Malfunction of the Year

by Other Side of Starlight

This whole situation was placed firmly under the label of not her problem until they drew apped inside a life simulation VR game that's a little too life-like, she has to figure out where the world she's been dropped into is going while trying to find a way out. Along the way, she rewrites history and comes to find there's more than meets the eye to the game she's playing.

2. There's Suffering to be Had

Little soul, little stray,

Little drifter ,

Now where will you stay…

-Hadrian

The world was bright, the light hitting her sensitive optics jarring after the long dark. She still couldn't move and there wasn't any sound, the world still a blurry smear of colors. The game menu poped up with the prompts.

Was that all just the opening scene?

She must have accidently started the game or the game had unstalled suddenly and tried to run. She looked at the menu to check her options. Unlike a lot of games with an individual point system for separate attributes, this VR leveled all her skills as she leveled herself, allowing her to smoothly grow into her raised stats with each progressive level. With each level up, she was suppose to receive some sort of skill or star point that she could use to unlock new abilities, talents or milestone Quest that she could build on. Completing quests and special actions would earn her points too depending on what it was about.

The opaque screen in front of her read Skills, Subspace, Upgrades, Holomap, Quest and Data in solid black. She thumbed to the map, only seeing her dot in the center, and then to Data, which was blank besides what she assumed is the date. A system notification opened:

Welcome to Malfunction! The VR game that immerses you in a world of fantastical wonder. You're just starting out, not even fully online yet for the first time! Isn't it exciting! You chose our New Character mode, which means you'll be living out life from the beginning and the decisions you make now can impact the choices available in later gameplay, so choose wisely! The world will react to your gameplay and tailor the game to you, so now two players will never play the same game! Right now you don't need a lot as a sparkling, so a lot of options will be disabled. As you grow, be sure to revisit places to see what you missed. Have fun and remember to play freely!' -Britta Development Team.

She could practically hear the spokeswoman's voice, and mentally dismissed the image, seeing that the upgrade, skill and subspace options were now disabled. No sooner than she closed one window, another appeared.

…..

Quest level 1: Runt

You were just born under mysterious circumstances, complete all prompts given by medic. The world can be a scary place, so it's ok if you cry.

Reward: Completion of level 1

+1 Skill Point

Accept?

…..

Yes, she'd do that at least. The screen flickered away and the world came into sharp focus. Flat on her back, swaddled in something slightly stretchy, she saw the bright recessed lighting of what her info panel cheerily infomed her was The Medbay, Tarn, Cybertron, in the order of immediate location, city, planet. Her health bar was at the top left of her vision, the grey disabled subspace slots to the bottom left. She mentally poked at the tabs until the bars minimize.

"Hey there little one," a heavy calming field and big metal hands came into her field of vision and started undoing the knot in the mesh. The medic, she assumed, is colored red with white accents, blue optics watching her, analyzing. He started by taking her little servos in his, making sure each digit worked and moved around his fingers right. Moving on to her pedes, he pushed them against her body, making sure the joints in her knees bent right and her hips stayed in socket. She had tiny claws that she couldn't control, sheathing and unsheathing them impulsively. There wasn't any real challenge to this quest. Maybe this was just like a game mechanic tutorial? The medic was careful not to hurt her and keeps up a soothing monologue of what was mostly baby chatter.

"Well, lets check those wings now. Turn over, it'll just take a moment…"

Well he tried. Fingers ghost over her back, onto the edges of what were apparently tiny wings. Very sensitive tiny wings. She screamed of course and her chest spark burned hot, fire dripping into her lines in a blink, burning her from the inside out. The whole room started to pixelate, colors dimming. Screaming somewhere. Where had she gone? Log Out. Log out. She sent the command prompt again, the medic yelling at someone and holding her to his chassis, field struggling to stay calm, to calm her.

"I said get-"

Log out. Log out. Logout. Log out now. Logoutlogoutlogoutlogoutlogoutgetmeoutnow.

ERROR: ACTION NOT AVAILABLE

Not available!? Here she was trapped in this game with the fire of hell dripping through her and she couldn't even-

"Stop! Come on kid stay with me! Some body get the crash cart!" Different arms snatch her writhing frame from the medics, her screams stopping at least. Now she was just clicking desperately, pain making the lights she could see flare bright in time with her spark.

"You're alight, you're safe, dani's here. Nothings going to get you, Hush. Hush little star," voice like rolling thunder, the chest under her helm vibrated with each word. A hand big enough to wrap around her, cradling her, protecting. Field anchoring her, massive and written through with the coding to command.

"Lord High Protector Megatron! Shouldn't you be resting-" Blackness. The light dimmed and went out.

ERROR: LOG OUT OPTION NOT AVAILABE AT THIS TIME. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER

Quest level 1: Integration: Complete

Reward: 2+ Skill points. Level 2