The World's Biggest Glitch

by birby6

While most glitches that enter the real world get dealt with rather easily by the Glitch Techs, they never predicted a foreboding pandemic to occur. For High Five and Miko, it was just another day on the job for them until they run into a particular type of glitch that almost overwhelms them...

1. Chapter 1

When the wheels started to turn, ideas formed in the minds of many. What once started as a simple course of actions churned forth an endless torrent that inspired the lives of many. From bicycles to cars and from simple fires to giant ovens, the world continuously concocted new ways to live life and adapt around it. Various cultures and ideas revolved around constant advancements to live their lives the way they felt moved them forward, as what once thought impossible suddenly turned reality upon new discoveries that got sought out every day. One might have never concluded on such a resurgence, but for others they sat on a gold mine and would take advantage of every single piece imaginable. Some would call the process evolution while many others consider it the process of life, but no matter what name they gave it…existed.

The process gave way to some of the most successful ideas in the history of mankind. When the clash of metal and electricity culminate into a concoction that acted on its own merits a much simpler term came forth to generalize the types of groups. Technology. From the mixes of wires and circuits to mechanisms and motors, one could utilize the tools available to build something that could change the way we acted and lived to the potential to muster through hard work and dangers without repercussions. With a near endless amount to work with, the limits only came in the form of individual imaginations. Progression only furthered the amount to work with as more materials became usable to such endeavors. Every custom under the sun potentially had the function to adapt to such technologies and further develop their way of life with them at their side.

Of course not everything about technology required a tone of seriousness to stand out. The entertainment industry underwent a major boon in popularity as a result of these technologies. What started off as words only soon became pictures before they combined into moving pictures with sound. While black and white at first, color followed close behind to form the first ever televisions for the public. Some time after the first revolutions to complement the new sensations exploded in popularity in the form of certain consoles that did something extraordinary. Not only did they provide a new sense of pictures across the screen but it also made them controllable with a few buttons and joysticks to form a new system to how everyone handled the market.

The industry of video games.

The popularity of such a concept only grew as time moved on. As technology advanced further into the future the industry followed with it. Consoles formed into more powerful machines with graphics and sound that went unheard of…until its successor improves upon it. From controllers, perpetuals, and raw processing speed the video game industry flourished into a beast all on its own. From all over the globe companies poured their earnings into the growing trend until they eventually make branches specifically to cater to the certain crowd, and the video game industry was no different.

Of all the companies to join in the fast growing industry though, one managed to remain consistently good throughout the ages. From decent ideas to cult classics, one could look no further than the Hinobi company. They took their chances and ran with it, which eventually paved way for them to create their own consoles and run a type of monopoly not usually seen in other industries. Most of their branches around the world kept up to date and assisted each other when one part doesn't perform on par with the others. They worked from certain dependencies that structured the company to stay strong and live longer than others that eventually fell to bankruptcy. They ran on quality over quantity that kept a loyal fanbase even to this very day. The fact that they didn't often follow trends worked in their favor as they remained one of the most talked about tech companies when it came to video games.

Too bad not everything worked flawlessly in their favor. Whether by faulty parts, broken code, or some other exploit, many of the games they produced came with major caveats. Despite their near universal praise for their quality, their games usually contained at most a single glitch or two. Sometimes it usually went by harmlessly, such as a misplaced object or missing collision data, but for the most part it came out as something much worse. Those types of glitches never had restrictions bounded by the games that contained them, they contained the supernatural ability to break out into the real world and cause havoc. The pandemic always flew on Hinobi's radar, so they created a secret branch of their company meant to debug the issues and store them back into their database for potential analysis.

Their name? The Glitch Techs.

You couldn't just immediate apply for the position either, they used extraneous precautionary methods to alert any employee of their potential. Sometimes they used minuscule notes, sometimes they sent e-mails that deleted itself after half a minute or so, but no matter the circumstance they wanted the branch to never get known or seen by the public. Even so, they had measures in case anything went out of line. Every piece of equipment they carried out on missions came with a mind wiping flash to "reset" someone back to a regular state of mind from before the situation happened which also came with the perk of setting objects back to their normal states like nothing happened in the first place like any signs of destruction. The entire job didn't set itself as something boring either, as the more glitches a particular worker collected the more benefits they obtained to provide incentives to keep at it. From upgrades to their Glitch Tech gear to actual Hinobi hardware, one could claim them behind closed doors after they captured enough glitches. With the right talent behind them, it's usually claimed as an honor if you get picked for the secret job behind the scenes.

Most of the Glitch Tech bases stayed hidden behind closed doors at Hinobi stores, usually in some sort of basic locker room, that usually required a special key to access. Inside it displayed a much different appearance than the typical game store. The main hub area curved into a circular shape with dozens of rooms on the second floor around the balcony. At the center of the mostly white interior lied the central terminal responsible for counting all of the experience points earned and handling the rewards system. It also hosted a database of all employees of the Glitch Techs to monitor progression and keep track of how highly ranked each individual placed on the ladder. Those that showed excessive skill and leadership usually sat near the top while the rookies placed near the bottom. The more you worked to catch glitches, the more experience you earned to rise to the top.

While very effective to monitor and catch any excess game code turned real, like any other business it couldn't stay open all twenty four hours. Eventually the gadgets and all of the machines required cool down periods for them to function to their full potential, which left night shifts pretty vacant. Even so, it still required some sort of security that usually got placed in the duties of certain specs of AI.

Unfortunately certain holes in the system lead to the start of an intense frenzy of destruction and ruin for a certain Hinobi store.

While everyone else counted sheep, one particular type of assistant stayed up a little bit later in a last minute surveillance before he shut himself off. While he didn't get out of the base often he didn't need to when his duties mostly required him to stay back. With a large floating monitor for a body and a screen for a face, he usually thought things exactly how his programming made him. He never minded the setbacks though, as he provided essentials to help out any Glitch Tech employee such as flawless memory on all things about the branch and marked down schedules for the higher ups. While all Hinobi stores supported at least one of his models around the premises, every single one had some sort of uniqueness to them…even if nobody could notice at a first glance.

The peculiar machine hovered down the hallways one last time as his embedded round decals on the screen for eyes surveyed for anything out of the ordinary while he dotted down a personal report for a more accurate representation for the ones in charge. With a quick swivel of his monitor body, he faced one of the stylized doors of the establishment before he opened it. He only required one quick scan before he formulated a conclusion.

"Essential target practice room: Clear!"

The machine beeped a couple of times before he closed the door. He then hovered a short distance down the hallway until he reached another door. Like before he opened it up and quickly scanned the area.

"Generic lounge room: Clear!"

The routine progressed according to his programmed routine. With each new door the machine opened it before it scanned everywhere for any abnormalities or intrusions. If it ever detected something amiss his memory banks contained measures already baked in. He never got to use them in a while since everything remained spotless in recent times, but he always had the option should everything get down to it.

He approached another door and went through all of the steps as before. His typical computerized smile stayed on his screen as he scanned the premises.

"Internal database room: Clear!"

He closed the door in a haste to get the rest of the rooms accounted for. If he stayed put a little bit longer he could have probably saw everything coming, but his programming knew more than he did. While the room he left contained a much broader and larger scope than the other rooms, it carried more importance than most. It had a specialized keypad that held all of the company's history in gaming and their entire archive library of all of their software title. From their very first console to current day, it contained all of the necessary data on all of their titles. It also carried the handy bonus of a common operating system in case of certain requirements, but other than that it mostly contained all of their software tidied up and ready to go.

At first nothing happened and everything seemed fine, but soon after a small spark lit for a quick second. For some reason it came out gray instead of any other natural color, but it didn't end there. It came up again in the same spot which wore away some of the essential cables before the frequency turned up. Once a couple more seconds passed the fault got bigger and bigger until the cable couldn't take the punishment any further and worn off to the floor. From the shower of electricity one certain entity slowly stuck out of the small hole between the sparks and uttered some inaudible high pitched noises. It bore no shape, but it showed off the distinct gray color the sparks gave off as the small entity plopped to the floor. The formless blob fizzled in and out like loose static but it didn't take off somewhere else immediately. A portion of it steered up toward the big screen where the displays in the room usually occurred before it shook up and down uncontrollably. After that it zipped off toward the room's door and squeezed right under it into the main hallways. It pried itself loose in the base.

It ended up setting off the machine's accurate hearing capabilities. Its screen quickly changed into a large question mark for a quick second before it turned around and hovered toward the source.

"Picking up extra noise indicators…" the machine said to itself as it rounded a corner. It directed him to another corner as his wires twiddled for answers, but before he ever got the chance to go around it the fizzling mass burst forward past the machine and grazed the frontal part of it, which caused the machine to whirl around on the spot before it fell to the ground stunned. Its screen then showed a progress bar that slowly started to fill up until it reached the top.

"Dizziness feeling eliminated."

It fired up its hover technology and took off back into the air as its face lit back up on its screen. Immediately upon boot its sights caught the small weird blob as it zipped off into another corridor. To any normal person some would quickly freak out, but for the machine it never fazed unless programmed to do so.

Also normally some of the Glitch Tech employees would stay around to handle it, but since the machine hovered on its own at the moment…

"Loose glitch detected. Initializing emergency lock down procedure."

The machine followed behind the formless mass in hot pursuit while the area around them suddenly blinked red in with a large siren overhead. The upper part of the entity darted left and right as the hallways around it locked up tight, but that only served as the start. From under the many sirens near the ceiling panels opened up and revealed top notch revolver type guns that hung and aimed right at it. They wasted no time and fired blue shots that formed into small stray blue cubes when they hit the ground, which left no room for error…at a glance. Their appearances only seemed to rile up the formless mush before it zipped around every single shot effortlessly. It fizzled even further like loose static while every single bullet at best missed it by mere inches. At one point it even sat atop one of the guns only to ditch it at the last possible second and let it get annihilated by the extra gunfire. The first layer of protection fell almost instantly, which left the rest to pick up the slack.

