The Viral Boundary

Subject: The Viral Boundary Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:57 pm

*For literally any type of gamer out there.

It seems we are stuck in the worlds of video games. Yes, I said worlds. You all, my dear friends, have crossed through the Viral Boundary from reality into an alternate virtual reality, actually more realities established in other dimensions.

Something happened to break my reality modulating computer wristwatch. I wanted to tell you of this watch earlier, but I knew I wouldn't share this secret until I found my most trusted companions, those with a love of games and open minds. Only with them could I share these adventures.

I've been using this watch to explore different games and literally be apart of them. It was a big secret, and I finally found the courage to tell all of you.

That's what this morning was. We were supposed to be going to a neutral game all of you know, vacation there for a week with only 7 minutes in our world passing (my dimensional time settings), entering through a portal my watch can generate.

However, whatever caused my watch to malfunction created a dimension rip and changed the settings as we were entering it. Instead of all going to one place, we got separated; each fell into a different world labeled as a game we know and play.

Unfortunately, I have no clue as of now where all of you are. Also, you can't really get back by yourself; you must wait for me to come get you. Oh, depending on where you fell, there might be someone or something dangerous in your environment; so no dying while I'm coming. Don't worry, I'll get you and fix this. At least, I have a rough idea how to do that.

*Character Form and sheets are in the discussion page, because I felt like it*

Subject: Re: The Viral Boundary Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:11 pm

Originally, I wanted simply to show my friends my cool ~~fictional, wish it existed~~ watch and enjoy our afternoon together. Though, while I was expecting them to have a real adventure, the one we got wasn't the one I planned...

~Dimension Gap: Nintendo
Current Stable Dimension: Animal Crossing
Location: Town of Woodfall~

My senses coming back, I find myself outside with the afternoon sun beating down. My head, back, and hips hurt as I look above to see the tree has many branches broken apart. That explains the pain... I see that my watch is crushed. That's bad. I press a hidden button on the side to have a holographic menu screen pop up. It's partially full of static, but I can make out enough details to find my location. Where am I? Woodfall, in the game of Animal Crossing. Technically, I already recognized the cobblestone bridge by the river I saw nearby.
Pressing the buttons on my menu, I find the bad news: none of my friends from the real world are in the immediate area (or dimension for that matter), my Return Home button doesn't work, and none of my settings can be altered from my convenient wrist accessory.
Well, I know my town at least. My house should be close. After saying hi to the wolf Whitney and later tiger Rolf, both villagers that happen to live in my town, I found my house. After entering, I see a lonely cockroach running around my living room. I stomp on it. Crunch. I see the in game graphics of the bug's ghostly spirit leaving the corpse before fading away. Maybe I should vacuum, Tom Nook might have one soon in stock. Shaking my head in annoyance, I leave my shoes in the foyer and head upstairs. Past the second floor is my "bedroom", or attic as it's literally called. I sit on the side of my bed and breath deeply before dialing the phone. I hear a familiar feline's voice on the other end.
"Hey Amber, it's been a while." Rover, a blue cat, speaks cheerfully. "So, I take it you wanna change your game settings? Sure, where would you like to start? Maybe with how you want us animals to sound when we're talking?"
"Not now Rover," I say impatiently. "Code Casey."
"Oh, so it's the real you visiting, I don't have to abide by my programmed script then." Rover replies. "Glad you stopped in and paid us a visit. You sound stressed, is your home life getting to you?"
"No," I say. "I was trying to bring some friends in to visit a different game, but my watch went weird. Now we're separated and my watch isn't totally working properly."
"That's horrible."
"Well yea! Can you tell me my settings? Also, I need to order some parts so I can fix it."
"Hang on..." There was a short pause. "Alright, it seems your time settings are still fine. Days here will only count you minutes back home. But since you brought people with you, you need everyone present to send anyone home."
"Alright, now if I have Pete deliver you the list of parts I find need fixing, how soon can the new ones come in?"
"Yea, that's the problem. It's going to take a while. Probably close to a month. They're not normal things found in the game that can be received in an hour's worth of playtime."
"So what do I do in the mean time? My friends are scattered through whatever games' dimensions and without my watch I can't get to them."
"That shouldn't be much of a problem. The dimensions happen to be ripping at the seams; they're leaking possible exits. You know how you laptop can access the system and check though every game in your files?"
"yea...so?"
"Well, using your radar when traveling of course, your computer will tell you spikes of energy; basically your friends' energies leaking through the game entrances that are now appearing scattered around Woodfall. There's no dangers in Animal Crossing. Gather your friends here while you wait to fix your watch." I process this information for a few seconds.
"Alright, thank you Rover."
"Anytime, Amber. Now good luck." I could hear his smile in his voice.
I returned the phone to the receiver...

