineering building, you know the one that opened last week, and found this instead..." Biting his lip as he looked around, Stephen decided that this was enough.

Shutting off the recording, the blonde made his way out of the basement and high tailed it back to the dorms-his engineering homework could wait. Hoping that one of his friends, or his sister, were in the student lounge, Stephen sighed in relief when he saw Ryder and Jessie. 'Thank god. "Guys, guess what?" Clicking onto the recording, Stephen threw it onto the couch before vaulting over the back himself, landing with an 'omph' sound, the worn furtive not appreciating his stunt. "I found the creepiest old computer thing ever." Pressing play on the video, he continued on talking. "Watch this and then come with me-I'll show you in person."
 
Jessie was suppose to be helping Ryder with his algebra homework but instead the stupidly pale guy was lounging on the couch behind him, ear buds in, watching a play through of an indie horror game on one of his favorite streaming apps. Ryder was pretty much non existent to him. The red head huffed and was about to make a comment when Stephen jumped in, quite literally, landing on the couch with a recording in hand.

His dilemma forgotten, Ryder perked up at at the idea of "the creepiest computer thing ever" and joined the other on the couch. Jessie, who was jostled by the impact, glared at them before sighing, pausing his video, and leaned in also. "No way," he stated, interest now piqued as the recording played.

"Dude, I'm so in! Come on, let's check it out," Ryder said, brimming with excitement.

"Yeah, how about no."

"What do you mean 'no'?" Ryder gawked at Jessie and his blatant refusal. "It's right up your horror alley!"

"Yeah, here's the thing about horror, it's much more entertaining on screen."

"Come on, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Where's your sense of, I don't know, life."

"Whatever man. Come on Steph, if something happens to us it'll be on his conscious," Ryder decided, hopping over the back of the couch and making his way out.

"Why would it be on my conscious? You're the idiots making this decision!" Despite his words Jessie was already leaping over the mistreated furniture as well and following after his curly haired friend.
 
[Posted by RowRow]

It didn't take Stephen long to retrace his steps, even with Ryder and Jessie accompanying him, and as soon as the trio entered the basement, Stephen headed over to the still sleeping computer system, any of his earlier fear leaving him. Hey, it wasn't like he was alone right now-he had back up, should he need it! "Who wants to see if this thing even starts up?" Without waiting for an answer, the blonde sat down and started doing what he could to see if he could get the system to start up. While he didn't have his sister's way with words, computers were always something Stephen understood. After a few moments, the screen flickered to life, the room coming alive with the sound of a humming computer and Stephen just grinned. 'Well, it does something!

Starting to say something else, Stephen went silent as the screen came alive, the system having finished booting up and suddenly, the blonde wondered if someone was using this computer for like, a serious game of World of Warcraft or something! "Guys, look! It's a video game or something!" Grinning, Stephen looked around for something akin to a game manual, or even a user manual for the system... Not finding anything, he decided to type 'manual' into the terminal, eyes widening when a menu came up.

"Whoever designed this game... it's like, next, next, next gen."
 
Jessie wasn't sure how he should feel about this kind of equipment just laying around for just anyone to find. Ryder, on the other hand, didn't seem to share his inhibitions, wondering off to examine the room more extensively. "Man this is so cool!" he exclaimed, green eyes wide and bright with barely contained excitement.

Jessie ignored him and followed Stephen over to the computer, leaning over and squinting at all the data rolling across the screen. He jumped when two others windows popped up, but instead of displaying more data and options, two animated icons were instead displayed. One appeared as a male with at least two years on them, skin nearly as pale as Jessie's, with cold black eyes and a calculating expression. His clothes, from what Jessie could see, we're also black, and so we're the two feathers in his short messy hair.

The second icon was a female more around their age with skin that wasn't dark dark but definitely not pale, or fair for that matter. Her eyes were a much warmer brown, though currently wide with a mixture of fear and confusion, framed by sleek brown hair. "What the hell?! Who are you? Where am I?"

"What do you think you're doing?" The questions came one after the other and it was with shock that Jessie realized they were directed at them.