As it left the guns in the dust, it immediately entered another hallways as the second layer suddenly showed up. Before long, various explosions of light erupted all over the floor around the shapeless mass as even more of the specialized revolvers stuck out of the ceiling. One could easily mistake the flashes as land mines with a timer attached to them since the explosions came up so quickly in sequence with just as equal power behind them while the guns unloaded behind them. To complicate things even further the various corridors around the mass suddenly dropped chromium shutters to make it even harder to move around and box it in. The blob twisted and turned from all of the chaos around it as any single strike would eliminate it with everything seemingly in order to finally bring it down. Its body disappeared and reappeared all over from the bursts and the shutters prevented it from any sort of escape…except one crucial point. It seemed the blob already had it in mind and silently waited for the right moment the whole time as it sprang into action a few seconds later and its movements went erratic all over the place. From missed explosion to missed explosion and hails of gunfire, the entity dashed across the floor and made its way atop one of the large guns from the ceiling. In a direct repeat of last time, the other guns aimed right at it as the blob zipped right off of it which not only turned the gun to scrap but left everything else wide open. The bursts of light across the ground almost got to it at one point, but it successfully escaped again and rushed straight through the grates into the ventilation system.

Hinobi always thought ahead just in case though. The temperature instantaneously dropped to the negatives while the wind picked up in speed. The mass shuddered against the wind and held its ground before it made its way through it but to immediately complicate things further dozens of panels opened up all over the place and pulled out…even more of the specialized guns. Clearly someone had a hard on for the type of weaponry, but it didn't matter at the time as they immediately started to fire upon the loose blob. Because of the cramped space it almost proved troublesome to even begin to make it across, but it didn't halt the entity in the slightest. Each loose piece of gunfire unloaded only to miss it by centimeters while the winds had more trouble pushing back and freezing it. The noises banged all across the base from all of the commotion inside the vents with varied results. None of the chilly winds or smaller guns in the vents stood no chance against the opposing formless mass as it steamrolled through all of it with no trouble.

Eventually the mass came across a grating to the side, but it didn't need to push against it to fall through. With one electric zip it phased straight through the spaces and into another portion of the base, but it proved pivotal. It landed straight into the main hub room on the outer balcony, and right above it near the ceiling was where the Glitch Techs enter and exit. An upper part of the mass extended up a bit toward the ceiling even if it couldn't reach before it stuttered into blurriness for a second.

Its sudden emergence got cut short when a small cocking noise came up from behind it.

"Ammunition fully loaded. Ready to fire."

The machine stayed on the blob's tail the whole time. It's goofy smiling face didn't quite match up to what it had wielded before it. He had no idea what the glitchy blob planned the whole time, but it didn't need to. One blast from its embedded large gun and he would put the mess of code in its place. For some reason the mass stayed frozen in place, whether by the sight of the gun or some other reason, which gave the machine ample time to fire at it. However, because he had no reason not to, the machine scanned the blob to obtain more information about it. Normally the machine had flawless intellect on every single type of glitch imaginable, so it should have had the required notes to know what sat before him.

…except it didn't.

He searched his data banks thoroughly for any shred or clue on its whereabouts, but yet only the general description came up which the machine could see for himself. Various symbols and other unrecognizable coding displayed that didn't pass through its deciphering system. It almost brought its AI to a staggering halt as it put in the hardware acceleration to try and figure something out from all of the mysterious data…only to go into an infinite loop with how much it couldn't figure out. Nothing added up as much as the machine tried.

"What…what are you…what ARE you?!"

Its lack of knowledge frustrated the machine to speak up even though it kept its focus on the trigger for the glitch ahead. It never expected an answer until it heard something very chilling in front of him.

"…I'm back…"

Without warning, the blob charged straight at the machine and smashed it straight in the face which made it whirl out of control until it crashed into a wall. It fell to the floor with a loud thud before it completely shut down from damage which left the blob the opportunity to zip straight out of the base and into reality all while the sirens blared and the defense system struggled to figure anything out. From straight out of the front door of the Hinobi store the mesh trekked right under the front doors. As it did so some distinct features slowly started to pierce out from its formless being, but before they could fully show up it immediately disappeared into the bushes.

A trail of smoke soon followed out from the store.

---

For a certain young girl the city around her exemplified the great world around her even if she preferred more condense spaces at times. Of course her job as a Glitch Tech employee required some form of understanding the local area which she knew like the back of her hand. Even so, she still appreciated the changes in scenery every now and then, especially on her way to work. The rest of her siblings had their own agendas which left her at what some would consider somewhat of a dream job.

For someone like Miko Kubota, it became routine at that point.

While the common stereotype of a gamer usually leaned toward something of a masculine pastime, it only served as a loose definition to someone like her. She thrived to play new releases and had a game face that gave off serious undertones. At first glance one might never connect the wires that she had the sort of hobby but she always proved them wrong after a game or two. Her long mixed violet and blue hair stood out from all of her other features that brought some nice flash to her while her common yellow shirt with a black cat decal usually caught others' interest as a unique twist to the genre. For work reasons though she kept her hair bundled up while she wore the worker's suit, a casual light blue and white shirt combined with the same colored pants that supported a large letter H decal, when she had to go to her job at Hinobi. She didn't mind it too much even though she was a teenager, but she did have her moments of various overreactions. When she got into a game, she REALLY got into it, which usually lead to her many emotions over the rainbow. The term "think before you act" never crossed her and her endeavors in gaming, which usually got her into dozens of sticky situations that required assistance…including her outings with glitches. Still, she had dozens of wins across the board to her name with many different genres under her belt so she understood her craft when it came to particular games she enjoyed. If given the chance in a game she really understood and enjoyed any opponent would get mopped across the floor from her or they would exhaust themself trying. Miko showed herself as a reckless girl gamer with an enjoyable personality, something almost unheard of in the city she lived in, that she took as a badge of honor…or an achievement trophy.

Since her mother had dropped off her other siblings already, she had the back seat all to herself. With a pair of headphones over her ears she had herself occupied quite nicely with some of her favorite rap music while her eyes stared out of the window. She noticed the typical kid behavior along the sidewalks, such as little kids playing hopscotch and riding bikes, but then something else caught her eye. Nothing but a small group of kids with their noses against a portable screen could have steered Miko's interest over somewhere else. She heard musings over the last couple of days about a certain major release coming up in the next couple of days, something called "Tanks Alot: Cartoon Carnage Deluxe Edition", but she must have miscounted to see that many kids at their consoles. If her calculations ended up correct, the Hinobi store would easily have a swarm of buyers clawing their way through the front doors. If so, she definitely had the work in for her.

"Okay, we're almost there! I've packed your lunch for the day so don't worry on that front!"

Even though she had her headphones on, Miko could make out what her mother said.

"Thanks mom. Pull up to the front as usual." she said as the car pulled into the parking lot. Upon her first glance at the Hinobi store up ahead, he expectations came in spot on. Not only did people flock to the front doors, but they also appeared crammed right in it. They practically bloated the whole building from the sheer amount her eyes witnessed, which made her shudder for a quick second. For some reason the store didn't have an employee only entrance which meant only one way in and one way out.

Stopping a short distance away from the crowd, the car slowed to a crawl as Miko opened the side door with her brown lunch bag in her hand.

"Have a good day!" Miko's mom said before she drove off. Miko waved her goodbye for now until she turned back to face the mob of avid gamers. She frowned pretty deeply at the sight.

"If I don't get through this alive…I better go down in history for that Bomb Maniac high score." Miko said to herself as she approached. The customers had their eyes on the prize inside the store and didn't bat Miko any looks, which left her to her own agenda. She swore she saw the entire crowd pulsate like a whole being to add to the disturbed craziness. She wouldn't like it, but if she wanted to get in for work she had to go with the flow. She nearly cringed, but like an Olympic swimmer she held in her breath before she rushed straight into the maniacs. Immediately she felt the pushing and shoving from all angles along with some angry outbursts but she did her best to keep her mind straight and just go for it. She almost tripped over a guy on the ground, likely from force, and hit her head against multiple people while she struggled to keep her pace forward as the walls caved in around her. Eventually she got to shouting herself to try and make it easier on herself even if it didn't do anything. Everyone around her relentlessly compressed from the sheer numbers but she made progress even though she had no idea how further she made it in. While technically not a Black Friday sale, it sure acted like one.

It seemed like an eternity, but after all of the forces pushed against she finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. With that, she then gunned it. The curtains parted and she soon found herself against the floor all tumbled out. While somewhat exhausted she had something else in mind.

"Woohoo! That's a game winning point for Miko!" she exclaimed to herself as she threw her hands in the air with a big smile. She picked herself off the ground and brushed herself off to see what sort of chaos occurred before she arrived…and her expectations had perfect accuracy yet again. The store usually had its wide open space to ease up on browsing for a particular title, but thanks to the new anticipated release she could hardly make out any certain landmark to help figure out each section. At certain angles she could barely make out some of the other employees with boxes of the new game in their hands, such as Haneesh and Zahra, only for them to suddenly get mowed down by the customer onslaught. As for everyone else her vision remained obscured until mounds of customers parted ways, where she saw a distinctive employee she always had her eye on.

She could recognize the certain hairdo and certain Hinobi employee outfit from miles away and it belonged to none other than Hector Nieves, commonly known around the premises as High Five or Five for short, while he scrambled to assist buyers at the front desk. Like herself, he carried a certain knack for games which made him a prime candidate for an employee at Hinobi, although he thought things a bit differently than others. His large tuft of black hair probably stood out the most recognizable part for Miko in case of large crowds, like the one currently in the store, while his tan skin showed signs of his culture especially since he used to work at a taco stand before Hinobi. If Miko boldly took incidents without as much as a plan or thought, Five had it almost the total opposite. He liked to think things through and plan out before any certain problem turned critical, almost like a strategist, then handled it appropriately. In many ways he seemed like a perfect partner for Miko, and that's exactly what occurred when he joined the Glitch Techs. Whenever he got sent out on a mission he always took Miko with him which made them a complementary duo even if they didn't rank too high on the experience ladder yet. His personality usually tipped toward high end of carefree when not handling a glitch with a bit of showing off here and there, but overall he was very dependable in his craft. While very unique in his own right, Five proved himself a gamer with a knack for planning.

His nervousness showed all over his face as dozens of avid gamers bundled around the front desk. Some of them bared cheesy sharp teeth and wide crazy eyes while they barked like angry dogs which got Five to hold up a small stool like a lion tamer.