Later Edit/Notes:

Subject: Re: The Viral Boundary Sun Jun 15, 2014 1:50 am

Now let the Games begin!! (Don't forget to press start lol)

I exit my bedroom from the small attic and head downstairs. Regular game items are kept in the massive store unit provided for each player; my irregular possessions are kept in the drawers not normally accessed in normal game-play. I check my exotic dresser in the ~~exotic themed, with asian influenced hard wood and carvings,~~ living room to grab my radar, design influenced by the GameBoy SP for easy traveling. It's placed in my pockets. In my basement, I grab a chair and use it for a stool to reach the top drawer in my stairs dresser. You'd think I wouldn't deal with being short in games too, but no...the gaming universe hates me too. I pull my laptop out, then plop on my guest bed, turning it on. I start singing my "loading, loading, loading" song to myself. After a minute, the scanners are up and working.

Before I could come up with a plan to find anyone, the pop up "Alert!" box came blocking most of my view. First victim found, and I mean actual victim for once. There's a distressed signal coming from my more humorous friend. Jeremy, or as we call him "Ace," is trapped in a terrible situation in apparently Mortal Kombat. Of all the places, he ended up in... While I have my radar synced to the laptop to capture the reading, I change into a tee and cargo pants. Laptop on my desk, I grab the radar and leave the house.

I pass Coco, a bunny villager, and she gives me her peppy smile. Oh right, I changed clothes but to her I'm still wearing the outfit my avatar was wearing last I played. I think it was that Dawn Shirt and red ribbon in my hair. Luckily, she's used to seeing me zip around town with a goal in mind, so she doesn't pester me with questions. My radar points me in a direction past the bridge and up the ramp; the northern part of town, the top of the cliffs. Past the house of Rolf, I come to a stop. My radar says I'm at the right spot but I don't see anything different. I look down. There's a metal door built into the ground near a bush; the door has the Mortal Kombat dragon logo on it. Radar, folded up, goes into my pocket,

"Well, this must be it. Ace, I hope your sarcastic comments are entertaining if not helping to keep yourself from getting killed." I open the latch and jump in.

Subject: Re: The Viral Boundary Sun Jun 15, 2014 2:00 am

Raven wrote:: For moving this over:
my stuff will be in this color 5577ff
and Pres will be in this colorff7733

FINISH HIM!
Those two words woke me rapidly from my unconscious slumber. Upon awakening, my ears were immediately deafened by a cheering crowd, who were screaming for blood and gore. I got up quickly, backing up into the small group of warriors that were watching the scene around the arena. They didn't seem bothered by my presence, despite being an ugly 15-year-old in some jeans and a Superman t-shirt, whilst everyone else looked like ninjas. It took me a few moments to realize just where I was exactly.
"M-mortal Kombat?" I muttered to myself, looking around.
~~Amanda's~~ Amber's device did work after all... But what in the world am I doing here? I thought to myself, trying to restrain my panic.
I watched (half in order and half in awe) as Scorpion, the titular poster-boy of the game clad in yellow, burnt his opponent to death.
"The next Earthrealm warrior will be... You!" Yelled an old man, who must've been Shang-Tsung, one of the game's villains.
It just took me a moment to realize he was talking to me.
"M-me?" I asked, pointing to myself.
The first time I go into a video game and I get the one that'll get me killed.
"Versus... Baraka!"
And I get to fight the guy with the giant blades coming out of his arms. I'm never meeting people from the Internet again.
The battle begins, and I run at Baraka, clearly worried. He could tell, too. I sent a punch at his guy, expecting it to do nothing, and then for him to cut my throat open. Surprisingly, Baraka wet flying into the coliseum wall. I realized that I did that because I wanted to. This was a game with ninjas summoning fire and such, so really anything was possible. Even regular people like Johnny Cage had powers, why couldn't I? I wasn't even part of the game, I could will myself whatever powers i wanted.
I put on my Buc-ee's headphones, setting the song to "Indestructible" by Disturbed.
I wiped the blood from my mout as Baraka ran at me.
"Now we're talking."
And the fight continues.

