RPGWW

by **Shinigori V2** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 7:44 pm

Kid stops for a moment, looking at Sam. "We...Have to get our own breakfast?"

by **ChristianC** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:20 pm

Alexis came walking from the nearby forest towards the encampment. She'd already been up a few hours, showing no sign of lack of sleep. She hurried over to where Kid, Janet and Sam where and smiled slightly to them, nodding her head a little. "G-good morning. I... I found some berries out in the forest if anyone wants some." she held out a palmful of blueberries and woodland strawberries. "I-I found them growing right next to each other... and there's more out there."

While waiting for the others to answer she stretched a bit and yawned, before sitting down next to Kid. "D-did you guys get a message about something important?"

by **Animala** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 11:03 pm

She took him by the hand and led him through the dark forest, the trees joining high above to block out the sky. He followed her hesitantly, feeling his way forward carefully. "Don't worry, Dad, I can see in the dark now," she heard herself say, and knew it to be true. She could do anything now, really.

She made him stop at the edge of the clearing, the dim shadows of the ruined church barely visible. "Do you remember when you caught a little star for me, Daddy?" He nodded down at her. She pulled him slowly into the clearing. Suddenly nervous, she whispered, "Well, I wanted to give it back..."

She heard him gasp as above him the black sky burst into a hundred tiny blue and pink lights, gleaming brilliantly in the darkness. She stared at her feet. "Do...do you like it?"

He took a deep breath. The ground began to shake beneath her feet. The forest groaned and roared as the earth hurled her down. "DADDY!" she screamed, reaching out for him as the trees collapsed around her, but he just stood there, staring silently at the sky.

Then he reached down and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry," he said gently. "I'll be back before you know it."

And then the roar of the forest swallowed everything, her stars went out and the world came

crashing

down

..

Lauren's eyes opened to see the roof of the tent. On her stomach, Ambassador Leafshade stretched, yawned and shook her own way to wakefulness. Lauren sniffled quietly for a little bit before mentally doing the same: shaking off the fragments of her dream. The message alert made it easier. She found even the regular messages a little distracting. A high priority one was like an alarm clock you couldn't get at. Still, it didn't seem right to look at it without comparing it with the others.

Lauren stepped out of the tent with a smile on her face to catch the tail end of Alexis' question. "Yeah, did everyone get one of those?" She yawned and looked around, "And where's Thirteen?"

Behind her, Ambassador Leafshade slowly made her way out of the tent, with her head and whiskers drooping and her tail dragging the ground.

by **Shinigori V2** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 11:36 pm

"Yeah, everyone got it." Janet says. "I've got a little..Like..I don't know. I can just tell that you all received it. Part of being support, I guess."

by **Besyanteo** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:14 am

Enzo had spent the night without sleeping. In the time between when the others nodded off and when they'd gotten up, he'd done two things. The first was to complete his chess board, which was now very nice looking, if still not machine-perfect. It was varnished and it's slightly irregularities gave it some character. The second thing he'd done was to complete the design and basic programming of a widget for his room. He had a feeling that he'd need permission to build and use it, but if it meant keeping that zombie woman from getting the drop on Deck City, it would more than be worth it.

Unfortunately, Enzo was learning that sleep might still be important to Wunderkind, as it is for humans. He felt a bit tired, he had trouble organizing his thoughts and stringing words together, and he had the beginnings of a set of dark circles under his eyes. He could bear through it, though. He'd done something good. It shouldn't be too hard to hold out until they all went to bed again.

by **Idran1701** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:37 am

Sam laughs a little at Kid's surprise, nodding. "We're camping, right? So we gotta make breakfast, yep." As Alexis and Lauren show up, he waves to them. "Morning! I dunno, I didn't see her since we both went off to sleep last night. I bet she's around somewhere. And yeah, I guess we all did if Janet said so. I was gonna wait until everyone was here and up before reading it, though, so I dunno what it says. Think it's a new mission or something? I dunno why we'd get a new one if we haven't finished this one yet, but that's all I can think it'd be."

by **NebulaQueen** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:51 am

"Nngh..."

