Author's Note: Back for a weekly update for the Spider-Nick series, my collaborator, MajorBrony95, and I are pleased to bring back the Web Tech. I know a lot of you are wishing for the Spider Spirit, and I promise, we'll get to that after we're done with this current season. We're still figuring stuff out there, and we've already got a completed chapter list for this season, including a few original ones. Here's everything we'll cover this season, including this chapter.
*Tutorial Mode
*Going, Going, Gauntlet
*ORIGINAL CHAPTER
*Smashazaurs
*Castle Crawl
*Alpha Leader
*ORIGINAL CHAPTER
*Collection Quest
*Adventures in Pet Training
*ORIGINAL CHAPTER
*Karate Trainers
*ORIGINAL CHAPTER
*ORIGINAL CHAPTER
*ORIGINAL CHAPTER
Also, a fan of mine, PH98, asked a favor of me. They want everyone to know that there is an online petition to revive the actual Glitch Tech cartoon for a season 3. Of course, I support the idea, but MajorBrony95 and I have already come up with our own original conflict for the finale of this particular fanfic while also taking some inspiration from the planned details we've picked up about the show. So if Glitch Techs does return for a third season (which I hope it does), I'm afraid to say it won't affect our plans for our own season 3. Here's to hoping for the show's revival though.
Anyway, let's get started with the return of this fanfic. Enjoy the chapter. Any and all comments are welcome.
A lone console of Where Crawls Dr. Lizardo stood in an arcade, seeming innocent enough, but all was not right under the surface.
"Have you ever seen what (really) happens inside a video game when it starts to glitch?" High Five's voice asked seriously.
Inside the console, among the wiring and machinery, there was a blue cube inside that suddenly glowed green before a snarling and hissing green energy bolt burst forth.
The green bolt erupted from the screen and took on the form of the titular video game villain before he roared and began smashing the arcade as patrons fled in screaming terror.
"No one does, until it is too late." Tim's voice continued. "But that's what WE'RE here for."
"Dr. Lizardo was a Glitch from a game that was totally out of order." Miko's own voice over went on. "So WE had to pull the plug."
Dr. Lizardo then halted his rampage as the three teens finally appeared. Five stood tall with heroic-looking armor complete with a cape. Miko sat to the side with much longer hair and armor that made her look like a beautiful and powerful female warrior. Finally, Tim sat by her, dressed in his Web Tech outfit. All three had determined looks.
"I told him, 'You picked the wrong place to shed your scales, lizard!'" Five proclaimed dramatically.
"I don't remember you saying that." Miko said confused breaking the dramatic moment.
"Neither do I." Tim piped up.
"I would have if I'd thought to." Five said with a shrug.
"Really?" Tim asked. "Because that sounds like something I would say."
"Yeah, I TOTALLY hear Tim saying that." Miko agreed before her voice over resumed as Dr. Lizardo licked his chops with a hungry leer. "But I DO remember us blasting the wild reptile into plixel dust!" She leaped forward and aimed her Glitch Tech gauntlet at him. "Because when video games glitch…"
"Us Glitch Techs…" Five continued.
"Scratch the itch!" Tim finished as he and Five also stood posing and aiming their gauntlets. The trio fired multiple blasts at Lizardo who roared in pain before turning red and kneeling. Five then materialized a bomb and tossed it in the monster's mouth, which caused him to blow up and reduced him to the small green hissing bolt.
Tim sucked him up in his gauntlet as it declared, "Glitch contained!" The crowd at the arcade cheered their heroes as they gained double XP and expert level rankings. The trio then posed heroically. It was a great moment…
…If it had actually happened. In reality, it was all an exaggerated version of past events. The group WERE posing, but they were in their Hinobi store uniforms and standing on top of the store counter. They had just finished telling their story to an elderly Indian woman who didn't look at all impressed.
"All I asked was if you sold rechargeable batteries."
"Uh, I think so." Five chuckled nervously as the group got off the counter. "It's our first real full day of working here."
Suddenly, the kids were pushed aside by Phil, who laughed nervously as he approached the customer. "Sorry, ma'am. You see, these three are still learning the ropes of the business." He wrapped the three tightly in his arms, nearly choking them before dropping them. "You know, where things are, what they cost…" He then turned to the kids with a fuming face. "… and how we never tell customers about our super-secret task force of MONSTER HUNTERS!"
The customer groaned. "I'm so confused."
"Oh, good!" Phil said in a forced pleased tone as he turned back to the woman and handed her a slip of paper. "Please accept this coupon. And a memory wipe of everything my idiot employees just told you." He activated his visor and tapped his badge, which flashed out a bright light at the woman's face.
After a moment of her memory rebooting, the woman broke out of her trance and looked happily at the coupon in her hand. "Ooh! A coupon! And I was just going to ask if you sold…"
"Rechargeable batteries. Aisle three." Phil directed. As soon as the woman left, he sighed and turned back to the kids with a glare.
Tim chuckled nervously. "Sorry, Phil. Guess we got a little ahead of ourselves. But at least I didn't tell her about my Glitch powers."
"Yeah, the weird spider-webs coming out of your fingers and the giant legs from your back is a no-go, but the fact that our products create monsters is a-okay to say." Phil said sarcastically before he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Okay, clearly you three have worked this counter long enough."
"Dude! First day and already getting promoted!" Miko cheered.
"Yes!" Five cheered.
"So we're finally going to be official Glitch Techs?" Tim asked excitedly.
"There's a process first." Phil said. "If you're gonna be Glitch Techs, you need to take the tutorial."
Five cheered in happiness, but when it came to Miko, she just went "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" as she slowly fell to her knees.
"I… take it you're not a fan of tutorials?" Tim asked as he and the others followed Phil to the locker room.
"Ugh! Tutorials are the most boring part of any game!" Miko answered as Phil opened the portal.
"What about chaining to whip stitch in Crochet Fighter or climb onion volcanoes in Teppanyaki 4?" Five asked.
"Right, I forgot you actually LIKE tutorials, Five." Tim said with an eye roll.
"Do you hate them too?" Miko asked.
"Eh. I don't mind some of them, mainly the ones with just words and text. The ones I hate are the ones with those annoying little characters that tell you stuff that's kinda obvious." Tim explained. "Personally, what I always really hated were those games that had credit rolls that you can't skip or fast forward." Tim shuddered. "Imagine having to wait ten whole minutes to return to the main menu."
