Critical Faliure

[The Warden]

Broken stared eye-to-mask with the Beacon, it had little feeling in it. 'Then, if you want out of your torment, do what any irrational person do and kill yourself. It's really quite easy, just take a small pistol and do it. At least then you'll stop bothering us' he said extremelly coldly. Broken was scanning the area for a way out, it seemed these Collective have some control over this area, no suprises there, as they seemed to be running this world. 'You have no right to keep us here, let us out' he ordered.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Itsu finally spoke up. [color=#FF0000]"Can I get down now, please? You've been holding me like this for a while."[/color] Of course, Itsu didn't mind it. In fact, she was starting to like this Spartan guy. Maybe, when she regained her memories and got out, she could find Spartan in real life.

Vicky surveyed the rooftop, which seemed to go on for miles and miles, with the occasional tower. The wind was rather fierce, but she managed to soften the blow using her abilities. [color=#800080]"Alright, people. Let's head for the nearest tower. Come on."[/color] She started to slowly walk against the wind towards a tower that, if the sun was correct, was to the northeast.

Meanwhile, in the Library, the occasional crackle of electricity could be heard, the crackles occasionally getting louder to a random User. It may have been a sign of too much electricity, or it could have meant that the small group among the hordes and hordes of books was not alone...

[GreyCat]

-Surface-

It really was like a city. Low rise buildings surrounding one central tower. One huge central tower. At the edges, the buildings gave way to... desert? Or it could be clouds, or an endless expanse. In any case, the tower was too distracting to focus on that. It glowed slightly. Every few seconds, arcs of electricity lanced along and from it. Sudden rays of light shot from it off into the distance randomly. It was something that could mesmerize you. Unless a sudden explosion distracts you. A faintly luminescent dome was suddenly visible over the entire facility. At one point, a large mass was forcing it's way through that barrier. A small piece breached it, and a swarm of viruses, much weaker than Wraith was, but much more numerous, started falling from the sky.

Their form was far for standard. Flying eyeballs with bat wings, gargoyles, Rick from Rick Roll, several Dominatrixes, a swarm of worm-like creatures and more. Those that could flew, the rest landed as best they could. While the smaller ones scattered into the city, but the rest turned their attention to the avatars. Claws, teeth, fists, whips, guns. They were armed in different ways, but the avatars were data, and most of their primary functions was to erase data. They struck.

-Inside 1-

Grey tucked the cards and book back into his pocket. Grey Cait, The Messenger, Sadistic GM Grey. There was a link between those. These cards, and the faint memories they triggered of sitting around a computer, casting magic, wolves. They both answered one or two questions, as well at brought up hundreds more. But he would think more on it later. He had a feeling things were about to get very... Dicey. No sooner the thought occurred to him than the room groaned. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a book tremble. Oh, DK was going to hate this.

Books flew form the shelves. Literally. A few sprouted wings, others flapped their covers to achieve flight, the rest floated about like Kris' book had once before. One launched themselves at Grey, he swung his hand and it shredded before he even touched it. For a fleeting moment, something like a translucent dark grey clawed demonic looking claw was visible before it was gone. "That's new," Grey blinked. But no time for that now.

One of the books spat out a pack of what had to be werewolves. Another spewed forth zombies. A flying rainbow serpent glided above the selves and, in the distance, what could only be a dragon's roar sounded. They were in for a difficult time it seemed. One of the wolves charged him. Without thought, he motioned grabbing it my the muzzle. The Claw grabbed it. It was clearer this time; dark grey, formed from what seemed like an ever shifting mottled grey substance with a slight mist drifting off it. He remembered. The Faint Claw.

He smiled and the roman numeral for one slowly formed on his forehead. He heaved the wolf off the ground, the claw following the directions of his hand, and gutted it with his other hand. It screamed and burst into lose sheets of paper. His lashed again and ripped a snake in two, this one turning to data. "Oh, this will definitely work," he smirked.

-Inside 2-

"Me keeping you here? You misunderstand Broken," Beacon said with a raised eyebrow. "That implies that the Collective has control over the this Node." He folded his hands behind his back and gave Broken a look that was somewhat disconcertive coming from a nine year old. "We lost control of the facility ever since you and your group destroy those three Points. Several systems have either shut down or entered a passive state. The other beacons based here have made attempts to reassert Influence, due to my incapacitation, I was unable to provide assistance, but their efforts were quite futile. Since then, the Node has taken an issue with our continued presence here. Collective units are being actively sought and removed."

