Child's Play

[NebulaQueen]

"Er...how? How are we supposed to -oh! OH!"

Silvie's eyes lit up, and she said, "We live here, right? Like...like the network is this huge house! And anything on it, we can just walk to it, right?"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo nodded.

"So long as it's not restricted or heavily encrypted we should be able to, yeah. And even some of that, I would guess. Better than that, we can remotely access some stuff. It's harder, but it can be done. If we had comm-web access, we could read virtual newspapers and stuff."

There were about a thousand other things they could do on the comm-web, but Enzo didn't see how it would help the conversation to go into detail. That and he was worried about what would happen if Darren realized that he would one day have the potential to hack E-Buy.com ...

[Shinigori V2]

Thirteen nods. "Remember, we are data on the computer, and can access other data remotely, if you know how."

[Kelne]

"It'll take some getting used to," Emily said, frowning thoughtfully, "Kind of like learning to read, I suppose. It starts out being this laborious process, and then eventually you do it practically without thinking." She resolved to put aside some study time each day to work on that side of her new abilities.

[BrainWalker]

Kind of strange to see Thirteen smiling, and apparently enjoying herself. Strange, but a welcome change. Max stood up as Sam helped Kid get to her feet.

And then, ice zombies. What the fuck? First super-powered digital android children, then weird mystic quasi-omniscient time-and-space-bending girl, and now a zombie with ice powers? What the Hell other crazy shit were they going to get involved in? Perhaps it would be best if they simply made their peace with the high probability of weird-ass stuff happening in the future.

"You know, considering our digital evolution, and Thirteen's crazy time and space powers, and a physical poison somehow affecting Kid's digital form, how surprising are zombies, really? I get the feeling we're going to have to get used to weird-ass stuff like this. Less likely we'll get caught by surprise in the future."

"But Thirteen's right, we shouldn't waste too much energy worrying about it. Right now we should just kick back and relax and enjoy that camping trip we prepared for."

As he and the others talked, Max let his mind wander across the database. He'd connected to a few sites, but it was stuff he already knew how to get to. An online dictionary, a games portal... He wasn't sure how to search on his own for unfamiliar information; like, say, on a top-secret ice zombie project. Emmy was right: Max was sure it would take practice, but also sure that eventually it would become second nature.

[ChristianC]

[sorry for the delay in posting]

W...what was all this? Zombies? Secret projects? Alexis just stared in nigh-on rapt awe as the older kids spoke about what D52 were doing. This all seemed... very... well, it didn't seem to make much sense. And had anyone really asked the most important question?

"W...why would D-52 be studying these... uhm, zombies? Are there other people out there who're making them?"

Alexis, unlike some others, had no idea what a zombie was.

[Besyanteo]

Oh lord, things were about to get confused and go off on a tangent again. Enzo tried to to nip it in the bud early this time:

"Thirteen just said that D-52 didn't make the thing; I don't know who did do it, but I don't think it will be very hard to figure out once we learn to look. I mean, we know enough right now to narrow it down to not more than a few major powers in the world... But it doesn't matter right now, because right now we can't do anything about it. I wanted you guys to know what I saw, but until we can learn more let's just try to relax and have fun. Like... we can play a game or something?"

He ended weakly, not sure where to go from there. He didn't actually know any good games for more than a couple people that didn't involve a computer... He suddenly wished he'd thought to requisition some kind of portable drum set. Well, he hadn't, so he looked around. What was on hand that he could use to relax a little, and get people's minds off of hackers and ice zombies and porcupine shark poison?

Sam had said he wanted to learn to play Chess... Enzo wandered back in towards the church, looking for a flat, atleast vaguely square stone. It wouldn't matter if it was too thick, so long as it was about a foot square, and he could haul it away from the church, even if he needed help to do it.

[Shinigori V2]

Enzo finds a nicely sized chunk of the exploded tree that has yet to deteriorate, and doesn't look like it will. With a hand, he could drag it back to the site and get to work.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo wasn't as experienced with wood as with stone, and he still wasn't entirely comfortable working with it after the accident... but he needed something to do. He would haul the wood piece over to the campsite and start work, looking a little pale as he did. He just had to remind himself that in this world, it wasn't actually possible for his hands to get sanded into a pulpy mess by a terrible, unexplained mechanical accident. He stopped for a moment, and rubbed his forehead. He was never going to get to sleep tonight now. Crap. He went back to work on what would become his chess board, and material for pieces.

[Shinigori V2]

"Why not use your powers?" Thirteen says to Enzo, looking over and seemingly picking up on what he's doing. "Everything's data here. Even us. You can manipulate the normal data if you try hard enough."

[BrainWalker]

"Yeah, that's pretty cool and all, and I think 'data manipulation' is a skill we should all practice and get used to, but, like... in the meantime, if we're looking for something to do, I'm pretty sure I brought a soccer ball and two goals out here."

