"Code: 257"
Chapter 1: Press Start
FSSH!
Metallic doors opened to reveal a shadowy figure. He entered the seemingly vacant, theater like room; a sinister smile reeking of madness appeared on his face. His hair was average length and spiked up with alternating colored locks of ash black and toxic puke green. He looked like he had a head of spiked grass on his head. The man's eyes were covered with goggles that resembled a video game controller: a pale grey metallic frame with a black X on the right with a red orb partially jutting out of the left, resembling the top of a joystick. His wiry frame was concealed in a darkly shaded white Tech jumpsuit, twin wrist gauntlets and custom dragon skull designed rocket boots. He flashed his snickering, Cheshire cat smile and stretched his arms out. He loved to make a memorable entrance. His dark blue lab coat flapped dramatically. The coat featured a full length picture of a blue Pac-man ghost, the same frowning blue spirit that appeared whenever Pac-man went into chomp mode.
BLIP!
A monstrously super-sized TV screen flashed to life. The man stood beneath the towering glow of the crystal blue capitol "H" as it appeared on screen.
"Hey, what's up giant-ominously-floating-letter-boss-man?" the man said; raising his arm in mock salute.
"Must you always make a mockery of these meetings, Mugen? You know why I called you here."
The voice spoke in a highly modified, electronic filtered voice. It was impossible for Mugen to determine any indication of the voice's tone or possible gender. All Mugen detected was a strong sense of irritation while conversing, a thought that delighted the young man's warped sense of humor to no end.
"Yes, yes, I came running soon as you bellowed. Though I must warn you," he jutted his finger at the colossal screen; a countdown of crimson letters flashing on his right gauntlet. "My Costco chicken nuggets are cooling off in the microwave as we speak. They're in a very critical and delicate state where they're not TOO hot and tilting towards getting TOO cold, so let us not waste prime eating conditions with the usual wagging-finger routine. This is life and death you know," Mugen said dramatically.
"ENOUGH! I have no interest in your mindless prattling. Where are we with our latest field reports regarding the correctional sentience algorithm project?"
Mugen groaned; lowering his gauntlet with the timer. He knew it. His nuggets are going to be ice cold and he's going to have to reheat them…again. The idea of all that extra work made him groan exhaustively aloud. "Well let's see what the damage is," Mugen raised his gauntlet and rapidly pressed several buttons. Red and green lights flashed across his face. "Shocking development…we suck again! Like seriously, why does everything we make suck so hard? Can't have anything to do with the fact your research team is full of category 5 dumb asses, can it?" he sniped dryly. Mugen pressed a few more buttons and flashed a display screen outward.
"Mugen…"
"Ugh, fine I'll skip to the epilogue," he grumbled and displayed a slideshow of video clips of glitches wreaking havoc. "Spawning glitch monsters is a no brainer for our company, sir. I could fart right now and one would probably emerge. The problem is figuring out which ones are going to do it and where they're going to pop up. If your suckbag scientists can't Sherlock that shit then were nowhere near getting that puppet master promotion," Mugen explained.
"We are HINOBI! The cutting edge of everything technological so do not tell me what we cannot make, tell me when we can and will make what we want to make the way we want to make it."
"Yup, nothing gets me motivated like surround sound screaming; very effective," Mugen sniffed and itched his nose with his finger. The faceless monitor screen offered no reply to Mugen's sarcastic remark. He sighed and silenced his nugget timer alarm as it went off. "Look, the prototypes for 'Project: Capture the Flag' are fully operational. I'm field testing some of them as we speak. Once they acquire the anomaly, we'll finally have our own personal game shark to crack the last piece of the glitch code puzzle," he said with a suave air of confidence.
"If it weren't for your advanced programming skills, I'd be more concerned about putting such intelligent glitch types into play. Just make sure your creations can acquire what we need without damaging it. No one gets to fail me twice, Mugen."
"Hey, contrary to my adorkable appearance, I know exactly what I'm doing," his confident smile was both assuring and troubling at the same time. The ominous voice grunted in approval of Mugen's plan of action. Mugen turned to exit the room and get back to work. His hands slinked into his coat pockets. He paused as his fingers felt something firm inside one of his pockets. Mugen removed a frigid looking chocolate pastry with lint sticking on its frosting. "Sweet, a chocolate pop tart," he paused to examine the pastry; clearly curious as to how long it had resided in his coat pocket. Mugen shrugged and chomped into the pop tart, he groaned happily. "Oh yeah baby, that's the good stuff."
