Critical Faliure

[GreyCat]

[center][font="Book Antiqua"]The crash is only the beginning of what could lead to the end. Please make this work. They'll be the only hope we have in winning the conflict that no one knows exists.
[u][url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/244657-critical-faliure/"]Critical Failure[/url][/u][/font][/center]

[font="Courier"]terminal secured_
preparing transfer>>>_
users located>>>_
routing..._
connecting..._
accessing data stream..._
please wait..._
downloading avatars:_
{\\Users\Grey>}
{\\Users\Spartan>}
{\\Users\Itsu>}
{\\Users\Vicky>}
{\\Users\Kai>}
{\\Users\Asmodeus>}
{\\Users\Judas>}
{\\Users\Kristan>}
{\\Users\Broken>}
[0%... 13%... 26%... 47%... 61%... 78%... 89%... 99%... 100%... verifying..._]
[download complete_]
[assembling..._]
[transfer complete: restarting..._]
program... run..._[/font]

The lights in the room winked out them blinked back to life. They weren't all that bright in the first place, casting a dim light over the room, but it did allow them to see were they were. The guy wasn't kidding when he said it was a dump. The place looked like it when through a hurricane, flood, tornado then a sandstorm for good measure, and was still deciding if it survived or not. The place was pretty empty, but judging by the litter of wood piled against of one wall, it might have been a good thing. The weak lights managed to set an orange tint to everything, making the room even more alien than before. Directly opposite the pile of scraps was a door, but it had a chain set across it like a spider web that seemed to glow from within if you looked closely at it. Bizarre. In the center of the room, the eight avatars lay were the program dumped them.

Grey rubbed his head and pushed himself to his feet, rising from the dust [s]coated[/s] carpeted floor with a fit of coughs. He sneezed and took a few steps towards the wall, but stopped, noting with a raised eyebrow the footprints he left in the dust. He knew the others in the room, from the database/index thing the weird messenger sent them before pulling them to this room. He couldn't remember much from before he got that message, or how he got it either, so whether or not it was a good move was still up for grabs. There were no windows, but there was an old fashion computer screen on one wall. Like just about everything else in the room, it had a health coating of dust. A button blinked faintly beneath the thick coat, begging to be pressed. He decided to save that for later and instead confronted the others.

"Yo," he said with little empathy, poking the closest person to him with his clawed toe. "Wakey, wakey. You guys all here?"

[Spartan919]

Spartan, still unconscious, felt something sharp dig into his side, retreat, and return. He shook himself, unwilling for some reason to wake. Suddenly, like a jolt, his eyes snapped open. Standing above him was what appeared to be some form of anthropomorphic animal. Aforementioned was the one poking him with his toe. Spartan stood quickly up, and looked around. They were in an extremely dusty room, and the only door out was chained. He rubbed the top of his helmet, trying to fully wake up, but to no avail. Looking around, Spartan saw eight others in the room with him, including the animal ([i]Grey...[/i] he remembered faintly). He found he was able to remember the names of each of the other avatars, but that was about it. That, and that some message is what told him their names. He depolarized the visor and activated the helmet flashlight, though he wasn't sure how he did, and looked at Grey. "Couldn't I have had five more minutes?" he asked, trying to lighten the gloomy mood a little. However, seeing he got no reaction, he sighed. "Sorry. I'm awake. You're...Grey...something, right?"

[Reinforce]

Judas heard talking and, in one smooth motion, flipped up and landed on his feet in the small room. Realising that it wasn't a threat, he walked up and, recognising the people standing there as two of the others who had entered this place, Grey and Spartan, he walked up to them. "Hi, you are Grey and Spartan right, I'm Judas, and if you don't mind, I might change that old computer into something more advanced, maybe a new computer." Judas stood back as he waited for a reply, certain that it would come.

[Magnet Soldier]

"That's a weird thing to say."

