Killcode woke up to the sound of alarm bells in her head, as she usually did.
Guess it's 5 AM...
Sitting up, she looked around expecting to see Diagnostic in some absurd sleeping position as she usually did, before her reality sunk in.
Oh yeah...fuck.
Killcode dusted herself off and slowly stood up, her bo staff still serving as a crutch. She opened her door and walked down the hallway, sifting through her messages.
"Let’s see...'Tips and Tricks for Hatchling Care'? 'How to Prepare Cooked Cavern Wall'? The hell are these?" Then she noticed the message from yesterday. "Antivirus...? Who the heck is that?" Killcode opened the message to inspect it for any malware. She didn't find any so she decided to read the message.
Antivirus: Who are you? Haven't ever seen someone appear in my Network before.
Killcode decided to humor them.
Killcode: My name's Killcode. Who are you?
Antivirus: ...How do I know you're not one of those THINGS trying to trick me?
Killcode rolled her eyes. She'd reached the central room with the door they'd entered through last night and was sitting in a chair.
Killcode: I could say the same for you.
Killcode had a funny picture of whoever this was rolling their eyes on the other side. She pulled up another User Interface to her side and was currently trying to find the location of who she was speaking with.
Antivirus: Very funny. Well if you must know, I'm the Forgotten's Medic.
Killcode tilted her head. Medic? Where was this "Medic" when she was clearly injured with the others last night?
Then WF walked into the room holding a bowl of cereal, his eye glowing green. When he spoke it was with a British accent, so this must be Edward. "Oh. I didn't expect you to be awake so soon, Killcode."
Killcode shrugged. "I'm used to getting up this early to train."
Edward raised an eyebrow. "Train for what?"
Killcode shrugged. "Whatever I felt like. Mostly combat training."
Edward nodded and took a bite of his cereal. "Well, could I get you something to eat? Surely you must be starving after your ordeal last night."
Killcode shrugged him off. "Nah, it wasn't that bad. Not the first time I've nearly been eaten. Hopefully won't be the last." Killcode smirked. As terrified as she'd been, God what an adrenaline rush it had been. Only her brother knew she was an adrenaline junkie, which just served to give him more concern.
Edward gave her an odd look, but didn't question any further. "Well, uh, if I can get you anything just let me know. Will should be awake in an hour or two."
Killcode nodded and went back to their messaging, still trying to pinpoint their location.
Killcode: Funny, I could have used a medic last night XD
Antivirus: Oh dear, I'm so sorry. I was preoccupied with another patient elsewhere.
Killcode: Eh, it's fine. Been hurt worse.
Antivirus: Where are you right now?
Killcode: Some Police Station.
Antivirus: Oh, HQ? I'll actually be there later today if you want me to take a look at you.
Killcode's User Interface beeped so she looked over at it.
Error. Location Encrypted.
She rolled her eyes and deleted the User Interface, going back to her messages.
Killcode: Sure, I guess.
Antivirus: Perfect. I'll see you later today.
And with that the line went silent. Killcode decided she wanted a better look at where she was, so she began looking for a way to the roof. Eventually she found it...in the form of a ladder. She scowled and looked at her leg.
After judging it was good enough to climb the ladder, she slowly begun her ascent. It was...way more painful than she thought it'd be. After a long while of climbing, she finally made it to the roof and sat down, looking around.
She was in a ruined city, just as she thought, but now she was able to look at everything in more detail. The buildings were way less broken down than she thought, but then she realized these people must be rebuilding the city after watching a few figures in the distance doing just that.
The next thing she noticed was while many of the buildings and streets were lit up with torches, there was an area way further out that had no torches at all. Well, actually, Killcode could've sworn she saw some torchlight in the distance, but it was probably just her imagination. Then she noticed all the moving, unnatural white lights in that area.
Must be crawling with those things.
Then she turned around and nearly screamed.
There, in the distance, was a massive creature. Easily almost thirty feet high. It was staring right at the city off in the distance, but she felt like it was watching her specifically. It had a massive face in its chest with the mouth glowing a sinister white, and a glowing white eye where it's "head" was. It was hard to see, but the creature was seemingly made of some kind of goop that constantly dripped off of its body into a pool at its feet.
Killcode quickly got back on her feet (much to her leg's frustration) and limped back to the ladder, climbing back down and going to find Edward.
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"We call it the Watcher."
Will Fox sat in the chair behind the reception desk across from Killcode, who had sought him out after seeing the creature. She had frantically explained what she saw when she was on the roof and Edward had to wake up Will to explain.
Killcode crossed her arms, obviously trying to hide how shaken she was. "The what now?"
Will Fox pulled out a book from a filing cabinet drawer and opened it. He begun turning the pages, allowing Killcode to see various sketches of odd creatures on the pages. He soon stopped on a page with a picture of the creature standing in the exact same position, with some text in the corner of the picture.
"It just appeared one day. All it ever does is sit there and watch, so we call it the Watcher."
Killlcode seemed apprehensive about the creature. "So...it's never moved? Not once?"