The ominous voice groaned in thunderous disappointment and ended communication; deactivating the monitor.
It was a beautiful, peaceful day; soaked in sunshine and doused in sky blue blues with a few marshmallowy clouds chugging along like fluffy zeppelins. People were laughing, children were playing and adults enjoyed their blissful world without a visible or unseen care in the world.
Man, what an exhaustingly boring sight.
VROOM!
A Hinobi Tech van zoomed down the street; startling a few casually strolling citizens. Two young teens visibly spotted behind the wheel: one driving and searching for something in the pristine environment while the other groaned loudly and bashed her head into the dashboard to kill the boredom rotting her brain out. The teens were wearing their Glitch Tech uniforms: white bodysuits, black sleeves, boots, crystal blue knee pads and gray armor tops with the Hinobi H logo emblem at their centers. Five looked to his female companion and couldn't help but laugh at her soap opera grade level dramatic acting.
"Miko, would you please stop doing that? There's no need to stun lock. We're going to find this glitch and you'll get to go Leeroy Jenkins on it like you always do," the young Hispanic teen said with a crooked toothy smile. His eyes and hands diligently multitasking driving as well as checking his dashboard scanner for any signs of the glitch they were tracking. "Have I ever let you down, partner?"
The purple haired girl groaned and flopped around her seat. Miko looked like someone had sucked the life out of her. "But we've been driving for hours to find this glitch and its SOOOOO boring and forever taking," she moaned exaggeratingly. Five chuckled and rolled his eyes. It's only been 20 minutes. Miko started acting like she was having a heart attack; clutching her chest and making gagging noises and absurd faces. "Game screen fading, controller not responding," she grabbed her throat and pretended to choke herself, "haven't saved progress in a while. It's all over now! Game over man, GAME OVER! Cue giant bloody red 'you have died' sign…BLAH!" Miko suddenly 'died' before Five's eyes; legs and arms dangling limply.
"Come on now. You didn't answer me, have I ever let you down before?" Five repeated; albeit a bit more confidently. He had secretly been practicing being more confident on the job when he was alone in his room. Five felt it was important to continue improving so he didn't fall behind Miko's already well established bad ass skills…and feeling brave enough to shut Mitch down whenever he got aggro didn't hurt either.
Miko spontaneously sprang back to 'life.' She dropped her legs and boots down off the dash, leaned her gauntlet arm against her window and looked to Five; smiling. "Like you have to ask," she elbowed his arm as he offered his own smile in return, "That's one part of this job I know will never change."
BEEP! BEEP!
The teens looked to the monitor attached to the console. A single red dot flashed across the monitor's GPS grid. They were almost on top of the targeted glitch, or possibly as Phil indicated, glitches.
"Walk me back through this, are we tracking down one glitch on this assignment or a bunch of them?" Miko asked; idly tapping her left foot.
"That's the thing, I'm not sure. BITT said there was a large glitch signature in this area but the glitch itself might not be that big. Plus, when BITT was showing us the map layout the screen kept flashing with 2 other glitch signatures," Five reported. He remembered examining the glitch's signature through the computer system back at HQ several times. Unfortunately, the system kept shorting out and he couldn't be sure how many glitches were actually loose. Even Phil didn't know what kind of glitch they were tracking, just that they had to investigate and contain whatever glitch or glitches there might be.
"Whoop, whoop! More glitches to snag and bag, sounds like just the mushroom this girl needs to spice things up," Miko raised her arms excitedly. She was always leaping before she looking…usually screaming like a banshee and blasting like 'Serious Sam.'
"I'm just worried we could be heading into a fog of war here. This could be an old glitch type like a copy glitch or possessor glitch with new skillsets, or it's some kind of new glitch we've never encountered before," Mitch said; rambling anxiously. He always knew what kind of strategy to form because he had the information provided by HQ. Without it, he had no idea what kind of dead zone or death match they could be walking into.
"Either way, sounds like more XP for you and me" she said cheerily.
