I know you're all wondering how Aaron knows Phil.
Well, the Phil knew about Aaron through Elsie, Aaron's mom. She works for Hinobi Tech, the game company that Aaron's dad, William, currently works for.
Even though they're divorced, they're still coworkers.
On a video chat a while ago, Phil and Elsie were conversing through Elsie's laptop while she was walking to her room with it. When they passed by Aaron's room, Phil saw Aaron working on something on a computer. He was creating T.A.R.I. at the time. Elsie explained how his son was always in his room crafting or creating some kind of gadget, and when he wasn't, he was playing video games. She also admitted that he was great at it.
To say the least, Phil was interested.
Sometime later, Aaron literally ran into Phil when he was testing his shoes out. They were meant to help him run fast, but he ended up running into the back of a garbage truck. It was just a bit of gear to increase his movement speed before they became glitch-fighting gear.
Phil introduced himself after Aaron apologized.
The two met up four more times after that.
On that subject, after Aaron knew some of what his parents did through Phil, he knew about the glitches that way, and the Glitch Techs who bravely put their lives on the line to fight monsters from video games.
Then the trip came, then the day Aaron lost his arm to that glitch. Aaron then came back to Bailley two days later when the trip ended.
Now that you know some of the backstory, let's focus on right now.
The two are currently in Aaron's kitchen, Aaron just got out two sodas from the fridge and right now, the two are conversing while drinking.
"Hey, sorry about your arm, kid." "No big deal, Phil; better my arm than my life. Besides, someone had to do something."
"About that; what did you do with those glitches anyway?" "Wait 'til you see this."
Aaron went over to the fridge, and held onto the handle and pressed the button on it. The touch screen on the fridge showed the letters, 'K,R,T,S,I,E'. The letters are supposed to rearrange to make a word that would be a clue for the password.
Put in a certain way, they make the word 'STICKER', meaning the password Aaron made for this was:
"Sticker Star sucks." *ding*
The fridge transitioned from where it was to the right, revealing a glowing square pad on the floor. He gestured Phil to come over, and when they both stepped on it, they disappeared.
They reappeared on a different pad in a different room. There was tech everywhere, wires and cables were going along the white walls, and on one side of the room was something you would immediately see when you came in: a big some of screens in front of a long desk with a digital keyboard and mouse in the middle in front of a floating chair. That's Aaron's main computer.
This is Aaron's lab, and the only other people who know about it are Phil and his parents.
Anyway, they both walked to the computer and Aaron sat in the chair and did a couple of things and on it showed two silhouettes.
One was of a creature with tentacles coming out of its hair, and the other was of Turntable.
"When I modified my gear, I knew that I had to do something with the glitch when I captured it. So when my stuff absorbs a glitch's energy, everything about it and from it goes into here. As for the plixels and X.P., I keep them in separate files. I never use them because I make everything myself, but you never know when they might be useful."
Plixels are basically the building blocks that make up Glitches, like how D.N.A is basically the building blocks of life. The Glitch Techs use X.P., or experience points, that they earn from the glitches they fight to unlock things to upgrade their gear which is made from the plixels. Aaron doesn't. Like he said, he makes everything himself.
It sounds easy, but it's really not if you're not him.
"You sure know your way around this sort of stuff, kid."
"Hey, when your parents do this kinda stuff to live, you earn a few hobbies. However, *turns around in chair to face Phil* something tells me you weren't just here to say hi and ask what I do with the glitches."
T.A.R.I. appeared on the screen behind Aaron and said, "I THINK HE WANTS YOU TO JOIN THE GLITCH TECHS, AARON. *raises eyebrow and smirks* OR AM I WRONG PHIL?"
"...You weren't kidding about 'Rapid Intelligence', Aaron."
"Wait wait wait, you want me to join the Glitch Techs? I'unno, man, I kinda like what I got going on here. I don't like the idea of following a separate system that does things a different way."
"C'mon kid I-"
"At-tut-tut, let me finish. However, I like how you guys do things, so tell you what: I join you guys, but you gotta let me keep doing my work and keep letting me use my gear, give me a good job at Hinobi that I can do from here anytime, and any glitches I defeat, I decide if I want to share the X.P. I have.
Those are my terms; take 'em or leave 'em."
Phil thought about it. This kid drove a hard bargain, but on the plus side, he did know more on this kind of stuff than the other Techs.
"...Alright, deal."
The two shook hands.
"When do you wanna start?" "Hmm...Whenever there's like a major but not that major problem or something. When there's backup needed, call me to head on out and help the others. I wanna make a surprise entrance."
"Whatever floats your boat, kid." Phil said as he turned to leave.
When he stepped on the pad, he said as he teleported, "See you out there."
As Aaron watched Phil leave, he said, "Guess fighting glitches regularly is part of my life now."
He then heard T.A.R.I. say, making him turn to face the screens, "AARON, I MIGHT'VE FOUND SOMETHING THAT WE CAN USE TO UPGRADE YOUR GEAR.
BY USING THE DESIGN AND MAKEUP FROM TURNTABLE'S GLOVES, I THINK WE COULD ADD A BLASTER FUNCTION TO THE GEAR. WE CAN EVEN DO IT WITHOUT USING UP THE PLIXLES OR X.P.."
"T.A.R.I., you're a genius. Let's take a look."
Little did he know, something else would show up in his lab in short time.
Remember how I said that Aaron's bag felt a little heavier? That's because something got into it.
As Phil left through the front door, Aaron's backpack with his devices inside suddenly fell off the chair in the kitchen. And second later, a black blur sped out of it, and went towards the teleporter to Aaron's lab just as the fridge was moving back in place.
