Child's Play

[Idran1701]

"All three of them at once?"

[Shinigori V2]

"As far as we can tell. Any other questions before we begin the operation?"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo didn't have any questions, and even he did he wouldn't be likely to ask Rivendare any of them just yet, after last time. That said, he still managed to be a bit excited about their upcoming mission. This was going to be amazing. They were about to go and experience something almost completely unprecedented, again. Almost every mission was some kind of grand adventure so far, with a couple exceptions. It didn't occur to him just yet to worry about the juniorkind in the game: Trainers never got attacked in monsbattle games, just their monsters. If those all got knocked out, you were teleported to a Monspital, where they got all healed up. They should be fine, other than being a little bored after being in the game for so long maybe.

[NebulaQueen]

"Yeah! Uh...where are they in the game? Like, how far did they get?"

[Shinigori V2]

"As far as we can tell, they're at three different places." Rivendare says, flipping a page. "One is really early on. Another is about halfway through..."

He closes the report. "The last...Has fully completed the game and is in the optional content."

[Kelne]

"Do they know the others are in there, do you think?" Emily asked, "I mean, if they're at different stages of the game, would they be running into each other?" The gameworlds weren't all that big. At least seen from the outside. But there were definitely distinct zones to them.

[ChristianC]

"Maybe the game is bigger when you're inside it? Like the bus we drove? When we are made smaller, things seem bigger. Anyway, are we going or what?" she stood up and put her hands on her hips, "I wanna see if Spooky's around."

[BrainWalker]

Max's arms are folded.

"Also, here's the real question: These are kids, inside a video game. They're probably having a blast. How exactly are we supposed to get them to leave?"

Max suddenly remembers something.

"Oh yeah, you showed us some fuzzy security camera footage, but do we have pictures of what the kids look like so we'll know them when we find them? Although, I guess it'll probably be obvious who isn't an NPC..."

[Shinigori V2]

Rivendare grins, pointing at Max. "You remembered to ask this time!"

He clicks to the next photo, seeming to be one shot of each. The first is a boy. He's...Obviously Juniorkind, but there's more to it than that. Over the Wunderkind uniform, he wears a light jacket, and a baseball cap. He's still got the clunky gauntlets and boots, but the wunderoos have taken a look similar to shorts. He's got dusty blonde hair and blue eyes, and seems a little confused. His uniform is green and white.

The next is a girl. Her uniform is pink on purple, and over it she's wearing a skirt and vest. She, too, has the gauntlets and gloves, and a belt with Monspheres slotted into it. More, she wears a purple bucket hat.

The third seems to be the most "Wunderkind", with a black and white uniform and looking almost identical to the first boy. The only addition to his suit is a black and white baseball cap, and a Mons-Belt.

"What it looks like, really, is that their code merged with the game and they kind of turned...Halfway or something."

[Idran1701]

Sam grins as the images of the kids comes up on screen. "...Do you think that'll happen to us too?"

[Animala]

"Yeah, are we gonna be players too?" Lauren paused and turned to look at Ambassador Leafshade with a thoughtful expression.

The Ambassador gave a long, drawn out sigh. "Ambassadors do not fight for the amusement of children."

Lauren rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on, I know you want to. Enemies your own size!" Lauren punched the air, then pointed dramatically off into the distance somewhere to Rivendare's left. "Fight, for freedom and virtue!"

[Shinigori V2]

Rivendare nods to Sam. "We think it will, yeah. We've been testing with Juliet, and she seems to be merging. You'll probably count as players, as far as we can tell."

[Idran1701]

"Cool!" Sam keeps grinning as he imagines what he might end up looking like. "So when are we gonna go?"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo's enthusiasm for the mission finally won out against his timid nature, and he spoke:

"Yeah, let's go! This sounds awesome!"

[NebulaQueen]

Okay, this sounded cooler and cooler. This was going to be awesome! But still...

"I wouldn't worry about that Max," she said. "I mean, even I get sick of the games sometimes! But if they aren't...we just have to challenge them to a battle!"

[Shinigori V2]

"It's going to take a while to upload all of you." Rivendare says. "So you'll be deployed as soon as you report to the uplink room. First come, first serve there....If you have any questions, feel free to stick around. We won't be able to communicate with you once you're in, so get anything you need to know out there now."

Kid stands up, and quickly makes for the door.

[Idran1701]

Sam heads out just behind Kid, dashing at her side. "Isn't this awesome, Kid? What kinds of battlemons are you gonna have? What all new ones are there anyway? A ton of cool ones, I bet!"

[ChristianC]

Alexis didn't waste a second, and 'though Sam and Kid got away before she did, it was only because she let them. Yeah, she was one cool cat.

So, walking behind Sam and Kid, she piped up: "I already know exactly who I'm bringing... well, kinda, I'm not sure about the latest game, but I've got a solid team..." she snickered suddenly and added, "...as solid as they can get, I guess..."

[BrainWalker]

Max was content to let some of the more enthusiastic of his brothers and sisters get first dibs. Not that he wasn't excited, himself. Plus, he was in the back of the room.