"I... Felt a duty to inform you or the situation," Beacon continued, his disease with his new independence showing once more. "Among the systems down are the anti-viral protections. The Node is currently running on a simple firewall, quite easy to break with brute force." He stepped aside, revealing a terminal, one much larger and more complex than the one they had found before. "You might be able to restore functions from here. For now, this facility is a free domain. You may what to control it and keep it out of viral hands." Beacon started to glow. "Please try to remain alive. The Entity has great interest in you. And the entity has this message for you; not everything is as it seems, nor is everyone what they appear. Tread carefully or you may lose yourself forever." Then, in a flash of white light, he was gone. Outside, there was one more ray of light shooting off into the distance.

One the terminal, a sort of schematic of the Node was displayed. Tower, sublevels and city displayed. While rooms were fairly static and normal looking, tunnels and pathways crisscrossed it in haphazard fashions, especially within the sublevels . Several of them even moved as the three watched. One room about midway up the tower, around the seventieth floor or so, flashed with a 'present location' tag. Better than 'you are here.' Most importantly, it showed that the firewall was breached over the south west sector and viruses had entered the city levels.

[Spartan919]

Spartan gently let Itsu down; she was beginning to grow on him. Maybe he could find her in real life after all this was over...if they lived that long. After setting her down, he too turned to survey the area. There wasn't much: the towers, the arcing electricity, and the desert (clouds?). He looked all around, trying to see if there was anything at all. When he caught the glow in his peripheral vision, he looked up and saw the dome. "What's..." he said, about to ask what that was, when suddenly, these...things started coming out of it. There were hundreds of them! Spartan, by some impulse, took a fighting stance.

Feeling something, he reached into a pocket in the armor, and pulled out the leather book. One of the letters had become legible: an "H." Confused, he put it back in a storage port in the armor, and forgot about it. Taking the stance again, he looked on. Glancing around, he decided on his first target: a particularly large looking gargoyle. It was currently floating slowly down, as if studying them. Spartan decided to take the initiative. "I'll be back," he told Itsu, before pushing off the ground with all his strength.

He launched into the air, and met the gargoyle in mid-leap. He slammed a fist into its jaw, which shattered into stone. He was shocked to see that the jaw quickly regenerated, before the gargoyle slammed its own fist into Spartan's stomach. Even through the armor, it sucked his breath out, and sent him flying backward...Until he slammed into the "floor" of the roof, leaving a small indentation. Standing, he shook his head and dusted himself off. "That hurt," he said, wincing, and tilted his head towards the gargoyle.

[The Warden]

If you could see it, Broken gave the Beacon a very dark look. He shoved passed towards the terminal. He began by studying it; it seemed to be projecting a map of their area, it seemed not only very confusing but also a right old mess. He gingerly tapped in one word into the terminal, 'Messenger'. That was their informant, supposedly. Maybe he could locate said informant to gain further clarification on this world. Or more likely a virus would break in through the terminal, but that's a risk he didn't know he was taking.

[GreyCat]

Grey reached out with his claws again and grabbed the closest object (a struggling zombie) with his new claws and tossed it at the next batch of monsters. They burst into sheets of paper. They weren't so tough. Something grabbed him and bashed him into the nearest bookcase. A cascade of books tumbled down on him. Hardcover books. He growled then roared, and his faint claws swirled into a storm around him, shredding them and whatever summon was near him. So they weren't tough, just a lot. He rubbed a rapidly forming bump on his head. "Damn books, maybe Dk was right about these things."

A sheet shot past him and lodged in the bookcase like a plate of sharp metal. He flicked it and it rang like metal. "Crud." He took cover as a battalion of books rapid fired sheets at him. In a lull, he sprinted over to DK. "Machine-gun books at 6 o'clock. And no, you really take me for the kind of guy that would sacrifice my own tail for someone else?"