The screen flashed again. Now there were 3 glitch signatures, with 2 of them far away and one of them approaching their immediate vicinity. Another flash and the screen and the glitch count went back to one.
"I think we should check in with Phil and BITT, maybe they-"
Miko placed her hand over Five's before he could press the call button. The brief gesture sent a small but infectiously powerful emotional surge coursing through his body, it was surprising but comforting. Five turned to see Miko with a relaxed yet sweet smile on her face. He felt his cheeks slowly turning a glowing shade of tomato red.
"Hey, were the dream team, remember? The super-sized, high scoring, live and unloaded, turbo edition dream team! I know whatever we button mash our way into," her thumb gently slid across Five's hand, "I can count on you."
This wasn't the first time Miko had been overly affectionate with physical gestures. In the seemingly short time they've served as tech support agents, Miko has frequently showered Five with adoring hugs, locked him in snuggable headlocks; she's even grabbed his cheeks and stared right into his eyes giving him all kinds of weird feels. It's not that Five wasn't used to witnessing exaggerated displays of physical affection; he had just only experienced them with his family. Somehow it felt a whole lot more confusing and fluttery when Miko did it, and again, she did it a lot. As logical as Five's mind is, nothing ever made much sense when it came to Miko. How else could he explain that the brief contact with Miko's hand simultaneously calmed him down and freaked him out of his mind?
He smiled, pulled back his hand and laughed awkwardly as he shifted gears into a fist bump. "Yeah your right, we-we totally got this. We got the skills to make the mills!" he forced a brave smile despite the fact his voice cracked slightly. "By mills I meant like millions, like you know, millions of XP; not that we know for sure if this glitch or glitches has millions worth of XP but just to say like, I'm ugh I mean were both hoping, I mean obviously that they or it-"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Miko said; chuckling almost as awkwardly.
Five sighed and took a deep breath to relax his nerves. "Whew, dropped it and saved it," he looked out his window for any visible signs of glitch activity. Miko giggled and rolled her eyes.
"Now let's keep our visors clear and focused. Our readings say we should be right on top of the glitch any second now," Five loaded his gauntlet with a few more weapons and power ups just in case; Miko did the same. The van's signal had finally caught up with the lone red glitch signal. "It could be anything, it could be disguised as a person, armed to the teeth with ballistic missiles and laser guns; it could-"
"Or it could be a little dinosaur man with a stick," Miko said nonchalantly. Her eyes scanned the odd digital creature through her visor as he passed by her window's view.
Five gasped and slammed on the brakes. The teens nearly flew out of their seats; they cried out and gasped as their backs slammed back into the seats. Miko shouted and hollered. She jolted like she just downed 6 bowls of Lucky Charms drenched with sugar and a Monster energy drink. Before Five's voice of reason could reach her, she was already unbuckling and charging blindly towards their mysterious new monster mission.
"Let's roll Five, LEEROOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEENKINS!" she howled maniacally.
"I didn't mean she actually HAD to do that," Five groaned irritably; fumbling with his buckle. He had to get out there and back Miko up before things started blowing up.
He exited the van and quickly rushed to Miko's side. Surprisingly, there were no colorful blasts of galvanized energy or screaming civilians running from a demented digital monstrosity; Miko wasn't even aiming her gauntlet at the glitch. Five ran to join her by her side. Miko and Five both found themselves gawking, staring obviously at a truly bewildering sight: a tiny dinosaur man with a stick arguing with a hot dog vendor.
"What part of what I said wasn't clear, huh?! I asked you if there were any dragons around here and to give me 20 hot dogs with the works free of charge. Now do you need any further instructions, you numbskull?" the diminutive reptile man said with a fiery, scowling snap.
First thing the Tech team noticed was the glitch's considerably short stature. He was small, like a child wearing an oversized cartoonish costume. He was a reddish shade of brown mixed with a rusty orange colored underbelly and chin. Two impressively large black eyebrows curled above his beady eyes while a single twisted ivory horn jutted from his comically oversized head. The being's hands were tiny, similar to a T-rex's puny sized appendages. He was draped in a dapper ash black robe with a collar jutting out and curling inward, beneath his neck was the collar of a puffy white shirt and beneath that was a dangling gold pendant with a bulbous ruby in its center. It looked like he was wearing a child sized Dracula outfit.