[Idran1701]

Helping Enzo carry the slab of wood back to the campsite, he nods to Max. "That sounds fun too, but we can do both. What are you gonna do with this stuff anyway, Enzo...hey, are you okay? You don't look too good. What's wrong?"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo shook his head at Sam.

"Uh. Nothing. I'm fine."

Once the wood was at the site, he sat down and tried to make himself calm down. No way he was going to be able to concentrate right now. So much for avoiding drama. Max had given him an easy escape route, though. He'd answer Sam first:

"I'm going to make it into a chess set for us to use, since I forgot to requisition one before. ... But let's go play Soccer with Max first. We've got plenty of time."

[Idran1701]

Sam gives Enzo an odd look as they drop the wood in the campsite, as if he can tell that Enzo's just trying to brush him off. But he lets it drop, grinning and nodding. "Sure, that sounds fun! Both things. We should go back and help him set it up, then!"

[NebulaQueen]

"I haven't played soccer in a while," Silvie said quietly. She was still worried about the zombies and the experiments and the data manipulation and all of that...but there wasn't much they could do right now, was there?

"So!" She put her hands on her hips, as energetic as she was earlier, and looked around. "Is everybody in?"

[Kelne]

"Soccer it is," Emily said, picking up one of the goals and carrying it off to a decent distance from the other one. There wasn't much point in having a full-sized field between them; they didn't have two teams of eleven, after all. Goal positioned, she made her way back to the middle of the field, waiting for people to divvy up into sides. Naturally, she and Max would be playing against each other, and keeping score even if it was a friendly game.

[Idran1701]

Sam heads over to Kid, Thirteen and Janet if she's there, smiling. "Are you all gonna play? I haven't played soccer in a while, but it's a pretty fun game. Oh, but we should probably say that we can't use any special Wunderkind stuff 'cause that wouldn't be fair." He turns to the rest of the group, shouting. "Everyone can't use special Wunderkind stuff, right? That way it's all fair!"

[Shinigori V2]

Thirteen looks around, as if taking a quick count. "Kid should rest, for now. That still leaves ten, however. Five per side should be good."

Janet nods, crossing her arms. "Yeah, that sounds good to me."

[NebulaQueen]

"Same here!" Silvie piped up. She ran to the others and, with a wide grin on her face, she asked, "Okay, who's playing who?"

[Animala]

Lauren grinned and turned her head towards the ferret on her shoulder "No wunderkind powers? Sorry, Ambassador Leafshade, you'll have to sit this one out."

"Ambassador Leafshade" hopped off Lauren's shoulder and looked up at her with an air of injured dignity. "Hmph. I'll have you know I would've made an excellent goalie."

[Besyanteo]

Enzo was glad that the others were fairly enthusiastic about soccer. It meant that he could get his mind off of other things. He still wanted to speed along the start of the game, though.

"Oh, hey, I have an idea. Let's pick some team captains, and they'll pick teams!"

[ChristianC]

Alexis stepped after Sam as they headed towards where soccer was being prepared, and looked at the others with fear-mingled interest.

"I... I'd like to play too... if I can..." she mumbled a little, hugging Percival, "I-I used to play a little w-with my brother..."

[Shinigori V2]

Before long, teams are made up, and the game commences in what remains of the file of Project: Winterstorm. Janet proves to be a very capable goalie, and Thirteen isn't quite as awe inspiring on a soccer field. Kid helps to keep score, and the rain subsides to drizzle, which then subsides to a beautiful afternoon, complete with a rainbow.

As darkness sets, Thirteen assists the group back to their camp with a portal, and helps to pitch the tents and get everything in order. A warm breeze comes in, making for a beautiful night. Finally, night falls truly, and the group can see the stars in the unformatted land for the first time; unlike anything they've seen in Deck City, and far more numerous than anything they've heard about in the physical world.

For now, it seems that things will settle down. But Thirteen is still ill at ease, and Kid still seems to be slowly adjusting to her new form and existance. But for now, everyone is happy, warm, and safe, having a pleasant evening under the moon and stars of the unformatted land.

Mission 02: Subhuman- Complete
Mission Status: Successful(?)
Mission End Time: 8:45 PM, June 15, 3756.
Optional Objective: Learn about Project: Winterstorm- Successful.
Damages: 0.00 Credits.
Gains: 0.00 Credits
MVPs: Enzo.

[Shinigori V2]

Later that evening, as the grass dries and the moon and stars twinkle brightly above, the children feast on whatever they had thought to bring, as well as some random bits conjured by Thirteen's mastery of manipulating the network. Now, Thirteen stands by the shore of the lake, looking over it pensively, while Janet and Kid lay on a hill, looking up towards the night sky, talking quietly.

(BETWEEN MISSION CI GO. It's night now. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves or with Thirteen, Janet, and Kid.)

