Holy shit! An actual new chapter in the reboot! How about that shit!? Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Bizarre Bazaar Pt. 1

"You're back!" Litwak shouted as Ray had returned to the code room.

"Yes, sir. Hey. Quick question. How many Codemasters are there?"

"Quite a few. Usually one for each arcade. Though, they usually travel from arcade to arcade on their downtime. Why do you ask?"

"I met this girl."

"You saw Sarah, didn't you?"

"You know her?"

"She's the Codemaster of Jay's Arcade downtown. Nice girl, but she can be kind of cuckoo. Like my nana." He joked. "She got transferred the day before you became a Codemaster. She's probably getting used to the neighborhood."

"That explains a lot. Well I'm gonna head home now. I don't want the tv to get lonely. See you tomorrow."

"OK." Litwak replied as he locked up the front doors.

Ray unchained his bike and rode home, feeling the past few days finally weigh on him.

The next day at school, Ray was sitting on the front steps when a familiar face sat next to him.

"Sarah?"

"Hey, Ray. Thinkin' bout Ralph?" Sarah nudged his arm.

"Hush! I've successfully become a shadow at school and I'd like to keep it that way." Ray whispered as he sat up and walked into the building.

"When you think about it it's kinda obvious." Sarah snarked. "You even kinda swish when you walk sometimes."

"When'd you start going here?" Ray inquired trying to change the subject.

"Today. And we both have the same schedule." She replied picking up on Ray's aggravation.

"How do you know that?"

"My secret." She replied suspiciously, shoving Ray's schedule back into his bag, unnoticed.

"OK, then you know that our first period is a free period."

"Yeah, but I had to check into my classes." They entered the cafeteria and found an empty table. No one else was there besides a few other seniors playing Call of Duty on a custom tv rig in the corner and the lunch ladies.

"Why are you here so early?" She inquired as she pulled out a bowl of cereal and milk.

Ray decided not to ask where she got her breakfast from and answer her question.

"I had to tell my teachers I wouldn't be here on Thursday. I said it was a doctor's appointment." He explained as he stole a bit of Fruit Loops from her bowl.

"Psyched for your date?"

"Yeah."

"First things first though, tomorrow we're going to the Bazaar."

"I meant to ask you. What is that exactly?"

"It's better you see it for yourself."

"Bye, Sarah! See you tomorrow!" Ray shouted as he walked towards Litwak's. Before he went 3 blocks, he was stopped by Dimitri.

"Well well... Looks like the little traitor found a new playtoy." Dimitri spat as he stood in Ray's path.

"Ralph is not a playtoy and I never called you that when we dated."

"We said we'd never bring that up again!" Dimitri barked as his fists became ice-cold.

"You didn't have that problem on Friday!" Ray barked as he threw Dimitri into the alley next to them. "What's the big deal!?"

"Why him? Why now?!" Dimitri froze the wall next to him without touching it.

"He's not a bully who gets off on pushing nerds into lockers! He's not a bad guy like you!" Ray broke the frost with a wave of electricity.

"You used to love the bad! I did it for you!" Dimitri barked as he chucked a sharp icicle at Ray's face.

"That was back when I was messed up in the head and drunk on power!" Ray rebutted as a lightning bolt shot the icicle into the ground. "And you were an asshole before we even got together."

"I bet your boy toy has no idea what's locked inside of you... He'll never want to speak to you again if he finds out." Dimitri taunted as he sent a wave of chilly air to float around Ray.

"He'll find out about my roots when I'm damn well ready to tell him! At least he's not you!" Ray responded as he electrified the air.

"I was the best you ever had!" Dimitri stated as he closed in and threw punch after punch at Ray, clipping him a few times.

"Was being the keyword." Ray threw an electrified punch directly into Dimitri's stomach.

"You should've showed some more respect and a little less restraint... I am much stronger than you." Ray commanded as he walked back to the street, not looking back.

After work, Litwak asked Ray to stay a little longer.

He cut straight to the point. "I heard about your date with Ralph."

"Who told you?" Ray asked, a bit shocked.

"Taffyta."

"Damn Taffyta..." Ray thought to himself as he grinded his teeth together.

"I just wanted to tell you you're free to hang with Ralph as long as you want on Thursday. I can handle the after school crowd and I'll just say Fix-it Felix Jr. is getting an upgrade. I've been meaning to give it one anyways..." The older man ranted.