"Not that I don't love a good debate, which that wasn't," Phil said, "But there's no opt out of this. You have plenty to learn besides how to blast Glitches." Suddenly, Five dashed right past him and jumped into the portal, but got stuck as soon as his head was in. "Like not entering a portal gate until it warms up."
Phil tapped the portal twice making it open up fully. The three kids were pulled right in with Phil following them.
"'Sup, Glitch Techs!" Miko called out to everyone in the Glitch Tech lobby as soon as she, Tim, and Five got out of their portal. "We're here! What, what!"
Tim noticed a few faces such as Mitch and Zahra, but there were still some others he didn't recognize. "Oh. Looks like we've got some other faces we've yet to meet."
"Oh, hey, guys," Zahra greeted from below after blasting a few virtual targets. "Heard you were made Techs. Congrats." She pulled over a short, portly-built boy with brown skin and black hair. "This is Haneesh, my teammate."
"Hiya." Haneesh waved with a smile.
Zahra then jerked a thumb to a bored looking Mitch, who was watching a video. "And, of course, you already know Mitch."
"Unfortunately." Five said rolling his eyes.
The pro-gamer glared up at him. "Feeling's mutual, Griefer."
"And over there is Simi." Zahra said pointing at a thin girl with green hair.
Simi blew a bubble gum bubble and spun a basketball on a finger. "'Sup," she said as the bubble popped.
Bergy then walked in and saw them. "Hi. I-I'm Bergy. Nice to meetcha. Welcome to the team." He smiled at them too, though when he saw Tim, his eyes widened and he pointed. "Say. You're Tim Burns, right? Uh, don't mean to pry, but weren't you bitten by some Glitched spider and gained cool powers?"
That got everyone (except Mitch's) attention. Tim smiled before he shot up a green web from his fingers and climbed up the stand before standing on the ceiling, much to the others' amazement and astonishment. "That answer your question?" Tim asked as most of the Techs exclaimed in awe.
"I know! He's totally awesome!" Miko grinned up at Tim who grinned back. "He's our very own Web Tech!"
Mitch just scoffed. "Please. So he can crawl on walls. Nothing a simple gross spider can't do." He smirked up at them. "In fact, all you've done is just give me a new name for you; Wall-Crawler."
Tim, Miko and Five glowered at him as Tim jumped back on his feet. "You're still sore about us getting you into trouble last week, aren't you?" Five asked.
"All right, everybody." Phil called out as he approached. "That's enough introductions for today! Let's…"
"Alert! Alert!" BITT interrupted as he quickly hovered over to Phil. "There is one NEW message in YOUR personal mailbox!" He pointed to Phil with a large foam finger.
"Yeah, yeah." Phill brushed off carelessly. "Whatever it is can wait, BITT. Just take the new trainees and set 'em up in the training sim for me, okay?"
"But…" BITT tried to speak, but was cut off again when Phil addressed the other Glitch Techs.
"The rest of you, stop lurking the lobby down there! Yeah, you! Get out on your morning patrols!"
"Phil, it's a slow day out there!" Mitch called back.
"Well, let's KEEP IT THAT WAY!" Phil yelled out. Everyone reluctantly left the lobby right after, Mitch instantly changing into his gear and portaling away with a pose and a "Boosh!"
Five turned his head and saw Otto passing by while tinkering with his own gauntlet. He swiped it out of Otto's hands suddenly.
"Hey! Do I take things from your hands?!" Otto asked bitterly.
"Sorry. I just wanna admire this." Five said. "Hey, Phil, when do we get one of these Glitch Tech gauntlets?"
"When you complete the tutorial." Phil took the gauntlet out of Five's hands and returned it to Otto. "Sorry, Otto. They're new. They get excited."
"Apology NOT accepted." Otto said. "Anyway, Phil, I was hoping we get the chance to discuss the incident at the Smash tournament."
"Otto, not in front of the new recruits!" Phil hissed.
Tim looked curiously. "What incident? The Glitch? We already know about that."
"I am fairly certain that Phil and Otto are referring to the…" BITT started to say before Phil covered his screen with his hand.
"Uh, sorry, but that's official business," Phil said. "Tell you what. Come see me as soon as you finish the tutorial and become official Glitch Techs. Then you should have the clearance to learn what happened at the tournament. This DOES concern all Techs, after all."
"Really?" Five asked.
"Okay, fine!" Miko groaned. "If this stupid tutorial gets us these cool perks, let's just burn through it. How long can it be?"
"Well, the first three hours are the worst, but the last five really fly by." Phil answered. Miko looked even more dismayed at that. "Oh, come on. The tutorial isn't that bad. Isn't that right, Otto? Otto took the tutorial. Tell them, Otto."
Otto sighed before turning to the trio. "All right. I took the tutorial." There was a long moment of silence before he spoke again. "And then, I went to therapy."
Phil glared at Otto. "Who asked you? Go man the store."
"Fine." Otto grunted, walking away through the portal.
"Hey, relax, Miko." Tim said, trying to comfort his upset friend, though not quite feeling so sure himself after finding out how long it would take. "It… can't be THAT bad."
The trio eventually found themselves in the middle of a large, circular room with lights across the walls and a large console of keys and buttons. Suddenly, a holographic H with a smiley face, a hat, and two cartoon arms appeared in front of them.
"Welcome, Glitch Tech newbies, or 'noobs' as we like to call you."
"Oh, no." Miko said horrified.
"I may have spoken too soon." Tim said with cringing teeth.
"I'm Helpie, your helpful host!" the hologram introduced himself. "In this tutorial, you'll learn the 'leet skills needed to pwn Glitches as a first level Glitch Tech technician!
Miko tried to turn from the hologram, and even Tim attempted to inch away, but Helpie kept appearing in front of them. Miko wailed and turned around to hug BITT. "We can't shake him! Don't leave us like this, BITT!"
"C'mon, man! Have mercy!" Tim begged.
"I'm sorry. This tutorial is mandatory." BITT said slipping out of Miko's hug. "No skipping ahead, shutting down, or requested false pee breaks will be tolerated."
"Do we get a lunch break?" Five asked.
"There is a vending machine on the main level." BITT said. "Caution on selecting the egg salad, however. We have lost 12.5 trainees that way."