Silvie rolled over, determined not to wake up just yet, but it was no use; the chatter of the other kids kept her from returning to sleep. Scraps of half remembered dreams tugged at the edge of her mind, but they were pushed aside as she stretched and yawned. Even if she didn't need to sleep like this, it was still nice

Speaking of things she didn't need...didn't somebody say something about food? Curious, she stumbled towards the others and said, "Mornin'. Anyone got breakfast?"

by **Spleen** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 2:42 am

Darren opened his eyes and looked around, wondering where he was for a fraction of a second before remembering the events of the previous day. He crawled over to the tent flap and pushed it up, coming to his feet on the other side. "Hey," he told those assembled, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Damn message won't let me sleep in. Anyone read it yet?"

by **Besyanteo** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:31 pm

Enzo replied to Darren. He sounded a little groggy as he spoke, but just a little.

"It's a message from Rivendare. It looks like Thirteen might have been wrong; We're being reassigned, because that attempted hack last night messed up one of D-52's networks. We're going in to see what's happened, and try to fix it."

Enzo wasn't going to mention the bit about the weapon systems. For one, Darren might just go and read it for himself. But if he didn't, Enzo would prefer that he wasn't harassed about it all the way through the mission. That and he wasn't sure he remembered being taught to unlock the weapon systems. Maybe it came through in the patch?

by **NebulaQueen** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 5:21 pm

"Really?" Silvie furrowed her brow, and asked, "What's wrong with it now?"

by **BrainWalker** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:05 pm

((Sorry for my delay in posting, Kelne))

Emily always did wake up earlier than Max. He was awake, but still in his sleeping bag, lying back with his hands clasped behind his head, staring staring up into the 'ceiling' of his tent, when Emily popped in. "Yeah... you were there, actually."

He wasn't expecting to see her before getting up, but he was glad to see her... or at least, he was until he tilted his head and saw the expression on her face.

"...You too? I thought maybe I just had zombies on the brain what with that whole 'ice zombie' thing, but if you had the same dream... that actually makes it scarier."

Max sat up and stretched forward, reaching for his toes, then arched back, arms outstretched. He's not sure how his body actually works in the digital world, but stretching still made him feel a little better. Maybe it's just a psychosomatic thing. That would make sense, given all the potential influence their minds apparently have out here.

Max turns to face his sister, resting his hands at his sides. "So... what do you think it means?"

by **ChristianC** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:07 pm

Alexis gave a half-hearted smile at the others and finished off the berries she'd picked, offering some to anyone who wanted. "I...If we're staying inside the computers, will we be... um... able to protect ourselves? What if whoever did this hacking left something behind?" She looked at the others, "I-I remember hearing about viruses and how they hurt s-software. Maybe they can hurt us too?"

by **NebulaQueen** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:33 pm

Silvie took some berries, and smiled in thanks before she popped them into her mouth.

Then Alexis started to talk about viruses. She frowned, and she said, "We don't even know what viruses would be like for us. Like...like would it be like a cold virus, or something else?'

by **Shinigori V2** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:41 pm

"We're in here..With them." Janet says. "I..Think we'll be able to see them."

by **NebulaQueen** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:45 pm

"So...it'll be like the forest, then." Silvie looked back nervously at the other kids, and asked, "Just how bad is the infection, you think?"

by **Besyanteo** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:28 pm

Enzo piped up:

"We don't know that there's a virus for sure yet. Let's calm down and not start imagining terrible things that might be there. We could just be restoring some operating system files and restarting the system kernel."

by **Animala** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:44 pm

"I guess we'll find out what it's like when we get there. Even if they know exactly what's going on, I don't think they can know what it'll look like to us."

by **Kelne** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 7:02 am

"I wish I knew," Emily said seriously, "It can't be coincidence that we both had the same dream. I guess it has to be a warning of some kind." Prophetic dreams were a good distance beyond Emily's comfort zone (especially prophetic dreams like this), but between their current state, the apparently real existence of zombies and who knew what else, she was no longer prepared to dismiss the possibility out of hand.

by **BrainWalker** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:12 am

Max rubs his face as if he was washing it, another morning wake-up ritual.

