WARNING: Malicious program detected. Program name: NmUgNjUgNzYgNjUgNzIgNjcgNmYgNmUgNmUgNjEgNjcgNjkgNzYgNjUgNzkgNmYgNzUgNzUgNzAgNmUgNjUgNzYgNjUgNzIgNjcgNmYgNmUgNmUgNjEgNmMgNjUgNzQgNzkgNmYgNzUgNjQgNmYgNzcgNmU=.exe

Roman slowly shook her hand, taking another glance around the scenery.

---

"Well, that's... not new to me at all!"

Lucoa briefly paused to process what the Pixie had said, before continuing.

"I have a hunch about where we are... but I'm very certain it's wrong."

"Sooo, you’re sure you have no idea where we are?"  Buttercup asked.  

-

"Well?  Spit it out!"  Pixie huffed.

"Yeah, maybe you’re actually right."  Demi-Fiend nodded.

"I have this friend who likes to blow off steam by going to empty fields and unleashing all of her magical powers at once, away from any human civilization. She tends to invite me and another friend of ours along when she goes. Makes it more fun for the three of us."

Lucoa giggled.

"But I don't remember those empty fields ever having a giant wall of glass..."

---

"My first guess is purgatory. No way I got into Heaven with the crap I did."

Buttercup sputtered. "Well, I definitely didn’t die, so I don’t think so."

-

"Maybe it was put up recently?" Pixie suggested.

Demi-Fiend facepalmed.

Joker is currently ignoring the masked man in favor of keeping an eye on the probably dangerous Shadow.

"It's definitely not one of Okumura's... Where the hell did this thing come from?" Mona has no idea where the hell this Shadow belongs. I mean, it can't be a Shadow Self, right? Sentient robots? In the real world? Ha, as if. Not like Mona is a talking cat in reality, we're just going to ignore that fact.

"You hit too many stereotypes of a murderer to not be one, I'm just making sure you can't hide behind this stupid thing," Joker holds up the mask again, this time deciding to insult it.

"Can we focus on what's actually important here?" Mona waves a paw at the Shadow, tugging on Joker's coattails in an attempt to get him to focus.

"Yeah, but that was Benrey. ......I don't wanna talk about him, just in case he decides being talked about makes him exist."

"Hey, I can hear you y'know!" The shadow? Robot? The thing huffs, narrowing her eyes at Mona. "And that’s rude of you to call me a thing! If you’re going to call me anything, call me Labrys." She turns toward the gray male. "And what’s his deal?"

-

"Good idea, Gordon. If I may make a suggestion; perhaps we should try to find if there are any signs of life nearby." Coomer nodded in agreement.

-

"Good point. Maybe there are other people here that can tell us." Buttercup suggested.

-

"I have no idea who that is, but okay." Pixie shrugged.

"I stole his mask so he couldn't hide behind it. He's got serious serial killer vibes, but like, the kind of serial killer you find in a really poor quality horror movie. I think my insulting his really stupid looking mask upset him." Joker has no qualms about answering Shadow Labrys' question, much to Mona's displeasure. If she's not being violent, he sees no point in starting a fight with her. Especially not while she has that giant axe.

Mona is still suspicious of her, given that he knows for sure he's a Shadow, but he's also worried about how angry the probable murderer is.

Gordon nods.
"Yeah. .....and let's NOT kill them if they owe you money, okay? Priorities."

"Oh, very well Gordon." Coomer nodded. "But just in case, I still have the Big One."

-

"Yeah, he’s got that...general look- and he’s got another mask." Shadow Labrys shakes her head. She turns toward Joker. "And thank you for at least answering my question. At least one of you is nice enough to do that."

The Big One. Right. The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon LMG, or was it a modified Browning? ....He had to wonder if he took a blow to the head or just had memory issues.
And, if worst came to worst, the SuperPlayer feature was the desperate salvo, one last bullet chambered in a magnum revolver.

