"HOLYYYY CRAAAPPPP!"Richard yelled as the holographic shuttle zipped down the tunnel. It didn't look like the old wire tunnels in the arcade. This one still had cords, but they were an array of different colors.
"THIS IS A FREAKING ROLLER COASTER!" Richard screamed as the shuttle plummeted, jerked, and twisted through wild turns. "Oh god, I think I'm gonna be sick... I'm gonna die... I'm... I'm gonna dead..."
'Entering Optical Terminal'
Richard blinked and looked around. "Optical wha-," Before he could finish, the shuttle took a sudden dive.
'Changing to Fiber Optic Speeds'
"AHHHHHH!" Richard shrieked as the speed increased. "Oh my god! THIS IS HORRIBLE!" Richard wasn't a fan of roller coasters.
The shuttle's exterior warped as bright, glitchy colors flashed like they were diving into hyperspace, straight out of a sci-fi flick.
And then—everything stopped.
Richard squeezed his eyes shut, then opened one eye slowly... then both. His mouth dropped open as he clung to the handrail. "What the…" A massive city stretched before him, a digital skyline straight out of a cyberpunk dream. Towering buildings lit up the scene in every direction.
Richard blinked again, as he saw 'YouTube' on one building. Then 'DeviantArt' on another. Others were everywhere, such as Twitter, which was constantly glitching to the letter X, and to a bird.
"HOLY SHIT!" Richard was at a loss for words. He had no idea what to say.
The shuttle then froze in mid-air.
"Uh… why are we-," Richard started, but before he could finish, it started to plummet.
"OKAY, WE'RE FALLING!" Richard screamed, grabbing the rail tight.
The shuttle slowed, then darkness enveloped him.
Richard opened his eyes slowly, cautiously letting go of the railing.
'Welcome to . Enjoy your stay.'
The shuttle dematerialized, and Richard crashed to the ground face-first. "OOF!"
He quickly stood back, up, and brushed himself off.
Screens were all over, surrounding a path.
'Click here to see the history of my arcade!'
'Click here to see the history of each arcade cabinet I have!'
'Click here to play some classic arcade games online!'
Richard shook his head in disbelief. "What… the… world?" He blinked, still processing. He noticed a pad beneath him and looked up to see a gate. The sign was on the other side, so he had to step out to read it.
Richard approached the gate, opened it, and stepped out. He read the sign.
'Keep the gate closed. Don't let the Surfers end up in there. Not sure what would happen, but let's not find out – Surge Protector'
Richard closed the gate behind him and walked away. "Is this… a building? How do I get out—," Then he heard a buzzing sound.
'Tracker Activated. Located second pad.'
Richard gasped, digging the tracker out of his pocket. Sure enough, it was working. The arrow pointed right at the pad behind him. "Huh..." He smiled slightly and put it back in his pocket. "Guess I can explore?"
He found himself walking out of the building he was in, and into the open air.
Richard whistled as he saw the giant city. "Well, can't say I never been to a urban city before..." He said shaking his head, "This is more cyberpunk then Cyberpunk 2077..." He didn't know where to go first. He assumed the buildings were all websites. All the big sites, like YouTube and such, had giant buildings. He could see Amazon in the distance, that more or less had the biggest building he could see.
Turning around, he spotted a building labeled "Archive Of Our Own," not too far from where he stood.
Richard blinked. "My life at the moment feels like a fanfiction to be honest..." he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Falling into another world… meeting three of my fictional crushes?! Other fictosexuals would kill me for this moment..." He turned around and saw another building.
'KnowsMore'
"Hmmm… isn't that that search engine no one uses?" He spotted a figure walking by and noticed people everywhere. "Wait... hold on. Who are these people?"
There was small people, with boxed shaped heads. "Why they all look like Minecraft infused with Roblox?" He leaned to one, "Hello?" But they just walked past him like they didn't see him. "Hmm..."
He turned back toward the KnowsMore building and walked toward it.
As he walked near the building, he saw the mascot for the serch engine. "Wait... isn't that...?" Although no one really uses this search engine to Richard's knowledge, he had used it on a few occasions. And he remembered this guy.
He walked up to the mascot.
"Uh... hello?" Richard called out.
"Ah!" KnowsMore chimed, "Well, hello there! Where would you like to go today?"
"Well—"
"Wells Fargo! Wells Fargo near me! Wells Fargo Customer Service!" KnowsMore shouted, interrupting him.