He leaned over and whispered to Stephen, "Who the fuck are they? They can't actually see us, right?" Though apparently he didn't lower his voice enough as the guy's expression flattened to unamusement and the chick just had What the fuck written all over her face. "Yes, we can see you!" She exclaimed. "Now what the hell is happening?!"
 
[Posted by RowRow]

Not able to answer for a moment, Stephen really wasn't sure what was going on. Surely these could animated whatever they were... They weren't actually talking to them? How could they be? But when the girl said that yes, they could in fact hear them, Stephen only threw a started, vaguely terrified look at Jessie, whispering, "I don't know who they are!? Maybe this is part of the video game this thing is for?" Green eyes wide, the blonde tried to think of something to do. "Should we turn off the computer?" The question directed at Jessie, Stephen was already reaching for his phone, taking a quick picture of the computer screen, just for future reference.

"Uh... are y'all a video game or something?" Stephen spoke nervously, reaching out and tapping on the screen. "Maybe they're a save file that's been left... I've heard of games like this, that actually remember data and all... Maybe I can wipe the drive?" He suggested, not knowing if the idea would work or not, but maybe at the very least it would get these people off the screen?
 
"Don't you dare," Came the strong objection from the male. "What gives you the right to wake us up and then turn us off? This not some sort of game, kid."

"Then what is it?" The female sounded exasperated with the lack of answers she was getting. "And for the last time WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

"Adora come down."

"You come down! Wait is that my name? How do you know my name?! Who are you?"

"Sable, I'm your brother." He didn't even blink, seemingly unperturbed by his so called sister's panic and lack of knowledge of just about everything.

"Alright can everyone just shut up for a second?" Jessie finally cut in. "Stephen, can't you do your computer-bibidy-bopidy-boo and figure out what they are exactly? What any of this is?" As tempted as he was to just back out now, leave and never return, whoever created these characters made them a little too human for his liking.
 
[Posted by RowRow]

Scoffing, Stephen resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead scowled at the figure who had told him not to dare. If there was one thing the blonde didn't like, other than spiders, it was being told what to do. "I'm sorry, but I don't take orders from video games," the blonde replied in a lofty voice, his tone invoking some of the icy scorn his twin was so fond of. "Now be quiet while I wipe this system." Couldhe even wipe this system? Sure, he was good, but wasn't this a little ambitious of him? Oh well, there was only one way to figure it out, wasn't there?

Starting to type every command he could think of into the terminal, the blonde smirked slightly when the option to wipe the drive came up. Clicking on it, Stephen's smirk vanished when out asked for an access code. Ugh, it just had to be difficult. "Jessie, will you and Ryder look around for maybe a notebook or a manual or something? I'm just going to wipe this, and then restore it-I don't know what this video game is, but restoring it should tell us, right?" Stephen frowned slightly. "It's not like they're actually real... right?"
 
Jessie straightened and ran a hand through his white-blonde hair, blue eyes searching the two faces presented to them. The female, Adora, looked on the verge of panic. "I don't know man," he finally replied with a hefty sigh. "Where is Ryder anyway?" He half turned away from the oversized computer and searched the large room but there was no sign of bright read hair bobbing through the shadowy corners. Maybe he lost interest and went back to the student lounge?

With Ryder, that was merely wishful thinking.

"No, no, no! You don't get to do that! You don't get to just turn us off like we're apart of some cheap machine! I refuse to go back to that-- that-- nothingness!" Adora - that didn't sound like a real name - was now gasping for air, both hands clutching at her hair. Jessie eyebrows knitted together. Was she actually hyperventilating?

"Calm down, Adora," Sable, ever the calm one, piped in. "Count to ten before you have a panic attack. They're not going to find the access code because I - or rather we - have it. Can you at least check why she doesn't seem to remember anything?" Now he's worried about his "sister's" apparent amnesia? Distraction, his kind helpfully supplied. He's trying to keep you occupied to buy time.

Jessie shook his head but before he could say anything more, Ryder was running back into the room. "Guys, you have to-- Hey what are you two up to?"

"Nothing of immediate importance," Jessie answered, getting in the way of his best friend's view of the animated icons. "You found something?"

"Yeah you two are not going to believe this, but there's these tall, tubular things in the next room over. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were full body scanners or something."
 