Kris stood up and rubbed his head, feeling like he'd hit the ground somehow. He faintly remember recieving some sort of message - he couldn't remember who it was from - and could remember his reply. It was almost like an application form of sorts, but it was very different. He looked behind himself at the floor, noticing a large hole in the dust in the shape of his body. He chuckled slightly as he noted the skewed position he'd been 'sleeping' in. He twisted his head from side to side, taking in the bare room. There was a single computor at the side, probably what one of the other guys was talking about, and a door. The door was chained up, but Kris presumed it was to stop them creatures - [font="Lucida Console"][i]Those creatures. Those horrible, horrible creatures.[/i][/font] - from getting in, rather than to stop him and the others from getting out.
He turned back to face the others, noting that only him and three others seemed to be awake out of all of them. There were only two girls, each asleep, and the rest were boys. Of all of them, only four were awake - [font="Lucida Console"][i]Half awake, half asleep. That's the way the world should be. Teeheehee.[/i][/font] - all of which were boys. Kris smiled and turned to the one who had spoke about changing the computor. "I suppose you must be the Alchemist guy. I remember seeing that bit about you, and you seem to fit the appearence. I remember both of your appearences aswell, and from what you were saying, you are Grey and Spartan, are you not?" Kris asked, looking from one to the other. Then he realised he hadn't introduced himself, and bowed, but as he was about to say his name, his Journal fell out of a pouch on his belt and opened on the floor. As he was about to open it, the books started to glow and 2 lines imprinted themselves on the page. The first [i]"And I met three people, Judas, Grey and Spartan. They all seemed....Unique, but I didn't really know much about them at that point. I guess I didn't know much about myself, but I knew I could trust myself."[/i] At this one Kris grabbed his Journal and slammed it shut, meaning no-one saw the Second one, not even Kris.
The second one: [font="Lucida Console][i]Death to all, Death to one. Death to you if you dont get along. Dont trust them though, or dont trust me. Either way, you'll be someone's tea! Hehehe.[/i][/font] Then again, Kris would have paid no attention, as he hadn't with any other message. And they deleted themselves anyway, after a while.
He grinned nervously and shoved the Journal into the pouch, latching the small hoop on the pouch around the hook to keep it secure, before nodding his head at the others. "My name is Kristan Clement, or Kris if you'd prefer. Nice to meet you." And he held his hand out, hoping for atleast one of them to give him a handshake.

[GreyCat]

"Caitt. Grey Caitt," he smirked. Not that his last name even mattered. He didn't even know why he had one. Most of the others were still out. Not that they had anywhere to go. He eyed the chains over the door before glancing back at the prone figures. Wait a tick... did something change? Like another person added? Ah, didn't matter. Judas was the one with the weird alchemy thing. "Knock yourself out," Grey gestured, giving the boy pass. It he wanted to tinker with the terminal, why stop him? Not like he could do any harm to it, could he? As for Kris...

He gave the proffered hand a look, an eyebrow raised. He took it anyway and gave it a half-hearted shake. "Nice to meet you in person Kris. I've heard little about about you."

[Spartan919]

Re-polarizing his visor, Spartan raised an eyebrow. [i]You've heard about his guy?[/i] he mentally asked Grey. He looked over at Kris, panning the flashlight over the room. [i]I haven't heard of any of any of these guys before...At least, I don't think so.[/i] He decided he would try to do something about the door. He walked over to it, and examined the chains. Far as he could tell, they were perfectly normal...except they glowed slightly. He wondered briefly if something would happen if he touched them. [i]Well, I'm not going to get out of here if I don't try, right?[/i] He reached out with a gauntleted hand, and grabbed one of the chains.

[GreyCat]

With a flash, a surge of power burst from the chains and up Spartan's arm, holding him tightly in it's tight grip. The effect lasted only a second, before a large pop was heard and Spartan was jerked backwards, away from the chains, his gloves smoking. The chains themselves dimmed a bit before regaining their former glow and they too smoked lightly were Spartan had held them. The slight smell of burnt rubber drifted through the room. Grey wrinkled his nose at the scent. "And now we know not to touch glowing chains," he commented. "You okay?"