Richard blinked. "...What?" He squinted.
"Wattsapp! What time is it! What time is it in England! What is my IP!" KnowsMore blurted.
Richard stood there with his mouth hanging open. "S-Sorry?" he stammered.
"Sorry song! Sorry movie! Sorry game! Sorry Meaning," Knowsmore continued, completely unfazed.
Richard stood frozen, realizing what was going on. "Oh my god… this is autofill, isn't it?"
Knowsmore coughed and nodded. "Sorry, it's been a little wonky today."
Richard blinked. So, he could just ask for any site and be sent there?
Looking around at the massive buildings, Richard considered heading to YouTube. Seeing his videos there might be interesting.
"Hmmm…"
"Hmmm lyrics! Hmmm meaning! Hmmm emoji!"
Richard shook his head, 'Well it's impossible to have a conversation with this guy...' Richard thought to himself. He was still decided on what to say finally, but then something appeared in his head. He gasped at the thought. He blinked and slowly looked up at KnowsMore.
"Kid Powers…" Richard murmured.
"One search, coming right up!" Knowsmore said with a smile, and his body started vibrating.
Richard blinked. "Uhhh... are you good?"
Knowsmore stopped vibrating. "Huh… only one website. But it's… a DNS error. Says it needs admin."
Richard raised an eyebrow. "Admin?"
KnowsMore nodded.
"Can I still go there?" Richard asked.
"You can, but you won't be able to enter the building," Knowsmore explained.
"That's fine, still take me there," Richard said with a determined nod.
KnowsMore nodded.
Richard saw him press something.
"What's that-," Richard got cut off by something slamming on his ass. "OW!" Then a holographic carriage materialized around him. Then it instantly zipped to the side. "Okaayyy then!"
Then it zipped forward. "WOAH, SHIT! NOT AGAIN!"
As Richard regained his bearings, he noticed other shuttles zipping by, filled with people.
That's when it hit him. "These are people, aren't they..." He shook his head, realizing he was on some sort of highway—except it was full of users on the internet. "Real people… using the internet…" He rubbed his face. "These last three days have been one hell of a trip…"
"Low bandwidth… going slow at 456 Kbps," a voice said from his shuttle.
"Huh?" Richard blinked, noticing he was moving slower than the other shuttles. "Really? Ugh, just how slow is your internet, Grandpa…?"
It took a bit, but Richard finally reached his destination. Or, well… at least he thought he did. The shuttle slid smoothly onto a platform made specifically for it. He docked, and the sliding door opened. Richard quickly got out of the seat and stepped out.
"Huh... well, this one didn't vanish like the others," he muttered, eyeing the building in front of him. It looked… different from the others.
The other buildings were pristine, modern, well-kept. This one, however, had the vibe of something that belonged in a back alley somewhere. "This is it?" Richard said, his face scrunching in disbelief.
Richard just wanted information about Kid Powers, and according to KnowsMore, there was only one result. "Ugh, maybe the search engine is crap, and I could find more information on Bing or Google..."
He glanced up at the horizon and spotted Google—an absolutely massive building. But with how it was positioned, he wasn't sure how to get to it. Plus, he didn't want to wander too far off; he was still pretty new here. Getting lost didn't sound fun.
"I'll just work with what I've got. Let's see what this place has," Richard muttered, shrugging it off and walking up to the door.
The door was shut. Assuming it was locked, he placed his hand on it, only to be surprised when it pushed open without resistance.
"Huh...?"
He peered inside. It was pitch dark, except for a pole in the middle of the room with a flashing red light.
Richard blinked at the ominous sight. "Okay, this had bad written all over it..."
But curiosity had the upper hand. This was supposedly where he could find information about Kid Powers. The arcade machine he kept dreaming about. The one linked to that legend Rancis had mentioned. He had to look a little further.
Richard took a deep breath, and walked over to the pole.
The red light flickered every few seconds. As he got closer, he noticed a screen on it. There was a button, and the screen said, "Error – needs Admin."
Richard tilted his head, confused. "Admin? Who would that even be?" He looked around. "The person who opened this site?" He glanced back at the button. "That admin is probably long gone..."
But before he could talk himself out of it, he pressed the button.
Admin Verified
Richard's eyes widened. "H-huh?!"
The red button flashed green.
Welcome back, Kid Powers.