Will shrugged. "No idea. We always hear weird sounds at night but it's much too dark to see it move. We tried setting up recording equipment, but it always gets destroyed by the Faded." He sighed. "Trust me, it's not worth worrying about. If it hasn't made a move by now, I doubt it will any time soon."
Killcode seemed skeptical, but didn't press any further. So instead she focused on the book. "What exactly is this book?"
Will looked down at it and closed it, showing her the cover. "A bestiary. Everytime a new creature is found, we either add its picture in if we can or sketch it as accurately as possible." He handed her the book. "Here. For you to study and familiarize yourself with everything down here."
Killcode grabbed it with her free hand and inspected it, taking a note to look at it later. "So, uh, what now?"
The door to the Police Station opened behind her. Will looked past her and smiled. "Antivirus, welcome back."
Killcode recognized the name from her messages earlier so turned to look to put a face to the name, only to get her second surprise for the day.
Antivirus looked like a red version of herself and her brother with a few key differences. While Killcode and Diagnostic looked pretty plain (for the most part), Antivirus had a few things that made him stand out. For one thing, he had a big white medic symbol plastered in his shirt, and a jacket tied around his waist. He had some kind of scanner over his right eye and held an odd staff with wings attached to it.
Upon seeing Killcode he seemed slightly excited, but then it died down almost instantly when seeing her bo-staff being used as a crutch. "While I admire the usage of your weapon as a makeshift crutch, I really would have thought someone might have gotten you a proper crutch by now." He walked past Killcode into the hallway, gesturing for her to follow.
"You know nobody touches your office, Antivirus!" Will called after him.
Killcode followed after him, eventually being lead to a small office with "Medbay" floating in front of the door in glowing red text. Antivirus opened the door and ushered her in, walking to a closed cabinet.
"You're lucky our kind are easy to fix." He pulled out a pair of crutches and some glitching fluid from a box in the cabinet, handing them to her. "Drink this and try your best not to use your leg too much for the next few hours. Should heal up easily enough." He closed the cabinet while Killcode stare at the fluid, setting it aside rather than drinking it.
"What do you mean 'our kind'? I thought my brother and I were the only ones like us?"
Killcode noticed him tense. "You...have a brother?"
"Yeah. We're twins. He handles the data while I do the combat."
Antivirus turned to face her, pulling up a User Interface and scanning her. "Twins, of course...that's how he finally managed it." He was typing something Killcode couldn't see. Odd. She could always see her brother's Interfaces, so why not this guy's?
"Uh, what?" Killcode was very confused.
Antivirus seemed to close his User Interface before looking back at her. "You two are hardly the only ones of our kind. More like you're his first successes." He gestured at himself. "While I am one of his many, many failures." He opened his cabinet and pulled out a book labeled Siblings, blowing dust off of it. He opened it to reveal several pictures of different versions of themselves of various colors. The only thing they all seemed to have in common was their Code Crystal's and a giant 'X' over each picture. Only one of them didn't have an 'X', and that was Antivirus himself.
"There used to be a lot of us...but they've disappeared." He closed the book and put it back in his cabinet. "We used to live in a cave not far from here, but one day I went on a supply run and they were all gone."
"Where did they go?" Killcode felt a bit of morbid curiosity.
Antivirus shrugged. "No clue. Met Hybrid not too long after and now I'm here."
Killcode raised an eyebrow. "Hybrid? Who's Hybrid?"
Antivirus seemed embarrassed and cleared his throat. "Sorry, I meant Will out there. I prefer calling him Hybrid because it suits him better." He grabbed his staff and looked at the glitching fluid. "You still haven't drank that. Trust me, it's better than it looks."
Killcode looked over at it and hesitantly picked it up. It didn't look harmful, though typically Glitches were considered dangerous. But if Antivirus said it was safe...
Killcode drank the liquid and idly noted how it tasted like battery acid. "Alright. Now what?"
Antivirus jotted something down in another U.I., before walking to the door. "You should be fine in a couple hours. Just don't use your leg and it should be fine." He opened the door and gestured for her to leave. "If you would kindly leave my office, now, I imagine I have a backlog of patients to deal with."
Sure enough, there seemed to be several people outside sitting on the ground, floating in the air, some even hung from the ceiling with various methods. Killcode grabbed her crutches and left, giving Antivirus a smile before walking away, hearing him greet another patient.
"Ahh, 42, how are you?"
------------
In the distance a figure watched the police station from the top of a building. They had a newcomer, eh? Great. More idiots to deal with. The figure's helmet displayed an annoyed emoji before looking curious.
Why did they look like Antivirus? They thought all his little friends were gone. Where did they come from?
They shook their head. Doesn't matter. They didn't associate themselves with them anymore. They turned to look at the Watcher with an emoji of disgust and anger displaying on their helmet. The others haven't seen what they've seen. The others didn't know what it could do.
The figure walked to the edge, and as the Watcher turned its eye to look at them, they let themselves fall.