Around a day and a half later, Monika looked around the town Skylar set up. He was able to create a doorway to the town. She glamored at everything within the stores and smiled brightly. It was until she heard a very distant scream from the sky, "Huh?" She looked above her and saw Skylar falling from the sky, "Skylar?!"
"Watch out!" Monika looked on in fear before diving for cover. As Skylar came in contact with the ground, a massive explosion surrounded the area as the building Monika was looking at was the crash zone. Monika watched in horror as the building collapsed onto her boyfriend.
"Skylar!"
Skylar soon rose from the rubble unscathed, "Looks like spawning is a little buggy today..."
"You're not hurt are you?!" Monika quickly sprinted and carefully traversed the rubble to check on Skylar.
"I'm fine. I can't feel any physical pain here. However, I do need to fix this spawning bug. You probably never noticed but while you were sleeping, I was testing the spawning along with the door I added to your room, but it's bugged out. This is the 7th building I've destroyed. Don't worry, I'll bring it back," Skylar tapped around on his console while leading Monika away from ground zero and almost instantly, the building came back, "Anyway, how're you doing?"
"Worried after that whole tirade," Monika held Skylar's hand and hugged his arm, "I know you're not hurt, but that worried me a lot..."
"I'm fine sweetie. Ny pain resistance meter is maxed out so I practically can't feep pain. What? Do you want me to prove that I'm fine?" Monika looked up in confusion and Skylar moved his face closer to her which caused Monika to blush madly at how close he was getting. She braced herself as she knew what was coming. However, she felt that she braced herself far too much as she noticed nothing touched her. She opened her eyes and just saw Skylar smirking at her, "It's too early for us to do something like that. We'll save it for later," Skylar bopped her nose causing her to blush, "Come on, I have to show you something back at your room."
Skylar walked off with Monika pouting behind him, "I've been waiting too long for those lips. I have to get them today..."
Moments later, Skylar messed around on his console while Monika changed into something he spawned in her closet, "I think it's set and I think I can drive it..."
"What are you talking about?" Monika asked.
"Uh, it's part of our date today. Just wanting to test it out a little. Still trying to figure out this wonky console..."
"Well, I understand our date now...," Monika walked up behind Skylar and tapped his shoulder, "So...," Skylar turned and was completely astonished by her outfit, "how do I look?" Monika had a red and white bikini. A bikini that had floated around the internet when she was relevant 10 years ago.
Skylar took a big gulp and took a deep breath before turning around, "Don't lose yourself in her body and looks. Remember, she's your girlfriend... calm yourself...," Skylar silently said to himself.
Monika smiled and chuckled, "I guess that means I look fine."
"Yes!" Skylar quickly turned around and smiled brightly at her.
"What about you? Are you going to dress out?"
"I will. Just not here. I don't necessarily have my outfit ready as the console is really stupid right now. It's only letting my shorts spawn for me rather than my wetshirt spawn."
"Why not just go shirtless. You did say you wanted to show off your toned body to me."
"Well, uh..."
"Are you nervous."
"A little. Looks may look different to others than myself. I may have some self esteem issues dealing with my personal looks. You may say I look nice, but you're my girlfriend. I may say I look beautiful to myself everyday, but nowadays, there are people who would say some of the worst stuff to you regardless if you're a good person."
"But you..."
"Before you say that I am beautiful, I just wanna point out that before I had met you, I had not had the best high school relationships."
"Oh..."
"It's sort of caused me to shy away from stuff like this. Relationships and stuff like that."
"Don't worry. I won't let you talk about it unless you want to. The last thing I want for you to do is relive those moments," Monika reached for Skylar's hand and felt his jerked a little bit before allowing her to grasp, "Just remember. I'll always be here for you no matter what..."
"Thank you Monika. I'm so glad you're here with me...," Skylar smiled as he gripped her hand fiercely. Almost like he didn't want to let her go.
"Well, I think you'll look fine without your shirt. I would love to feel your body either way," Monika started to trace her finger around Skylar's chest. However, she didn't feel him shudder, "Why aren't you shuddering."
"I'm no longer gonna allow you to charm me with your lustful touches any longer you lecherous girlfriend of mine!"
"Oh dear, perhaps I shall try to do something that will cause you to shudder in esctacy," Monika's face inched closer to Skylar's, but before she could make contact with him, Skylar blocked her lips, "Huh?"
"Now, now sweetie. We can't do that now. Let's wait a little longer," Monika puffed her cheeks out, but Skylar pressed them down sending the air out of them. Skylar lightly pinched her cheeks as she smiled warmly at her, "Man you make it hard not to kiss you," Monika turned away and blushed, "I'm sorry if you're mad that we haven't kissed yet. I promise it'll come very soon though," Skylar proceeded to wrap his arms around from behind Monika who jumped at the sudden action, "Don't be mad at me sweetie..."