~~

Rick looked at Spartan, and started dance. Viruses ran when they saw that. They new something that Spartan didn't. Rick started singing. And the ground started to break apart. Buildings started to crumble. When rick rolled, he rolled. The roof Spartan was standing on started to shake as well. Apparently, that place didn't like Rick much. It gave in suddenly, imploding, upon itself obviously, but leaving Spartan to tumble into the crumbling pile of rocks along with it.

~~~

[font="Century Gothic"]Searching for "Messenger"...
Search results:
Windows Live Messenger
MSN
Yahoo messenger
NASA messenger
[size="1"](showing 4 of 23 results)[/size]
[/font]

[Dwarven King]

DK swung his axe down and split yet another summoned 'creature' in half. "Eh, they're easy, but there are so many of them!" DK exclaimed. He then heard Grey yell about machine-gun books. He turned around to see for himself, and, sure enough, there were machine-gun books. "Oi!" he exclaimed, "What did I tell you about magical books?! Ye can't trust the damn things!" DK then ran to the nearest bookshelf slicing through anything in his way with his axe. Once to the shelf, he threw it down making it land at an angle providing some shelter against the machine-gun books. "Quick! Get behind here!" he yelled.

[The Warden]

Broken growled at the glib answer he got from his query, and hastily deleted his inquiry. So instead of searching for Messenger, he began to hunt for the others. The place was huge granted, and quite expansive with the many levels, but the console would probably be able to search inhabitants, jist one good question, how? He turned to the other two who had been dragged here with him. 'Do you two know anything about working this thing?' he inquired.

[Justice Master]

Xel shook his head, trying to say as little as possible. He did this because he was thinking. Thinking about how everything was unfolding, in a strange, slow way. It was irratating to him, being stuck in a room with so many questions and so little answers. Fun. He scanned the room checking for anything he might be able to hack when he felt a small power in his legs growing. Knowing what this meant, Xel stomped on the ground, creating a hole and resulting in his falling. He hit the ground on two legs, but with the higher leg strength it didn't do much. "Come on down!" he shouted at the two above.

[Magnet Soldier]

"Well, now I see your point, DK." Kris stated, rolling towards the angled bookshelf, dragging a Desk to cover the entrance he'd taken, leaving them with one exit, which seemed to hit a wall. "Well, this turned out to be a great field trip. I wonder when the bus will come to pick us up." Kris commented, sarcastically. He sighed and grabbed his book, about to write in it, but decided against it after DK's comment about books, deciding that this wasn't the time for Magical books. "So then, you two, any plans? You've got claws, Grey, and I've got a torch. DK?" Kris asked, looking towards the guy with the axe. "As for the Machine Gun Books, what class do you think they are?" Kris joked, laughing nervously.

[Dwarven King]

DK began looking around trying to devise a plan. When Kris asked what class the machine-gun books were, DK turned to him and replied, "I think they are the 'keep shooting until they are dead' class! Any other questions Kris?!" DK gripped his axe tighter and began looking around the room some more. "Does anybody here see an exit from this room or anything? We need to get the hell out of here!" he asked. Suddenly something heavy jumped on the shelf and tried pushing it out of the way. DK pushed back and held it in place.

[GreyCat]

[b]-Inside 1-[/b]

"Yeah, I saw an exit," Grey growled, "A giant hole in the roof. Unfortunately, it vanished right after we fell through it." He was not a happy camper. Not at all. Damn books. It was like they could sense DK's fear and were acting based on it. Well, he would just have to show them. He tugged the book from his pocket and flipped it open to the character page. Maybe it could... excellent.

[i]1[sup]st[/sup] Life: Faint Claw- Basic program; free floating chaos energy constructs. User can manipulate to use energy at the cost of drain energy from 1[sup]st[/sup] Life Token's reserve.[/i]

Manipulate energy huh? He dropped the book and climbed the bookcase. Summoning one of the claws, he pointed it at the books. The claw swirled into a ball then burst out in a shock wave, disintegrating the books, the pages and a portion of the bookcase behind them. Grey smiled. "That worked."
Until more books fell from the bookcases and floated around them, pages loose and ready to fire.

[b]-Inside 2-[/b]

[font="Century Gothic"]Warning:
Damage detected in primary terminal room.
Threat level: High

Initiating Repair sequence...
[/font]
The edges of the hole Xel broke in the floor glowed, then the slowly flowed together, sealing it without a trace in a few seconds. It glowed briefly, then the glow spread to the rest of the room before fading. Again, the monitor flashed and the screen split, showing Xel in the room below.

[font="Century Gothic"]Threat detected in level 34, room MN7.
Launching Sentinel program...
Downloading...
Complete...
Run auto defense...
[/font]

On the screen, Broken and Judas had a perfect view of the action. In the room, Justice had the front row seat. Four download columns formed and deposited [url="http://www.spawn.com/toys/movies/matrix2/sentinel/images/matrix2_sentinel_photo_03_dp.jpg"]sentinels[/url], their bodies as large as Xel himself, in the room. Their tentacles started slithering into an aggressive position as they closed in on him. But the screen flashed again, this time showing Grey, Asmodeus, Kris and DK.

