derangedperson

Miko and Five deactivated their reset rays, exited the break room and headed for the glitch extractor with BITT in tow, wanting nothing more than to purge themselves of the Neurosurgeon once and for all. As they stood in front of the pair of gauntlet slots, Five raised his head towards the ceiling and let out a heavy sigh. It wasn't long before he felt a pair of arms around his chest as Miko gave him a relieved, grateful hug that he returned in kind. They rocked back and forth with their eyes closed as Miko nuzzled Five's chest and whispered, "It's over. It's over. It's over." He said nothing in response, but when Miko felt the dual sensation of his grip getting a little tighter and his cheek resting against the top of her head, she smiled and gave him a gentle rub on the back. This was the sight that greeted Mitch after he'd recovered enough to save face and stepped into the heart of HQ. Without a word, he approached the extractor that wasn't blocked by two hugging teammates

Mitch landed on the ground in a battered, bloody heap, mere feet away from Miko and Five. A series of cuts on his forehead stained his white hair red. His left eye was almost swollen shut, while the rest of his face was riddled with welts and bruises. When he ran his tongue across his teeth, he could feel that a few were much looser than usual as he spat a loogie of blood onto the floor. His breathing was hitched and labored as he attempted to fight past his broken ribs, but the pain only let him get so much air. The rest of his body was dotted with cuts and bruises, while all the shots he had managed to get on the Neurosurgeon had done almost no damage. The glitch was still the same supercharged, electrified monstrosity he had become, and he took great pleasure as he grabbed Mitch's hair and forced him to look at Miko and Five. "Take a good, long look at this. You lost," the glitch declared. "How does it feel, Mitch? How does it feel to know that all your efforts were for

Aside from the sounds of cars passing by, birds chirping, and a dog barking in the distance, the sextet in the strip mall's parking lot was dead silent. The screen on Nix's laptop once again displayed lines upon lines of code as he nudged Mitch out of the way with wide, panicked eyes. He grabbed the laptop and renewed his efforts to break through the Neurosurgeon's firewall as Bergy attempted to contact Miko and Five through his gauntlet. However, he soon came to realize the glitch had foreseen that option as three black rectangles appeared on his screen, indicating that Mitch, Miko and Five had each been dark for almost a half hour, but for the fact that Mitch was standing a few feet away from him. "Oh man," he mumbled as he shook his head in horror. "What the heck are we gonna do?" "There's nothing we can do until we break through that barrier," Zahra replied as she approached the store with her right arm outstretched. When her hand made contact with the barrier, she pounded

Mitch was a man on a mission as he marched into the Hinobi store and headed for the portal to HQ. Bergy tried to give him a friendly hello, but the words died on his lips when he saw the steel-eyed glare in Mitch's eyes. He stepped aside and let Mitch pass, watching as the Brit all but kicked the door to the locker room open. When he landed in HQ, he began to wander the halls calling for Miko and Five. The labyrinth of corridors led him from one corner to another, but as he entered the break room, the voice of his younger self stopped him in his tracks. When he directed his attention to the giant TV screen, he saw the final part of his playthrough of Near Scream's "Clock Is Ticking" sidequest playing to an empty room. The sight was more than a little unnerving, but Mitch had long since been pushed beyond the point of being creeped out by something like this. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and mumbled, "Subtle. Real subtle." Mitch paused the video and readied his plixel guns

The house was dead silent, with no signs of life to be seen or heard. There were no pets roaming around, no cars in the driveway, and nothing to stop the Neurosurgeon from his goal. He had spent almost an hour keeping a close eye on the activity within, moving from outlet to outlet and room to room to make sure the coast was clear. He had come across three occupants, but they were all holed up in their bedrooms and so preoccupied with their individual gaming sessions that they didn't even notice he was there. That fact gave him an immense feeling of relief as he traveled through the electrical wires towards the living room and the Hinobi console plugged into the wall. The first thing the glitch did when he entered the inner workings of the system was head straight for the hard drive and hope for the best. That hope would not be unfounded, as the owner of this particular console had downloaded Near Scream straight to the system's memory. Perfect, the glitch thought as he accessed