"Wait, 12.5?" Tim asked. "How can you just loose half a…"
"Goodbye." BITT said as he left the room before Tim could finish his question.
As he closed the door, Miko ran to the door and beat her fists on it repeatedly until Helpie appeared in front of her again.
"I see you're trying to punch something. We will cover that in step 12: punching!"
"This is my nightmare…" Miko whispered in a tone full of dread.
"No kidding," Tim groaned. He turned to Five. "I'm starting to agree with Miko, bud. I mean, why would we need a virtual lesson on punching? I KNOW how to punch."
"Tim, I've seen you swing your arms around, but I've never actually seen you 'punch' anything in my life." Five pointed out. "Kick, maybe. Punch… not so much."
"Details!" Tim cried. "Look, I JUST said five minutes ago I HATE these types of tutorials! Not only do they give repetitive or obvious advice, they usually make the characters WAY too chipper and almost always give them voices that make the eardrums bleed!" Helpie flew toward him from Miko and giggled in a high-pitched voice. "See what I mean?"
Five sighed. "Look, I know it's cheesy, but come on, guys. We're three of the rare few who get to learn about game Glitches and where they come from."
"Where do Glitches come from?" Helpie asked. "Allow me to drop some knowledge on ya, playas! The Hinobi central processer is a highly advanced but extremely delicate piece of equipment, especially with the special upgrades provided by Oscorp to raise its efficiency. As such, a Glitch may occur as a result of corrupt software, overheating, underheating, sudden loud noises, sudden soft noises, poor ventilation, good ventilation, spillage…"
Miko groaned again while Tim slid his hands down his bored face. "DEFINITELY spoke too soon."
"Thank you for shopping with Hinobi, where we're always game to help you." Otto said unenthusiastically passing his sold console to a customer. "Now, leave."
Phil walked in on Otto just as the customer left and sighed. "Otto, you really gotta work on your people skills."
"Why? I don't see a problem." Otto said ignoring Phil's annoyed look.
"Sir!" BITT said as he hovered over to Phil. "There is still the matter of the unread message in your…"
"Not now, BITT." Phil interrupted.
Otto scoffed. "And I'm the one in need of people skills?"
"Don't start with me, kid." Phil growled.
"Oh, don't be like that, Phil. He reminds me of YOU when you were his age."
Phil widened his eyes upon hearing the familiar woman's voice. He turned and saw a large woman wearing glasses and a suit approaching.
"Bookworm Barbara?" Phil asked with a growing smile on his face.
"Long time, huh?" the woman named Barbara asked.
"You know each other, I'm guessing?" Otto inquired.
"Yeah. Barb and I go way back when we were rookies at Glitch Techs before she got transferred." Phil said while BITT had a growing look of nervousness. "Back then, she had her nose buried in all those safety manuals. That's why we gave her the nickname 'Bookworm'."
"Sir, the message is time sensitive!" BITT insisted before Phil pushed him away.
"You remember, BITT?" Phil chuckled, keeping his robot companion away many times as he kept trying to get Phil's attention. "Yeah, Oscorp told me to trade him in years ago, but since when do I listen to the fools in Oscorp?" He struggled once more to push BITT out of the way before succeeding. "So, what brings you by, Bookworm?"
"The fools at Oscorp." Barbara said, pulling out a badge from her breast pocket. It had the Hinobi logo along with the caption "Inspector 7". "Safety Inspector Number Seven! Oh!" She snapped her fingers. "I'm here to investigate the premises."
Phil was taken aback by the sudden news. "Now?"
"Yes. We sent you a message this morning." Barbara said. The news of that caused Phil to glare at BITT.
Otto laughed. "Well, this is a surprising circumstance. Hey, inspector, is it all right if I tag along?"
"Hmm… Well, this issue is for the SENIOR staff." Barbara said before shrugging. "But hey, you seem like a smart young man. You're probably going to need to know this stuff when you're on the job. It could be quite enlightening. Now, the 'Bookworm' is ready for a tour, Phil." She walked away from the three.
BITT then scanned a dismayed looking Phil, revealing an x-ray of his body and rapidly beating heart. "Sir. I am detecting an increase in your heart rate and an abnormal amount of perspiration."
Otto laughed mischievously. "Oh, I don't know about enlightening, but it'll certainly be ENTERTAINING."
"Let's track your bodily movements." Helpie said to the new recruits. "To crouch, bend your knees." Everyone did so, but Miko added a predatory roar.
"I think you're making this a lot harder than it has to be." Five said.
"We'll see about that." Tim snarked.
"And to jump, jump." Helpie said. The boys jumped high (Tim higher than Five), but Miko just lifted herself a touch off the ground, which the hologram noticed. "Uh, oh. Player two, that was more of a hop."
"Dude, please, jump." Five said.
Miko crossed her arms and huffed. Five decided to help her by holding her from behind and lifting her up for a quick second to simulate a jump.
"Thank you." Helpie said.
"Guess the programmed can be fooled." Tim observed.
"Next," Helpie said, "Raise your arms and calibrate your virtual gauntlets."
At that moment, each of the teens had red, virtual gauntlets that appeared around their right hands.
"Aw, man! Virtual gauntlets?" Miko asked.
"Yeah! Calibration is my third favorite tutorial step," Five cheered, "After axis options and button assignment."
Miko looked at Five weirdly with an eye twitch before turning back at Tim in disbelief.
"Yeah, he has a list." Tim said dryly.
"All right. Let's go!" Helpie said creating a holographic graph in front of them. "Calibrate upper left!" The three pointed their gauntlets to the top left corner. "Calibrate lower right!" Then, the bottom right. "Calibrate upper right." Then to the top right. "Middle left." They did so, but right as they did, a buzzer sounded. "Uh, uh, uh. I didn't say 'calibrate'."
Five laughed at that. "Oh, man! He totally got me!"
"Five, this isn't Simon Says!" Tim groaned. "I know this is mandatory, but you can't POSSIBLY like how cheesy and tasteless this is! It's not humanly possible to!"
"That's it! Abort mission! Abort!" Miko shouted suddenly. She rushed through the holographic screens in front of her pushing them away.
"I see you're trying to button mash." Helpie said. "We will cover this in step ten."
"FOUL THING, I BANISH THEE!" Miko shouted before slamming her fist down. It went right through Helpie and broke right into the keyboard console behind him.