[Idran1701]

Before recently, Thirteen held an odd position in Sam's mind. Despite her age, and despite the fact that she was a wunderkind, subconsciously he chalked her up as another authority figure. She was smart, she knew a lot more than she was telling them, and she had instructions for what they had to do. Now, to some this might be a bad thing, but to Sam all it meant was "listen to her, trust that she knows what she's doing, and only ask a question if you don't understand". For all his excitement, he wants to do well by the people in charge. And though he was curious about...well, a lot, he simply figured that she'd tell them what they need to know in time.

But after today, that's changed; she's just a kid, like the rest of them. He even thinks he saw her grin once or twice during the soccer game (though that easily could have been his imagination). She seems a lot more...approachable. So Sam approaches her. He heads over to the shore, taking a seat by Thirteen and looking out over the lake. He lets the silence hang for a bit, before speaking up quietly, easing into his questions. "...What're you thinkin' about?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Us." Thirteen simply says. "Wunderkind. Our future. Our race. This place. Everything."

[Idran1701]

"...That's a lotta stuff. How come?"

[Besyanteo]

After the game, Enzo had started everyone's patches and begun work on his chess board. The patches were done now, but the chess set was not. Thirteen had offered to make the pieces, and he'd gladly accepted her assistance. The marble figures she'd produced for him were beautiful, polished and well formed, obviously themed after the Wunderkind. He wished that forming the board had gone as smoothly. He was still concentrating on it now, not satisfied with the results so far. He'd gotten it into the right shape, and the checkerboard pattern was there. It was an even surface and it was even the right size. It was also a bit rough, and the play surface wasn't as even as he'd like it to be. Some sand paper would see that fixed, but it wasn't present here. So, he kept trying to 'sand it down' with his mind. It was awfully hard to concentrate right now, though.

The news update had just come in, and his mind was back on Project Winterstorm because of it. He couldn't prove anything, but he felt in his heart that the subject of that experiment was here, or coming here, for some reason. Worse, every time he thought about it too hard her face was there again. It was like she was mocking him, silently. Between that and thinking about sanding wood, and trying to plan plans to keep everyone safe, his chess board wasn't improving much. He sighed, and tried to put the local news out of his mind for now. He wanted to get this finished tonight.

[Shinigori V2]

"Because I feel like I need to." Thirteen says, softening a bit. "There are things that bother me, sometimes."

[Idran1701]

Sam nods. "Things like the stuff you said before? About how we gotta make sure that there can be new Wunderkind?"

[Shinigori V2]

Thirteen nods.

[Idran1701]

Sam nods back. "Well...I'm not worried. 'cause we're Wunderkind, so if we try and do it, then we'll do it. And all of us wanna do that." He grins to Thirteen, hoping she'll share his confidence.

[Shinigori V2]

Thirteen frowns, looking out over the lake. "Do you know what that means yet, really?"

[Idran1701]

"...It's...um..." A little confused at the question, he hunts for some sort of trick in the wording. "...it means that we can do anything if we really try hard. Right?"

[BrainWalker]

Max decides to drop in on Enzo, and see how he's coming along with his little project.

"Hey, Enzo. Thanks for the patch, earlier. I'm... not sure I notice a huge difference, but it wasn't really a huge patch, either."

"... so... how goes it with the altering matter with your mind thing?"

[Besyanteo]

As Max talked, one corner of the chessboard began to smooth out slightly, while the opposite corner started to look a little bit flakier than before. Enzo scowled at it, but managed to keep his voice even when he answered.

"You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help. And, It's hard... really hard. I mean, it's neat that I've got it this far now, and we can probably use it without the pieces falling over, but it's not as good as I want it to be."

By the end he was smiling, at least. He looked at the board intensely, and the newly roughened surface stitched itself back together while he did. It was closer to done than before, anyway. He decided to try to be happy with it and picked it up.

"I guess I should be amazed that I can do this in the first place. But it feels so... natural. It kind of creeps me out a little if I think about it for too long. How different we are from anyone else."

[NebulaQueen]

While Sam talked to Thirteen and Enzo and Max discussed their chessboard, Silvie wandered over to where Kid and Janet were. She seemed to be doing better, sure, but she couldn't help but worry about her just a little. After all, she couldn't even imagine what it was like for her to become a Wunderkind like this; Silvie at least had some warning and preparation. All Kid had was a poisonous shark thing.

"Hey," she said. "Are you two hungry? I think we still have some weenies left."

[Shinigori V2]

Kid thinks for a minute, and nods. "Y'know, I've actually been starving since...Well, since I found out what we are and all that. That would be pretty effin' sweet, if y' could get me some weenies."

[NebulaQueen]

"Well c'mon back," she answered with a smile. "I don't know how many of the weiners we have, but we also got some marshmallows and jerky and some trail mix, too. Do you like trail mix?"

[Shinigori V2]

Kid picks herself off the ground, brushing any potential grass and other bits off her back, and walks over. "Never had it...Sounds gross, though."