Ray's jaw dropped at the statement. "You said what now?"

"I don't care that you're dating Ralph. Why would I? You're old enough to make your own decisions, and between you and me, I think this will be good for the both of you." Litwak explained as he patted Ray on the back.

"Oh right! Hand me your gauntlet. I need to unlock some features." Ray complied as he took off the gauntlet and handed it to Litwak.

"Hey Ray!" Felix called from his game.

"Sup Felix?" Ray responded as he walked over to the archaic machine.

"Ralph wanted to know where your date would be." Felix explained as he threw his hammer up in the air a few times.

"Just tell him to meet me at the entrance to Sugar Rush around 10 that day."

"All righty!" Felix replied as he left the screen.

"Here you go. You now have full control over your teleportation to and from GCS from anywhere on the planet."

"Which button is that?"

"The green one."

"Good to know." Ray waved to Litwak as he ran off towards his house.

As he opened his door, his gauntlet began to ring and vibrate on his arm.

"This thing's a phone too?" Ray thought to himself as he pressed the flashing green button on his screen. He wasn't surprised to see Sarah's face pop up.

"Hey Ray! Just reminding you to meet me in your digital coderoom at 4."

"What if I'm a little late? I might need to run errands." Ray joked as he kicked his shoes off at the front door.

"No errands! Just be there!"

"Good night. Wait! How'd you get this number?" Ray inquired while he walked up the stairs.

"As long as you have a Codemaster's full name, you can call their gauntlet. You really need to play around with that thing. Bye!"

As Ray hung up he fell onto his bed sleep taking him almost instantly.

Ray was back in the white room again. He sat there for about 2 minutes before the golden-haired man appeared behind him.

"I assume you want to stay a Codemaster?" the man inquired as he sat down.

"If I was chosen out of all the people in the world, then you can count on me."

"Good answer. Now I will bestow upon you 3 blank cards." He tossed the cards on the table as if he were dealing blackjack.

"What are they for?" Ray inquired as he picked them up.

"When you need them, you'll know. Just follow the code and let it be your guide." The man began to disappear.

"Wait! What does that mean anyways? More importantly, who are you?"

"Call me... Codemaster X." He replied as the dream dissolved.

"So where is the Bazaar?" Ray asked Sarah as they walked through his Game Central Station. It was just as busy and congested as usual.

"You can take a train there or if you've been there before the location is stored in your gauntlet memory."

"And where is the train?" Sarah pointed to a high tech bullet train at the end of the platform.

"Good to know."

"Let's go!"

The train took off and sped across what Ray assumed was the internet until it locked onto a tunnel. After they exited the train, they saw a large, abandoned platform. Glitchy wrappers rolled across the blacktop.

"So where is it?" Ray repeated.

"Behind the holographic wall." Sarah walked forward and disappeared behind the concrete(?). Ray dashed after her and was met with a blast of sounds and smells.

The room boomed with the result of everyone taking at the same time. There were stalls upon stalls lined up in neat little rows being run by different people and game characters. Each stall sold things from cards to new equipment, even vehicles on the far right.

"Well... what do you think?"

"Sarah... you rock so hard." Ray gaped. "My nerdgasm is only contained by social convention. How did this place start?"

Sarah explained as they browsed. "Well, certain games are hard to come by in arcades and some characters aren't as nice as M. Bison. The bazaar helps the codemasters by supplying then with the weapons, summons and vehicles they need to get the job done. Of course, nothing is free and the summons you get here aren't as powerful as the ones you get straight from the source."

"Well what kind of money do they take?"

Sarah turned towards Ray slowly. "You really haven't explored your gauntlet, have you?"

"Uhh... not really." He admitted sheepishly.

"Well, here, we use a currency called Trome. Check your gauntlet's main menu. You should see a number in the right hand corner. That's your current balance."

Ray tapped his screen and checked the corner.

His eyes bulged. "Sarah... is Trome more like dollars or pennies?"

"Dollars, why?"

"Because I have about 50,000 Trome." Sarah gripped Ray's arm and looked at the screen as if he were pulling a sick prank. Sure enough, the number on his gauntlet was indeed fifty thousand.

"I don't understand. Noobies never have this much Trome when they start out. Their usual Trome payout is about 1500 to start not counting Trome earned fighting league members."