All of a sudden, the alarm in the room blared out loudly and Helpie disappeared along with every holographic screen and light source in the room.
"No, no, no!" Five panicked. "What did you do?"
A second later, the lights came back on and the main screens came back online.
"Oh, shmup. I think I rebooted it." Miko grumbled.
"You must have caused a power failure, and everything kicked into some kind of backup power source." Tim said. "I don't know if it's good or bad."
"How can it be bad?" Miko asked.
"You heard Phil." Five said. "We can't be Glitch Techs until we finish that tutorial!"
"Maybe our progress got saved somehow." Tim said stepping up to the console. "Let's see if I can find it." He searched for a minute before finding what he was looking for. "Ah. Found it. It's right under…"
The sight of what they also found caused all three to stare with big eyes and drooling mouths. "Gaaaames!"
Tim clicked on it and opened up a ton of tiles with different game titles. "It looks like it's every Hinobi game ever! HES. Hinobi 2. HinobiCD. Hinobi Turbo-Tech 2K."
"We are stone dead and have gone to gamer heaven!" Miko cried out.
"Wait." Five said as a thought entered his mind. "Tim, if this thing has every Hinobi game ever, do you think it has… Hinobi Lucha Loco?"
Tim's eyes lit up. A second later, they did so again when he found a file with that exact same title. "No way! It's actually here!"
"Hinobi Lucha Loco?" Miko asked. "Is that the game about Mexican wrestlers?"
"Yeah! It was released back in 1997, but it was quickly recalled and repossessed after only four months on the shelves due to multiple injury claims." Five explained.
"'Injury claims'?" Miko asked, confused. "How do you get injury claims from a video game unless you chuck one at someone or stick it in your mouth and choke or something?"
"You know how in most combat games, there's a disclaimer at the beginning that warns players not to try the stuff at home?" Tim asked.
Miko nodded and said, "Um-hum."
"Well, when they made this game, they unfortunately forgot to include it, and many of the younger, more impressionable and stupid players got hurt trying to do the moves they saw in the game. Led to a lot of them going to the hospital with broken limbs, concussions and the like. Parents blamed the game, so to avoid any further lawsuits, Hinobi was forced to take back every last copy of the game. The financial loss from that was never fully recovered from, and is believed to be one of the reasons Oscorp was able to buy it out and make it a subsidiary 16 years ago. This might well be the last remaining copy of this game in existence!"
"Ooh!" Miko said in awe. She then looked up and noticed a logo of a letter G beside the game. "It must be great. They rated it 'G' for 'graphic'."
"We gotta play this!" Five said excitedly.
"But what about the tutorial?" Miko asked with a smirk.
Tim took a look through the computer again. "Well, it looks like when the power shut off, the tutorial was paused. We still got our progress, but I guess we can play this for probably about ten minutes or so. THEN we can finish the lousy tutorial."
"Good thinking, Tim." Five said, looking in a console cupboard and pulling out two controllers. "After all, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play one of the most legendary banned games in history! We can't pass this up!"
"Let's do it!" Miko cheered as she grabbed one of the controllers.
The tour guided by Phil and BITT led Barbara to the Glitch Tech locker room with Otto tagging behind. While Barbara looked around, Phil looked around and, to his shock, noticed a spider that was glowing green. He realized instantly that it must have been the same Glitch-radiated spider that had bitten Tim and gave him his abilities. He tried to catch it, but it slipped into the vents before he could get his hands on it. Thankfully, Barbara didn't notice, so he could act innocent about it. Otto however did and narrowed his eyes at the vent, taking a mental note.
"Well, this store did suffer a recent Glitch attack during a public gaming event." Barbara stated. "Not to mention, Mr. Osborn is still concerned about the mystery hacker."
"Uh, that Glitch during the event was caused by faulty software that OSCORP approved." Phil argued. "As for the hacker, we've got our best minds looking into it. I'm sure we'll find our culprit in no time."
"Best minds?" Otto asked with a laugh. "Now, I know you're lying because I'm not on the case."
"Otto…" Phil growled before giving a forced smile at Barbara with a small nervous chuckle. "Don't worry. The hacker WILL be discovered. Plus, since the gaming event, this store's antivirus program has detected ZERO hazards. Am I right, BITT?"
"That is correct." BITT said. "It detected no hazards because it has NOT been running."
"That's what I…" Phil said before being alarmed by what the robot said. "Why?"
"Because YOU paused the download update to stream the season finale of the Spanish dramady, Cop Family Season 3."
Phil looked back nervously at Barbara, who gave him a dismayed look before tapping on her digital clipboard, making a red X appear on it, much to his horror. Otto was snickering at that.
"Oh, Phil," Barbara sighed, "You're only allowed three total infractions."
"Three?" Otto asked suddenly stopping his laughing. "If I may ask, what happens at four?"
"My bosses close the store, fire Phil, and memory wipe the entire staff." Barbara said causing a look of concern on Otto's face as well as Phil's.
"Okay. Then, let's keep it at three." Phil said nervously.
"Great!" Barbara said as she continued the tour.
"I had no idea the store would be closed and I would be memory wiped!" Otto whispered frantically.
"Not so 'entertaining' now, is it, wise guy?" Phil hissed. "So if you wanna keep your job, you better shape up and help me out here!"
Otto sighed heavily. "Alright, fine. I'll do my best. So long as nothing else goes wrong, we should be good."
"Uno… Dos… Tres! Player Two wins!"
"BOOM!" Miko cheered doing a dance to celebrate her victory. Five, meanwhile, hung his head in defeat before laughing.
"You really got me at the end." Five said.
"All right. I play winner." Tim said taking Five's spot and his controller.
"Get ready to get whupped in a virtual ring, my dude!" Miko taunted.
"We'll see about that." Tim shot back. "In fact, I'll let YOU pick the next character."
"Oh my, such a gentleman." Miko giggled flirtatiously before she grinned viciously. "You're totally gonna regret that." She then looked over the characters. "Eeny, meeny, mighty strong. Pick the one who does no wrong. Ooh! This guy looks shiny." She clicked on her chosen character.
"You have selected… El Dorado!"