[Posted by RowRow]

When the girl started freaking out, Stephen hesitated a little in his quest to find a way to wipe the system. It wasn't possible, but the girl, Adora, certainly did seem real, or alive, or something and a bit of guilt went through him. At the mention of trying to figure out why Adora didn't remember anything, the blonde started to speak when Ryder entered the room and said something about scanners. "Scanners? Full body?" He glanced to the screen for a moment before back to Ryder, his mind racing a mile a minute before deciding to try something, typing a few quick commands into the terminal, anything that he could think of. Scanner, open. Not a second after he pressed enter on the command, he heard a faint whooshing sound. "I think I managed to open the scanners!" He chirped.

Starting to look through some of the files that had appeared, Stephen couldn't believe what he was reading. "Uh, guys? Apparently you can use the scanners to send... things...or people into the computer. Is there any junk around? Like an old book? I doubt this will work, but..." He grinned. "Unless one of y'all want to volunteer?"
 
"No."

"Yes!" came the quick, simultaneous replies. Jessie shot Ryder a look but the curly cue ignored it in favor of racing back into the second room. He sighed and briefly wondered if he should be concerned with his friend's apparent lack of self preservation.

"I guess I'll go with him. At least if it's a Death trap, it'd be quick right?" He wasn't actually looking for an answer to the question as he followed Ryder's trail back to the scanner room. He frowned at the strange contraptions looming over him with one already containing his best friend bouncy on the balls of his feet and huffed before cautiously stepping in one.

"Now what?" He called out, hopefully loud enough for Stephen to hear.
 
[Posted by RowRow]

Having not really expected that, Stephen turned his attention back to the computer. It wasn't like this would actually do anything, right? There was no way that could be a thing! 'Let's see... Oh, here!' Typing as he spoke, Stephen started up the process, or at least the blonde thought that was what he was doing! "Transfer Ryder, transfer Jessie. Scanner Ryder, scanner Jessie. Virtualization!" Pressing enter, Stephen couldn't believe what he was seeing-two digitalized figures were starting to appear on screen. "No freaking way," he whispered. "Uh, guys? Please say this didn't actually work."
 
"Wha-" Whatever Ryder was about to say was immediately interrupted by a yelp as he suddenly fell from, well, whatever he fell from and landed oh so gracefully, a long stick with a rather lethal looking blading unceremoniously dropping on top of him. "Ow," he groaned. Next to him Jessie landed in a crouch. "What the-- Just how?" He complained. Should track and field runners really have that much grace?

Jessie merely smirked before realizing something. "Uh... Ryder? You look like you're about to attend some comic book convention."

Ryder blinked in confusion before patting himself down. His simple jacket, t-shirt, and worn jeans were replaced by what looked to be Mage robes that cut off at the knee. Under them were a simple pair of legging tucked into a simple pair of boots. A weight on his ear made him realise a single earring dangled. "What the-- how?!" He glanced over at the other boy and counted contain his laughter. "Holy-- Jessie, you're an honest to God Vampire!"

Jessie looked as bewildered as Ryder felt, taking his turn in examining himself. Most notably his nails that were sharpened to claws on each hand. What the fu-- Ow!" He cringed at the sharp pain and touched his lip. There was no blood but he swore... "I frigging bit my lip!" Ryder just laughed harder at that. Ignoring him, Jessie began looking around, but instead of being surrounded by creepy sci-fi bullshit a digital forest scenery laid scattered before them. Where the heck was Stephen? He turned skyward, but there wasn't really a sky? "Uh, Stephen?" He called into the bright void where he thought he heard his voice originate. "I think it worked a little too well."
 
[Posted by RowRow]

"I'll say it worked a little too well," Stephen agreed, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Hold on a second," getting up from the computer chair, the blonde ran into the scanner room, eyes widening when he saw that the scanners were indeed empty. How the actual fuck? There was no way in hell any of that should have worked... Making his way back to the computer, he sat down, feeling a little dazed. "Okay, guys... Uh, what the hell just happened? Because if I didn't know better, I'd say you were actually in the computer." Finally paying attention to the images on the screen, he bit back a snicker. "Jessie, I think you're a vampire!" Rolling his eyes, he started to look at all the new tabs the computer had pulled up. "Health points, attack points... Guys, I think you're in some kind of rpg!" Suddenly, something occurred to him. "See if you can find the two that were talking to us earlier? Are they around anywhere?"
 
