[IC] - All the World's a Game

[NeoFox]

Base 2 - Australia
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Gate stands up and follows Volgin to a large room. Gate looks up at the large machine and whistles at the sight. "I'm quite impressed. The engineering looks phenomenal. I can already imagine what it's capable of. Though it feels... incomplete to me... like it needs a little extra something..." Said Gate as a grin comes over his face. "The Nightmare would make this machine even more powerful..." He said in a low whisper to himself as he walks up to it. Placing a hand on it, he looks up at the Shagohod. This is a powerful machine, Gate can just tell by looking at it.

[Kristia]

Makai

Evading a ghole worm, Taomon asked "If he were here, he could already tried to attack on our backs, I think he alre- wait.. the maiden!" she flew ignoring the battle and snatching her digivice from John

("Dammit I hope she is safe") the fox thought flying as fast as she could towards Sariel

[WriggleRid3r]

Makai

---

"Wow, we blew them into smithereens." Utsuho marveled at the amount of destruction.
"Perhaps that was a bit of overkill?" Mystia asked.
"No, there's no such thing as overkill." Lunasa disagreed.

"Aya, The Higher Power caused the crater. I'm not sure if he's still here."
"The Higher Power? You mean that God thing that blew up a side of Youkai Mountain?" Aya asked, whirling around.

"Aya, what's going on here?"
"Oh, hey Komachi. Long story, ask John." Aya answered.

[S121]

Makai

"Oh, hey Komachi. Long story, ask John." Aya answered.

John began on que, telling Komachi what happened.

"You see, Aya and I came to Makai to get a Sardis Crystal for the bridge, so we came to the Fallen Shrine.", John said as he pointed to the crater.

"That is what's left of the shrine, but I'll get to that in a moment. After getting the crystal, we found out that Sariel wanted to punish Hank for constantly coming back to life. The Higher Power must have known of this, so he attacked Sariel, causing a large shockwave. I recognized the shockwave from the one on Youkai Mountain, so I told Aya to get Yukari, Utsuho, and anyone else she could bring.

I then came to the shrine and found it in ruins, with Sariel heavily injured. The Higher Power set the whole shrine up as a trap, most likely with Sariel as the bait. I grabbed Sariel and flew away before the whole place exploded, causing the crater you now see. As it turns out, The Higher Power ran before we could do anything.", John finally finished.

John then looked to all of the others.

"There's nothing more that can be done here. Let's go give the crystal to Yuuka.", John said.

[Kristia]

Makai

Healing Sariel, Taomon was glad that the maiden was going to be ok "Phew.. that was close" she said and looked at the others

"Sariel will be fine, she just needs some rest and peace" the fox-miko explained

Now that the worryness was gone, the fox centered on her crucial task, revive her friends

[WriggleRid3r]

Makai

---

"I already gave the crystals to her. Notice how you don't have that beige bag anymore?" Aya snickered, amused at how slow John was in finding things out. "We can just go to the third material now."
"We'll be leaving now." Alice told Aya as the rest of the group exited through the Makai portal.
"Okay, see you all soon!" Aya waved her hands. The others didn't seem like they would want to see Aya too often...

[S121]

Makai

"I already gave the crystals to her. Notice how you don't have that beige bag anymore?" Aya snickered, amused at how slow John was in finding things out. "We can just go to the third material now."

"It's not my fault. I was preoccupied with the Higher Power.", John said.

Just then, the girl with dolls around her spoke to Aya.

"We'll be leaving now.", the girl said as the rest of the group followed her.

"Okay, see you all soon!" Aya waved her hands. The others didn't seem like they would want to see Aya too often.

John picked up on it and asked Aya about it.

"Why were they acting kind of cold?"

[Kristia]

Makai

Back to her original form, Renamon asked "Allright, where are we heading now?"

[WriggleRid3r]

Entrance to Makai

---

"Cold? What do you mean?" Aya overreacted, trying to hide the fact that she knew why they were so cold to her... Or rather feel sympathy to her. "Everyone in Gensokyo loves me!"
"Let's look at the list..." Aya quickly changed the subject. "What! First Makai, now Hakugyokurou? What kind of nightmarish trip is this?"

[S121]

Entrance to Makai

"Cold? What do you mean? Everyone in Gensokyo loves me!", Aya said.

John was not fooled by Aya's statement. He was concerned, but he knew that she wouldn't tell him the truth in public.

