So, this small part of my drabblefic series is split into two 'chapters' and details Oda's first visit to Game Central Station. As you shall later find out, she's got a more or less human personality combined with some more primitive instincts that she's gained from the Cy-Bug coding she's made from.
Enjoy!
Oda's first thoughts on the world outside Hero's Duty? Hmm… something along the lines of 'where the heck did all this bright light come from?!'
It was true. Compared to the dark, murky green outlook of the lab she'd grown up in for the past month since she was created, the bright white scene of Game Central Station was a massive shock for her.
When she'd gotten over the surprise of the area she was in, it was then the sheer amount of people around that got her attention. Sure, there was always the comforting, endless hum of activity around the lab as the numerous scientists busied themselves with experiments and monitoring the game, but it had always seemed organised and spacious, which calmed the young Cy-Bug down a great deal.
Game Central was a completely different matter though.
Since the arcade had closed just ten minutes earlier, the station was a crowded hub of activity. Characters of all different shapes, sizes and colours bustled around, some sat in various sized social groups, others making beelines for other games. It was noisy and quite scary to Oda, who had never seen so many characters in one place before, let alone been faced with the task of manoeuvring through them all to get to another game just opposite her own output.
Overwhelmed by it all, the purple Cy-Bug chirped nervously and backed away into the Hero's Duty output, her long, hard-shelled body curling slightly in apprehension.
"Come on, Oda, it's not that scary."
Upon hearing the voice just ahead of her, Oda looked up slowly, setting her golden eyes on a tiny girl who stood by the edges of the throng of game characters. The girl's raven hair was tied back in a ponytail and strewn with various pieces of candy, her large brown eyes focused solely on the Cy-Bug that had grown to dwarf her small stature greatly throughout the past three weeks or so. Her outfit had a base colour of a teal-turquoise-type colour, made up of a hoodie, striped legwarmers, a black skirt fashioned from a cake case and black liquorice boots. To most people, she was quite adorable.
In an attempt to further express her discomfort, Oda chittered loudly. The response was supposed to say something along the lines of 'Easy for you to say! You're used to it!"
The girl, Vanellope, sighed softly and strode over to the distressed Cy-Bug, placing a tiny hand between her companion's eyes, which were now roughly the size of Vanellope's head. "Come on, it's only gonna be a few minutes," she said reassuringly. "Then we'll be at Sugar Rush. Just keep walking, no one's gonna get in your way."
Oda nodded her head slowly in agreement. At a month old, she was now around six feet long discounting her tail and weighed a heck of a lot more than her human mother, Jean. Her purple-black mandibles had grown long and deadly, but she never used them for anything except grinding the food that she was given into a state that she could easily consume. Speaking of feeding, the 'you are what you eat' rule that was embedded in almost every normal Cy-Bug's coding didn't seem to have been programmed into her. True, she'd grown and her body proportions had changed slightly, but apart from that, nothing about her had changed when she'd eaten anything. Heck, she'd eaten a gun once for experimental purposes, but nothing had happened.
Vanellope grinned and began rushing towards the Sugar Rush output, speed-glitching every now and then. Oda followed her hesitantly, wary of every character she passed. Thankfully they all parted for her, the sight of a massive Cy-Bug that could easily bite someone in half being hard not to notice. Granted, someone did step on her ridiculously long tail by accident, but they'd only got a pained hiss for their troubles before Oda continued on her way after her friend.
Once at the output, it was the simple matter of making their way down the cable before they reached the bright, candy-coated game. They passed a few NPCs along the way, who had cast nervous glances in Oda's direction before immediately scooting off, but other than that there was no trouble.
"See?" Vanellope said proudly. "What'd I tell ya?"