"I'm not...," Monika turned around and brought her arms around Skylar's neck, "I can't be mad at you. You're too sweet."
"Thank you. Uh, shall we go?" Monika nodded gleefully as the two made their way to the beach.
Once they arrived, Monika was off to find a spot for them while Skylar was off to change into his beach clothes. Monika looked around for a good spot and saw the other AI bots around her. Something felt off about them to her. She's gotten used to them living their but she's feeling that they becoming more human-like. Almost as if they're aware of the world around them.
"Skylar did say he tried to make them as human as he can, but they're getting a little too real. It's weird...," Monika spoke to herself before 3 boys walked up to her, "I feel 3 AI'S that aren't gonna make me or Skylar happy."
"Hey there babe. Whew, who got you that bikini?" One of them asked.
"There's no point in responding. They're only AI nodes," Monika said to herself. She turned around away from them, but what they did next surprised her.
"Grab her!" Two of the guys grabbed her and placed a bag over her head, "Come on! Before that idiot shows up again!"
"Help!" Monika yelled, "Someone help me!"
"Yelling doe help won't help. You of all people should know that." They responded
They were right. The only one that can save her is Skylar, "Monika!" She was grateful to hear him in the distance, "Give her back!" However, as he got closer, she heard something she never thought she'd hear. If was loud. Almost deafening. Her ears were ringing from it. She wouldn't describe it as a sonicboom, but it was loud enough to cause her to go deaf for a second.
"Ah, lower his pain resistance," Moments later, she heard two more loud pops. Her accustomed to it and she felt like she knew what it was.
"Skylar!"
"Shut her up!" One of them guys ordered. Monika soon felt cold metal hit her head before she felt nothing. The only she knew is that she was being kidnapped by people who weren't AI and what she couldn't see was her boyfriend on the ground bleeding out from multiple gunshot wounds.
He now had a new problem in his hands and a definite answer to the bugs that has been happening to his world. Now... he had to figure out where those 3 guys were taking his beloved... and why they did so...
Several hours later, Skylar found himself in his house on his bed. With him, two people, a male and a female, sat worried about him, "Skylar, you're awake...," The male stated.
"Huh?" Skylar slowly rose and rubbed his head, "What happened...," It soon clicked almost immediately as he remember what had happened to him and Monika, "Monika!" Skylar attempted to jump up, but was stopped by the two people with him.
"You need to rest," The female started, "We came when we saw some unfamiliar coding in the world. Then we found that your heart beat was irregular along with your pain inhibitor being at 0 rather than maxed. We looked into it more and found out that 3 people had hacked themselves into your world."
"Hacked? That explains all the bugs."
"Bugs?"
"For the last few days, there many spawn bugs and coding errors that made it hard to spawn items or even just dive into the world itself."
"Those hackers must've tried to prevent you from even diving in. When you did, they attacked you. They must've wanted to immobilize you. That's why your pain inhibitor was at zero."
"Do you remember anything else?" The other person asked.
"They took Monika... they kidnapped her...," The room fell silent as Skylar stood up, "I have to dive back in. How much fuel so I have?"
"You only have enough for 90 minutes."
"That's all I need. Emily," He looked at the female, now known as Emily, "See if you can override their code and give me some weapons. Nothing too big. All they have is one gun. I'm sure I can out gun them."
"But Skylar..."
"Cameron, I need you to figure out their location. It'll take more stress off me and save me time."
"Skylar, you need to rest. Whatever pain you experienced gave you a really irregular heartbeat. You almost had a heart attack. Do you really want to risk it?"
Skylar fell silent and stood up with ease, "I'll do whatever I can to save Monika!"
In Monika's world, she found herself tied to a wooden pillar of some kind with some sweaty, ugly looking guy in front of her breathing heavily, "It's really you...," The guy started to cackle almost insanely as he reached and grabbed a full lock of her hair and sniffed it heavily, "You smell just as good as I hoped."
"Get away from me!"Monika landed one fierce kick at the guy causing him to stumble back, "You should never touch me like that!"
"Oh but Monika... I can make you... happy...," Before the guy could make another move, one of the other guys appeared from nowhere and punched the guy in front of Monika.
"Shut it. Quit being a pervert. We don't have her to do anything like that. We're only doing this to punish Skylar for stealing this from us. He'll come soon. That's why I need you and Digit to stand guard outside. I'll watch after Monika."
"But...!"