[font="Century Gothic"]Second Alert:
Multiple threats detected in the archives.
Initial removal program failed.
Deploying Second wave
Confirm? y/n_
[/font]

[The Warden]

The text scrawled across the screen, leaving only the y/n option. Broken tapped his chin thoughtfully, before deciding on a feasible course of action. [font="Century Gothic"]'Can you run a retrieval of the threats in the archives and place them in this room?'[/font] he typed into the console, hoping that it was an agreeable machine. It was too bad about Xel, it had been somewhat clever to bust through the floor, if this were a normal building mind.

[GreyCat]

The machine whirred quietly and text blurred past on a small window that popped up before a definite response was provided.

[font="Century Gothic"]...
Operation within parameters of possisibility
Caution: Action not recommended--
Retrieval of units designated Threats carries risk of danger to primary unit
Operation cannot be completed without external approval
Execute Retrieval program?
-note: retrieval program will remove Threat designation from target units-
y/n_[/font]

On the side screen that was showing the actions in the archive, four tags appeared over the image of the other avatars as the removal programs launched another assault. Grey, being out in the open, took a bad hit to his arm and tumbled -half accidentally, half purposefully- down the fallen bookcase. Wincing -though sound wasn't broadcast through the screen, he snatched up his book, and another with it by accident, and took shelter with the others.

The terminal seemed to run on multiple levels of awareness, and even as Broken negotiated with one window, another one off to the side was making it's own reports as the strange summons that came from the books slowly made there way to the sheltering avatars.

[font="Century Gothic"]Second wave deemed insufficient to remove threats
Rerouting Archive Memory Avatars to at risk area[/font]

[The Warden]

Broken read the notice carefully, whilst trying to ignore the overall danger the avatars were in. He quickly hit the '[font="Century Gothic"]y[/font]' button in reply to the retrieval program. He thought again for a brief moment, before adding '[font="Century Gothic"]Retrieve the threats from the archive area as well as the threat in the level below. And what can you tell me about the viruses invading the system, such as the one that invaded through a terminal a few levels down'[/font] he typed quickly.

[Magnet Soldier]

"Well, excuse me for lightening the mood." Kris stated, watching Grey take out his own book and use some of it's powers. "Oh, well if he's using his book, I'll use mine. Too bad on you." Kris exclaimed, drawing out his own book and writing in a word, escape, in it. As he did this, he thought about something. [i]DK doesn't seem to like me. Which is just great. An enemy already.[/i] Kris sighed, gladly seeing a Hole in the wall that the small nook was leaning against, which seemed to lead somewhere, although Kris didn't know where. "Quickly, in there." Kris said to DK, as he was the closest one.

[GreyCat]

The hole didn't really give them much of a choice. As soon as Kris pointed it out, it sucked them in like a vacuum hose. A short, though violent tube ride later, they were dumped into the terminal room with Broken. And a good pile of books too. Enough to bury them quite nicely. Grey shoved a stack from his head and face with a scowl. "Am I the only one that is really hating this place right now?" he growled, trying to free himself from the pile. Another hole opened on the other side of the room, spitting Xel out and tossing him into the wall. It seemed that Beacon was right about the glitches in the Node's systems.

With the retrieval done, the sentinels and the books and the summons started wandering halls, possibly on security patrols. That done, the terminal addressed Broken's second request.

[font="Century Gothic"]Processing query...
[definition]: Virus <n><plural: virus/viruses><adj: virus-like, viral>:
1) a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer
2) an unauthorized program that inserts itself into a computer system and then propagates itself to other computers via networks or disks; when activated it interferes with the operation of the computer
3) malevolent applications capable of inflicting harm on systems within the Net. Higher level virus have self awareness. Records hint at possibility of higher ruling power.
4) any of a group of submicroscopic entities consisting of a single nucleic acid chain surrounded by a protein coat and capable of replication only within the cells of living organisms: many are pathogenic
[warning]further information may be unavailable due to current loss of archive registry.[/warning]
[warning]primary firewall is disconnected. surface area's of the city are at risk[/warning] [/font]

[Justice Master]

"Ugh!" Xel grunted as he smashed into the walls with his legs. He slowly toppled onto the floor and proceeded to pick himself up. "Damn," he muttered as he looked around the strange room he plummeted into, "looks deserted. And it's not better my legs have lost their boost." He stood in the right side of this new, unexplored area in awe, until noticing he was in the same place he had been in before. Now, most people would be some irrated by this, but not Xel, oh it ate away at him. It was probably the most annoying thing that had occured to him thst day. At least for now.

[Reinforce]

"So much for that escape route, I thought that you would have found a way out of here but instead you ended up back with us in the same room, with the hole you made closed already." Judas sat down, not knowing what to do and wondering if any of the others who had just appeared had any idea what was going on.