"I CAN MAKE A SUBSTITUTE FOR PLIXEL ENERGY THAT WE CAN USE INSTEAD OF THE REAL ENERGY. ALL WE HAVE TO DO NOW IS DOWNLOAD THE DATA FROM THE GLITCH, AND WE CAN USE IT TO ADD NEW FUNCTIONS TO THE GEAR. THAT JUST LEAVES ONE QUESTION: WHAT ARE GONNA DO WITH THE ORIGINAL PLIXELS?"
"No idea, but I'll figure something out."
When it was in Aaron's lab, it sped around the room, but Aaron and T.A.R.I. didn't notice or hear anything yet.
Until the thing in question hit a table and made a tool fall and hit the floor.
The sound alarmed them then, making them look in the direction of the source.
"What was that?" "I'M NOT SURE."
Aaron got up to pick up the tool, but when he did, he saw a small black blur go by.
He turned on his gear, and when it came by again, he caught it and he got a good look at it.
Surprisingly, it was a Bombay cat. But what was really surprising was the white streaks on its head and double arrows at its sides.
Aaron was surprised because this cat was actually a lot similar to an animal design that came from a game prototype that he was working on called 'Battle Pets'.
Battle Pets was meant to be a game where you own a specific type of animal, and with the abilities it has, you train it, level up its stats, explore the world for more pets, and even fight other players and N.P.C.s with the pets they have. You can even earn more if you want, but you could only use one in battle.
This cat was a design he thought of from his gadgets and gear. As you saw and could probably guess, it's gimmick is speed related attacks.
Actually, Battle Pets was supposed to be a game within a somewhat massively multiplayer online game he was working on, but that's for another chapter.
"T.A.R.I.," Aaron asked, still looking at the cat, "how's my tablet looking?"
After a few seconds, she replied, "UM, YOU MIGHT WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THIS."
T.A.R.I. showed a picture of the tablet's screen, which showed that there was a glitch in the system.
"You're a glitch;" Aaron said, looking back at the cat, "but my visor's not seeing any hostility. T.A.R.I.?"
"ME NEITHER."
"Hmm, okay little guy, come with me."
Aaron brought the cat with him back to the desk and beside the keyboard. The desk scanned it and had a lot of data on it. Nothing too dangerous though.
Like Aaron coded it in the game, it was meant to be a companion that'd listen to whoever owned it.
Right now, no one owned him.
Until...
"Hey, Axel, since you have nowhere to go, why don't you stick around with me?"
"'AXEL'?" T.A.R.I. asked.
"Yeah, 'Axel', y'know like 'Axel-erate'?" Aaron confirmed, petting the cat without his gear switched on.
Axel purred in his touch.
The screen then showed that Aaron was now its owner.
"*laughs a bit* AXEL IT IS."
The screen then showed that it's name was Axel.
T.A.R.I. then said, "AARON, THE DOWNLOAD HAS COMPLETED."
"Nice." Aaron pressed a button before getting up, and suddenly, all the technology and devices minus the main computer moved, leaving the room empty.
Three hard-light holograms of people with masks appeared.
Aaron activated his gear, and T.A.R.I. said, "BY RECONSTRUCTING TURNTABLE'S GLOVES, YOUR META GEAR CAN NOW GIVE OUT WIDE RANGE ATTACKS."
"'Meta Gear'?"
"I THOUGHT WE NEEDED A CATCHER NAME."
"Well, I like it. Guess that makes me a Meta Runner, huh?"
"YOU CAN SWITCH ON THE BLASTS WHENEVER YOU WANT. THEY'RE MOTION ACTIVATED. JUST HOLD YOUR FIST FOR THREE SECONDS, AND ON THE THIRD, GIVE IT A PUNCH."
Aaron cracked his knuckles, pulled back his fist at the holograms, and when he punched, a wide shockwave hit all three, making them fall and hit the ground before dissipating.
"Oh, this is going to make things a lot more fun."
"I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND AARON, BUT I ALSO ADDED A FEATURE FROM YOUR FIRST GLITCH. IT'S A GRAPPLE FEATURE."
"Sweet, thanks T.A.R.I.."
Another hologram appeared and Aaron shot a grapple from the gear on his hand, and pulled it towards him. when it came, he hit it, knocking it off its feet, then elbowed it into the ground.
"This'll really turn the tides." He said as the room turned back from a training area to a lab.
He sat back down in front of the computer and said, "T.A.R.I., new plan: any glitches we capture, we use their functions to upgrade the Meta Gear."
"SOUNDS LIKE A PL- AARON, WE HAVE A CALL FROM PHIL. I THINK THERE'S SOME TROUBLE."
"Answer the call."
T.A.R.I. did so and on the screen showed Phil.
"Hey Phil, that was quick."
"Hey kid, I know you're probably busy with something, but we have a situation on Raine drive."
A map appeared on another screen and showed a red dot going down the street, followed by two light blue ones.
"The Techs are already chasing it down, but the glitch isn't letting up."
T.A.R.I. put up a picture of what the glitch was on another screen saying, "THAT GLITCH TOOK FORM OF THE G-6155 INTERCEPTOR. THAT'S FROM THE 1983 ARCADE GAME-"
"Agent Chaser!" Aaron finished. He then said while doing some things on the computer, "Wait a minute, that arcade game hasn't been played by the public in years, and I know that's not the only one Midway Arcade Treasures. By tracing the car's tire tracks...Boom! *shows a location on the map* It came from an abandoned arcade two streets down!"
"I'M GETTING A LOT OF HIGH SIGNATURES FROM THAT ARCADE. I DON'T THINK THE CAR WAS THE ONLY GLITCH THERE."
"Aaron, I need you to help get that car off the road, then I need you to help get the rest of the glitches in that arcade."
"You can count on me. *ends call* T.A.R.I., time to get to work."