~Location: Mortal Kombat~

I land, upright, just outside of the arena. The crowd's roar is deafening. Getting my bounding, I make my way through a back entrance to the arena. Now, where could Ace be? My instinct, and knowledge of the universe's approach toward my ~~poor, unfortunate~~ friend, tells me to look in the center of the stage. Weaving my way through the standing-room-only section, I finally spot Ace. There he is! In the worst spot possible. I keep moving around past people.
"Which guy is he fighting?" I think out loud, then groan in annoyance. "I should refresh my memory on this game again. Been too long." I watch a second, seeing Ace counterattack and using his powers accessible in-game. "I wanna say that big guy is Baraka. I also wanna say to no one in particular no one can hear me with all the shouting-Ace is doing a good job of kicking butt. For someone struggling to stay alive, good job." I clap for my friend as he dodges another lunge. "Now, focus: what the heck am I gonna do?" strategy, strategy...
I see he's starting to literally struggle. My brain clicked.
"Alright Ace, I'm coming."

I had done a good job of accessing my abilities, so I had defeated Baraka. Now it was time for the big fight. Since I was the only "Earthrealm" warrior left, I was now the champion and had to fight the game's final boss. I recalled him being incredibly hard due to his crushingly damaging attacks and unblockable weapons. I wasn't worried, though.
I should've been.
When I attacked, I hit Shao Kahn, the boss, in the stomach with the strength of Superman. He didn't even flinch. I hit him again, and still nothing. I had forgotten how tough this guy was. Since he was so difficult in the game, how would he be to a real person? Shao Kahn hit back, hitting me in the gut and sending me into the air. He jumped in the air and stomped my gut with his feet, pummeling me back down into the ground. I slowly sat back up and sputtered as blood spilled out of my mouth. Shao Kahn was approaching me now, his trademark hammer in his hand.
I could use some help! I thought, as Kahn prepared to bring his hammer down upon my skull.

"Not today gruesome!" I yell.

While running into the arena, I used my radar ~~its multipurpose~~ to access my storage. I pulled out my kunai blades and a chain whip. I threw the chain whip to catch Kahn's hammer as I yelled.

My chain hooks the hammer, twisting around, and stops its progress of whacking my dear friend's skull. Shao Kahn grunts and tries to pull my chain from my grasp, but I use the momentum to jump at him and dive kick him. I land on his collar bone and back flip a safe distance. My chain whip unwraps and I spin it in preparation. I block and counterattack him. Doing some aerobatics, I weave around him and wrap my chain around his ankles to trip him.
"Whelp, prepare to die!" Kahn shouts. Yea... uh, no thanks. I run back towards Ace.
"Hey buddy," I say as I grab his arm and pull him upright. "I hope your enjoying yourself, minus that giant hammer of course."

Subject: Re: The Viral Boundary Sun Jun 15, 2014 2:14 am

"Surprisingly," I told Amber as I accepted her help and jumped back up.
"This isn't the first time a giant hammer has ruined all my fun."
I decided to use a power I had wanted to try out, I focused and two beams of red light burst from my eyes. The heat vision hit Shao Kahn in his eyes, blinding him, after which I picked up his hammer and golf swinged it into his face. I didn't get a chance to flick him off before Amber grabbed my arm and ripped me back, then in a sudden instant I wasn't in an arena anymore. I was in... Animal Crossing? I hadn't played this game since I was 12.
"Well this is a change..."
I got up and dusted myself off.
"Thanks." I said to Amanda awkwardly.

Yea, even though I'm sure Ace could've beaten Kahn, I wasn't gonna risk it. So I got us back to Animal Crossing quickly. He was dusting himself off.
"Thanks" he said to me, feeling kinda awkward.
"No problem." I say, glancing around. I glance back at him. He gives me an inquiring look, must be from my stunned reaction. After a second, I sigh and shake my head.
"Come on, you're really banged up and got blood dripping down your neck and chest." I say reaching into my pocket. I take out some AC medicine. "Take the medicine now so the villagers don't think something's up. Your game avatar has a bloody bee sting; it'll frighten them quite a bit. We'll head to my house and fix you up there."

I start leading him across town to where my house was. Since its been a while since the last time he played the game, we spent the walk discussing the game changes. I was avoiding the topic of our situation until we made it home. On the way it started raining. I opened up my umbrella, but Ace started to complain about sharing because he's taller than me and didn't want to crouch.
"Fine, here" I said annoyed, shoved my flamed umbrella into his hands and got out my second one, a paper parasol. "There, now you can be happy 'cause you don't need to crouch and I didn't give you the girly one." I walked farther ahead. We crossed the river, scared a cicada from a nearby tree. Jeremy...that little punker... almost got his sorry self killed...