"So, as player characters, do we have to get a starter battlemon from the researcher guy in the starting town and work our way up to a full monster team, or do we actually get to start start with a full team of battlemons?"

[Shinigori V2]

"They'll show you when you get there." Rivendare says. "You'll get to pick a team of your own even before going in."

[Besyanteo]

Enzo wasn't far behind Alexis, already thinking about what his team would be. Of course, he didn't know all the good ones by this point, just some of the ones he liked... But that was ok. It wasn't like he needed to compete, exactly. Not that they knew anyway.

[NebulaQueen]

Silvie didn't have any questions - okay,s he had one, but Rivendere all ready told them how they'd get their mons. There was only one thing left to do.

"Last one there is a rotten Egg-Heed!"

And with that, she ran off to the uplink room.

[Shinigori V2]

Uplink Room:

The children anxious to start the mission make their way to the uplink room. They've been there several times, mostly coming and going into and out of their digital forms, entering and leaving the Database. Today, it's a bit different. The circle of pods that each of the children's bodies is stored and run through maintenance in is there, but in the middle of the room is a large, circular...computer thing. Each kid is given a tablet with a list of most of the game's Battlemon in it. The keen eyed would notice that the unique specimens aren't on the list.

After tapping away quickly at the tablet, Kid is lead to her uplink pod, where she lays down, and flashes a quick thumbs-up to the others, before the pod closes.

The next part is new to the kids, they've never actually seen anyone come or go from the pods other than everyone, as a group. Kid's uplink pod slowly lowers into the floor, where a door closes behind it, flushing perfectly with the floor.

"Commencing download of KIOS010!" One of the female techs calls via intercom from the monitoring station next door. "Download at one percent....Two percent...Three percent..."

-----

Briefing Room:

Rivendare takes a sip of his coffee, looking at those left.

[ChristianC]

Alexis didn't even shoot the tablet a glance as she pushed in six different numbers... then more or less chucked herself into the pod, looking utterly excited as it closed, her hands balled into fists of joy. Joy fists. That will punch sadness in the face until it goes away.

Go go go she spoke through the intercom to everyone, not able to wait until she was in the game.

[Idran1701]

Almost as excited as Alexis, Sam takes a little longer to decide as he looks over the list. But once his choices are made, he heads into his own pod, ready to head in on this next mission.

[Kelne]

Emily began to make her way out, then stopped, "I don't know how long we're going to be in there," she said, "Do you have some way to get in touch with us if you need us to come back out again?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Yeah." Rivendare says. "The game has a microphone feature."

[Kelne]

"Alright," Emily said, "We'll see you when we get out then." And with that, she went to join the others. She'd be near the back of the queue by now, so there wasn't much point rushing.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo took his time picking his mons, but it was largely because it had been a while since he'd played one of these games. In fact, he hadn't played since the originals came out, mostly since the games since that were more or less repeats of the original... But he'd never been digital before. He eventually finished his line up, and if it was open stepped into his pod.

[BrainWalker]

Well, the room was mostly empty. Max was shocked that Sylvie wasn't the first one out of the room. Guess she was too stuck in a state of shock to be moving quickly.

"Whelp, I guess I'm heading out."

He starts on his way out the door, but happens to catch the writing on Rivendare's mug.

"Wait, world's best granddad? Seriously?"

[Shinigori V2]

Briefing Room:

Rivendare grins widely, putting down his mug, pointing with one hand and giving a thumbs up with the other. "Good looking! Now get going, you don't want to miss it, do you?"

Digital World- Monspital Connection Room:

One by one, as the children enter their capsules and are uploaded, they find it's definitely a different feeling than normal. Instead of just going down something like a digital water slide, they're both shrinking, and transforming- From their point of view- into their digital forms. But, not just that...Their coding is being changed by the game. They, themselves, are being altered to fit into the game's programming.

Then, they're at the end. The world suddenly materializes around them. They're in a lobby type room, with a closed door behind them, an escalator leading to the lower level to their left, and two desks- Both run by pink haired women wearing nurses outfits...That seem to just stare blankly ahead, a slight smile on their faces. In fact, they're completely identical.

"Wow." Kid says after a minute. "What a rush." She holds her arms out, looking down at herself. Her uniform remains largely the same, although she now has a Mons-Belt hanging loosely from her hips, and a green vest with a Monsphere printed on the back of it. "Hey, this is pretty cool...According to my status, I'm even a new type of trainer. 'ElfnTrainr'. What about you guys?"

[ChristianC]

Alexis popped out with less of a pop, and more of a 'doooweeep', looking slightly bewildered. She was still blue-hued, so the chip with the ice-function in it seemed to have come along with the change, and her long, blueish white hair was let out, going down her back. She still looked like her ice-wunderkind state, except she was wearing a white hoodie with light blue splotches at the end of her sleeves and a relatively thick orange stripe going across her stomach. The hoodie wasn't closed though and seemed to slowly flutter in the still air as if she was in a breeze. slung across her left shoulder was a backpack that looked... familiar. It was deep purple, almost black, with spike-like protrusions at the top (made of cloth), and the zipper looked like a large grin. She was also dressed in a pair of similarly white cargo-shorts, 'though her clunky wunderkind boots remained the same.