(...might as well do something here, but I realise now I’m not too fond of keeping track of a dozen different interactions between characters I don’t even know...)
—————————————————
Permafrost saw that nobody here was hostile towards him... yet. He watched from a distance, noting that some people present were possible threats to even his own life...
——————————
Osoro was just confused at all of this and wandered over to a group:
“What is this place?”
———————————
And Jim Sterling is trying to figure out where all these people are from, since, even though it was in the past by a while, he had been a Video Game Journalist before being sent into the Underground and learning magic.
———————————————————————————————
From a titanic machine that seems to have gone unnoticed, lit a great flame, and the machine itself finally rose itself up.
It saw all those around it, but did not care who they were.
It only cared about spreading the Astral Infection.
And as such, it began to crawl on its legs towards the nearest group of people, with obvious malicious intent...

"He's the father of the friend I mentioned. It's best if I leave it at that. He's not a nice guy."

---

"Ah. Yes."

Roman nodded, before quickly perking up.

"But first, a question. Have you seen a short girl around here? Pink umbrella, hair that looks like neapolitan ice cream...?"

---

"Oh. You are not inanimate."

The girl quickly hovered out of the way of the machine, the jets on her feet producing bright green streaks in her wake. She then turned back around and began to watch the machine intently.

The hovering girl wasn’t in the way of the Astrum Aureus, I don’t think, but now she has caught its attention.
Another threat to neutralise, or if below notice, then another vector for the infection to spread to, and to spread the infection through.
It shot a few bursts of Astral Lasers at her, which if they hit, would cause her to catch a slight case of the Astral Infection, the least slight thing of all. That’d be dangerous...

"Sorry, but you’re the only person I’ve seen here." Buttercup shook her head.

-

"Well, lets get a move on Gordon!" And there he goes.

-

"Okay then." Pixie shrugged. "So...should we go and actually approach those people." She’s pointing in the direction of the woman who was snoring earlier and the people around her?

Something else appears now. Though, unlike the rest of them, this thing appears... in its own.

JACK IN!

Red 'bands' of color slowly fill into the area, one row of pixels at a time, which results in a figure about nine feet tall. Rather quickly, the back of its head glows and extends down, forming a long "Cape" of golden hair.

It turns; it doesn't really have a face. It has deep glowing yellow eyes and a flat plate with a line etched, resembling a mouth. It has a blue, transparent 'gem' covering the top of its head, and red 'horns' on the side of its 'helmet'.



Zero.EXE has entered the server, and he has a mission; there's a rather powerful virus here. And his mission is to take it out.

His eyes dart across the landscape, and quickly spots the source; it's almost in the vein if Alpha, whatever this thing is.

Zero 'dashes' towards it, slightly hovering off the ground.

She rapidly flew out of the trajectory of the lasers, staring down at the machine with as much of a contemptuous frown as her robotic face could muster. A backpack emerged from the back of her torso and eight blades popped out from within, their tips pointed at the machine.

---

"Damn it..."

Roman quietly grumbled to himself.

"...that's the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear..."

---

"Sure! Why not?"

Lucoa spun around and began to walk down the hill, her breasts bouncing slightly as she did.

The Demi-Fiend must have a will of steel if he’s able to avoid looking at Lucoa's breasts. He follows after her, Pixie fluttering over to sit on his shoulder.

-

"Sorry man." Buttercup said, sympathetically. "But hey, maybe she’s here somewhere."

Meanwhile a titanic machine possessed by a (probably different but possibly not) space virus turns its attention away from the hovering girl to Jim Sterling.
It fires a barrage of Astral lasers at him, alerting him to its presence.
He dodges, using up a tiny bit of his smoke.
Now, this was a dangerous little thing (despite it being like 10x bigger than him)
Well, Sterling had not quite turned its attention away.
It attacked both the hovering girl and the ground-based man at once, somehow. Astral Lasers I guess.