"Holy freaking nerds," Five and Miko mutually gaped, "that's-that's….that's Ripto from Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto's Rage AND Spyro the Reignited trilogy!"
Ripto's attention diverted from the hot dog vendor to the annoying humans gawking at him like some sort of sideshow attraction. The red headed male vendor backed away slowly; terrified of getting further involved in this madness. Miko quickly mind wiped the vendor before he wandered off to safety.
"I don't get it. Where's the Hinobi game system or handheld console that he spawned out of? Glitches don't just appear without a conduit source," Five frowned in confusion. First HQ couldn't identify what kind of glitch they were facing or how many, now they find a boss battle waiting for them in a public place with no sign of any Hinobi tech being responsible. "Okay let's see what we're dealing with," Five quickly scanned Ripto with his gauntlet, "it's a boss glitch, obviously, but not like one we've encountered before; says he has co-op summoning abilities."
"Who are YOU calling a glitch, gap tooth? That's no way to speak to your new lord and master. This town is officially under new management, mine," Ripto bellowed smugly.
The tiny tyrant aimed his scepter at the teens and fired a chaotic, black and red energy beam. Miko covered Five with a shield power up. She deflected the energy blast; boots scraping along the sidewalk from the pushback. Ripto fired multiple shots. Five and Miko dodged and retaliated with their own gauntlet blasts. The pint-sized villain cried out and ducked behind the hot dog cart. Gauntlet blasts tor into the cart as if it were made of Swiss cheese. Ripto grunted irritably at the blowback. Globs of mangled hot dog meat and splattering condiments burst around him like cannonball bursts. He felt an especially large hot dog deflate on top of his elongated horn.
"HA, HA, had enough shorty? Cause we got plenty more where that came from," Miko boasted eagerly. The purple haired girl was itching to whip out her digital cyber hammer but Five raised out his hand cautiously.
"Hit pause for a minute Miko. He may be small but he's a big bad for a reason, we got to strategize. I bet if we both draw his fire and force him to shoot wildly, we could gank him fast without taking any serious damage from his scepter," Five instructed. Miko was eager to score a big win on the tiny boss but knew Five was usually on point with his game plans. She nodded and leaned closer to hear what he had planned.
"Hey, no one calls me shorty you insufferable, meddling piles of twerp trash!" Ripto barked as he popped his head out from behind the shredded food cart. He climbed over it and hopped forward to badger and bait Miko and Five even further. "Especially not some chunky cow whose tacky hair color reminds me of that wretched, fire belching reptile, Spyro," the tyrant waggled his claws and fists frantically in the air. The deflated hot dog bounced humorously on his horn like a popped balloon. Few things infuriated Ripto like having his height insulted or being reminded of his hatred of dragons.
"Oh nerds," Five gulped.
Five looked to his partner and instantly noticed Miko's eye twitching erratically. She was visibly triggered by Ripto's fowl mouthed comments. Five knew this wasn't going to end well. "Twerp trash, tacky, and-and CHUNKY COW?! Oh ho, ho, you just pushed the wrong button little man," Miko steamed. Miko had been subject to all kinds of trash talking as a pro gamer, but this hater had definitely crossed the line. Five tried to redirect her focus and not let Ripto mess with her head but it was too late.
"Miko, don't listen to that noise, He's just trying to egg you on. If we keep focused together, we can still-"
"Sorry Five but the only thing I plan on doing is serving up the milkshakes and the pancakes," Miko said. She armed herself with her trademark digital, purple hammer power up. She reared the hammer back as if it were a baseball bat. Her eyes deadlocked into a stare down with the glitch glaring right back at her. "And I'm all out of milkshakes."
Before Five could pull her back into his game planning, Miko bolted like a speedy hedgehog they were both familiar with and charged at Ripto with full fury swinging force. The laughing lizard man bombarded Miko and Five with a volley of dark energy beams from his scepter. Five squeaked in surprise and barely managed to summon a portal to redirect the blasts harmlessly into the sky. Miko, despite being fueled by pure impulse and anger, managed to narrowly dodge each blast with incredible skill and grace. Ripto couldn't believe the girl could move so swiftly and dodge his attacks.
"What in the world?" Ripto exclaimed.
"I'm going Super Smash brothers on you're shrimpy ass!" Miko hollered.