She looked herself over, seemingly on the verge of exploding with awesome-induced glee, before she spoke, as cold and collected as before. "It says I'm a Creepy Skulk..." she seemed mildly disappointed, but only mildly.

"I don't skulk, do I?" she looked to the others, inspecting them as well, this was so AWESOME!

[Kelne]

Emily made the transition easily enough, but just had to stop and look around once she hit the inside of the game. She'd picked up a cowboy hat and leather jacket, with her monspheres arranged in the inner pockets, by the feel.

"Just a little bit," she informed Alexis, holding thumb and forefinger slightly apart to show it was only a teensy little bit, "Looks like I'm a guide."

[Idran1701]

"...I'm an athlete, it says. Neat!" When Sam appears, he looks to be dressed in a baseball uniform themed in his armor colors, wearing a cap with the Wunderkind logo. His wrist reactors and boots are missing, and his hands are bare, but the rest of his body looks to still be covered in the armor of their normal uniform. Like Kid, he's got a Mons-Belt around his hips, though his isn't quite so loose. "And this is a Moncenter, I guess? It looks a lot bigger from the inside.

He glances over the nurses. "...And they're kinda weird."

(Here's a picture from the thing Bes linked in the OOC thread, as best I could get it to the description.)

[Shinigori V2]

"..Yeah, they're..Kinda creepin' me out a little. But we should probably wait for the others...Oh, hey, what kind of Mons did you guys pick?" Kid asks

[ChristianC]

Alexis' smile wavered slightly as Emily confirmed her fears, but then she got over it and slung out her backpack, digging out six monspheres before clicking a small button on her wrist, sending the two chips flying out and into the palm of her hand. In a second, there was a slight blur, then Alexis was there again, looking her normal, gray-haired self... except her hoodie and cargo-shorts were now in a matching color of the backpack (which had taken on the previous color-theme of white with light blue splotches and orange stripe), dark-purple, with a big, white grin plastered across the now zipped-up chest. Her hood was pulled up as well, and two bright-orange eyes were looking at Sam, whom Alexis too seemed to be focused on... until she shifted her gaze to Kid again...

...but the eyes remained focused on Sam for a few seconds more, and he could swear he saw the grin bob like as if it was chuckling.

"I-I got u-um..." she held up the spheres to look at before she clicked them open, one after another.

"I-I got Misdreavus, a-and Froslass, and Shedinja, a-and Weavile... and this is Spooky." Spooky, it seemed, was a gengar, suitable to her theme perhaps, who lazily drifted around in the air for a while before cackling and poking out its tongue at the Weavile, bouncing through the wall before the offended party could respond in turn. "A-a-and I got B-b-banette as w-w..."

There was a sudden whoosh as the last monsphere opened up, and then the crackle of a flame as Flareon skipped out, yawned and stretched.

Alexis looked... pale.

"I-I-I-I n-no..." she stammered, quickly sending the newly awakened Eevee-evolved battlemon back into its sphere. "I-I m-must've ent...entered t-the wuh-wrong number..."

[Shinigori V2]

"Tch." Kid frowns at Alexis' mistake. "Maybe there'll be a chance to switch. Maybe we can trade, even."

"Let's see..." Kid thought, gesturing to her belt. "I've got...Scyther, my old Zigzagoon, Pepper- She's not for trade...Umm..What else..."

Kid continues pulling from memory, counting off on her fingers. "Lucario, Crobat, Fearow...Annnnd..."

She grins, pulling one last Monsball from her belt. "This is Kahn. He's my Arcanine. I've had him since the first game."

[ChristianC]

Alexis held the little ball in her hand and frowned, not noticing how her Gengar was gliding down from the roof, hanging above her head and giving Kid the same wicked glance the hoodie had been giving Sam just moments ago. Speaking of the hoodie, it was now not looking at anything in particular, which it had been doing the entire time. Just a normal hoodie, nothing else.

Then Spooky plucked the ball from Alexis' hands and put it back in her backpack, sitting down in front of it and crossing its arms, looking smug.

"U-um t-thanks Kid, b... but I t-think I'll k-keep t-the Flareon, i-it's just a g-game, ri-right?"

[Shinigori V2]

Kid nods. "Actually, Flareon is kind of cute, if you're not...Um..y'know, bothered by fire."

[Idran1701]

Sam gives Spooky a glance, keeping a bit of distance between him and the ghost for now. "...Yeah, kinda." He nods. "And yeah, you don't have to worry here, Alexis, 'cause it's just a game. The trainers never get hurt, right?" Smiling, he reaches for his own MonsBalls. "I got...um...a Voltorb, a Lapras, an Omanyte, a Charmeleon, and a Dragonair. Oh, and this one's my favorite, he's a Farfetch'd named Louie." He releases the last ball, and a small duck appears next to him, wearing his own miniature hat and uniform shirt, holding a long, club-like leek in one wing.

Louie stares at Spooky emotionlessly.