"El Dorado?" Tim asked. "Whoa. Nice pick, Miko. He's pretty much the main antagonist of the game. He is said to be the arch enemy of the Lucha Loco's main protagonist, El Muerto. So I guess I know who I'm…"
"Hold on, Tim." Miko said just as the screen started flashing a red G. "It froze up on me."
"Y-You ha-have selected El-El-El Dorado-do-do."
As the screen kept twitching, a horrible thought entered Five's head. "Wait. What if that 'G' we say wasn't for 'graphic'? What if it was for…"
Suddenly, the screen flashed, and a large person jumped out. He was a large, muscular male with a golden costume that covered all but the lower half of his face. His torso had an image of the sun, and he had a red cape flowing from his shoulders.
"Glitch!" the three finished Five's question in a panic.
"Atención! Hear me, peons!" El Dorado proclaimed. "You dare to challenge me, so I shall make this the last match of your menial lives!"
"We are so fired." Miko said.
Five chuckled nervously. "All right. Easy, amigo. Nobody wants to fight."
"And that is why you are going to perish by my hand." El Dorado said before jumping toward them.
"RUN!" Five shouted. He, Miko, and Tim went in opposite directions just before El Dorado could land on them.
"All right, Shiny. You wanted a match? You got one!" Tim shouted. He pointed his hand and shot out his green webs from his wrist, attaching itself right at El Dorado's face, making him cry out in shock.
While he was blinded and swearing in Spanish, Tim rushed to jump right at him, but El Dorado managed to rip the web off his face and, with a snarl, grab him in midair. He threw him around above his head before throwing him back at his friends, making them land in a pile.
"Okay. This guy's tougher than he looks," Tim said, "And that says a lot."
"We need Glitch gauntlets!" Miko panicked.
"We COULD have got them if we had finished the tutorial," Five said accusingly at Miko, "But SOMEBODY decided to destroy Helpie."
"AND I'D DO IT AGAIN!" Miko shouted. "Besides, it was YOUR idea to play Hinobi Lucha Loco!"
"Guys, we got an evil luchador who wants to kill us!" Tim reminded. "Let's play the blame game after we beat THISgame!"
Tim and Miko shared Tim's concern when they turned and saw El Dorado charging after them.
"Holy smokes." Five whimpered preparing for the beatdown.
Just outside the simulator, Phil, Otto, Barb, and BITT were passing by. That's when they heard the loud thuds coming from behind the closed doors.
"Is someone in the simulator?" Barbara asked.
"Oh, yeah. The new recruits are taking the tutorial." Phil answered.
"Ugh! I remember that tutorial." Barbara groaned. "No wonder they're pounding at the door."
"Tell me about it." Otto agreed rolling his eyes.
Barbara's eyes lit up. "Wait. The new recruits, you say? Does that include the boy with Glitch powers? The one who can shoot webs from his hands and stick to walls?"
"Oh, you mean Tim Burns." Phil said. "Yeah, he's in there too. I imagine he might be a little overqualified for the tutorial, but it is company policy."
"Well, in that case, let's go say hello." Barbara said. "I'm WAY too curious about this Web Tech."
"Oh, so that silly nickname is sticking, huh?" Phil asked with a shrug. "All right. I'll introduce you."
Phil walked over to the simulator room and pressed his hands on the door. He pushed on it, but it rattled in his grip. He pushed hard, but it didn't open. He turned to Barbara's judging face and chuckled nervously.
"That's perfectly normal door behavior is what that is." Phil typed in the number pad, but the door still wouldn't open. "Um, you guys all right in there?"
"PAIN! PAIN!" Miko's cried were heard from the other side of the door.
"Yeah, we all know the tutorial's a pain." Phil said obliviously. "Why don't you pause it now and just open the door?"
"Sticky doors are a safety hazard, Phil." Barbara admonished. "If this was an emergency…"
"It's not a problem." Phil interrupted with another chuckle. "Otto, did you by any chance equip that feature on BITT I told you about?"
"One of my more favored jobs since I started working here." Otto answered with a smirk as he adjusted his glasses. "BITT, ready the Little Friend."
"My pleasure, Otto." BITT said.
Back inside the simulator, Five, Tim and Miko were pretty battered and tired while El Dorado was standing before them, not phased at all. Behind them, the door had been webbed shut by Tim after Miko had seen Phil about to enter.
"We gotta get him out of here before Phil comes in!" Miko shouted.
Tim looked around until he spotted a ventilation grate. That's when an idea entered his mind.
"I got an idea. I'll draw his attention while you two enter that vent." The other two nodded and allowed Tim to swing toward El Dorado. He was going to grab him again, but he leaped away from his grip and swung up to the ceiling.
"What are you doing up there?!" El Dorado asked.
"Staying away from you." Tim said. "That's a cute outfit. Does it come in men's sizes?"
While El Dorado had his attention on Tim, Five and Miko raced past him and made it to the vent where they then slipped right into.
"You want me? Come and get me!" Tim shouted jumping over El Dorado and entering the same vent. El Dorado glared at his exit before following him in his own special way.
BOOM!"
The door burst open courtesy of BITT and his gun that was much bigger than his whole body. Phil, Otto and Barbara entered the simulator expecting to find the trainees only to find the room empty.
The ventilation escape didn't last forever. The ceiling they were crawling over eventually gave out and broke apart underneath them. Five, Tim, and Miko all fell into a kitchen.
"Man, Bruce Willis made vent-crawling look easy." Tim said. "Now, we gotta figure out what to do."
"Maybe if we just calmly explain to Phil what we did, he'll be happy to…" Miko started to say before Five jumped up and interrupted.
"Have us fired for releasing an evil wrestling Glitch. What do we do about him anyway?"
"I wouldn't worry too much," Tim said with a smug grin. "Did you see how big he is? Ol' Sunshine is probably stuck in the vents like a jellybean in a straw, which will give us plenty more time to come up with a plan. Plus, I doubt he's smart enough to figure out how to follow us." He laughed, then looked confused when Five and Miko suddenly got scared faces. "What?" He then felt the tingle from when Miko nearly ran him over. "He's standing right behind me, isn't he?"
Tim got his answer when El Dorado wrapped his arms around him and threw him backwards in a German suplex. He then grabbed both his legs and threw him around the room.
"Tim!" Miko gasped before rushing to check on him leaving Five alone with the Glitch.
"Back off, bro!" Five shouted reaching for the first things he could grab, a pair of frying pans. "I've seen Tangled, so I know how to use these things!"