"Go!" The weird guy sighed and walked off in frustration, "Sorry for my companion. He's a big fan of yours. Almost obsessive," The guy walked over to a chair and brought it over in front of Monika and sat on it backwards, "I know you're not comfortable but I can't do anything about it. I need you to stay like that so you can't do anything. I know you're athletic and can probably fight back."
"Why?"
"Hm?"
"Just tell me why. What's the motive behind this. It's obviously not due to me. It has something to do with Skylar. He said he had it bad with some people. Are you one of them?"
"I guess. I'm the actual creator of the coding you're experiencing."
"Huh? I knew that."
"What?"
"Yeah. He didn't create the coding, he just used it to create this world."
"Uh, well, the invention isn't his or the girl he said invention. It's mine. He stole the whole setup from my base of operation and installed it. Right now I'm triangulating his position as we speak. Once we find him, we'll take him out and get my stuff back."
"Then why do you have me?"
"You're a distraction while we find his place. We know he'll do whatever he can to save you. When he's distracted saving you, we'll find his house, storm him, take our stuff, and we'll kill him as an added bonus."
"What?!"
"That guy has stolen the one thing to get me fame for his own selfish desires. I spent the last 10 years trying to find him and I'm one step closer. As for you Monika, you'll disappear from existence. We'll destroy this world along with your beloved."
"No! You can't do this!"
"I can. It's payback for what he took. I could kill you in front of him. Totally break his mind, but you're immortal here. You can't die. He can, but you're immortal. It would only inflict pain onto you rather than killing you. I need pain to be inflicted onto him. He'll experience pain. I'll make sure of that."
"Oh yeah? How will you prevent me from telling him your plan?"
"We always plan ahead. We'll wait for him...," The guy patted his hip causing the sound of metal as he walked off.
"Skylar..."
Meanwhile, Skylar looked over Cameron's shoulder as he pinpointed their location, "They're in an abandoned building at the end of the pier. Remember, there's three of them. They're more than likely expecting you to show up. Unfortunately, we can't determine where you'll spawn. You will have to head there on your own depending where you spawn. As for weapons, we're only available to get you a rifle."
"That's fine, but not even knife?"
"No. We're very limited. Although, I am confused as to why a rifle is still able to be spawned. They must want you to fight back somehow..."
"I was also able to get you a vest so it can stop those bullets," Emily added, "I also think I know why they want him to fight back."
"Why?" Skylar questioned.
"They want you to distract yourself saving Monika while they try to find our location. I've seen some activity going on in our security system. Someone's trying to hack in and gain our address. I can stop them while you save Monika."
"Good. The last thing I want is for someone to find out about our project."
"While you're at it, figure out who's doing this, okay?"
"No problem. I'll make sure they pay," Skylar set himself on the bed and took a deep breath, "Let's get this started..."
Moments later, Skylar was driving towards the docks on a motorcycle he stole from an NPC. However, since he wanted realism in their world, he was being chased by a large group of police cars, "What is this? A GTA V mission now?" He swerved past cars and pedestrians because he knew if he crashed, he would die then and there. Without his immortality or his pain inhibitor, he would need to be extremely cautious about how he handled himself.
In the corner of his vision, he saw a sound wave appear, "Hello? Skylar?"
"Emily? You figure out how to work that thing?"
"Not exactly. I'm using my device to get through. Anyway, I see you're in quite the predicament right now. So much for realism."
"I had to. What if everything unrealistic in here and Monika expected the same when she got out."
"Skylar, she's a very smart AI. She knows a lot more than you think."
"Yeah, but it's the experience. Anyway, I was spawned pretty far, but I'm gaining ground. How's stopping the hacking?"
"It was stopped easily. I actually found out who it was though. Skylar, do you know someone with the name Luis Scott?"
"Uh..."
"Just trying to see if you remember. He's the one we stole this stuff from. All this was his but we hadn't given him credit. We fixed up his mistakes and took the credit."
"You mean you took the credit. You and Cameron mass produced them. I only tested it and you let me keep the one we stole. Maybe that's why he wants to target me. I have his original equipment. Why won't he just sue us? Why does he want to kill me?"
"No idea, but you need to stop him. We can't call the police on him, but we need to prevent this from happening again. Cameron and I agreed to move back in and watch over as you dive if you'd like."
"No, you two live your life. I'll do fine. Monika and I will have to increase security. I'll have to take away some of her restrictions."
"Be careful of that. Don't give her too much control."
"I won't. Don't worry about me," Corey looked over the hill and saw the pier, "I see the pier. I'll be there soon."
"Good. Hurry up. Who knows what they'll try on Monika."