"Back, back you animals! We still have plenty more copies coming!" Five said. The stool immediately got taken by the crowd and ground to dust in a comical buzz saw noise, which only got Five to sweat even more.

"Need help there Fives?!" Miko exclaimed over the constant chatter of the crowd. Even though the crowd cluttered the volume, once Five turned to see her she knew he heard.

"Ah, Miko! You have no idea how difficult it is to handle this!" Five replied as he struggled. "Please get over here quickly!"

"Got it!" Miko answered and she narrowly avoided a loose gamer by her feet. Like before she made a beeline for the desk while she made sure to avoid any rabid customers out for blood. Luckily she didn't have to deal with too much unlike her way in even though she basically had a horde of animals all over the place. She fended off one crazed gamer that latched onto one of her legs before she made it to the crumbling fallout shelter of the front desk and enforced herself behind it.

"I'm not too keen on survival horror, but I'm seriously considering this as some sort of first step!" Miko exclaimed as she used a clipboard to hold off an avid customer. "Any news about the others?!"

"I haven't seen them since the plague started! There's too many of these people here to make them out!" Five answered after he batted away a couple of sloppy people. "Get the copies under this desk before we become zombie food…err, shopper zombie food!"

"On it!" Miko replied. She hastily shoved the clipboard away and ducked under the counter before another rabid customer could get to her. She saw a couple of boxes close by and immediately grabbed one and pried it open. She felt some form of relief the moment she noticed the familiar box art of the particular title while nicely packaged at the same time. Because of the insane popularity of the franchise she easily recognized the familiar red cartoon tanks over the bottom of the picture along with the text that told the consumer which console the developer made it for. She surprised herself at points to know that the tanks had red all over them thanks to a programming quirk in their debut game which became a staple despite such a minor detail. The box art detailed the popular vehicles in full as they fired up at the opposition which the picture depicted as…a giant rampaging kooky girl figure? She knew nothing as to why the designers chose something like that, but she ended up flipping the case over to the back side for more details. Once she saw the screenshots and descriptions on some of the game's features she realized something. In the day and age she lived in it didn't strike her as too surprising.

"Hey, is this is a port of the last game in the series to modern consoles? Why have others stooped to this low for a port of all things?"

"It's apparently more than a port, but I can't speak too much about it as-HEY, SOMEONE ALREADY PREORDERED THAT!"

Another loose customer attempted to snatch the copy away while Five had his back turned, which resulted in the two going into a game of tug-o-war over it. Since she had to quell the rabid buyers in some way, Miko resorted to the blatantly obvious and chucked copies into the crowd straight from the box.

"You want the hot new release zombies? Well, HERE'S YOUR BRAIN FOOD!" she shouted. Her arms became a blur as she fired each one like a rapid fire Gatling gun while she expressed herself like she accidentally waltzed into a radiant apocalypse. While it satisfied some, soon enough more gamers replaced them eager for their cartoon tank action. When she ran out of copies in one of the boxes she busted open the next and ran through the procedure all over again. Whether by desperation or not, the girl kept at it like her life depended on it.

Eventually the inevitable happened. Once out of copies she reached down for more only to see all of the boxes completely emptied out and she still had swarms of crazed shoppers before her.

"Five, I'm out of ammo! Got any left?!" Miko shouted through all of the noise.

"I think…we should have more…in the back! Hurry!" Five replied while he continued to swat away the dozens of buyers from crawling over the counter. The young employee understood and carefully sidled from the back wall before she bolted. She legs rushed over dozens of trampled people as she made her way near the back of the store over to a door reserved for employees only. Hinobi usually kept more extra copies of a popular game in the storage room, but when she saw it blocked with more of the swarms she had to make a critical call. With a hint of determination in her face, she felt around her waste area before she found what she had in mind. She had one more copy of the game from the boxes just in case and now she had the perfect time to use it.

"Tactical nuke incoming, zombies!" Miko shouted before she ripped the plastic wrapping off with her teeth. Everyone else only had a split second before she tossed the spare game a decent distance away from the crowd. Like a swarm of piranhas in a feeding frenzy, the brainless shoppers hauled themselves over to the spot before they started to claw at each other for the copy. With their guard off to the side Miko madly dashed over to the door before she vigorously grabbed the knob and pulled the door open. She hastily made her way inside and slammed the door shut, which gave her a brief moment to relax from all of the insanity.

"Step one complete. Now I just need to find those extra copies." she muttered to herself while she took some deep breaths. In terms of most of her Glitch Tech emergencies, today really seemed like it started off with another glitch breaking loose of some survival genre…except the bloodthirsty animals got replaced with avid shoppers.

She held her back against the wall as she got a good look of the whole storage room. In terms of visual pizzazz it never needed it as it had a different purpose altogether even if some employees didn't like the blank white wallpaper. Shelves of various heights littered the walls that stayed stiff thanks to the sturdy metal that held them up and to make sure employees understood where everything went the higher ups labeled everything in alphabetical order. It made everything easy to access in case nobody had any clue where to search in case of something like shortages…like the incident Miko found herself in. She never wanted to bat an eye over to the possibility of no more copies, but she needed them now.

"Okay, just get the copies and then fight through the hoards again. Everything will go by perfectly fine as long as you don't think about it!" Miko said to herself as she slowly started to panic. Her eyes darted all across the room and skimmed over all of the letters until she hit the one she wanted. The C section set near the back and not too far away from where she stood but she bolted over to the area anyway. As she came to expect, dozens of extra boxes with the game's title all clumped near the section only a few inches above her.

"Yes! I found the cure for the undead!" Miko said to herself. She reached up to grab a box of the game copies to end all of the chaos…but she couldn't get to it. Her wide grin turned south as she went for the boxes again only to come up short.

"Errgh, come on, come on, I SHOULDN'T HAVE THESE SORTS OF DIFFICULTIES!"

Her frustrations grew as she resorted to the tips of her feet. While she gained some she still didn't have enough to reach the boxes, which only fed to her hot head. She went for it again and again and even jumped a couple of times but she always fell a few inches short. If the five stages of grief had a chance with Miko she would clearly find herself stuck on the second step with no hope behind her. The facts lined up; she lacked the height to get to the particular shelf.

Her eyes stayed on the prize as all of her countless effort plummeted to absolutely nothing. She gritted her teeth as her focus narrowed down to her entire existence on the boxes. She couldn't accept the fact that everything she tried got foiled thanks to her lower height. She held her attention over the boxes so much that she failed to see someone walk up next to her until they spoke up.

"Can't reach a couple of measly boxes, huh?"

She suddenly got spooked out of her complete concentration by the voice on the sidelines, which caused her jump up slightly into the air. Once she calmed down she turned to the side to see who spoke up only to frown once she figured it out. Out of all the employees to run into she would take anyone other than someone like Mitch. He made sure everyone in the facility knew him and his high experience streaks. Some say his stylish blonde hair exemplified everything he desired to achieve as part of the Glitch Techs, from his placement on the leader boards to the amount of experience points he acquired in a single outing. She wouldn't get too surprised to see him snake his way into a high profile boss glitch and snipe away the final shot to reward himself all of the glory and experience points. He had the skills to pull off crazy maneuvers to get the job done swiftly and efficiently, while contributed to the fact that he held the status of the best pro gamer in the city which he wore like the king he claimed to be. To think that she used to respect him before she joined made her feel sick on the inside at certain points, although his meddling did get her into the Glitch Tech business in the first place even if she didn't want to admit it. Even his two teammates, Zahra and Haneesh, kept their slight disdain from his a secret as he called all of the shots. He played to win and reap the highest bounty of rewards which played to his high reputation among the public.

His ego also translated into his words.

"If you can't reach a couple of measly boxes, get a ladder. There's obviously plenty to go around for newbies like you."

"I'm only missing a couple of inches Mitch, I don't need it." Miko replied in a bit of a huff.

"Then why haven't you gotten them yet?" Mitch asked. "If you think of them as inconsequential you should have pulled them down by now."

The endless snake in his throat got through to Miko too many times to count. Before she could even attempt to retaliate, Mitch reached up for himself and effortlessly grabbed each of the boxes and put them down at her feet, all while he wore that smug grin like a trophy. No sweat at all; just an everyday job for someone like him.

She almost got flustered for a second from such a tiresome task for her to fall over for someone else.

"See? Too easy. If you can't handle a single group of boxes I wonder down the line how you'll take on any of the big glitches out there without losing an arm or two." Mitch said.

"I can handle any type of them just as well as you can." Miko spoke with a tinge of anger in a blowback effect. "Just because I don't have the height for one simple task doesn't mean it inhibits my ability to smash glitches."

"Suit yourself. I just call it as I see it." Mitch said. He arrogantly flipped his back against her as he casually made his way out of the storage room like a stuck up snob, much to Miko's anger.

"Maybe we should give you a handicap and have you carry around a ladder at all times! Hahahahah!"

He shut the door behind him which left Miko to herself again. While she learned to zone herself away from certain topics, hearing one come from Mitch put it on a different level. At times she liked to make fun of the fact that he always desired superiority and seriousness all in one, but his words rang through her head like an infectious alarm clock. She didn't understand why the one specific insult lingered more than all of the others he vigorously hauled at everyone else on a daily basis. It lacked any sort of intense harshness more than other and yet it stuck to her and wouldn't let go. It never appeared like a big deal at all, just a certain remark at how she didn't stack up against taller people, but it effected her in a way she never went through before. She reached and only felt the enigma of something she couldn't get out of her. Confusion, worry, and every other emotion blanked themselves out. Definitions got lost in translations to what just occurred as the coats shrouded them under the sheet of black. Mitch hit her more with just a couple of insults and yet she didn't know of any extras despite it sticking to her head at all times.

Even though she found herself unable to let his insults just fly by, he at least got the boxes off of the troublesome shelf for her. She could finally end the reign of the "undead" shoppers and their desire for the big game release of the year with the load. With a tight grip around the bottom in a small stack, Miko grasped the boxes to the best of her ability. While a bit heavy on certain sides she didn't have too much trouble with the second step unlike the first. She felt sweet relief to know she could finally handle something on her own so she carefully stutter walked her way over to the exit door. For some reason her ears picked up nothing on the other side despite the pandemic, which struck her as a bit off but she brushed it off in the end. She placed the boxes down next to the door so she could open the door freely, but once she did she prepared herself for a world of brainless gamers.