"Hey! There's unread mail..." Ray tapped the letter icon and read the message. "I have high hopes for you, Ray. Use this gift at your own discretion. I trust you to fulfill your role soon. Signed... Codemaster X."

"Who dumps this much Trome into one guardian?"

"You don't know who Codemaster X is?"

"I've only heard rumors. He's supposedly the strongest Codemaster to ever live. According to my sources, he even created his own mode from basic code."

"Mode?" Ray checked his box and found the 3 blank cards from his dream along with the card he excavated from Beastman. "First things first, we have to find your associate that can analyze this card. Then I have got to get a new ride."

"He's at the end of that row over there."

They walked up to a stand where a scruffy looking guy was smashing a sword on a table in the back before it morphed into a card. Several well kept cards similar to the one he just forged were on display under a glass case.

"Seems you haven't changed much, Tony."

"Sarah! As I glitch and breathe. How are the daggers I made you?" The man put his tools away and walked up to the group.

"Working fine, thank you. Although, when it comes to fire manipulation it's lacking a bit."

"Sorry to cut this reunion short, but we need you to give us some info." Ray pulled out the card and slid it across the display.

Tony picked it up and examined it in his hand. His expression grew serious.

"It looks like someone got their hands on some dark code. This card is oozing with it."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked him.

"I mean whoever used this card would get drowned in evil. Where did you get this?"

"This came from inside of one of the League members in my arcade. The guy I fought before him had one too." Ray replied.

"What does it mean?"

"It means I want my Dark Virus card back." Ray and Sarah spun around to meet a blast to the chest. The force knocked them into the stand and on the floor.

The entire row of merchants and patrons were silenced when they heard the crash. The area they were standing in was then closed off in a bubble of darkness. A man wearing a black cloak, a scarf covering his mouth and a pair of sunglasses stepped up to the counter holding a ball of dark energy.

"No sudden moves or I blow the place sky high."

"Who are you? A rejected member of Organization XIII?" Ray snarled.

"You can call me Shade." Sarah tried to activate her gauntlet, but it was frozen. "I've shut off all access to the codemaster server within the bubble. You're virtually powerless. Now... the card."

Tony dropped the card into the man's palm, but noticed his dark purple gauntlet from under his sleeve. "You're a codemaster?"

"Don't be so surprised. How do you think I got in here?"

"But how could you work with the league? They're kind of trying to take over the world of video games from my prior knowledge." Ray cut in as he got to his feet.

Shade chuckled. "You think they'll stop at video games? There's a bigger prize to be won here."

"Even so, you're not leaving here with that card." Ray attempted to punch the league member, but was tossed back into the stand again by the energy Shade was radiating. "Fuck. This guy is on another level."

"Until you can match me, you're just the dirt under my boots."

"The card..." Ray shakily stood back up and pointed towards the traitor. "I want it back."

"Oh, this?" Shade took the card and crushed it into code. "I guess you were right. I'm not leaving with the card."

"You destroyed your own card?"

"I can always get more. You, on the other hand, can't." He turned to walk away.

"You won't get off that easy!" Ray, in a blind fury, threw a lightning bolt at Shade's back. The cloaked man wasn't really injured, just caught off guard.

"I thought I shut off the servers."

Ray pulled back a bit. He wasn't willing to get into a fight with this guy without his code powers, but he wasn't about to let him get away. "I don't need the servers to stop you."

"This isn't over. We'll fight again soon." Shade summoned a dark portal and walked away. The bubble that trapped them dissipated as well.

"I swear I'll defeat that guy."

"Did you get to analyze the card fully, Tony?" Sarah asked the blacksmith.

"I only got to scan the surface. It's contents were locked up tighter than a FNAF beta."

"So we're back to square one? Great."

"Actually, we're closer than you think we are." Ray smirked. "I shorted out his gauntlet. He'll be unable to use it until my lightning fades. Then we can take him out."

"But the server was down. How'd you do that?" Sarah was confused.

"I guess I got lucky."

"But normally you can't even access your powers without armoring up."

"Can we drop it, please? Thanks, Tony." Ray pulled Sarah down the aisle so he could tear her attention away from him and towards something else.

His secret was his and it was going to stay that way.

I hope you liked it. See you soon!