El Dorado smirked before saying, "Adorable."
Five charged at El Dorado and swung his pans at him. El Dorado dodged most of the swings, but got rattled by the last two before he grabbed Five's wrists and held him in place. He then pulled Five into his embrace and started crushing his body with his arms. Five struggled hard to breathe.
Meanwhile, like how he did with her, Miko helped Tim stand back up. "You okay, Timmy?"
"I'll be fine." Tim groaned. "Just… let me know when the room stops spinning."
At that moment, the two of them heard a bunch of voices coming from outside, including BITT who said, "I did inform them that if they were hungry, they could partake of the vending machine."
"You told them what?!" That voice was easily Phil. Miko and Tim spotted them along with Otto and Barbara before jumping out of sight.
Tim looked back at Five, who was still getting bearhugged by El Dorado. "We gotta help Five!"
"Leave it to me!" Miko declared. She grabbed a mop and spun it like a bo staff which she then used to strike El Dorado on the head with it. The impact made him release Five, who dropped to his knees taking deep breaths.
"Come on, lazy bones!" Tim shouted before shooting a webline at Five. He then pulled on it to yank him away from El Dorado.
The three of them then raced outside of the kitchen as fast as they could before running down the halls. They didn't know where they were going. They just knew they needed to get away from El Dorado.
"We gotta find a way to beat him!" Tim shouted.
"How? He's too strong, and we don't have any gauntlets!" Miko said.
"Hey, maybe we can trap him in that metal chute." Five pointed at a circular hole in the end of the hallway which was sealed off. "But we'd really need some luck to get him in there."
"Who needs luck? We got egg salad." Miko pointed to a nearby vending machine, where one of the items was certainly much older and grosser than all the others.
With his card, Five was able to pay for the egg salad that they needed. They carefully unwrapped it and found that it was much more disgusting than any of them had ever imagined.
"Oh, gross." Tim exclaimed covering his nose. "It's like murder for my nosehairs."
"That is even more adorable than el sartenes." El Dorado spoke up as they saw him at the other end of the hall. "Do you niños really think you can beat me with that?"
"Oh, you can bet there's a lot we can do." Tim said with the egg salad on hand. "If you think you're macho enough to come over and take it."
El Dorado glared at him. "I'll show you who's macho enough." He began running at Tim ready to tackle him.
Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to. Tim threw the egg salad on the floor right where El Dorado was making his step. El Dorado lost all control when he slipped on the egg salad and rode it all the way down the hallway right when Five opened up the metal chute. El Dorado tripped and fell halfway in. He struggled to get free, kicking his feet, but the kids all worked together to lift him by his legs to push the rest of him inside before quickly sealing the hole behind him as he screamed down the chute.
"That should hold him." Miko said in relief.
"So where does this chute go?" Five asked.
"I'm taking a stab and say the garbage." Tim said. "Well, at least he's bringing an old egg salad with him."
The three of them laughed until they were cut off by someone else laughing. They turned to the chute and heard El Dorado's sinister laugh echoing from behind the wall.
"Uh, we DID win, right?" Tim asked nervously.
"Hey, there you kids are." The three of them turned and saw Phil approaching them with his group.
Barbara gave a happy gasp seeing the three. "So these are the trainees I've heard so much about. And which one of you is the legendary Web Tech?"
"Legendary?" Tim asked flattered. "Hear that, guys? I'm a legend."
"Don't let that get to your head, Burns." Otto groaned. "The last thing we need is another Mitch Williams."
El Dorado's laughter was suddenly heard again. This time, the others heard it too and stared at the chute curiously as the trio looked at each other nervously. At that moment, a golden light flashed before their eyes and El Dorado appeared out of thin air in front of them. He raised his fists before slamming them both to the ground. Everyone was blinded by a golden light that enveloped the entire hallway.
When the light dimmed, everyone could see clearly again observing the great changes the Glitch made. El Dorado was now standing in the middle of a wrestling ring that was set up in the middle of the room. Phil, BITT, and Barbara were trapped in golden cages that were set up next to the ring while the others stared in shock.
"Bask in my solar glory!" El Dorado exclaimed.
Phil looked nervously at the safety inspector. "Sorry, in all the excitement, I lost count. How many infractions left?" Barbara didn't answer. She just marked another red X on her tablet.
"Oh, man." Five said in dismay. "We'll never be Glitch Techs now."
"Maybe Phil doesn't know this was our fault." Miko said.
Tim looked across the room and saw Phil's face. The store manager stared at them with a red face that was full of rage and fury. "No, I think he knows."
"Your fault?" Otto asked the trainees. "You mean you yahoos were stupid enough to release El Dorado?"
"It was an accident." Five said. "We thought we could contain him in the garbage chute, but he just got out somehow."
"Trapping him isn't going to do anything, you dunce!" Otto lectured. "He's a teleporter! That's his special skill in Hinobi Lucha Loco! Unless he has low enough HP, he can escape holds!"
"That does explain how he followed us through the vents." Tim said. "He didn't actually go IN them at all." He then paused. "Wait, how do you know so much about him, Otto? I didn't think that would be your kind of game."
"I like all kinds of games, including combat and fighting ones." Otto explained. "One of my favorites is Hinobi Grappler Plus."
"Doesn't that have a cast of all teenage girl wrestlers?" Miko asked curiously.
Otto looked back and forth. "Yeah… So? I happen to like it! I especially like the Stunner character. I… think she's cool." Otto blushed a bit at that.
"Wait a minute. Do you have a gamer crush on Stunner?!" Tim asked in surprise and mirth.
"Wha… Well, I… That's not important!" Otto shouted, his face completely red.
"Ooo! Juicy!~" Miko sang.
"Do you want to yack more or stop the mad luchador out for blood?!" Otto shouted.
"He's right, guys." Five said. He then turned to Otto. "How do we stop him?"
"Well, teleporting game characters can't blink out if they're grabbed by someone who CAN'T teleport, so that's one thing," Otto said, pushing up his glasses. "Plus, remember that he's a game character. He has to abide by the rules of his birth game. Meaning, he just has to be beaten in a match."
"Easy for you to say! You haven't been on the receiving end of him! The guy's strong as an ox!" Tim cried. "Plus, he's obviously still too strong to not be able to teleport."