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Spartan, when he was knocked back, tripped on something and fell to the floor, at which point he discovered that he had tripped over someone. The woman had spiky red hair and an odd red and black outfit with a black sleeveless trenchcoat. She slowly opened her eyes, revealing that one was blue while the other was black, and sat up. [color=#FF0000]"Ugh...where am I?"[/color] She then turned to see the fallen armored warrior and screamed, crawling away from him. [color=#FF0000]"Who...who are you?!? What's going on?!?"[/color] She saw the others nearby, and cowered in the corner, afraid.

Meanwhile, a rustling sound could be heard from the scrap pile, and a pair of orange eyes stared out into the room from the darkness created by the pile.

[Spirit of DMG]

Kai woke up in an extremely dusty room, and looked around. [i]Where am I. The last thing I remember, was...[/i] He noticed that he could only hear himself inside his head. He moved his hand over his face, and found that it had become featureless- no eyes, no lips. Though, somehow, he was still able to see. [i]Hopefully, I'm not the only one who knows Sign Language.[/i] He stood up, and dusted his suit off. He noticed eight people besides himself, some of which were still out.

[Reinforce]

Judas walked over to the terminal, noting that most of the people were awake by then, before looking at the old computer and grabbing out a piece of chalk from his robes. While inscribing the complex symbols around the terminal, he thought about what was going on here, with this group of strange people, before concentrating on the wall when he nearly inscribed the wrong symbol. "Alchemy is an interesting ability after all," Judas said to himself as he drew, "Most of the time these complex circles are needed but i can perform it without them if I need." He stepped back, ignoring everyone else in the room and concentrating on the task ahead. Raising his tanned right hand, the ring on his finger started to glow, as the transmutation circle glowed along with it. Lightning appeared from his hand to the circle, as the light grew to an all time high before fading and leaving the room dim once more, aside from a brand new computer terminal where the old one was.

Asmodeus watched the room, he had been watching for a while but decided now was the time to officially wake up and say hello to all these other people. As he was getting up, he saw the chain burst into light and throw Spartan back, already knowing everyone's names from the screen and from their intros. As he watched, another burst of light came from the other side of the room where Judas was performing his alchemy. Asmodeus got up and walled over to the lock, "When you want to open that lock, just ask me but only once you are sure you want to go outside, because even a chain lock like that can't stand up to my Eternity Key." Asmodeus said, holding up the Diamond Key from around his neck.

[Spirit of DMG]

Kai watched as a man transmuted the old worn out terminal into a brand new one. [i]That's quite an interesting ability he's got there. I wonder if there's any telepaths among us. That's about the only way I'd manage to communicate, unless anyone else here knows Sign Language.[/i] He lowered his head, and brought his right thumb up to where the edge of his mouth should have been. He looked up and looked around, wondering if everyone here could do something special. He couldn't remember if he could. He couldn't even remember his own last name. He could only recall one name: Kai. He attached that name to himself.

[Spartan919]

Spartan opened his eyes, which he had no memory of closing, and looked around. More people had awoken. He chose to focus on the girl who, looking frightened, was staring at him. He shook his head to clear, sweeping light over the room. He stood, albeit shakily, and stared at the chains for a moment. [i]Who'd have thought?[/i] he asked himself. [i]I'll just have to figure out some other way to open the door.[/i] He turned his attention back on the girl. "I'm...Spartan," he replied. He looked around again. [i]I must have blacked out...or something.[/i] The last thing he remembered was grabbing the chain, then waking up. Realizing that he may be frightening the girl, he depolarized his visor so she could see his face. "You're...?"

[The Warden]

The body of the one wearing the black and white ensemble moved slightly. It was woken by the sounds the others had made, how troublesome. Using his hands, he pushed himself up into kneeling position, before finally hoisting his body up. As he rose his head was dipped, until he stood with a slight hunch; with a quick jerk he was standing upright. The others in the room, how very fascinating. Now, if only he could remember something. How very troublesome memories, in one ear and out the other. To make up for time Broken began to crack his knuckles one by one.