With one final breath behind her, the desperate girl kicked the down open while she struck a confusing fighting pose.

"HEY ZOMBIES, I GOT MORE OF THOSE NUKES RIGHT-"

Her sense of awareness shattered as to the store around her. A few minutes inside the storage room changed everything as it went from a chaotic swell of a fiasco to a soothing fountain that dripped small droplets to the floor. Even as her eyes darted across the entire room she saw not a single deranged customer that demanded the next game release of an incredibly popular franchise. It stood far from spotless, as dozens of shelves lay in ruin and dozens of black damaged marks and raw chunks splattered all across the wall, but the Hinobi store stayed intact. If she wanted to move she needed caution so she wouldn't step on any loose glass or any other sharp construction piece, but even so her mind filled with light air as calculations missed the components to try and comprehend one particular sense. If anything she could have suddenly whisked herself away into another dimension where everything seemed completely normal, and she already had dozens of conspiracies conjured up over the years from her gaming sessions, but she didn't have too many concrete details to put it to the test. Even so, she would most likely put it on a space warping djinn creature anyway than something man made. While familiar yet unfamiliar, whatever happened in her absence must have gone by quick.

A couple of employees already put themselves on cleaning duty with a couple of construction hats and wheelbarrows. Some even brought in a couple of soapy buckets and rags for the walls, including her partner Five, which Miko wasted no time with the questions.

"Fives, what happened here?! I thought we just had a wave of zombie shoppers come in!"

Five suddenly faced her as he pulled out a wet rag from a bucket.

"Oh, Miko! You actually came back in one piece! I thought those shoppers got to you, but I guess I should have expected your tenacity to pull through."

"Yeah, yeah, I perfectly fine and survived the onslaught, but I'm asking where all of them went! They can't just vanish for no reason!" Miko replied.

Five's eyes opened up a little before he scratched the back of his head.

"Oh right, THAT part." Five explained. "Well, you see…I kind of expected you to come back pretty quickly with all of those copies, but the precious minutes started to pass and I kind of couldn't hold them back too long. I don't know what you went through back there to delay for that long but once I realized I was alone with no copies left I nearly got covered in the flood."

"Delay? I was only back there for a couple of minutes sharp!" Miko replied with a pinch of seriousness.

Five shook his head.

"Umm, you were back there for much longer than that. I'm not as pinpoint accurate in tracking the time, but I estimate you stayed back there for around, ummm…thirty minutes at best?"

"WHAT?! I can't have stayed there for that long!" Miko exclaimed in disbelief.

"Sorry Miko, but I kind of have the marks to prove it." Five answered as he showed various red marks and slight bruises all over his arms from the mobs. Miko couldn't believe it for herself, she wanted more definitive proof on the matter. She silently shook her head as she hurriedly brought out her personal cell phone and opened the flap. Her stare shot daggers at the screen as she waited for it to boot up, but once it did her heart dropped. She felt her jaw hang open as the certain numbers displayed on her personalized background. She wanted to turn away and not accept the facts, but her phone didn't lie to her. Not only did Five tell the truth, but it also seemed to go a bit further then half an hour just to run salt in the wound. What she thought only went by as a couple of minutes stretched further than she imagined, and it shattered her to a certain extent. She focused so much on the certain boxes that she failed to track the time correctly much to her downfall. She did that all while she failed to accept her short stature and it put her emotions all over the place. Time flashed by her all because she didn't have the size to match the shelf and it hurt her esteem.

"Miko? Miko! Hey, snap out of it!"

She jolted herself back to reality once she heard Five speak out. She somehow spaced out for a second once she saw the clock on her phone and saw herself on her knees. Her arms went dead before they sprang back to life with her phone in hand. To try not and sound too out of it, she got back on her feet and put on a tepid but cheesy smile.

"Are you okay Miko? Is something going on?" Five asked. Miko shook her head this time.

"No, everything's fine and dandy over here! We made it through in the end, didn't we?! You still haven't told me about how we got out of the trouble in one piece, remember?!"

Five cocked an eyebrow at Miko's terrible acting. She didn't have the cleanest record of hiding stuff behind a fake smile and attitude but after a couple of seconds he appeared to let her true intentions off for the time. Bullet dodged…but only by centimeters.

"Well…okay then." Five said before he explained further. "Anyways, back to the shopper apocalypse, I basically couldn't hold them back any further and nearly collapsed from all of the forces around me. I seriously thought they put me on my last legs…until we received backup."

"From where?" Miko asked. The answer to the question didn't require an exchange of words when a certain noise of metal on metal rang through their hearing. It startled the two teens at the moment before they turned around to the source. The two stood stunned as a cloud of mist steamed from the back of the room where the Glitch Tech entrance usually placed. A think cloud of the stuff followed soon after as a slowly formed from behind it. The two couldn't make out any distinct features other than a bright red slit near the top of the shape, which got a few shudders out of the ones with their eyes on it. It took its time before it made the first few powerful steps, which nearly shook the ground with each impact. The red light shined like a stray beacon as some deep slow breathing followed after. The gaze into the unknown never gave everyone immense chills before, but after that moment the onlookers wished they never batted an eye in its direction.

Five and Miko couldn't stop cringing and shuddering all over as each powerful step got the figure closer and closer to them. The red light aimed straight at them before a voice echoed through their craniums.

"All targets have been…terminated."

If Five and Miko were any younger they probably would have asked for brown pants at that moment. Their fears couldn't last forever though once they next heard some loud coughs from the figure's direction in a familiar tone. The two looked at each other for a second in confusion before something from behind the figure blew the dense mist away and only then could they determine what they've had their eyes on the whole time.

It ended up as nothing but the head manager of the store.

With every type of retail business, most local establishments have one person in charge of all of it. Hinobi continued the norm and followed most of the required procedures and the duty for this particular store fell to a certain expert named Phil. While he tended to stay pretty chill and mellowed out at most time he knew his craft which kept their store up and running even during hardships. In many ways the employees had to thank him for such a strong leadership without having to worry about him potentially blowing a gasket. That didn't mean he had no emotions to speak of, but when it came to monitoring the Glitch Techs he took the job more seriously. Some would say he didn't appear fit for such a privilege, with his generally round figure and generic brown hair and beard, but they had no idea how he operated. He made up for all of his shortcomings through his knowledge of the Glitch Tech establishments and how the job worked, especially to potential newcomers, along with his ability to keep things in order…for the most part. A few incidents flew under his radar beyond his control but he did his best to contain the problem when given the option. When needed he also made calls to individual Glitch Tech members on status updates in case of potential outbreaks and other types of information just in case. He acted, he planned, and he kept order; three traits managers would have to master, and Phil did it all.

He coughed a couple more time while he waved a hand before his face.

"Phew, someone really needs to clear up the rest of that smoke! I can't go through two places at once after all!"

"Umm, are you okay?" Five asked. The manager got to his feet to compose himself a bit better.

"Yeah, just a bit exhausted from the craziness. I can't exactly adapt on the fly like others around here too well."

"Then why exactly do you have that certain getup?" Miko asked. Her sight didn't deceive her. While through normal circumstances Phil usually wore his classic Hinobi vest with his special name tag, for the moment he wore something a little extra. His left eye stayed hidden behind a crimson red colored visor with a black rim and professional reticle in the center while his right arm had itself replaced with some sort of blue lined launcher that had a large glass capsule near the back end that appeared empty. While only two extra items, they made their manager appear like the next action hero on a quest to save humanity, something Miko adored behind the scenes in some of her favorite video games.

"Oh, this thing?" Phil replied. "For your information lady I saved this whole store from the shopper Armageddon with nothing BUT this. Haven't went through something like that since we released our second ever console…and we didn't have the numbers back then!"

"…really?" Miko said with serious doubt. "You took on the onslaught and completely warded them off with that? Looks more like a refurbished launcher used at sporting events than anything."

Five twiddled his fingers a bit before he got back to her.

"Umm, that kind of actually happened. He saved our butts back there."

To hear her partner give more confirmation only gave Miko more to take in. She still sat on the fence about it, especially for something that sounded ridiculous to her.

"Okay, I'm still not completely into the fact, but if you-"

What happened next occurred so quickly that nobody batted an eye in another direction until their minds caught up with them. Miko's words never fully finished as Phil turned the launcher over to the right and pulled the trigger, which instantaneously rocketed three flat copies of the new Cartoon Tanks game over to an empty shelf. One unlucky employee never had the chance to fully react as the copies sailed over his head and flawlessly landed straight onto the surface of the shelf with the cover front and center. The employee shuddered all over before he bolted off somewhere else to comprehend what just happened.

Phil continued to look into the eyes of the two rookie employees while he appeared content.

"Looks like I still had some ammunition in this thing." Phil stated. Miko nearly felt her heart skip a beat for such a sudden course of actions.

"Okay, okay, okay, I get it now! You really sent them packing!" she said while slightly flustered. "How do you even have those skills in the first place…with that sort of modified t-shirt launcher?!"

"You learn the hard ways when you deal in retail." Phil answered. "I don't tend to resort to showing them off, but when push goes to shove with no other option…my hands can get a bit sticky."

"Point taken immediately." Miko said as she quickly calmed down somewhat. "I also suppose the visor helps your aim or something?"

"No, it's just a preorder bonus for the new game." Phil said. He then took the visor off of his eye and placed it on the front counter for no further comments on it.

"Sooooo…should we get to work on repairing everything then?" Five asked.

"Actually I have a different assignment for you two." Phil responded. "I would have liked to send in a higher leveled group but all of them have their hands full and…I guess you can already see the damage everywhere."

"Yeah, we kind of don't need any reiterations." Miko said. "What do you have in mind?"

"We got another glitch out in the streets for one thing." Phil explained. "It's a pretty uncommon one too. They don't show up often, but once they-"

"Sorry for interrupting, but don't you usually explain the details on our way to it, you know, because it's an urgent response?" Five asked. "I think we should already be on our way at this point."

Phil shuffled his legs slightly while he shook a little. The two tilted their heads in confusion as he bit his lower lip and a couple drops of sweat fell from his forehead. They've almost never seen him act like that before unless it usually carried some hefty weight behind it which stuck a few red flags in their heads. If something got Phil to show signs of nervousness, it must have some definitive importance.