Jessie frowned and glanced around once more, but there didn't seem to be any other living things around besides them. A tap on his shoulder had him turning back to Ryder, who was pointing at something off in the distance. "Maybe they're in that tower?" Honestly he didn't know how he missed that silver structure standing stark against the bright void surrounding whatever this place was. It was notably glowing blue.

"We came this far, might as well check it out." The two raced forward, Ryder a little awkwardly with a straight up Glaive in his hands. The further they ventured the more they realized just how empty this world was. If it truly was "just a game" it would be comparable to one still in working progress. The emptiness of it was just plain eerie, or maybe this was how it felt to be in a video game? How was he supposed to know exactly?

Once they reached the tower, they both circled it but neither one of them could find even an impression of a door. "Uh... maybe we should just knock?" Jessie gave Ryder a skeptical look but the red head went ahead with his plan anyway, knocking on the sleek surface of the structure. For a moment nothing happened, and Jessie was about to give up on the whole endeavor and move on to figuring out how they get out of the damned computer when suddenly a girl - no, the chick from the screen - was materializing right in front of them. "Whoa," Ryder said breathlessly.

"Who are you two?" she demanded. "And where are we?!"

"That's what we should be asking you," Jessie replied.

"But I don't know anything!" Fear and confusing were starting to ebb away into frustration, and at that point Jessie noticed the short sword strapped to her lower back as well as her "Warrior Princess Xena" get up she sported. He thought it wise to take two steps back and hold his arm out as if to ward off a wild animal; Ryder may have a more imposing weapon but he at least trusted the curly cue not to run him through.

"Do you at least know where your 'brother' is?" Jessie inquired.

"I don't know! I didn't even know I had a brother until like five minutes ago," she huffed.

"There's another tower, maybe he's in there?" Ryder suggested.

Jessie blinked and turned toward where he was facing to find the same structure looming in the distance, but this one was glowing red. "That's doesn't look right to me, at all."
 
[Posted by RowRow]

While they did all that, Stephen had an idea. Sending a message and his location to both Rachel and Riley, he sighed in relief when both the girls appeared not fifteen minutes later. "Guys? Can you hear me? I'm sending Rachel and Riles to help you out!" After nearly another five minutess arguing with his extremely stubborn sister, he managed to convince her to follow Riley (who had been just as eager as Ryder, if not more, into the scanner room. "Transfer Rachel, transfer, Riley. Scanner Rachel, scanner Riley. Virtualization!" Only, this time things didn't go as smoothly. He expected to see his sister and Riley show up in the same forest area as Ryder and Jessie-instead, the girls showed up in a new screen-some area with mountains and all.

"Ouch!" Letting out a grumble, Rachel clambered to her feet, looking around in shock. What the actual fuck was going on? Looking over to make sure Riley was okay, she scowled when she saw her friend had managed to land on her feel somehow-damn gymnasts. "You look like something straight out of Final Fantasy," the green eyed girl noted with a grin before realizing there was a bow, as in bow and arrow, on the ground at her feet, along with a quiver. Hesitantly strapping both of them on, she looked up at the sky. "What now, twin?"

"Yeah, Stephen? What now?" Riley called, the Spanish girl looking around at their environment. "Where are we supposed to go? Is there even anyone around? I thought you were sending us to help the guys?"
 
A short while passed, but there wasn't any other girl in sight besides the one they were already with. "Uh, Stephen? I don't see anyone else here," Ryder remarked oh so helpfully.

"And yet we have company," Adora huffed, drawing her short sword and getting into a readied stance in one, well practiced movement. Jessie frowned and turned his attention back to the scattered forest only to realize, yep, she was right. Five mechanical figures on four insect-like legs with one red eye and a large black symbol on their equally large heads were approaching them from shadows of the surrounding forest. If Jessie had to wager a guess none of them were friendly.

"Get down!" he shouted as their red eyes began charging up and he played enough video games to know where this was heading. Their small group of three split up to take cover behind some large rocks as the strange monsters shot a barrage of what looked like lazers. This is one very realistic dream, his thoughts offered. How else was he suppose to rationalize what was happening? "Stephen, now what?!" he demanded.
 