[GreyCat]

So everyone was up and about. Didn't change the fact that they had nothing to do, nowhere to go and no clue as to how to proceed. At least Judas' little alchemy trick was amusing. One dust free surface in the room. As if Judas' tinkering with the terminal triggered it, the screen flicker to life. It was heard to see, since it was still black and the only sign was a blinking green underscore. Silently, character appeared on the screen. As the screen filled, Grey grinned and put a hand on Judas' shoulder. "Oi, I think you broke it."

[font="Courier"]
signal found_
connecting to secure network..._
encrypting link..._
>>>>>>system error_
error addressed_
connection secure_
opening messenger>
--you have one new message from user *$@0@#?>>

Hell0? Are you guys there? D!d everyone m@ke it okay?

[/font]

[Spirit of DMG]

Kai walked over to the door. He'd seen what happened when Spartan touched the chains, but he still looked them over. He knew that there had to be a way to get out of this building. The question was how they'd do it, and what was waiting for them when they finally managed to make it out. He instinctively clutched his fist over his neck, and looked down to see what he was holding. [i]These necklaces. They're special to me... but why?[/i] He pondered over it for several seconds, picturing both of the necklaces in his mind. It was then that four spike-like projections emerged from his back. He felt a pinch on each of them, but wrote it off. He turned his attention back to the door, mulling over how to get through the chains on it. The spikes began moving to point in front of him, and then moved to strike the chains.

[Magnet Soldier]

Kris smiled as Grey shook his hand, glad he'd made one friend. [font="Lucida Console"][i]Friends are always the largest enemies.[/i][/font] He turned as Spartan closed his hand around the chains, and gasped as he was thrown backwards. However, it was obvious he was alright, as he was still breathing. He Just seemed unconcious. Kris scratched his head before he was shocked by another bright light, which made him dived forwards and into the small pile of wood in the corner. He could've sworn he'd seen a pair of eyes stare at him, but when he opened his eyes again they were gone. He sighed and lifted himself up off the floor again, before turning to the source of the light[font="Lucida Console"][i]Beware the light, it leads to Shadows.[/i][/font].
The alchemist had, indeed, done something to the computor, and when Kris had turned around, he was met with a flashy, flat screened computor which seemed to glow with power, the complete opposite of the nearly dead block they'd had before. Kris approached it slowly, standing beside Judas and Grey, just as the Message started to appear. "If he has." Kris started. "Then I'd love to see what it looked like fix...." Kris stopped as the message unfolded. Although he couldn't be sure, Kris had a hunch who it was. "We're here." He muttered, unaware he'd approached the key board and had typed the message in, his finger hovering above the enter button. He realised what he was doing before he'd actually pressed the button, and was left gaping at his hand that was hovering over the Enter. In his other hand was his Journal, the pages slightly glowing, although not that noticably. "What the...." Kris stopped and withdrew his hand, gaping at the computor.

[font="Lucida Console"][i]Beware my Book, Beware of Me. Beware my power, It is my Key. Good Luck, Mi Amigo's. Hehehe.[/i][/font]

((Evil Book. Mwahaha))

[GreyCat]

"Hey, Hey!" Grey snapped, pulling Kris away from the terminal suddenly. Nothing happened. Okay, so maybe snapping was uncalled for, but since Spartan had zapped himself on the chain earlier. "Sorry. Are you sure you should have done that?" he asked after a beat. "What if it... I don't know, bites or something? We know the chain does." A reply came on the screen after a brief hesitation, proving that responding was the right move.

[font="Courier"]*$@0@#?: Hell0? Are you guys there? D!d everyone m@ke it okay?
USER: We're here
CURRENT MESSAGE>>
*$@0@#?: Great! It actually worke.. I mean I knew it would work out. Okay, here's the deal. Your in the one of the lower rooms in a download node. Don't touch the chains, they are kinda like a firewall- hold up, I found another one. I'm sending him now.

SYSTEM ACTION>>
routing..._
please wait..._
downloading avatars:_
{\\Users\Lazaruz>} [0%... 13%... 26%... 47%... 61%... 78%... 89%... 99%... 100%... verifying..._]
[download complete. assembling..._][/font]

Near the center of the room, a cylinder appeared as the faint light dimmed. In the cylinder, a bar tracked the download process with the value running on top. Sparks filled the column before compressing into a tall man. Before he had chance a look around, Kai touched the chains. This time, they were mean. The energy snapped out and snagged his spikes before lifting him off the ground and hurling him across the room. He landed none too lightly in the dust near the newcomer, Lazaruz.