(Perhaps I'll ask her later. I'm sure that she wouldn't want anyone else to know...)

"Let's look at the list..." Aya quickly changed the subject. "What! First Makai, now Hakugyokurou? What kind of nightmarish trip is this?"

"That's not so bad, I've actually been there before.", John said.

[WriggleRid3r]

(Last post)
Entrance to Makai

---

"I know. It is relatively easy to access the Netherworld than it is perceived." Aya said. "The problem is that I have beef with the gardener there, who claims that she is the fastest in Gensokyo. Ha, comedy!"

[Katrix]

The bridge people no longer cross

A faint clang could be heard against some stone. For any other person it would be just another sound, but for a reploid it was obvious what it was.
The parts of another reploid. These were colored red. The trail led into the city.

[NeoFox]

The Bridge People No Longer Cross
_____________________________

X opens his eyes at the sound of a small clang. He looks around for the source of the noise, only to find a small red piece of metal laying on the ground in the distance. X slowly walks up to the piece and kneels down, picking it up his eyes widen in shock. This part looks similar to that of Zero's, but how? Zero was and is supposed to be sealed away. There is absolutely no way that it could be Zero's. X sees the trail of parts and begins following them into the city.

[Katrix]

The bridge people no longer cross

As X continues following the trail he ends up at Zero's weapon. The Z-Saber.
Suddenly a man in a coat walks up to X and points a Keyblade at his head.
"Nighty, Night". The person disappears and X falls over.

Inside X's head

Images of Zero pop up as he is destroyed.Played over again and again.
Then Xemnas and Young Xehanort walks in and everything goes black.
Young Xehanort speaks first. "Why? That's what we do. Put the most precious memories in the back of our mind were they're safe.
Or in your case, the most precious... data"
Then Xemnas continues. "The memory and heart are tightly linked. Rub a few memories together, and you get a spark of emotion, a feeling.
But in the digital world, memory does not work like that.
Nothing is ever felt. You can hold a thousand, a million times the information, but there is still no heart which to parse it.
This is a digital world. Here data can be copied. Memory can be changed and easily manipulated. Zero and you are digital entity's, so why would you be any different."
The dream of Dr.Light is shown, but it's more distorted and when Xemnas mentions copy X is copied all over the room. When he mentions manipulated, all the X's change into some other reploid.
"The one in the center change into the original Megaman.
You obey the rules of this world. What about you X? Your data. The bits and bytes that have made up your life so far. Can you say for certain they are just not copies of someone else's?"

[NeoFox]

The Bridge People No Longer Cross
___________________________________

X had finally reached the end of the trail, it ended with the Z-Saber. X quickly tosses the part in his hands to the ground and picks up the Z-Saber from the ground. "This... is the Z-Saber... if this is here... then..." He said as he looks up, only for a man in a coat to be standing right in front of him, a weapon of sorts pointed at X's head. Before X could even react his body locked up completely.



__________________
Inside X's head
__________________

Suddenly the same image of a destroyed Zero keeps playing over and over like it's on some sort of loop.
X watches on as two men appear, everything had gone black.

"W-Who are you?..." Said X.

"Why? That's what we do. Put the most precious memories in the back of our mind were they're safe.
Or in your case, the most precious... data" Said the man known as Xenmas.

"What are you talking about?" Said X as he tries to activate his X-Buster, but for some reason it just won't activate...

"The memory and heart are tightly linked. Rub a few memories together, and you get a spark of emotion, a feeling.
But in the digital world, memory does not work like that.
Nothing is ever felt. You can hold a thousand, a million times the information, but there is still no heart which to parse it.
This is a digital world. Here data can be copied. Memory can be changed and easily manipulated. Zero and you are digital entity's, so why would you be any different."


"SHUT UP!!!" He yelled as he tries to cover his ears to cancel out their voices. Suddenly the dream of Dr. Light appears, but for some reason it's heavily distorted. Many copies of X start appearing around him.

Slowly they all start changing into some other robot. The robot in the very center of the room looked like X, but vastly different. It looked older, dated, more childish.

"The one in the center change into the original Megaman.
You obey the rules of this world. What about you X? Your data. The bits and bytes that have made up your life so far. Can you say for certain they are just not copies of someone else's?"

X doesn't even respond, he simply falls to his knees. What these people were saying... they have a point... for all he knows he could have been a copy of a previous robot, and nothing more. Tears begin filling X's eyes as he begins thinking of what could be the truth...