"First, to get these police cars off of me," Skylar went through his spawn menu and took a deep breath, "Hopefully it spawns the right thing," Skylar pressed on something called a Remover. In his hands, a weird pistol like device spawned and he smiled, "Sweet," He turned around and pointed it at the police cars and shot at them. One by one, they disappeared into thin air. Once they were gone, Skylar sighed in relief, "Alright, now let's get Monika back...," Skylar revved up and sped off towards the pier.
Meanwhile, Monika looked up at the same sweaty man from earlier, "Not you again..."
"Oh, you're so beautiful Monika. If I wasn't on patrol, I would just make you mine..."
"Think again creep. Like I said, my body and feelings are reserved for Skylar..."
"Oh, but I could treat you so much better. I could... show you my love everyday...," The man stepped closer as the sweat fell from his head. He smelled horrible and Monika flinched away as he got closer.
"He's on the pier!" Someone yelled.
"Huh?" The man questioned, the leader from earlier, now known as Luis Scott, picked the man up.
"He's on his way. Go protect the front. I'll protect the hostage. Just go!" He pushed him outside and shut the door behind him, "You'll stay here and watch as we destroy your precious boyfriend. They weren't given the order to kill. They were told to specifically capture him so we can torture him in front of you. We have control here and we can revive whenever he's about to go."
Monika only glared at him as he took out his handgun, "The final nail in the coffin would be for when I put a bullet in your head here," Luis pressed the cold metal of the barrel on her temple and drilled it slightly, "Once this 9mm goes through your skull and kills you, he'll lose it," He smirked and chuckled, "Nothing is worse than seeing the one you love so much just... bang," Luis pulled the trigger causing Monika to flinch, but nothing happened. Luis chuckled with pity for her and stood back up, "Don't worry, I'll load a mag in here. Soon, you'll hear loud pop... and that's it..."
"Skylar... please hurry up..."
Meanwhile outside, Skylar ran up to an abandoned building that was suspended over the dock, "Here it is...," Skylar aimed his rifle in the air and shot it once. This caused Monika to jerk her head up, "Hey!"
"Skylar?" Monika spoke in shock.
"I'm here for you and your little crew Luis! Give me back Monika, you can leave my world alone, and we can let bygones by bygones!"
"Hell no!" Digit responded, "You took something that was ours and made a profit! This is your punishment!"
"Have you ever took the time to see who patented that device of yours? I never patented that machine. I only tested it and I'm using the first version of it that so happens to be yours. Technically, I never took Luis's idea and made a profit!"
"Shut it!" The creepy guy responded, "I'll kill you and make Monika mine!"
"Geez, you're that creepy guy. Oh well, I guess talking won't get through to any of you. That's why we have guns," Skylar pointed his AR-15 at the two and fired at them. They dodged and duck as Skylar continued firing before running for cover, "I won't be getting anywhere with those two jokes in my way. Gotta spread them out somehow."
Meanwhile inside, Monika heard the fire fight and could only pray for his safety. Even if she didn't care for gods, she could pray as it was all she could do, "You hear that? That's your boyfriend getting one step closer to dying."
"No! He won't die! He'll do anything to save me!"
"That's what we're planning for..."
"Oh Skylar..."
"Damn it," Skylar had already went through 3 mags after countless blind firing, "I'm not getting anywhere like this. Time to change tactics..."
Skylar brought up his console and enabled the action: NoClip. He looked around and went through the bottom of the pier and went under the suspended building. He slowly rose above the floorboards and saw Monika tied up as the guy paced around as he heard the gunfire stop.
"What's going on out there?! Why don't I hear gunfire?!" Luis questioned as he loaded his handgun.
"I don't know. He's not firing back!" Digit answered.
"Damn it, you two are useless. Spread out and find him!" Luis ordered.
"Got it!"
"Looks like Skylar is smarter than I thought. I'd thought he'd try to rush in here guns blazing, but I guess not."
Skylar rolled his eyes as he slowly landed next to Monika and tapped her shoulder, "Huh?" She turned around to see Skylar and was about to scream, but he covered her mouth.
"Shush. We need to take him out quietly. Now that those idiots out there are spread around trying to find someone that isn't out there, we can take Luis out."
"Luis?"
"Long story. Look, I'm gonna untie you. When I do that I'll have you call him over. Insult him about how incomplete his project was and how I fixed it up for him. He'll get mad, walk up to you, and that's when you give him one good punch in his face. He'll stumble back and that's when I slam him on his neck."
"Uh..."
"Just do it now," Skylar went back under and waited for his signal to appear again.
"Hey! That device that Skylar stole was improved from what I see."
"What?"