It only lasted a couple of seconds though, as Phil quickly recomposed himself.

"Well, as much as I shouldn't speak up on the matter because I finally got to whip out the launcher and use it in ages I'm in a good enough mood to explain things."

"So something did happen?" Miko asked. Phil silently nodded.

"Something happened last night that breached the whole security system and wrecked the whole base. Really destroyed it hard too, but luckily whatever went through missed most of the important stuff. We should have full repairs in the coming days as the engineers fix it as their top priority."

"Ooh, like in those spy movies?!" Miko asked with a hint of excitement.

"We're not quite sure on that front yet, just the fact that something made the system go haywire." Phil answered. "We have top notch security too, especially with our secrecy to the public, so for something to effortlessly wind through it has certain divisions on high alert."

"Can't you just check the security cameras or something like that?" Five asked. Phil deeply sighed.

"We tried that already, but we ran into more complications. You see, when the database starts to shut down and the cameras activate there's a brief windup period before they fully work, so to alleviate the downside we temporarily have BITT's internal memory act as the database for the video to stream to while he does his last calls around the place. The occurrence happened during that certain sweet spot so we could just browse through BITT's memory banks for the camera recordings…if something didn't happen to him."

"Something happened to BITT during the incident?" Five asked. "What could possibly mess him up to-"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

The sudden shout echoed throughout the entire store. Phil shook his head again and put a hand over his face while Five and Miko had no idea what just happened. Before they could ask their boss, more smoke burst out from the back room as another figure zoomed out like a sugar rush. Unlike earlier, the two employees understood exactly what came out from the voice alone. However, the didn't prepare for what they saw which almost startled them. The indications became readily apparent to an extent that something bruised his ego during that time, but if they had anything positive to come out of the incident…at least they found him right away.

They have gotten used to seeing the Binary Intelligence Tech Trainer every time his monitor displayed the typical programmed happy face, but not the way they saw it this time. The roundness of his curvature body lost some of its luster to dents and patches which soiled some of the clear white it usually displayed. A couple of loose sparks cracked from various spots while he tipped and swayed in the air as he hovered. The thrusters to keep him in the air also contained a bit of damage as the lights that ordinarily stayed on flickered like dying light bulbs and uttered some underlying buzzing and sputtering noises. If any of those features didn't tip anyone off, the monitor that displayed his expressions unquestionably indicated tampering or damage of some sort. A massive crack in the glass stretched all the way from around the top right portion to the bottom left and gave off more bolts of static than any other part. It also messed up proportions of the display underneath as his left eye now had a much bigger scope than the other and plastered millions of dead pixels over the screen. Any type of rotten dead console had nothing to what Five and Miko saw at that moment. Nothing but an abridged husk of what they once knew hovered before them with an ugly but similar mask.

The once helpful and useful robot instantaneously hovered over to Phil and immediately blew a party horn right in his face, which hurt everyone's ears for a moment, before he strapped a birthday hat around his head and himself.

"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hooray for your spe-spe-special day! I've already guh-guh-got the cake up and ready and-and-and-and the entertainment planned for your one-one-one hundred seventy sixth birthday! Let's cel-cel-cel-celebrate with party favors!"

Five and Miko stood dumbfounded as the now clumsy assistant whirred all over the place before he pulled out one of his many compartments and picked up a couple of party poppers. Soon after he set off every single one of them which burst them open and showered the cadets and Phil in streams of colorful ribbons and confetti, which only made Phil more discontent with the whole fiasco.

Phil used a hand to push him back as BITT, with his crooked and messed up screen, tried to unload another party popper on him.

"Yeah, he's kind of set on a certain protocol now." Phil said with a flat expression before he turned his head and yelled. "Someone was supposed to keep him boxed in the base!"

"Whoa, he doesn't look too hot." Five said. "Can you fix him?"

Phil got back to the two while BITT tried to shove a cupcake with a candle on top in his face, much to the manager's dissatisfaction.

"Thankfully we can, but it won't happen overnight. A majority of his functions and programming suffered corruption but we can easily wipe the pixel vomit away as the days pass. Once he recovers we can finally see what happened during the breach. Until then, he only has one function in his banks that survived the damage which you can see is…well…"

"Invitations se-se-se-sent! Almost time to-to-to cut the cake! I-I-I-I especially made sure to feh-feh-feh-fetch a donkey pinata!"

He reached into his compartments for a second time before he brought out one very dazzling and colorful piece of cardboard in the shape of the respective animal and a long baseball bat to complement the particular custom. No matter how much he tried to get the "birthday boy" to participate in the festivities though, Phil pushed him back every single time which fed to the corrupted dedication.

"Ugh, I'm going to have to give the briefings to you quickly just to get this bot off of my back for a bit! He won't leave me alone at this rate!" Phil exclaimed as his attention kept getting drawn over to BITT.

"Sheesh, why does he have that function in him in the first place if…you get these results?!" Five answered while he ducked under a tray of cupcakes BITT had on hand.

"I'll think you should…leave it to interpretation!" Phil replied while BITT tried to get up to his face.

"Par-par-par-par-party time for the-the-the special guh-guh-guy! He-he-he-he gets the first wha-wha-wha-whack!"

Phil wouldn't get the chance to hold the bat as dozens of shining birthday sparklers fell to the ground from BITT's compartments and ignited immediately. Phil, Five, and Miko suddenly had to awkwardly move their feet like they just caught fire to avoid the snaps and bangs of the party toys, which completely avoided BITT since he hovered in the air.

"WORST…PARTY PLANNER…EVER!" Miko angrily shouted as she narrowly avoided stepping on a couple of the lights.

---

BITT wouldn't go down without a worthwhile struggle. With his only programmed routine left in him he had no choice but to follow through and commit to his vision of a birthday party for the manager of the local store, which he claimed was a completely inaccurate one hundred seventy six years old, whether he wanted one or not. As he loaded up with balloons, sweets, streamers, and even something he called "the party gator" the others had to act fast just to hold him down for a few seconds. It took a lot of effort, especially for an assistant like BITT, but eventually Five, Miko, and Phil managed to put him on standby and keep him in storage until the engineers fix him back into his cheery and accommodating personality. Thanks to their tiring efforts, Phil finally got the chance to explain what glitch currently ran amok in the streets and the certain attribute that made it stand out. Cataloged as a Chimera glitch, the mischievous rascals of coding tend to come out as a respective character from the game they've infected along with something extra. They love to twist and mutilate whatever they got their hands on until they barely resembled the entity they originally represented. The limitless possibilities made them potently dangerous for first time Glitch Tech members although their uncommon nature meant they didn't show up that often. Whatever it decided to form into would gain something whether programmed or not. It almost started out as any other day in the life of an employee that hunted down loose programming code as a job.

Five and Miko took the assignment in a heartbeat. They got their specialized gauntlets that can derez any loose code in the form of quick and efficient light shots and can capture the glitches after a quick pummel or two. It also came with a benefit of a function into an easy switch into their Glitch Tech uniforms, which varied depending on the body type, and the ability to mind wipe witnesses to any of the disturbances. They didn't have to activate them right away, which also wasted the gauntlet's power supply, so most employees usually waited until the glitch encounter before they do so. The gauntlets handled the dirty work, but for transportation the Glitch Techs relied on specialized minivans that displayed the logo. At first glance it didn't seem too eye catching to draw any suspicions, but one look inside the vehicle and all of the skeletons would pour out. Not only did the sides of the back appear straight out of a science fiction novel but all of the gadgets fit inside effectively, especially most of the larger machinery. From sleek green radars across the walls to small compartments for storage, if anyone didn't see the outside one could mistakenly think they set foot straight into a submarine. Small compartments dotted the around the machines and contained dozens of loose wires, extra game controllers, and more extras just in case. If everything went according to the current plans, most wouldn't have to rummage through them to handle the current targeted glitch. The back had its merits for missions but up front held the controls to operate many of them. Besides the standard car necessities like the driver's wheel and pedals, the front contained many buttons and mechanisms that operated certain parts of the van. Five and Miko never got the chance to press all of them yet, but at their current levels they didn't really need to. They took on most glitches by foot anyway which Miko preferred over driving so she could get up close to blast them to smithereens. The equipment and transportation of the Glitch Techs provided more than utilities for any operations, they complemented them.

Miko sat in the passenger's seat while Five sat in the driver's seat, but he didn't have to do any driving. Thanks to the van's glitch tracking technology they only required a simple tap on the screen to where the glitch was and the van calculated the quickest route to it while on a straightforward autopilot. No license required, although one could opt for manual control if they wanted as an alternative option. Since the vehicle handled the way to the glitch, Miko and Five prepared themselves for the upcoming hassle. Miko undid her braids and let her long violet hair loose, since she really only required them when back at the store doing retail, while Five put his game face on.

"Man, I never thought we'd make it out of that insanity with our skin intact!" Miko said. "I know I live for games and all, but to go crazy for any certain specific…I don't know anymore."

"Hey, unpredictability happens." Five answered. "Happens all of the time in video games. I don't want every single session to play out exactly the same way every time, for it gets stale pretty quickly."

"Yeah, I understand what you mean." Miko said. "Still doesn't change the fact that everyone got hyped over a port of an older entry. If I had to express myself like those zombies I would have at least done it over something completely new."

"Well…that's not completely true." Five responded. "From what I heard they added so much new content into it that it could act on its own at points. A fully fledged map editor, online matchmaking, and a whole new second campaign kind of gives it a new identity along with a crazy new power up for beginners of the genre."

"Oh really?" Miko asked. "And that would be?"

"Some sort of high fructose candy that make your general super huge so you can crush any opposition under your feet. It only shows up if you turn the option on."

The one tidbit alone killed some of Miko's spirits. As if she needed more reminders that she couldn't reach certain thresholds on her own, but now the new game everyone would die for taunted her and her shortcomings. If she had access to something of that kind of power she would take it instantly and enjoy her time as the big one for a change before she crushed the opposition. Never had she understood pure anger over her height than all of the situations that happened, but for now she didn't reach the boiling point yet. She only had to worry about it when she handled jobs back at the store, so when it came time to smash glitches the insults and remarks went null. If anything she could release all of her pent up anger out on their current target, and she already felt the need to tear one to shreds. As long as she still had it when she hunted the loose pieces of programming code her height didn't matter.