A thought then entered Miko's head. "Hold on, boys. I think we've been looking at this all wrong. We just need to give him the right opponent!"
"Let's give him a grudge match." Five said.
"You two do that." Tim said. "I'll make sure glitter-head stays put."
"What? But Tim, he'll clobber you!" Miko said worryingly.
"Don't worry. I don't have to beat him. I just need to stick around long enough to distract him for you guys," Tim said. He then looked a little unsure. "Just… be sure to hurry back, 'kay?"
Five and Miko nodded before turning and walking away. As they did, Tim looked back at the ring El Dorado waited in.
"Hold on, Burns." Otto said. He held out a small band, slapped it onto Tim's wrist and pressed the screen on it. Instantly, he was covered in his Web Tech gear.
"Whoa!" Tim said admiring the look. "So this is what it feels like. Nice!"
"I was planning on taking it to the lab and adding a few upgrades before all this occurred. Be grateful I still had it on me." Otto stated.
"Am I ever!" Tim stated, punching his fist in his palm. "You know, I've always wanted to be a wrestler. Might as well take my chance now!" He then leapt into the ring and struck a pose.
"Do you come for the main event." El Dorado stated.
"Oh, I'll give you a main event, all right!" Tim said ready to fight as he cried, "LUUUUCHAAARRRÁÁÁNNN!"
Otto facepalmed. "Okay. It's official. We're all going to die."
Five and Miko returned to the simulator room where they immediately looked over the same game El Dorado came from. They quickly pulled up the character select screen and looked over.
"We just need to select his rival." Five said.
"And Tim said that his arch rival is the game's protagonist, El Muerto." Miko said. "And look, he has a Glitch logo too."
"Then let's bring him out for his match." Five said as he selected the character they sought for.
The screen glitched and El Muerto jumped out of the screen with a serious look on his face. He was a large, muscular man with a gray outfit, black gloves and books, and a black-and-white wrestling mask with a white skull on his forehead.
"Uh, El Muerto?" Miko greeted nervously. "You, uh… You on our side, buddy?"
"We kinda need your help." Five said. "See, El Dorado is on the loose and…"
"El Dorado?" El Muerto asked suddenly. "That man has been an enemy of my family for years." He clenched his fist. "It is time we settled this."
"Cool." Miko said. "Follow us, and we'll take you to him. And let's hurry. Our friend's fighting him right now, and I don't know how much longer he's got."
Tim was knocked across the ring and landed on the ropes, leaning on them. He took heavy breaths while looking up at El Dorado, who towered over him.
"You finished, little one?"
"Just getting started!" Tim shouted. He balled up his fist and swung it right at El Dorado's face. His fist made impact and shot itself right across his cheek. However, El Dorado didn't look very phased. Not only that, but Tim's hand really stung. "YEOWCH! You know, maybe Five was right. Punching's a LOT harder than it looks on TV and in games."
El Dorado then ran at Tim who yelped, but then concentrated as his green spider legs grew out of his back. They then swung out and smacked El Dorado into the ropes.
"So the little spider has tricks up his sleeve, eh?" El Dorado sneered. "I will enjoy plucking those legs one by one!"
He raced forward and Tim used his danger sense to avoid him while swinging his legs at the evil wrestler. He managed to get a couple hits in, but like before, Tim began to get tired from using the legs too long. Soon, they vanished as he began to falter.
El Dorado grabbed Tim by his shirt and raised him up over his head. "Your time has come, arãna. Say adios."
"El Dorado!" The golden-masked man turned his head and saw El Muerte enter the ring. "Leave the niño alone! Your fight is with ME!"
El Dorado laughed as Tim escaped his grip and landed behind him. "Well, well, well. The perrito has come to make his stand."
"This… ends… here!" El Muerto declared as she ran right after his rival.
DING-DING! That was the sound of the bell right before the two luchadores clashed in the ring.
Tim looked up into the sound curiously. "Where did that bell sound come from?"
As the luchadores wrestled, Tim quickly saw how fast things were gonna go and raced out of the ring where he was met up with Five and Miko.
"Tim!" Miko cried happily hugging him.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow. Kinda tender." Tim groaned.
"Oops. Sorry," Miko apologized, letting go before finally getting a good look at him. "Oh wow! That's the suit Otto made!" She looked him up, down and all around. "Ooo! Aaah! Ooo! Me likey!"
"Thank you." Otto said smugly as he came over.
"I was talking about how he looks in it." Miko stated making Otto pout and mutter under his breath and Tim to blush a little bit.
"You do look awesome, but are you okay, buddy?" Five asked.
"I'll live." Tim answered. "So you guys picked El Muerto, huh? Smart choice."
"Let's hope it pays off." Miko said as they turned to watch the wrestling match.
Inside the ring, the two wrestlers were evenly matched trading a great assortment of heavy blows and aerial moves all around the ring. It was touch and go for a while, especially with some dirty moves the evil luchador pulled and his teleporting ability.
Thankfully, El Muerto managed to stand against his rival with all his willpower and continue the match. The group cheering for him also seemed to encourage him. Soon, it became El Muerto who had the upper hand in the fight, using his speed and momentum to smack El Dorado around and lower his HP enough to keep him from teleporting from grabs. All the while, something was building up. The kids looked up and saw a power meter hanging over the ring which was building up with each blow El Muerto dealt. Once it was filled, El Muerto was ready to finish things up.
El Muerto managed to hang El Dorado upside down and jump as high as he could, almost to the ceiling. Once he was high enough, he spun El Dorado around as they descended until they landed back down the ring. The impact caused a shockwave that affected the entire room.
"Ooh! The spinning piledriver." Tim commented. "That oughta finish him."
The sound of a crowd (along with the quartet of Techs) cheering filled the room as El Muerto laid on top of El Dorado and a disembodied voice cried out to count the pin.
"Uno… Dos… Tres! The winner is… El Muertooooo!"
El Muerto stood triumphantly as he held his defeated enemy and unlaced his mask. As he pulled it off, however, everything created by the two of them disappeared, including the wrestlers themselves, the ring, and even the cages that imprisoned Phil, Barbara, and BITT. Everyone and everything was restored and the kids stood to cheer in celebration.
"Now, THAT was a tutorial!" Miko cried out.
The three of them then heard a glitching sound coming from their feet. They noticed a golden spark flickering wildly at them as they looked down to investigate.