Richard stood frozen, still trying to process what was happening.
The button disappeared and was replaced by the arcade cabinet... Kid Powers.
It was turned off. It wasn't running. But there was a beeping sound coming from the machine. Richard noticed it was coming from the machine's backside.
Curious, Richard walked around the machine, and to his surprise, found a door at the back. It was wide open, revealing the inner workings of the machine. And there, sitting perfectly in place… was a chair.
An actual chair.
"The heck?" Richard was tempted to sit in it but shook his head. "Nope, not gonna do that."
Instead, he quickly turned and walked out of the building, leaving the arcade behind. But when he looked back, the building was gone. As if it had never existed.
Richard shook his head, "Okay, whatever..." He said blinking repeatedly. He headed back over to the platform to get the shuttle, but then he froze. "Wait, how do I get the shuttle back?" He said, now at a loss.
He pulled out the tracker. "Well... it's tracking?" It was aiming to the left of him, and that was definitely the location he had come from. But the tracker couldn't call or summon the shuttle. "Oh crap what do I do? I can't walk it..."
"Hey mister!"
Richard heard a voice behind him. "Huh?" He turned around.
"Well, I say mister, you look like a kid like me, actually."
Richard gasped, as his eyes widen. "V-...VANELLOPE?!"
The girl gasped a bit, "Woah, hey, has Shank been going around talking about me or something?" She gave him a playful grin.
Richard shook his head. "N-No, I—I'm... from... Litwack's!"
Vanellope's eyes widened. "Seriously?! Whoa, when did Mr. Litwack get another HD game? Thought his last one was Hero's Duty?" She blinked, then burst out laughing.
Richard awkwardly looked off to the side and back at Vanellope as she snorted with laughter.
"Hero's Duty..." Vanellope managed between giggles. "That name always cracks me up..."
"Uhhh..." Richard blinked.
Vanellope cleared her throat. "So what are you doing here? Did Ralph send you to check on me? Tell him I'm fine! Hammer hands doesn't need to worry about little old me." She said waving her hands at Richard.
"W-What? No, I... well, I came here on my own."
Vanellope tilted her head. "You did?" She looked surprised. "I'd assume Surge would have locked down the router from anyone's access after I left,"
"I... guess there's trackers?" Richard pulled out the tracker. "See? I think Surge made 'em."
Vanellope hopped up, and took it from Richard's hands. "Huh," "Huh," she said, landing lightly on her feet. "So does it lead back to the arcade or somethin'?"
Richard nodded, "Yeah, it does,"
Vanellope giggled. "Well, I'm surprised ol' blue bulb gave you guys that much privilege!"
Richard glanced toward the ledge where the shuttle should have docked. "So... uh... how do I get back?"
"You don't know?" Vanellope asked, surprised. "It's easy! Put your hand there!" She pointed to a panel on a pole nearby.
Richard blinked. "What panel?"
Vanellope rolled her eyes. "The panel right there, doy."
Richard spotted it now, attached to a pole by the edge of the platform. "So, just... place my hand on it?"
Vanellope sighed dramatically. "Yes! Surge gave you guys trackers, but didn't teach you how to navigate the internet?"
Richard placed his hands on it. A screen showed up.
He squinted. "History?"
"Uh-huh!" Vanellope nodded enthusiastically. "It remembers where you've been and we're you going to go! Well, not where you're going that was just a joke on my part haha,"
Richard was about to tap on KnowsMore, the only option in the list.
"Just don't press 'Clear All,' or you're basically screwed," Vanellope warned with a smirk.
Richard nodded and tapped the website. Immediately, the shuttle appeared at the platform.
The suddenness of it made Richard scream and hug himself. Then, looking at the shuttle and back at Vanellope, he straightened up.
"Uhh…" Richard said awkwardly.
Vanellope snorted. "I don't think the internet's for you, High Def boy..."
Richard stepped into the shuttle.
Vanellope hopped over to him, "Think you can fit one more?" She asked.
Richard blinked and looked at her, "Huh?"
"I've been wanting to pop by and say hi to everyone again, and maybe I can do that now? Since you're here, and all... I don't have the website to get back, you do, haha."
Richard smiled warmly. "Sure. I'm sure they'd love to see you again."
Vanellope giggled, bouncing up and down, and dashed into the shuttle.
The doors closed, and off they went to KnowsMore's search engine.