Her train of thought derailed the instant her eyes picked up a loaded trash can sail right toward her. Luckily it hit the windshield of the van and fell off, but it sure gave her a wake up call as she hastily stiffened up.

"Whoa, I don't think that's supposed to happen!" Five exclaimed. "We might have a reckless one to take care of!"

"I'm ready when you are!" Miko responded with one of her signature grins. The minivan slowed to a crawl before it safety parked on the side of the street, which meant game time for the two. The two front doors burst open as Five and Miko put on and activated their gauntlets. Soon after their attires underwent a drastic makeover for the job at hand, and it nearly happened instantly. Their eyes got covered in a tactic visor that wore like glasses, but for the ends around their ears instead had a headset straight out of hardcore gaming sessions complete with a small microphone that extended from one side, depending on preferences, along the side of a cheeks for quick communication. From tactic maneuvers to pinpointing certain attributes on a target the visor had efficiency and collaboration combined into a well made device, but it complemented the other features of the Glitch Tech outfit like a fluffy blanket. Their work clothes they wore shifted completely into a fully fledged black and white jumpsuit with white for the legs and black for the upper parts. To show that they still worked for the same company, Hinobi's iconic "H" decal plastered in the black upper part in bright white in contrast to the color around it. For a bit of protection, the suit came with knee pads and shoulder pads of light blue and black colors respectively along with a suited belt around the waist that had a square front that could hold some small objects in case they required something on the fly. In a sort of a stylish touch up, each suit came with black fingerless gloves, although one usually got partially covered by the gauntlet. For easy maneuverability in combination with all of the gadgets, the Glitch Techs suit got the job done while it carried a bit of visual candy for the appeal.

The two now suited Glitch Techs prepared themselves to go around the corner of the street where the glitch wrecked havoc, but before they could do so they immediately halted once a street lamp suddenly flew right in front of their faces and landed an entire block away. Various crashes followed after along with around dozens of screams from innocent pedestrians.

"I swear every time we do this it suddenly becomes the next big kaiju movie for everyone around us. Oh well, not like they would remember any of it of course." Miko said.

"Let's do this." Five said. Once a group of people finished running past them, Miko and Five rounded the corner, gauntlets aimed and at the ready, to see what "Glitch of the Day" they had to deal with. They didn't expect anything too fancy at first, but once they saw its whole shape they finally understood why Phil called them Chimera glitches. Of all of the features the certain glitch made sure to put in the forefront, the two immediately took notice of the massive head. It curved and angled in weird ways but also had similarities to a normal human face. In terms of sheer size however, it almost seemed unbelievable even as their eyes painted the whole picture. The top of its head matched with some of surrounding buildings from sheer height alone and already gave Five and Miko a couple of shivers. If the height of the mutant glitch worried them, the features on the face would give them nightmares. The blank and empty eyes dripped down and bent like two long slimy slugs which its nose swung crooked to the side and protruded nose hairs from the abyss of its nostrils. The large red lips appeared like they got welded to the face as multiple parts continuously melted onto the streets in a gooey mess. While the ears remained partially covered from the long hair, from the brief glimpses Five and Miko could witness they almost puked from the nonstop falls of ear wax that poured out and mixed with the lip gunk across the pavement. Long thick brown noodles for hair set atop the creature's head and extended beyond the ears while they also appeared to move on their own at points. As for the skin that held everything together, which it had normal peach colors it bubbled and popped all over the place while it also excreted them out that burst a few seconds later. To top off the grotesque abomination of nature the actual body of the whole thing barely made a presence and almost remained hidden under the massive cranium. Five and Miko couldn't even make out any further details on it other than the fact that it had a body in the first place that held up the main attraction. It didn't stand out as too crucial over everything else and only exemplified the need to wipe the face clean. It sure had uniqueness for a glitch, but everything about it made the two want to end it quickly to scrub it out of their minds.

The glitch seemed to struggle a bit to keep its massive head from falling over as it tipped around in a ditsy fashion and set it sights on a nearby building. Five and Miko easily distinguished it as one of the local woman's shopping centers, but they didn't get to think on it for too long as the glitch's huge head slammed straight into the glass windows and shattered them completely. Shards flew everywhere, but the two kept their distance at first to avoid damage.

"Fabulous! I must have the styles to match my fashion!" the glitch's highly feminine voice rang throughout the area. Soon after the two saw its head pull back into the streets only to see it various points completely covered and stuck in its slimy skin. Miko held herself back from hurling on the spot as Five fired up his gauntlet to get a good scan on it. He didn't exactly have the enthusiasm once the words popped up.

"I can't get a read on it. The merged state of the glitch seems to interfere with the analysis." Five said.

"I don't think we need words to figure out how to bring this down. We can still kick butt after all!" Miko replied.

"I know, but I want to take the precautions just in case." Five replied. "We need to figure out what makes it tick for better chances to take it out. You go left and I'll take the right."

"On it!" Miko answered. With everything set in place, the two split up in opposite directions around the ugly glitch. Its huge head swayed back and forth as its body held everything together by a thread, but it didn't seem bothered by it too much. It stared off in the distance for more possible buildings to look into when it caught sight of the two Glitch Techs down by the streets.

"They have style. I MUST HAVE THAT STYLE!"

Dozens of objects that ended up stuck in the mucks of its face outright fell off the instant the two got noticed. From large vanities to piles of loose clothes, they plummeted to the ground below along with millions of goop puddles that creepily oscillated every few seconds. Five and Miko wanted to stay clear from anything the glitch threw at it and only had split seconds to evade. However, thanks to their sleek skills when they handled other glitches they had no trouble weaving in and out of potential incoming danger. Five almost clipped a falling wardrobe but otherwise stayed intact while Miko wasted no time to unleash destabilizing shots from her gauntlet. It appear to inflict some damage on the goop for a head, but not enough to call it a decent weapon against it. With her fast fingers, Miko hastily tapped away at the gauntlet's screen until a certain image popped into view. She grinned before she pressed the screen one more time and in a quick flash a large pink holographic hammer materialized in front of her.

"Alright slime for brains, let's see you handle this baby!" Miko exclaimed as she ran forward with the hammer in her hands. The glitch swiveled around halfway before the eager Glitch Tech member leapt into the air and struck the weapon straight into one of its long eyes. It left behind a visible indent and oozed something sticky and yellow as Miko quickly backed off for a second.

"I'm not satisfied with your choices! Pick something better!" the glitch shouted with a loud boom. Dozens of loose goo puddles fell to the ground from the glitch's face that only got Miko more grossed out. She started to panic a little as nothing seemed to visibly damage it.

"Hey Five, find any tidbits yet?!" she shouted to her partner on the other side.

"I'm combing through the database as fast as I possibly can!" Five exclaimed back. "I've seen nothing yet about what possible game the glitch is hiding behind!"

He continued to hammer away at the buttons on his gauntlet for any shred of potential games the glitch portrayed itself as, but it cloaked itself really well and didn't make it easy for Five to figure out. He aimed his focus so much into skimming Hinobi's database that he completely failed to notice something speed by him until it smacked him on the back of his head. The impact forced him to the ground for an instant before he got back on his feet to face the perpetrator. It never stood out as a "who" when Five set his eyes on it, but a "what."

"Umm, Miko?! We have something else to worry about!" Five exclaimed. His partner diverted her gaze to what Five talked about only to find herself struck with disbelief. The glitch not only took hold of something from a video game and mutated it, but it also brought along with it an inanimate assistant…one most people in the technological business saw at least once in their lifetime or even took control of. One could customize it to their liking to top of certain themes on the workbench, but its appearance before Miko and Five took the most common shape. With a white pointed triangle up top and a small handle at the bottom, the guide and selector of nearly all operating systems took the stage next to the glitch as a mutilated tag team. It provided at least a few hints as to what the glitch mimicked in the first place, but for the Glitch Techs at the moment it only stood out as something extra to take out.

The floating assistant hovered over to a bush close by and turned pure black as it quickly plucked the plant from the ground and moved it over to the glitch's huge face. It then turned back to white and dropped it right in an empty space next to one of its eyes. It seemed to not satisfy the glitch though.

"Not pretty enough. Try selecting something else that would fit my whole look."

As if on command, the thing bolted off in another direction while it confined itself somewhat close to the glitch. Five and Miko lacked the will to speak up at first but eventually one mustered up.

"Okay, so apparently…the glitch brought an actual mouse cursor with it!" Five shouted to Miko with a hint of huge astonishment.

"I can see that for myself Five! As if we needed another problem to get around!" Miko exclaimed back. "If anything, try to go for the eyes or something like that!"

"Got it!" Five answered. As he left his strenuous search on hold, Five immediately pointed his gauntlet forward and ran around to angle himself in the right spot. Miko stood further up and to his right as she gripped her materialized hammer with immense vigor while the glitch diverted its attention over to her teammate. With its sight set on the boy, Five quickly fired a couple of rounds from his gauntlet straight at the monster's features. Like Miko's beforehand it didn't appear to inflict much damage or pull it apart, but a few splatters of its gooey skin fell off with each shot that he had to avoid.

"Not fabulous enough!" the glitch boomed. As Five honed the creature's attention, Miko took her chance. She rushed forward in a burst of adrenaline and hoisted her hammer up high like her life depended on it.

"LET'S WHACK THIS FOOL!" she exclaimed as she increased her jump height with her high tech boots and pulled her hammer back. Her eagerness to smash the glitch mirrored to her expression as she formed one of her trademark wide grins.

Unfortunately she never got her chance. Right before her hammer could make contact with the gross glitch her trajectory suddenly paused. Her expression changed to sudden confusion as she hastily looked around to figure out what happened, but it only took a gaze downward to figure it out. The glitch's arrow shaped assistant arrived back early in the nick of time to hold off the Glitch Tech girl and keep her frozen in the air on the spot by her boots. It held her in place as it turned pitch black.

"Hey, let me go you stupid mouse!" Miko shouted. She tried to smack the cursor repeatedly with her hammer to no avail before she immediately found herself upside down as the pointer "dragged" her across the air.

"I'm going to rip you apart piece by piece for this!"