The purple haired girl pummeled Ripto relentlessly with her hammer. He was smashed before he could even cry out in protest or launch a counterattack; flattening and bouncing back like an inflatable clown. Five hadn't seen Miko this aggressively determined to crush her opponent since she challenged that Mike kid to that dancing video game. "Heads up Five," she called out. Miko reared back the hammer like a golf club and walloped him right towards her partner's position.
Five squeaked frightfully and quickly scrambled to put up an energy shield. His gauntlet reacted just in time; projecting the shield and deflecting the oncoming video game villain right into a large tree located at the center of the park.
WHAM!
Ripto slammed face first into the quaking oak tree like a bullet. The mind bogglingly intense speeds tripled the severity of his impact and subsequent pain tremors rippling over his body. The wood crunched around his frame; leaving a cartoonish imprint of his figure in the indented trunk of the tree. He groaned and collapsed onto his back to the ground. Ripto groaned dizzily as tiny flying Spyro's spun around his aching head like tweeting birds.
Five and Miko stared down at the toppled tyrant; a smug smirk painted across Miko's face. "How's that fresh pwnage taste, little boss man?" she said with a click of her gauntlet. Both she and Five aimed them at Ripto. The click noise snapped Ripto back to his senses.
"You two think you're soooooo smart with your big fancy guns and annoying teamwork," Ripto grumbled bitterly. He sounded like a child pouting from being put in time out. The griping lizard secretly tucked his scepter behind his back. He tapped its jeweled point at the ground causing the ruby to glow.
"Nice work Dream Team, but next time Miko," the girl curiously looked to her male companion; noticing a trace of concern in his voice. "Please wait before rushing in like that. I know he crossed the line but there's still a lot about this glitch we don't know and I didn't want you rushing in and possibly getting hurt," he said. Miko smiled sweetly at Five's fair reason for concern.
"You got it partner," she goofily saluted him; causing him to laugh. "I'm sure HQ will have plenty of techs itching to figure what makes tiny tick once we bring him back. But honestly, the only thing I'm dying to know is what was he going to do with all those hot dogs? I mean there was NO WAY he could eat em all by himself," she said. Five couldn't help but chuckle once more. "I mean seriously, am I the only one wondering this?"
"Who said they were for me?" Ripto asked slyly.
RIP!
The cold dawning reality of Ripto's words barely had time to sink in. Miko and Five were distracted by a thundery, rumbling force quaking around the tree before them. It was like gravity itself was yanking out the Ripto-dented tree as if it were some common weed. Once the tree had been uprooted, it was revealed to be caused by a much larger and more monstrous glitch than Ripto.
"Gap tooth, meet Crush, Crush, meet Gap tooth," Ripto said smarmily.
Crush was a beastly, bulging violet colored behemoth. The monster looked like a gnarled, mangled mix of an ogre and a dinosaur. His paws were beefy and swollen-looking with oversized digits and pale purple rooted claws; 4 bulging scale like stones adorned each of the beast's massive mitts. His mouth was full of grinning canines with a sharp incisor jutting out on the left side of his slightly elongated lower jaw. He had teal eyes, pink underbelly flesh, a small pair of wings jutting from his shoulder blades and a pair of curved ivory horns from his skull.
Five barely had time to gasp. "That's what the system meant! It was reading the glitch signatures of Ripto's two-" Five didn't have time to finish his startling realization. Crush, knowing full well what his master desired, eagerly swung the tree like a club and swatted High Five away like a nagging insect. The teen's spindly body skidded painfully across the ground; tumbling and bouncing with a sickening crack sound following every force of impact.
Miko called out Five's name. Her friend looked pretty banged up; she mentally cursed herself for not listening to his earlier warnings. Five was always cautious and usually for good reason. Her anger quickly redirected her focus back towards Ripto and his newly acquired monster muscle. "Nobody messes with my partner, dino freaks," she barked defensively. The feisty female tech blasted the villain's weapons away with a double dose of super-sized gauntlet beams. Crush blinked stupidly as his tree was blasted in half while Ripto's snarled in anger as his scepter was shot from his puny little hands. "You're about to be perma-banned," Miko said.
"And you're about to be Miko-meat! Didn't you bother listening to what your pavement eating partner said?" Ripto sniggered.