"So... I guess we agree that it's not a coincidence, and we're not sure what that means. This is probably something we should bring up with the others. But... in order to do that, I'm going to have to get out of bed. Well, bed-roll."

Max starts to get up, and then suddenly remembers he's essentially a digital telepath now. "Well, I guess that's not technically true, but I should probably get up anyway."

by **Idran1701** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:42 pm

"So this'll mean we're gonna have our first real mission outside the Database? Cool! Hey, d'you think it'll look like a forest too or d'you think it'll be something else?" Curious, Sam looks at the message himself to see just what sort of network it is they're going to. "D'you think it'll feel different too or anything? 'Cause it's like a different kinda world for us sorta? This's gonna be so cool."

by **Besyanteo** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:11 am

Enzo took a minute to think.

"I think it will be a little more like our class room and the halls... Their systems have to be formatted to be useful to a physical user. ... I wonder what they'll be loading us into for transfer? We'd never fit in a normal flare drive, even if it was just one of us."

He started going over in his mind what could store the lot of them. His internal clock beeped at him meaningfully: They had less than an hour to report for transfer.

"I guess we should get moving, pack up and head for the door."

by **Shinigori V2** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:14 am

"Didn't you read the patch notes?" Janet asks. "There was something about file compression."

by **Besyanteo** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:17 am

Enzo set to work following his own advice, packing up his things from the site.

"Huh... No, I didn't. Thanks for reminding me, I'll do that now!"

And he would; He could multitask well enough.

by **ChristianC** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:30 am

Alexis hadn't actually read the message, somehow she wasn't able to access it. Looking a little flustered she tugged at Enzo's sleeve, whispering. "I-I can't r-read the message, d-do you remember what it w-was called?"

by **Kelne** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 6:59 pm

"We should have a look at that urgent message too," Emily said, "It's probably something to do with the hacking yesterday."

by **Besyanteo** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:14 am

Enzo decided to nip the whole thing in the bud now, and rather than waiting on people to finish milling about and read the message, he'd simply open it for them. There was a brief pause as he concentrated, and then everyone found themselves reading the following:

"To: All Wunderkind Units
From: Headquarters (Byron M Rivendare, Diamond Division)
About: Remote Deployment.

Body: I regret to inform you that your current mission is canceled. As you may be aware, there was a massive hack attempt on our systems last night, and one of our systems is entirely inaccessible. However, this is fortunate, as we can have your squad deployed into the system to gather information, and potentially fix the problem.

You are to report to D:/Flaredrive as of 10:00 AM for redeployment. IF DEEMED NECESSARY BY THE TEAM, JANET AND ENZO CAN REMOVE WEAPONS LOCKS. Gather information and report, with an emphasis on finding the guilty parties. Fixing the system would be a bonus, but only if you can.

Good luck, kiddos."

He went back to packing up and getting ready to move out. He didn't want to be late.

by **BrainWalker** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 4:53 pm

Max receives the message as he and his sister leave the tent to go join the others, right after she had suggested they look at it.

"Well, that's convenient. I bet Darren's real happy about that bit in the caps." At this statment, Max rolls his eyes. "I bet we'll be hearing a number of unconvincing arguments on why we should unlock weapons immediately."

by **ChristianC** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:38 pm

Alexis read through the message from Byron twice, then nodded to herself and closed it, closing her eyes in concentration as she made it pop away from her heads-up view. "W...well, that doesn't sound too bad... I-I guess it'd be best to wait with un...unlocking the weapons until we know we need to." she moved over to help pack the remainder of the camp-equipment, or making it disappear, as it were.

by **NebulaQueen** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:05 pm

Silvie always thought that she'd be excited at an opportunity like this. After all, they'd be going out and actually <i>doing</i> stuff for once. That should be exciting, right? But as much as she hated to admit it, that message left her feeling a little scared, especially the part about unlocking weapons. She knew Darren would be all over it, of course, but she couldn't help but think: Rivendare wouldn't allow it unless they needed it.