When we arrived, I unlocked and opened the door for Ace.

"Oh Amber, what would I do without you." I told her sarcastically as she opened up the door for me to quickly step inside.
While she was stepping inside I turned off my music so I could hear her well. I had secretly just been listening to it while she explained the world of Animal Crossing to me. I did appreciate the medicine though, I was feeling better already.
"So I guess now is when you are gonna explain what the h3ll happened, or are you gonna keep prolonging? C'mon lady we got a story to write."

"I'll tell ya in just a sec,'" I say as Ace walks into my foyer. "For the record, without me, you would be smashed into a bloody corpse back in Mortal Kombat." He gave me a glare.
I went into the living room dresser and grabbed my first aid kit and a towel. I come back and point to the nearby chair, telling him to sit. He responds with a "Yes, ma'am."
"Alright," I say sighing and give him the supplies to get cleaned up. "Long story short, our friends are all separated and we're stuck here." I let him absorb that information as I lean against the wall, crossing my limbs.
"My watch malfunctioned. I don't know how exactly but something messed it up. hint hint. I ordered new parts for my watch, but it'll take a while for them to come in. In the mean time, I'm gonna track down everyone so we can go home." Ace watches me as he wipes his face with the towel. "And hopefully no one else will get as banged up as you."
Ace looks at himself with a loss for words. I shake my head and grab the first aid kit from him.
"Here," I say, putting a cleaner on his arm wound. He yells something fierce and innappropriate.
"You hopeless cowboy," I respond, calming him down back into the chair. "Don't you want to heal up correctly? I'd slap your face but you don't need the second make-over. Can I wrap your arm now?"

I yelled out a very harsh expletive that would have my mother in tears.
Amber tells me to shut up and that she needs to clean the wound. I bite down on my lip and nod, closing my eyes. She does her business, and soon my wound is patched up so I won't bleed out.
"I just hope the others are okay. Y'know how Cat n Seek are. Are we gonna go get em?"
Amber gave me a look.
"Uh, no! You aren't leaving me here to twiddle my thumbs! I'm coming with you!"
I grabbed another one of the radar-storage devices that Amber had used to access her weapons. It looks like she had got one for each of us, and this one had my name on it.
So that's why she asked me for a bunch of different weapons...
Amber sighed so I guess she gave in.
"C'mon, who're we saving first?"

"Stupid cowboy," I mutter to myself.
Well, it'll be faster with his help at least. Stubborn fool, better not get himself killed. I'm not buying lilies for his funeral.
I sigh in defeat.
"C'mon, who're we saving first?" he asks impatiently.
"Let me check my laptop." I say first. "That's how I found you; the radars only work after syncing the location."
He nods and watches me leave, mumbling about how much of an idiot he is. I know I said "baka" at least thrice. So I come back, already checking the system on my computer. Ace watches over my shoulder as I sit at the table hitting buttons frantically.
"Well, it seems the sisters aren't doing too badly. It seems like Lucy (Cat) is wandering Station Square. I bet she's pissed that she's not in Sonic Rush or anything with Blaze in it; she's in Sonic Adventure 2, she'll be completely fine if she stumbles in a chao garden."
Ace questions about Seek's location.
"Ah yes, the little sister. Yea, that's the fun part." I chuckle at the irony. "Our dear Melody (Seek) just got captured by the leading organization in Pokemon. Here, give me your radar so I can sync them both. It looks like we're going after Mel first." I lean back in my chair, planning our next move when we get there.

After hearing about the location of the sisters, I handed Raven my radar so that she could sync it, both to find the sisters and to get the gear I had loaded on to it before getting sucked in to the data space. I chuckled particularly at Cat's demise, imagining her running around frustratingly looking for Blaze before realizing that she was in Sonic Adventure 2. Unfortunately I was at a disadvantage when it came to Seek, as frankly I'd never played a Pokemon game. Raven would need to lead the way on this adventure. After the sync was complete, I thrust my radar in my pocket, ready to go. Raven got up and muttered something, something about cowboys and "Baka", which I think means stupid. I follow her out and she starts explaining this crap about "game portals" or something, but I quickly drone her out. Soon we reach one of the game portals. It looks like a hole that ol' Resetti could've dug, except there were small blue pixels coming out of of like dust. Raven hopped inside first, and after considering just leaving her there, I hopped in too. I guess I'd better start learning to catch em all, or whatever.

» The Viral Boundary: Discussion