[Spirit of DMG]

Kai hit the far wall, completely unsure of what had just happened. He rubbed his head and looked around. [i]What was that? One second I'm looking at the chains, and the next... What are these?[/i] he asked, noticing the spikes. He instinctively grabbed the necklaces around his neck again, causing the spikes to be drawn back into his back. He looked around, completely confused. The fact he had no face meant no one could read his expression, and his lack of lips meant he couldn't verbally ask what happened. He walked over to one of the others, Grey, and tapped his shoulder, before kneeling down and tracing the words "What happened?" in the dust on the floor.

[Magnet Soldier]

"I....I...." Kris looked at his hands, placing the Journal back into its pouch without realising he'd ever taken it out. "I....I'm sorry." Kris finally managed to get out, still staring at his hands without any Idea what had happened. He didn't even feeling himself move, just one second he was muttering and the next he was at the keyboard, and had just sent a message. He took a few steps back as the reply came, making sure he wouldn't touch the computor. He felt like it was tainted - [font="Lucida Console"][i]Tainted lies, Tainted heart. Tainted whispers. Fall apart.[/i][/font] - and that whatever was on the other side would eat him if he touched it again. He looked back down at his hands again, before smacking himself on the side of the head. "I dont know what came over me. Sorry." He said, apologizing, before turning around to face the screen again. He'd just finished reading it before a person appeared out of nowhere, presumably the new guy the thing on the computor was talking about. "Hi there." Kris said, walking up to the new guy. "I'm Kristan, or Kris if you want. Nice to meet you." Kris said, holding out his hand. He wasn't aware that some people may not even recognise what a hand shake was, but he would've been sure they knew what to do anyway.

[Reinforce]

Judas walked over and saw the faceless person hit the wall from the energy of what he now knew as the firewall. Realising that this guy couldn't speak with his mouth that wasn't there, Judas signed to him "What happened is that you came up against the firewall that is that chain and got repelled. Seemingly if you try to get past that firewall it will stop you violently. It seems to have the same effect on an avatar even if it is secure or corrupt." Walking over to Kai, he then signed, "Do you actually understand and or see the sign language, bacause this is a big fail if you can't do one of those two things."

"Listen to me, if you really want to get out of this room, do not try to get past that chain. Luckily for us, the chain is only on the door so if you do want to get out than use the roof or the walls and make sure you leave a way to shut this place off." Asmodeus had walked in front of the chain and tried to project his voice far enough to get everyone's attention for that announcement so that they would understand what he was saying and listen to him so no-one else would get caught by the chain.

[The Warden]

Broken saw as someone tried to bypass the chains, and was sent flying away. That was somewhat funny really, in a sadistic manner. He took interest in the terminal that had been magically improved, lucky us. Giving it a quick scan, he found that the chains were a firewall. Going back to fragmented memory, a firewall is designed to prevent the entry of hostile programs, like viruses and worms. However, maybe if you proved to it that you were not a threat, it would allow entry. Satisfied, he walked over to the door, the chains covering it were kind of menacing. At adecent distance, Broken released the clasps on his greaves, removing them one at a time. With both in his arms, he then placed them on the floor. Satisfied, he bared his hands to the chains, to show the chains that he did not bare ill will.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

The young woman slowly got up, seeming a bit more calm, and replied. [color=#FF0000]"Itsu. My name is Itsu. At least, I think it is. Yeah, I'm pretty sure my name is Itsu. It's the only name I can think of that could be mine, though Claudia keeps popping into my head as a close second."[/color] She looked around and asked Spartan. [color=#FF0000]"Where are we, and why can't I seem to remember anything?"[/color] She then approached Spartan, slowly, and placed her hand against the armor of his chest, feeling it, as if she was trying to make sure he was real, which she most likely was doing. [color=#FF0000]"And why do I have the sudden craving for chamomile tea with honey? In fact, what is chamomile tea with honey?"[/color]

[Spirit of DMG]

Kai looked at the person who had answered his questions, and answered in Sign Language: "Yeah, I see your signs, and I understand your words." He stood up from his kneeling position as someone made the announcement to use alternate means of escape, without the door. He then watched as one of the others made an attempt at bypassing the chains, simply by trying to make them understand that no one in the room was a hostile."Think that'll work?" he signed.