A rather large digital coded black hole suddenly opened up behind Miko. Exiting the portal was a brutish, snarling bull-like monster with two large neon green colored tesla coils strapped onto his back. He looked like a weird cross between a bull and a dinosaur. The creature was a vibrant shade of lime green. He sported two bronze colored horns, black metallic shackle-like bracelets just above his elephant shaped feet and a broken, jagged tooth on the left side of his enlarged jaw. The beast's bulging emerald eyes leered lecherously at the girl before him, sizing her up as some sort of scrumptious snack to slate his monstrous appetite.
"Gulp, lunchtime," Ripto commanded.
Miko knew she was dead in the water. Ripto was right. Five did say there were two glitch signatures that were following this boss. Ever as fearless and feisty, Miko refused to let this multi boss level get the better of her. She turned around gauntlet first and tried to fire before Gulp could get the drop on her. Unfortunately, his jaws were faster than she expected.
CHOMP!
The green glutton swallowed Miko's head in one slime soaked swallow! She flailed her limbs around; uselessly battering against Gulp's armored like scaly hide with her swatting limbs. Gulp tilted his jaws back and proceeded to swallow and gobble Miko up like she was a tasty fish flailing in the saggy jaws of a pelican. Her muffled screams and fuming protests went largely unheard; muffled by the bulging neck and stomach lines of the carnivorous creature. Miko's facial features contorted under the skin as if she was wearing a rubber mask. Another swallow dragged her hips to the edge of the drooling jaws.
"Ugh…feels like I got hit by the Dark Moon from Majora's mask," Five wheezed; clutching his aching ribs. He remembered now. Crush sent him flying, he was also a boss from Ripto's Rage and so was Gulp. "Vaca sagrada, Miko's all alone fighting 3 big bads! I've got to get back in the game," he jumped back to his feet and quickly dashed towards the reptilian trio assaulting his isolated partner. "Oh crud, crud, CRUD" he shrieked. Five was quickly starting to make out the nature of the horrific cutscene playing right before his eyes.
The only thing that was left of Miko was her chubby legs sticking out of Gulp's maw! Her calves wiggled and waggled in frantic search of something or someone to latch onto. Gulp's cheeks were bloated; puffed out like watermelons from scarfing down Miko whole. Five armed his gauntlet with a supersonic boost power up. His boots flashed bright red and launched him into a lightning fast sprint that almost instantly caught him up with his nearly devoured partner. Five grabbed onto her bare calves and firmly planted his supped up sneakers into the ground. He tried to throw them into reverse and pull Miko out. Gulp's jaws continued to greedily slurp to the ends of Miko's capris, he refused to let go of his hard earned meal. Miko felt a surge of hope once she felt Five's hands on her legs. She called out to him for help though it remained too muffled by Gulp's hefty body for Five to hear it. Gulp armed his thunder coils on his shoulder blades. He blasted Five away with a charged shot at point blank range.
KRAKKABOOM!
The thundery blast sky rocketed Five into the sky. He dropped like a rock; screaming and sizzling with black burns and smoking fumes emanating from his now further frazzled hair. Five groaned miserably. The sound of Ripto and Crush's mocking, unearthly laughter rang in his throbbing skull like clanging church bells. He vaguely felt tingling sensations surging throughout his fingertips. The young teen's eyes forced themselves open; still wincing from the raw pain of being blasted. He only hoped he managed to use that propulsion force to yank Miko out.
Unfortunately, things hadn't worked out that way.
"Oh, no, oh nononononononono," Five babbled fearfully. Instead of rescuing his partner from the literal jaws of defeat, the only thing he ended up rescuing was her shoes. He held Miko's white boots stiffly in his hands. "Miko no…" his voice trailed off as he peered back at Ripto's gluttonous green goon.
Miko's bare feet and ankles wiggled helplessly in the air, her toes curling and flexing; as if trying to wave goodbye or reach onto Five's non-existent grip. Her calves sank out of visible existence with a sickening slurp and her feet and toes followed shortly after. The girl's muffled cries were further blotted out by the gurgling swallow Gulp made. Five was mortified; paralyzed with the unnerving sight of his partner's body bulge sinking down into Gulp's stomach. The monster's gut thrashed violently from its struggling occupant.