"So… is that El Dorado?"
"When a Glitch's energy signature is depleted, it reverts back to its root form." BITT informed.
"Which makes it easier to do this." Otto said equipping a gauntlet on himself, which he then used to pull in and absorb El Dorado. "I'll be sure to return this little dunce back to the server with the other corrupt files where he belongs."
"That's what all those games were? Glitched game files?" Five asked.
"Seems a bit dangerous to just leave them all there." Tim said. "I mean, we just kinda proved that."
"Oh, it's nothing to worry about." Barbara said as she straightened up. "Once a year, we send all those files to the Oscorp main servers where they can be properly taken care of."
Phil approached his old coworker, anxious about the final result. "Barbara, I'm not sure what to say here, but if there is anything I can do to keep you from shutting us down…"
"Don't think anything of it, Phil," Barbara said as she moved towards the group of kids. "Ugh, yeah, we've had complaints about that outdated tutorial for years. But your on-the-job training method proves three cadets can defeat a mid-level Glitch with nothing but their own wits!"
"An egg salad sandwich was also instrumental at one point." Miko pointed out.
"My… on-the-job training method?" Phil asked before getting nudged by Otto. "I mean, sure! Yeah. That."
"And Mr. Burns, I could not BELIEVE what I saw with your abilities when you battled that Glitch! That was absolutely incredible!" Barb cheered. "I have never seen ANYTHING like that before!"
"Yep, Tim's one of a kind." Five praised putting an arm around his best friend.
"And we wouldn't have it any other way!" Miko declared giving Tim another hug, which made him chuckle and blush at both that and the praise he was getting.
"As for the inspection of your branch…" Barbara pulled out her tablet and tapped on the checkbox next to the word "PASS". "Everything seems to be in order."
Phil let out a sigh of relief. "Wow, Barbara, I really owe you one."
"And I won't forget it." Barbara said lowly before marching away in style. "Oh, yeah! You just got inspected by Inspector Number Seven! Peace!"
Phil waved Barbara goodbye until she was gone. Once she was, he turned to the kids angrily.
"Do you three know how lucky we all are that she didn't shut this whole branch down?"
"We're never gonna become Glitch Techs, are we?" Five asked shamefully.
"Oh, you're GONNA be Glitch Techs, all right." Phil said, causing everyone to cheer. "AFTER you finish that tutorial." Five was excited some more, but Miko and Tim were still dismayed as Miko blew a long raspberry and Tim let out a loud groan. "Oh, and Tim? Give Otto back the suit if you would." Tim moaned even louder at that, but deactivated the Web Tech suit and handed the band back to a smirking Otto.
"Good luck, dunces." Otto chuckled as they left.
"Okay. Let's get this nightmare over with." Tim sighed as he trudged back to the simulator with Five pushing along a still razzing Miko.
Eight hours later, Miko groaned loudly as she and the boys sat in Phil's office. "Ugh! This was probably one of the WORST days of my freakin' life! But at least it's all finally over."
"Glad you three managed to make it through without breaking the system again or releasing any more Glitches." Phil said as he came in and sat down.
"Yeah, that was our bad." Five said nervously.
"Hey, we all make mistakes," Phil shrugged. "Shoulda seen some of the ones I made in training. But right now, we got bigger issues at hand. For instance, now that you passed the tutorial, you have enough security clearance to know that Hinobi and maybe Oscorp itself is facing a potential crisis."
Tim shared a look of concern with his friends. "A crisis?"
"Yeah. You remember the Hinobi Smash Tournament?" Phil asked. Everyone stared at him silently. "Okay, stupid question. Well, anyway, during the event, we detected someone hacking the Hinobi data network."
"Someone actually hacked Hinobi?" Five asked in surprise. "Who?"
"We don't know, nor do we know what they did while they were poking around in our servers." Phil explained. "And because of the Glitch attack during the event, we couldn't stop them. We did a full sweep of the building after the tournament, but we didn't find much. We did, however, find this."
Phil reached under his desk and pulled something out. It was a gray laptop. The same one Felicia, the Black Cat, had used. He laid it out for the three to see.
"A laptop?" Miko asked.
"We found it in the trash can in the girl's bathroom just beside the lobby, but everything's been wiped clean." Phil said. "Whoever did this was trying to cover their tracks. After throwing the laptop away, they must have returned to the crowd."
"Well, THAT narrows it down to about half of the city." Tim said sarcastically. "But still, if they were there when the Glitch attacked, doesn't that mean they were memory-wiped like everyone else?"
"We CANNOT take that risk. Not without knowing what it is they were after." Phil declared. "So along with fighting Glitches, it's also a high priority for us to find this hacker, and stop them before they do any more harm to our company. And ESPECIALLY to Oscorp."
"So while we're hunting Glitches, we'll also be hunting the hacker." Miko summarized. "No problem-o, Phil."
"Good. Now, clock back in tomorrow so we can fully equip you." Phil said. "Until then, you're done for the day. Go on home and get some rest." He grinned a small smile. "I gotta say, you earned it."
"Sure. See you tomorrow, Phil," Five said. He and the others headed out the doorway, but before they could fully leave, Tim stopped to look back and stare at the laptop. "Qué pasa? Is something wrong, Tim?"
"No. At least, I don't think so," Tim answered, scratching his head with a confused look. "I'm starting to think I've seen that laptop somewhere before." He eyed a small area that looked like it had once had a sticker on it. "I just don't know where."
Later on that night, just outside of the closed Hinobi store, Barbara sat in her car, making a video call to Norman Osborn, who's stern-looking face appeared on her dashboard screen. She looked over her tablet, which had data for Tim, Miko, and Five.
"Well, the place is still a dump, Mr. Osborn," Barbara said, "But the subjects continue to show remarkable potential. Their friend, too, even though he can still be affected by the memory wipe."
"But the other two, they're immune?" Osborn asked.
"That's what Phil keeps saying, sir. And Phil's a lunkhead for sure, but not a liar," Barbara said. "With the right training, they could be an asset to the company. Particularly the Burns boy. His abilities are unlike anything I've ever seen before!"
"Good." Osborn said. "This could hold the answers I'm looking for. Continue to keep me posted and keep a close eye on these Techs, especially the Web Tech." He smirked sinisterly. "This could be the key to finally completing Project: Goblin Nation."