[GreyCat]

"Yeah, hey, don't worry about it," Grey waved dismissively before Kris went to introduce himself to the newest arrival. "I was just worried that something would happen to you, like it did to those idiots that keep messing with the chains." Speaking of which, the chain pulsed ominously at Broken. It obviously wasn't having any of the innocent person act from Broken. "For something that should protect us, It's pretty aggressive," Grey muttered. As the others introduced themselves, to each other, Grey took over the terminal Kris vacated. He was fine running off that information in the database for now. What he wanted to know was what they were supposed to do. He typed in as much.
[font="Courier"]
[spoiler=MESSAGE HISTORY]*$@0@#?: Hell0? Are you guys there? D!d everyone m@ke it okay?
USER: We're here.
*$@0@#?: Great! It actually worke.. I mean I knew it would work out. Okay, here's the deal. Your in the one of the lower rooms in a download node. Don't touch the chains, they are kinda like a firewall- hold up, I found another one. I'm sending him now.
USER: everybody is here okay. Kinda acting all chummy too. Bah. A couple of them are messing with the chains on the door, by the way. So you got us all here, what are we supposed to do. You kinda locked us in a dirty room with no hint of what come next.[/spoiler]

*$@0@#?: Ah... about that... I didn't really think that far ahead. Kinda focused on saving folk from the Collective and avoiding them myself...[/font]

"Ah, perfect!" Grey growled loudly. "We were saved by an idiot!" He was about to send as much back to the guy, but he wasn't finished with his side of things yet.

[font="Courier"]*$@0@#?: For now, you need to get out of that place. A download node is basically a tower that is easy to link to. It's got lots of levels and sub-levels. You guys are in sub-level three. And the Collective are in the top levels. Before you panic and do something stupid, let me tell you this; the Collective would sense the corrupted among you right away. But if you do something stupi- ah, excessive to attract their attention, they will start scanning. And then you'll have to fight your way out. For now, try to find another terminal. I'll open the chains. Oh, and watch out for viruses and the like. They are worse than the Collective. They will KILL you if they can. Crap! Speak of the devil...

SYSTEM ALERT>> REMOTE ACCESS OF TERMINAL DETECTED>> SYSTEM IS BEING INTRUDED-[/font]

The screen blinked out. All the lights in the room cut and the only illumination came from the chains, which started glowing fiercely and visibly sparking. Grey backed up from the screen. "I swear, I didn't do that!" he insisted as he did.

Then a new light glowed. A tunnel of swirling red and blue data sprouted from the dead terminal. Out of which stepped... something. A tall figure in long black robe that covered his body, completed with a hood that hide his face from view. Really, only a black emptiness wear the face should have been. A breastplate armour of sorts protected his chest and gut. Red glowing... eyes(?) briefly lit under the hood and the long tendrilous and tentacular ends of his robe reach out and curled like something from a horror film.

[font="Matisse ITC"]"So,"[/font] it said in a harsh, grating voice, [font="Matisse ITC"]"this is what was hiding in this room."[/font] he took a step forward. [font="Matisse ITC"]"So long this room's terminal's encryption kept us out. Imagine our surprise when it fell. This must be were those free avatars crop up from. How... delectable."[/font]

[Spirit of DMG]

Kai looked over to the...thing... that appeared in the room. [i]What is that thing? Something tells me he isn't here to make friends.[/i] He took a couple steps back, knowing that this thing would prove to be dangerous. [i]I don't know what it wants, but I know that it won't get me. I won't be taken.[/i] His inner turmoil and terror didn't show in his outward appearance. Anyone looking at him would have thought that he was looking at a painting.