Asmodeus walked up to the books, and noticed that another card had fallen out of it, similar to the one he had since they had arrived here. Looking at the card, it had the image of another humanoid with wings, and the same title as his first one, Darklord, but a different name after it. "Edeh Arae, I wonder if that is meant to be of significance to me like the one with my name." Looking at the card once more, he shrugged and put it next to the first one, back in a pocket in his armour.

[GreyCat]

Grey managed to dig himself out and pulled Kris out of the pile by a leg. DK was still buried, but he was a tough dwarf. Besides, leaving him buried under a pile of magic books was ironic in a way. So he left him. Grey took a look around the room. "Yo," he said in a general greeting to the other group. "Looks like spitting up was kind of a waste of time, wasn't it?" he asked with a smirk. "We found a giant room filled with homicidal literature and strange yet equally homicidal creatures." He shrugged as if it were nothing. Granted, his shoulder was still bleeding, so the shrug turned into a wince and a hiss. "So," he said through gritted teeth. "You guys find anything good?"

[Dwarven King]

Mumbled sounds began to come from the pile of books. They were loud, but nobody could understand the noise. Suddenly, the pile of books was scattered everywhere and DK jumped to his feet. "DAMN MAGICAL BOOKS!!!" he exclaimed as he turned to Kris. "And of course the one magical book on our side throws the magical books on top of me!" DK then continued to let out a stream of curses. Mostly about how magical books were not to be trusted, something about imbeciles...well you get the point. Once he was finished, he took a quick look around. "Oi! Where are we now?"

[The Warden]

Broken ignored both queries given by DK and Grey, instead he made a bee-line for the latter, whose shoulder was bleeding. He looked it over carefully, before placing his hand on it. He ignored any complaints Grey would have had over him touching a cut, instead he was focusing his energy on the cut. The sigil on his palm lit up, and instead of the normal shock, there was a warm healing light covering his hand. It was there for a brief moment before fading; Broken lifted his hand and the cut was healed. 'Those weird books are part of the system archives; them attacking you was a defensive measure by the system in order to defend its memory' he explained finally.

Then, he reached into his pocket for seemingly no reason, and withdrew from it a silver chain. He coiled it in his plam, and regarded it carefully. It was a memoir he didn't have before, not that he figured what a memoir was at this point. Finding the clasp on the end, he kneaded out the twisted links and placed it around his nack, hiding it under his shirt once added to his ensemble.

[Spartan919]

Suddenly, Spartan felt a strange sense of loneliness. He looked around, and saw that he was indeed alone, save for all the viruses. [i]Just great,[/i] he thought. He looked back up, and saw that the large mass of viruses was getting closer. "Guess I'll just do it alone," he muttered. He took a stance again, and readied himself for the moment when they attacked. He was about to leap into the air again, when suddenly, he was gripped by a ravenous fear. He crouched down in agony, struck his hands outwards towards the monsters, and opened his mouth to scream...Except, instead of a scream, there was a sonic boom. At the same moment a massive shock wave of sound erupted from his...entire body, Spartan flew backward and slammed into a wall. He heard something snap, and excruciating pain filled his chest. He stood slowly, and winced. "That...was cool."

[GreyCat]

"Okay," Grey blinked. "That was useful. I didn't even have to use a life to do it. Thanks Broken. I guess I owe you one." He started looking around the place. The room reminded him a bit of the first room they ended up in. This one was a bit bigger and felt alive instead of dead like the first one. And then there was that huger terminal on the wall. Major upgrade in comparison to the first one, both in terms of size and modernity. One important thing was missing though. A door. "So, are we grateful to be in this room," Grey said as he picked up on of the books that came with them, it just snapped at his finger with a growl in response, "Or are we concerned that their is no door?"

~~~~

Spartan's little panic attack wiped out a portion of the viruses that still worked at wrecking the city. Rick seemed to have vanished, but a quintet of worms with rows of dagger teeth filling circular mouths slithered from the gap to thud into the ground. They gulped air and oriented their eyeless heads at Spartan and screeched, slithering and bounding and tossing their bodies over the ground to get at the lone avatar. His companions were being abducted in a black bubble, borne way by a trio of gargoyles back through the gap and into the abyss beyond the protective shield. Of course, spartan was more concerned with the gaping maws bearing down on him.

[Justice Master]

"Don't be," Xel mumbled at Grey, "from what I've seen, this room's data is mostly complete, but there's one part that [b]is[/b] fully complete." Xel looked at the ground before asking the cat-like one the question, "so, would you like to know what that part is? But, if I tell you, you might not be too happy with what you hear." He spit on the ground, looking back up at Grey, thinking of what this furry was capable of. From what had been seen Grey was more than just a mere pawn like everyone else here, he was different. He was apart of the grand scheme.