Ripto laughed as he patted Gulp on his horned head; praising him for his success in swallowing his Miko meal. Crush chortled darkly watching Gulp eagerly lick his lips. The purple brute raised his cleaved tree club behind his neck. Crush glared menacingly at the frazzled High Five.
"It's all right, it's all right, just need a cooldown; think this through," he swallowed thickly and staggered to his feet. Five stashed Miko's boots into his back pants pocket and checked his gauntlet. "Miko may be in his stomach but she still has her gauntlet. Probably too thick to blast her way out, but she can still cause some cartridge tilting inside. Plus I can still maintain contact with her," he nodded to himself. A plan was slowly starting to form in Five's mind. He could do this, he can still get her back; they could still take these bosses down together.
"Uuuuuurp!"
Gulp's jaws let loose a nauseating belch that was fowl smelling enough for even Ripto and Crush to cringe in revulsion. Miko's gauntlet flew from Gulp's lips and clattered in front of Five's booted feet. The device was gleaming with a fresh coating of slime and spittle, saliva dripped down onto the blades of grass.
"Oh COME ON," Five shouted uncomprehendingly. Now what's he going to do? Miko is stuck in a glitch's gut; possibly being digested, he's up against 3 super powerful boss glitches and there's no way his gauntlet is strong enough to take all of them down. His eyes nervously darted back and forth. Every idea and strategy his mind could craft fell apart due to his increasing anxiety levels. He could call for help, but unless someone was immediately nearby he'd be dead before backup could arrive. "Think Five, think," he muttered silently. He could wield Miko's gauntlet and his own together but that still wouldn't give him enough firepower to contain these glitches. What would Miko do? Sigh. She'd do it the only way she knows how to: try something crazy and reckless and stop overthinking everything. She'd hope for the best and still find a way to come out smiling no matter what happened.
Something twinkling off the side distracted Five.
It was Ripto's scepter. The rose colored jewel on the scepter's tip was practically glowing at him from the ground. Suddenly, Five realized he knew exactly what he had to do. This new plan was crazy, dangerous and will most likely blow up in his face and get him crushed and gulped, but if he pulled it off it would be just the turnaround Miko. He armed Miko's gauntlet on his other arm and then grabbed the scepter. "Hey, Shrinky Dink, you looking for this?" Five taunted the tiny tyrant. He waved the scepter in the air broadly. Ripto's rage quickly exploded upon seeing his scepter in the hands of that annoying tech brat. "Sorry, but you must be this tall to get your scepter back," he teased; following with an extra spit loaded raspberry.
"ARGH, I'm going to kill you for that gap tooth! Crush, Gulp, quit standing there like colossal morons and GET THAT KID," Ripto angrily commanded. Crush and Gulp looked at each other dimly, both failing to understand their master's sudden sense of urgency. "Get going already, squash him; RIGHT NOW you worthless imbeciles," he snapped impatiently. Ripto dragged himself on top of Gulp's head and kicked the sides of his cheeks to get him moving. Gulp and Crush chugged towards Five like a pair of scaly freight trains.
Five smirked and nodded. "Good, I've got their attention. Now I just got to move fast enough to pull this off," he said. The Hispanic teen pressed a few buttons on Miko's gauntlet. Five signaled for help first, for whatever good that would do. Then he digitized Miko's support animal, Ally, to the battlefield. The doofy red bird immediately noticed her designated summoner wasn't around. Five placed a comforting hand on the bird's elongated neck and looked her in the eye. "I know Ally, Miko's not here. She got eaten by that green dinosaur-bull-thing over there and I need your help to get her back. First, I need you to run away with me as fast as you can," Ally shook her head and angrily squawked in defiance. "Don't worry; I'd never leave her like that. You got to trust me on this. I'll get Miko out, I promise," Five calmly explained. Ally saw the intensity and sincerity in Five's eyes. She didn't understand how this was going to help Miko, but she knew she could trust Five and that whatever he was planning was probably the best solution they had.
The teen exuberantly thanked the odd bird and hopped onto her back. He looked back to make sure Ripto and his flunkies were still following him, they were. Five directed Ally towards the opposing direction and signaled her to max out her top speed. Ally squawked eagerly and followed High Five's direction.
"Hold on Miko, were not out of continues yet. I'm coming for ya," Five said.
To be continued…