His arm was slung across the back of the couch, his right foot was planted on the coffee table, and a bottle of beer was in his right hand. The Neurosurgeon had not only broken into Miko's house, but he had the audacity to make himself at home. All that, coupled with the smug grin on his face as he knocked back the small amount of liquid remaining in the bottle, sent Miko into a raging fury as she activated her hammer and swung it at the glitch's head with a furious scream. He rolled his eyes and leaned back, allowing the hammer to make contact with the body of the bottle. Small shards of brown glass and drops of beer scattered across the room as Miko's momentum resulted in the hammer lodging itself in the wall with a loud crunch. The glitch tossed what remained of the bottle onto the coffee table and chuckled, "Geez, what is it with you Hinobi techs and property damage? I hope you've got the resources to pay for that!" Five said nothing as he activated his reset ray while Miko

Phil poured a packet of sugar into his coffee, stirring it with a small brown straw as he grabbed a donut from the dessert cart. BITT floated alongside him as he took a quick sip before asking, "Anything important I should know before I wrap things up for the day?" "Yes, there is." BITT's screen changed to a quartet of black rectangles as he said, "Four techs have gone dark within the last ninety minutes. Zahra and Haneesh have been offline for one hour and twenty-four minutes, while Miko and Five have been offline for thirty-three minutes. Here are their last known locations." Two separate maps appeared on BITT's screen, and as Phil looked them over, he asked, "Can you pull up any footage from their gauntlets before they went offline?" "Now loading." An hourglass appeared on BITT's screen as he set about his duty, but ten seconds later, a large red X appeared on the screen. "Unable to recover the requested footage," BITT said with a frown. "It appears the data has been

Over 10,000 XP before lunchtime. A banner day for any Hinobi tech, but just another day on the job for Mitch Williams. However, there were other things on his mind besides that number and the glitch he had just contained, namely the fact that Zahra and Haneesh had gone dark. He tapped the black rectangles containing their names and double-checked their statuses, but they remained unchanged from the last time he had looked. The only difference was that five minutes had passed on the clock indicating how long they had been offline, which now read 41 minutes. Mitch shook his head and let out a puzzled "What the hell..." as he returned to the gauntlet's main menu, where a flashing red exclamation point awaited him. "Oh, for God's sake, what now?" He planted his finger on the alert icon, which resulted in another duo of black rectangles appearing on his screen. Zahra and Haneesh were one thing, but when he saw that the new pair of offline techs were none other than Miko and Five

It was a war of attrition, and neither side was willing to give in. Sweat rolled down Five's face as he concentrated on the series of button combinations necessary to activate his fighter's special moves, hammering his thumbs on the controller as indistinct grunts of effort escaped his throat. By contrast, Miko was calm and collected as she focused her attention on the game, her thumbs hitting the buttons and rotating the joystick with little effort. She shot Five a smug grin as she activated her fighter's special move; her avatar crouched down and clenched his fist, causing a fireball to form around his lower arm from elbow to fist. Five's avatar had half of his lifebar remaining as he pressed the block button and prepared for the worst. Miko's avatar let out a kiai and thrust his flaming fist forward, sending a massive column of flame rocketing towards Five's character. He was only able to block it for so long as the flames penetrated his defenses and sent him flying through

A lime green rabbit poked its head out of the tall grass, sniffing the air before bounding further into the field accompanied by twenty similarly hued companions. The warren stuck together in one massive clump as they romped and played in the morning sun, unaware of anything except each other and the moment. Remnants of the morning dew exploded into small clouds of mist as the rabbits made contact with the grass, with a few of the group nibbling on the blades for nourishment. It was a beautiful sight, one that Zahra regretted having to ruin as she observed the warren through a set of binoculars. "Awww, they're so adorable," she said as she passed them to Haneesh. "Just look at them." Haneesh did just that, but as soon as he put the eyepieces to his face, the first thing he saw was a pair of rabbits going at it. He couldn't help but laugh as he shook his head, saying, "Yeah... yeah, they are pretty cute. What's the strategy?" "Stay as quiet as possible," Zahra replied as she