Her long hair swayed as the wind pushed against it and the blood fell to her head. She started to feel dizzy when the motions immediately stopped. While she couldn't think straight at the moment, she could barely make out a round wooden object right below her. Before she could try to comprehend what she saw the cursor released her boots and made her fall a short distance into something that instantaneously chilled her to the bone. With one loud splash the cursor let her fall straight into a loose rain barrel before it headed off somewhere else. It was beyond her comprehension as to why someone in this day and age still functioned off of something old fashioned, but it never mattered to her. She ended up completely soaked in freezing water while her boots got clogged into unavailability. The water also brought wrinkles across her skin upon contact and made her hair into a wrinkly mess.

The barrel collapsed shortly afterward for her convenience even if it only extenuated the point that she needed to shred the glitch into dust. She could still see Five distracting the glitch, and with the cursor nowhere in sight it gave her the opportunity she heavily leaned on.

"That's it, I'm bringing out the bird!" Miko said with her teeth clenched. Her eyes darted back to her gauntlet as she dissipated her hammer and scrolled over to another section. Once she arrived at the desired area she smiled and pressed a couple of buttons. In one brilliant flash right before her, the respective large bird of her choosing showed up from her command. In the many ways she loved her glitch busting job her ability hold and summon her birdy buddy at will stood out near the top. First time Glitch Tech members usually had to grind a bit of experience to earn the privilege, but once they put in the effort they would really appreciate the reward. If a certain game program in a particular game took interest and appreciated the employee's presence they could actually recruit the piece of game code as a "companion pet." They cannot force it to bond, only after both the Glitch Tech employee and game program form a deep friendship could the employee get granted the ability to take the program for themselves. While most of the time it required a bit of experience to unlock, in extremely rare cases it didn't apply. With the new companion by their side the employee would store the creature in their gauntlet and have the ability to summon it out at will, although higher ranked members commonly recommended to bring them out during tough glitch fights. A majority of the time any captured companion pet had their bounds set by the game they came from, but that didn't mean they lacked actual emotions and feelings. A well trained and understood companion pet provided themselves as one of the greatest assets to a Glitch Tech member that put in the work to form an everlasting bond, even to something like a low leveled walking mushroom.

For Miko, she found her companion pet early on in her Glitch Tech career. What she once thought as another glitch to defeat turned out to be a friendly NPC, one called a "Generation Chicky Chum", from a game called Bravestone Twelve. After quite a scuffle, she ended up recruiting it and even gave it a nice nickname: Ally. In terms of acting as her companion pet, Ally could get pretty unpredictable at times. Of course since she appeared as a large bird with a mix of yellow and red feathers one could apply the term "birdbrained" to personify her choices of actions at times. Since she stood at a height equal to an ostrich, she could let someone hitch a ride on her, similar to what she could do in her home game, although she normally had Miko on her back thanks to their close bond. With two long blue legs topped off with a pair of sharp talons on each she had no problem reaching high speeds on par with some of the fastest of vehicles, and if she couldn't reach the required threshold with speed alone she had another trick up her sleeve. Provided she didn't have someone on her back riding her, in one quick flash of pink pixels one would find the speedy bird right in front of them after she nearly instantaneous teleported. Thanks to that nifty tool Miko always had a friendly safety net when heights came into effect, but if she required raw firepower she also had a bag of tricks at the ready. While they can't appear normally in reality, in her origin game her kind heavily relied on special types of berries to grant them special abilities or recover health. Miko always carried a few of them on hand when situations got dicey, but even then she still didn't know about all of the possible berries yet and what effect they put on Ally. As of now she kept things simple with a few berries she understood enough, but they still packed a punch when she needed it. What many gamers of Bravestone Twelve though of as one of the generic friendly NPCs had no idea that the particular bird had a companion that counted on her and desired to hone her skills to the fullest. Nothing but Ally all of the way.

The huge bird got on its long feel and clucked in a friendly manner as if she waited for Miko to call her out. She flapped her stubby wings as her trainer hastily made her way over.

"Alright Ally, we got some large face to bash! Let's get going!"

"Caw! Caw!" Ally replied in an upbeat manner. With one quick hoist upward, Miko climbed aboard Ally's back and once she did so Ally took off running. She approached the big headed glitch as Miko held on tightly and pushed a couple more buttons on her gauntlet. As fast as she inputted the correct combination a stubby pink blade appeared right around the front of the device. If pure force didn't impose any visible damage than cutting it down to size just might.

Ally's appearance didn't go unnoticed. Five had some relief lifted off of him while the glitch thought things differently.

"Ooh, a dazzling large birdie! If I have that I'll get first place for sure!"

The instant the glitch finished speaking its floating arrow assistant zipped straight into the scene and angled straight at the large bird. It sprang forward toward her but Five wouldn't let it near Ally. He diverted his main attention over to Miko and fired shot from his gauntlet straight at the cursor. While the glitch never showed to care for the shots, the cursor had the opposite effect. As each derezzing shot pierced the soulless entity various small black and white pixels whittled off of it and made it stutter in the air. Five locked it in place as he continued to shoot straight at it while Miko and Ally went for the much bigger prize.

"Go for it Miko! I got this thing locked down tight!" Five said.

"On it!" Miko answered back. With the cursor temporarily out of commission, her focus on the main glitch sharpened. Its massive head loomed over her and swung around that dropped more of its disgusting facial goop all over the ground which Ally expertly maneuvered around. With a pink blade around her gauntlet, Miko got up close and let loose over a dozen slashes in the blink of an eye. Puddles of stickiness shot everywhere and almost got to her on many occasions that she had to slash out of the sky. The glitch's ugly expression turned south, which eventually lead a massive yellow spray to foam and spread out of its nose and mouth. Ally had to stay more alert to avoid any of the new attacks while Miko did the attacking and thanks to other outings knew how to handle them like a pro. For her occupant, she kind of went crazy on the last couple of slashes and slices to make sure the glitch would stay down after her flurry rushes. When Miko overreacted, she OVERREACTED. Her attacks better have done their job or someone would probably lose a leg or arm at that point.

The scuffle went on for a couple of minutes until Ally and Miko suddenly came to a halt on the sidelines. The glitch suddenly paused all of its actions as Five watched from the sidelines. Almost like she studied ninjutsu, Miko smirked and recalled her gauntlet's blade simultaneously as a majority of the glitch's slimy exterior suddenly separated straight off its huge face to the pavement below, completely inanimate and lifeless. It left the glitch with a hideously bare face as everything slowly resumed around it. Miko smiled joyfully as she finally managed to get a decent hit. She got one step closer to bringing it down.

Her moment ended up short lived though as the bare spots around it burst open and excreted more of the grotesque facial skin. After only a couple of seconds it got back to its hideous look as if it never suffered a scratch. Miko's mouth fell to the floor as a certain detail escaped her and Ally's vision, but not to someone like Five.

"Miko, watch out!"

His words came out too late. Some portions of the gross grime from Miko's slices lingered around her bird buddy's long legs that slowly crawled to them while Miko and Ally steered their attention elsewhere. Before they could even think about it, the goo snared Ally by the talons and forced her to the ground which consequently made Miko fall off of her back. With its target neutralized the goo performed a hasty retreat as Ally clucked for help. Miko hustled and got to her feet but before she could attempt to save her companion the loose piece stuck right back on the glitch's face and brought Ally along whether she wanted to or not. Right across the messed up left cheek of the glitch squawked Miko's companion pet with its entire body stuck firm due to the sticky sludge across its front and back.

"Ally!" Miko cried out. While she got a cluck of distress from her bird in response, it couldn't move an inch.

"Yay! New high score!" the glitch said in high praises. "Let's keep going further and maybe we can reach the Doll Hall of Fame!"

She had no idea how, but something from the deepest corners of her mind slowly started to reemerge upon hearing the glitch's statements. Somewhere deep into her childhood right in the corner of her eye as she toyed around with some of her imaginary concepts for her own personal world among dozens of stuffed plushes she witnessed something of an enigma. She didn't fully grasp the concept of video games at the time, but her older sister definitely had some snippets set in stone. Right as she hovered the mouse over the face of one of the common dolls usually seen in the toy aisle she clicked a respective feature on one of the side bars and dragged it over. Once she found a good spot she released the part and watched in come to life before her. She remembered how mesmerizing it felt and how it practically put stars in her eyes like flashy cartoons on the TV. It gave her a small inkling of what she wanted to do in the future, but then one final detail from that time came forth. She remembered her sister shaking her head before she pressed a button on the keyboard the turned the displayed doll around, which revealed…

She had to inform Five.

"Five! I finally figured out where the glitch got its kooky masquerade!"

As much as she wanted to turn her attention to Ally, she needed Five to listen in on what she had to say. The glitch swung its head around once more as the cursor zipped around for any grabbable object to stick on the massive face. The arrow tripped up Five a couple of times in its wake.

"I don't think we should focus on that right now!" Five answered.

"But I think I know how to make it vulnerable!" Miko said back. "We're dealing with something from a game called 'Doll Star.' While I could ramble on and on about it, the only relevant bit is that if you wanted to start over a design from scratch you could always pull the zipper on the back of its head. Do you see one over there?"

With Miko's advice fresh in his head, Five avoided any incoming attacks while his sight darted all over the massive glitch for any semblance of what she spoke of. The gross goo covered a lot of the glitch's face, but it didn't completely hide the decisive bit that could provide their win condition.

"Wait, I think I see it! Looks like some of it already zipped down from scuffling so one good pull should pry it loose."

"Good, then it's a plan. You distract it long enough and I'll let loose the zipper to finally end this thing!"

The two companions then locked eyes with words they knew all too well.

"Gamer logic!"

They split in opposite direction as the glitch tumbled around to try and pay attention to everything around it. It almost tipped over from all of the motions as it tried to set its sights on one of the two, which ended up on the one who wanted its attention for their plan. The cursor even took the bait as it hovered around him like it waited for his next move. It didn't have to wait long as Five quickly fired his gauntlet shots right at the glitch even if it never damaged in in the slightest, although he also had to stray a couple of loose shots against the cursor to lock it in place a couple of times.