"Your device seemed to have countless problems and Skylar was right to steal and fix it. This probably wouldn't even be possible in your lifetime. You should thank Skylar!"
"Thank him?" As planned, Luis grew upset and started to slowly walk towards Monika, "Do you think I would really thank him? He took what was suppose to be mine! My fame! My fortune! He took it all for himself! He's the real enemy here, not me. Did it never occur to you that you know little to nothing about him?"
"Huh?"
"He's dodged questions from you right? About his family or friends? You tried to ask him about it, but he dodged those questions. Did it never click in your head that he might just be hiding something? You don't know what he does outside. For all you know, he probably has a real family out there. You know, with a wife and kids? You don't know what his life is like out here... and you'll never know," At that point, they were face to face from one another.
Monika winded up her punch, but it was blocked when Luis grabbed her fist. She looked on in shock as he smirked, "Oh? Did I ruin the plan? Maybe I should fix it up. Ow, my face," Luis spouted that line in a very sarcastic way. He quickly turned around when Skylar appeared again and shot Skylar twice in his abdomen.
"Skylar!"
Skylar flew back as Luis got on top of him and bashed his head with the butt end of his gun. He stood up with handle of his gun bloody and a fist full of Skylar's hair before turning around, "You see this?" Skylar's face was beaten as he dragged his body towards Monika, "This man deserves this!" He threw his body in front of her as she began coddling him, "That man should die for all the pain he caused me!"
He shot at both of Skylar's knees and maniacally laughed at Skylar's despair, "And now, the both of you will die in each other's brace," Skylar pointed his gun at Monika next and was about to pull the trigger, but from behind, a loud gunshot rang when a bullet wound appeared on his forehead.
He dropped down on his knees and was fired on multiple times from his back as he fell down lifeless on the ground. The culprit was the creepy guy from earlier, "I told you! Monika is mine! Nobody will harm her!"
Monika gripped Skylar's limp body in fear as the man turned his attention to her. The creepiest smile she has ever seen grew on the man's face. He looked at Skylar and tossed him aside before his face got close to Monika's. He breathed heavily as he caressed her face, "Now that they're both out of the picture... now I can do as I please with you..."
"No... stop..."
"You're a lot more submissive than I thought. You always had real world views in your mod, but if I guess all that was predetermined text. This is the real you. You must want to be... sexually attacked by someone like me... you want me... YOU WANT ME!"
"Stop..."
"Don't worry... it'll only hurt for a short second...," The man started to physically molest Monika by groping her breasts and moving his hand down her thigh, "I've been waiting for this my whole life!" As he yelled that out, like Luis, a loud pop was heard as the as part of his head blew off.
Monika flinched from the gore and looked back to see the other man that was with Luis, Digit, "Stupid creep..."
"You..."
"Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt either of you...," The man turn to Skylar's limp body and sighed, "I guess it was too late for that though...," Monika slowly crawled to Skylar as tears formed in her eyes. She held him in her arms as she started to softly weep for him, "He'll be fine. I increased his pain inhibitor and he's immortal again. However, that was only after this attack. He's fine..."
"Why? Why did you help us?"
"I'm not with Luis. I was someone who earned his trust to help him with this. My goal was to take care of him before anything got too far, but I had to go with his orders up until this time. It's why I purposely missed Skylar earlier with my gunfire."
"I thought he had control over the world..."
"No, I had control. Luis is incompetent. I did all the work for us to get here and to hack into Skylar's IP. However, I made my hack easy to defend against. So it was easily reversible. Look, I can heal all his scars, but he won't wake up for a while. You might want to get him somewhere so that whenever his fuel runs out, he'll be somewhere good when he spawns back..."
"What about you?"
"Both of them are dead, so his friends are gonna wanna find me first before they get back to the both of you. So you two have time to recover and still have a good life. It'll be hard for them to catch me. I'm more competent than his entire crew. It's why I earned his trust so well."
"Okay... thank you..."
"No problem. I like Skylar. He's a good young man, and the fact that he put himself through all that for an AI is amazing. Yes, you might be real here, but you're still just an AI. I didn't think he'd go this far to save you. As for that guy there," The guy pointed over at the creepy man and sighed, "He was just obsessed to the point of wanting to rape you."
"Thank you for that. May I catch your name before you head out on your way?"
"Call me Digit. I won't give away my real name for now. I'll see you two later," And with that, Digit disappeared. Just as he did, Skylar's face was back to normal.
Monika softly smiled as she caressed his face, "You went through a lot today. It's fine if you decide to take a break...," She smiled at him and brought her face closer to his and gave him one soft kiss on his lips, "I said I would get it by the end of the day... and I got it..."
...
...
...
"Even if you can't feel it..."