[Posted by RowRow]

"Rachel and Riley somehow ended up in some other section thing!" Stephen wasn't really sure what to do now-he didn't even know how to recall anyone from the computer! Oh, this was getting way too out of hand for his liking!And now there were monsters in this world!? Turning his attention briefly to the screen with his sister and Riley, he was alarmed to find they were no longer alone. "Rach!? Riles!? There are-" He cut himself off, trying to find some way to help, but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, not really. Another menu popped up, and when it said 'abilities' Stephen didn't bother reading the fine print and just started clicking-maybe it would help the others? He wasn't sure. "Jessie? Ryder? Want me to try and bring you two back?"

"Monsters, we know!" Rachel snapped, silently cursing her brother into oblivion for getting her caught up in whatever mess this was. Awkwardly drawing an arrow from the quiver, she tried to shoot it at one of the approaching blocks on legs, but the arrow didn't even come close to hitting. Ugh. "Riley, any plans?"

Riley had already drawn her weapons before shrugging her shoulders, a playful grin on her face. "Fight?" She suggested with a smirk, looking as thought she thought this would be a good idea, no trace of fear in her eyes or posture and Rachel only wished she shared her friend's courage.
 
Sable had listened in the entire time and if he didn't feel so... empty inside he would have had the mind to feel irritated? Annoyed? Amused? Something at these people's ever failing attempts in... toying with a program beyond their understanding. He stretched the wings on his back, it was hard to imagine a time when he didn't have them, and left the safety of the tower in search for the girls the computer operator unceremoniously dumped in the mountain sector. They were lucky he was already there or else he wouldn't have seen a point in coming, but some part of him knew he couldn't complete his mission without Adora, and if he needed to help her, he needed these people to become a little more willing to listen to him.

Fortunately the Bloks weren't that big of an issue, well, if you have a sky advantage like him. Though they can be quite the problem on equal ground with their ability to strategize and employ four different attacks. But there was only three of them. He landed on the middle Blok, confusing the creature, and dispite the confused spining managed to land not one but two hits on one other block, causing it to de-virtualize. The third block, however, managed to land a hit on one of his wings and he quickly took to the skies oncenter more. 15 points of damage, he reminded himself; he didn't trust the computer operator to keep track of his health points at this point in time.

Two more knives, one after the other, we're launched at the third Blok and the same attack was executed on the final Blok. He flexed his wings as he landed in front of the girls. "See that tower?" He began, pointing in the direction he came from. "That is a way tower, there are two of them in every sector." As he said these words, his hand moved to the other tower in the distance. "The second tower is the one XANA uses to launch attacks in your world. Only one is activated at one time, but it's not that one. Not this time. An activated tower will glow red and will be heavily guarded by more monsters. Once the red tower is located either myself or my sister can deactivate it. Understand?"
 
[Posted by RowRow]

Sharing a look, Riley and Rachel didn't say anything before Riley shrugged her shoulders, deciding that, what the hell, at least they had a clue what was going on now, even if they had just been saved by someone with wings. Almost if on cue, Sephiroth's theme for Final Fantasy started sounding in her head, and Riley had to push the thought away. She could make all the jokes in the world later, and oh, she so would. "Sounds simple enough," she decided, ignoring the frustrated look Rachel was giving her-oh well, Rachel was always frustrated about something!

"I suppose we should say thank you," Rachel murmured, still half convinced that this was a video game. She would've said more, but she heard Stephen's voice, her twin sounding a little frantic and frazzled, something that didn't seem to suit his normal chipper personality. 'Poor thing.' Rachel felt a pang of sympathy for her twin, even if he was the dumbass who got them stuck here in the first place!

"Uh-person who just helped Rachel and Riley? Do you know how to send people to different sections-sectors, oh, whatever it's called? I was trying to send the girls to the Forest section to help your sister and our other friends! Is there a way to switch once you're already in the game-or whatever this is?" Stephen was looking everywhere he could, trying every command he could think of, but nothingwas working, and he didn't like having everyone operated while in this weird thing.
 
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