"That sounds good," she said to Alexis, smiling to hide her worry. Silvie began to help her "pack everything", and continued, "Lets wait and see if we really need it first, yeah?"

by **Animala** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:13 pm

Lauren returned to the tent to pack up what little she'd brought

"This was nice, but..." She shook her head to dispel fragments of her dream. "I'll be glad to be moving on. I think we should unlock weapons soon, though. Unless we find out we can do it really quickly, in the middle of a fight. It's not a good idea to pass up an advantage when you can get one."

by **Besyanteo** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:14 am

Rather than answering right away, Enzo took a moment to analyze how long it would take him, or Janet for that matter, to unlock their weapon systems. He'd cross-reference the other children's design files if necesary; Lauren had a point, and he couldn't very well argue against it without knowing the answer to that question.

by **Shinigori V2** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:14 am

"Yeah, but we don't even know what our weapons do here yet." Janet says. "For all we know, we've all got...Pea shooters."

Kid grins to herself, and holds up her hands. "No need to unlock my weapon systems. I'm already there."

In his query, Enzo finds that with their current processing power, a weapons unlock would take a combined 10 seconds, including his own weapons, as well as Janet's sidearm.
---

Before long, the equipment is all packed up and ready to move. They can't simply remove it from their digital reality, but they can at least put it back in the closet. The bulkhead within reappears, and they're ready to go.

by **Besyanteo** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:34 am

As they entered the formatted space again, Enzo finished his calculations and didn't waste any time before explaining them.

"If Janet or I unlocks weapons, it will take everyone at or just under 10 seconds to get access to them. Fast, if not instant. I think we're fine to wait."

by **Idran1701** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:50 am

Hauling a couple of folding chairs, Sam nods. "But you should prob'ly be ready, 'cause 10 seconds might be a really long time when we need 'em. Maybe in the middle of a fight if we're lucky, but if we don't have weapons and the viruses or whatever do then maybe not."

"What d'you think it'll be like, bein' in a flash drive, anyway? Thirteen was tellin' me about it before, but it was the kinda thing that even though she described it I dunno what it'd really feel like. D'you think that when we get compressed we'll actually shrink an' stuff, or d'you think it doesn't work like that and stuff'll still look normal to us?"

by **Kelne** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 7:02 am

Emily couldn't help but snort in agreement at Max's prediction. With the text of the message abruptly superimposed over her vision though, it seemed that any talk of dreams would have to go on hold for the moment. She didn't think they should be opening up that can of worms in the middle of a mission.

"I don't know," she said, "I didn't see much difference going from my laptop to the database, but that didn't involve getting compressed." She shrugged. There didn't seem much point in speculating on it; it'd probably be something completely outside their experiences anyway.

by **ChristianC** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:30 pm

"Compressed, huh..." Alexis nibbled on that thought for a while as she pondered what to do with her teddy. Bringing him along on her mission certainly didn't seem... safe, but maybe she could hide him in the closet at a later point? For now, she simply decided to keep her backpack, and put him into it. Her hair was tied up in the usual way, almost covering the pack and the teddy inside it.

"W-well, I'm ready to go... and you're p-pretty good Kid, if you'd hit me with that punch I don't think I-I could've been with you guys on this mission." she giggles a little.

by **NebulaQueen** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:35 pm

Silvie shoved one of the tents in the closet, and said, "I dunno...maybe it'll be like a road trip? You know, when you're stuck in the backseat and squished in with a bunch of other kids."

by **Shinigori V2** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:38 pm

Before long, the children are all back inside, near the 'supply closet', putting their things away. Janet shifts her weight around, making a face as if lost in thought.

"Hey, um...Maybe we should pull some other stuff out? I mean...We should probably be prepared, you know?"

by **Idran1701** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:41 pm

"What kinda stuff?" Sam throws his stuff into the closet and crosses his arms, thinking. "...We might need stuff, but what kinda stuff could help? 'Cause we dunno what stuff'll look like over there."

by **NebulaQueen** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:42 pm

"And how long will we be there?" she asked. "We might want to get some food or water or ...wait, we won't really need that stuff, will we?"

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