"Bonus points for eliminating the competition!" the grotesque glitch said as it loomed over Five. Those few words seemed to entice the cursor to act more aggressively as it constantly tried to get up to Five's face which forced him to act on the spot and quickly divert over and shoot it before it could attempt anything on him. His shots may have no effect on the actual glitch, but its pointed companion clearly showed that it didn't want to get blasted. All of it culminated for Five into a full blown distraction that kept the opposition away from his partner. Even Ally seemed to take all of it as her gaze stayed locked to his caretaker's partner despite her inability to move or teleport out of her sticky prison.

The plan's start worked just as they intended and Miko took it for all it was worth. With the glitch's attention on Five it left its backside completely out in the open, which pretty much painted the picture in Miko's head as a massive bullseye with a "kick me" sign in neon red lights. She glanced over to the trapped Ally against the glitch's face for a second before she hastily sneaked around the back. Any type of gaming code that could teleport can't do so if they end up trapped or captured, which Miko learned the hard way when she first met her, but once she pulled the zipper her companion pet would get to stretch her legs once more. With Ally fresh in her mind, once she made it over to the required spot she glanced up and her target reflected across her eyes. It dangled around as the glitch moved and shined in the sunlight like a pair of shiny keys that begged for her to pull on them. While she gained a lot of intellect over the years far beyond the likes of a toddler, she would gladly take the dangling keys now if her job depended on it. Since it took some punishment earlier the zipper set near the bottom with over half already undone, which gave Miko a clear sight of the bare brown underneath that represented the blank slate underneath all of the gross and disgusting grime. It seemed only a short distance up, and for Miko it was perfect for her.

"Alright Miko…you got this." she thought to herself. The zipper dipped down a bit further as Miko reared up and stiffened her back to reach it. She ended up around an inch or two short, but it didn't stop her. She stiffened up on her toes for another attempt and tried again…only to whiff it again by around the same amount. Her frustration level slowly started to rise as she hopped up a couple of times for some sort of leeway. Unfortunately, she always came up a little bit short as the sparkling silver taunted her while it swung back and forth.

No functional high tech boots, no Ally for any type of assistance; nothing but herself and her short and stout height that heckled her behind her back.

While she could somewhat excuse her downside when she worked at the store, to witness it in full force during her main job couldn't leave her to accept it. She loved her job and everything out it stuck out like a dream to her, but to let a glitch win because of a minor setback never passed through her mind. She continued at it again and again but never got enough to fully reach the zipper which fed to her frustration until something else took its place.

"No…no, I can't go down like this…" Miko thought. Her efforts to grab the zipper above her slowly got weaker and weaker. Her mood plummeted south as each passing attempt always came up only a few inches short. The zipper eventually mutated into a pile of wooden boxes that dangled over her with eerie faces and each attempt only made them steer further and further away while they insulted her from afar. They even turned around at one point and shook their flat pointed behinds while they hummed an insulting tune, which sapped Miko of her high effort spirits. She never once thought something that always passed over her would end up as the once to remind her that she truly felt hopeless. If she didn't have the height to solve something as simple as something that appeared so close yet so far, maybe she didn't completely cut it for certain missions. A few tears dripped down her face as she reached out one final time only for the heckling boxes to disappear out of sight with one final wiggle from their behinds. She couldn't do it, she failed in an incredibly stupid fashion that no one else would ever go over in their lifetime. Part of her wanted to lay in a corner and weep silently while the other-

A clash of colors then erupted right in front of her before she abruptly found herself on the ground. Her senses tried to catch up to all of the happenings as some loud noises stirred in front of her. Reality progressed in motion once again and the picture soon came into clear view. She shook herself awake one more time until she fully became herself again and saw everything.

Out of everything in the world to rush in as backup, a large mechanical marvel certainly came out of left field. While many missed many traits that gave them a sense of humanity, the one before her supported dozens and showed them in his actions. She saw not a stranger in his burly tech, but he didn't stand out as a common sight yet unlike all of her times with Ally. He arrived from the exact same game Ally came from but supported different skills and strengths that differentiated him from the large bird. In Bravestone Twelve he got implemented as a friendly NPC one could befriend on their journey, just like Ally, and his large beefy mechanized body meant he became one of the strongest powerhouses should one join. With a name like an "Exclusive Edition Alpha Mech" he sure lived up to that title nicely. His metal laden body withstood any weak attack while its beefy arms dealt major damage to anything sorry enough to into contact with them. It also didn't require any anything facial in case of short sight as it had one head sized red screen with a single white dot that meant no goggles necessary for certain journeys. To top it all off, if someone required any type of manual control over him he came packed with an outfitted seat and control panel he could whip out at any time it he really trusted them like a friend. All of his positive aspects did come with a major downside though, as his hind legs missed the same chunkiness his arms had which normally meant he traveled at most with his burly arms. Even with the setback he proved himself a valuable asset to the one who tamed and formed a friendship with him which he knew all too well.

Miko hastily crawled back as the large mech grasped the zipper tightly, and with one large grunt and strong tug downward everything about the glitch immediately came loose as Miko watched the outer part of its face completely peel off and collapse to the ground with a loud thud. Even though she only saw it from the back, she had a high hunch as to how the glitch must have felt at that moment.

"AAAAAAAH, MY FACE! MY FACE!"

The glitch instantaneously went ballistic as its small body dashed all over the place as its completely bare head now acted more tipsy than ever. It spun around in a dizzying fashion as it struggled to comprehend how to move around without any of the senses to assist it. The cursor around it would have zipped off for something else to put on it but Five kept it place with multiple shots from his gauntlet. Miko's head went hollow enough that she almost failed to pick up her partner's words soon after.

"Miko, quickly take the last shot!"

While a bit shaken up from all of the mind games, if anything could pull her out of it a wild shot against a rowdy glitch would do the trick. The glitch still frantically ran around but she already got a clear focus on it. She took aim and put on a slight grin before she eagerly pulled the trigger which put all of it down for the count. The shot punctured straight through the gigantic bare face of the glitch which made it pause in the air that seemed like pure shock. As it twirled around slowly one final time, the glitch had no more steam behind it and collapsed to the ground in one huge boom. Soon after dozens of lights burst through it until it completely lit up and exploded, which temporarily put up the saying "5,000 XP" in gold letters before it vanished, thankfully with no massive collateral damage. All of its loose parts dissolved into nothing, which included the cursor as it fell to the ground and shattered before it entirely disappeared, but that didn't mean it never left anything behind. Right where the monstrosity once stood a small entity that appeared entirely made of static and loose electricity slowly to a crawl as it trudged across the ground in a last ditch effort to get away. It displayed a rather unique orange color for the type it was based on and, exactly like its namesakes, had two separate heads on the opposite sides of its formless body that each showed two empty but threatening eyes and pairs of jaws each paired with sharp teeth. It would appear pretty threatening if it didn't stand at the size of a soda can, but the types of glitches it was related to always had bark but no bite. Another day, another win for the Glitch Techs.

One of the glitch's tiny heads waltzed sluggishly in the other direction while the other provided the baggage, but it didn't last long until Miko made her way over and raised her gauntlet above the entity. She felt a small spur of joy seeing herself stand much taller over something for once, but even so she activated her gauntlet which sucked the glitch up and trapped it inside. Mission accomplished.

"Phew, what a handful with that one." Miko said. "Not the highest amount of XP but I guess it lacked some of the flashier stuff even if its kind doesn't show up much."

Five hastily made his way over to Miko with the large mech next to him. The mech's eyes turned happy as it uttered some joyful beeps.

"Remind me to never mess with those style up games at any point after this…even if it wasn't too crazy." Five said after a couple of deep breaths.

"I'm pretty sure those games weren't tailor made for boys, so you won't have to worry on that front." Miko answered before she addressed the mech. "Nice save there Alpha. You really saved my bacon back there!"

The mech, named Alpha, grumbled happily and gave the girl a thumbs up.

"He really comes in clutch when he needs to." Five said as he gave his companion pet a pat on the back. "Speaking of which, is Ally around anywhere?"

Realization hit and Miko started to panic a bit. Her bird remained stuck against the glitch's face at the time, so if they already ended the glitch…

"Oh no, you don't think she-"

She never finished as a familiar call hit her ears. As soon as her emotions steered one way they went back upward as a fizzle of pink pixels formed next to her followed by a recognizable flash. Out popped Ally in all of her Chicky Chum goodness, which couldn't have been happier for.

"Ally, you made it!" Miko exclaimed as she rather happily embraced her loving companion, much to the bird's happy clucks. "I'm so happy you're still here!"

"Another day, another win for us!" Five said before he addressed Miko directly. "By the way Miko, I've been meaning to ask you something about that scuffle back there."

Miko turned to face Five with a slightly confused expression.

"Yeah? Is something up?" Miko asked.

"It's not too much, since we still beat the thing and everything, but…it's about the plan to pull that zipper down." Five said. "You see, I called on Alpha because you were taking a long time and I didn't see the outer part of the glitch pull down yet. I tried to call you but you didn't answer. Did something happen back there? I thought you said you could handle it."

Her legs stiffened and her heart throbbed. The same situation occurred just like back at the store along with the same outcome, but to have it happen while she did her main job…it almost crushed her. She focused so much on trying to grab the zipper that she wasted more time than she actually thought, which got Five to send in his companion pet for an emergency backup. Not only did her low height hamper her during a mission, something she never wanted to go through after the store incident, but she had to have someone else handle the problem in her stead. All of the feelings from when she saw the boxes and zipper hang above her reared their ugly mugs and shook their butts straight into her young eyes. She fought back a torrent of tears just so she wouldn't have Five carry some of her personal burden, although some managed to squeeze out. She couldn't go on for now, even if the employees around her knew her for her up tempo and reckless attitude.

"It was…it was nothing." Miko answered with a dip in her voice. "Everything turned out fine in the end anyway. Come on, we still have a next to a whole neighborhood to mind wipe."

"Ohhh…kay?" Five replied. Even Alpha didn't take her response that lightly as he tilted his head and uttered some befuddled growls. As much as he didn't want to look into things, Miko had her reasons to not speak about it at the time. He put a pin in it to ask her about it later, but for now she had a point.

Five called Alpha back into his gauntlet while Miko also did so with Ally. Mind wiping en mass usually didn't go by quickly, so the sooner they got it done the sooner they could head back to headquarters. They hurried off down one of the streets as they made a pretty strong guess that a panicked crowd of people hurried down that direction.

Miko stood on the fringe of breaking down completely throughout the whole ordeal.