itsjustagamerp | Life's a glitch

Wally raced to the Weapons Deck as fast as he feet would carry him... which, as far as he was concerned, was nowhere near fast enough. Still, all that running didn't leave him without a good set of legs, and he was still the first to arrive, and he spotted the... thing almost immediately.

For lack of a better comparison, it looked... like pixels. Just floating pixels, coalesced into one big, weird shape that just hovered there. Something about it reminded Wally of the snow that showed up on Jay's television sometimes, when you fidgeted with the antennae. In fact... maybe this was why Cambot was having problems with breaking into static lately. It made a strange sort of sense. And while things were strange around the Satellite right now, it was glaringly clear that this guy just didn't belong. More so than even the strangely cute little creatures that everyone had been turned into.

But the problem was... Wally didn't know what to do about it. Here on the Satellite of Love, he was just a normal kid, and he was willing to bet even pink fluffy things would pack more of a punch than him right now.

"Wally, wait!" Kaldur sprinted after him and while Wally may have been moving at normal speeds he still had the advantage of longer legs. It took him awhile but he finally caught up when Wally wounded a corner. At first he had thought Wally had taken a wrong turn but, as it turned out, he had run straight into the creature they were pursuing.

The fur on Kaldur's back stood up. Whatever this thing was, it was not normal, even for these creatures. "MissingNo" he growled, paws resting on the shells at his legs. "Wally you cannot fight this creature," he began but then remembered all Wally would hear from him were the sounds Dewott made.

He sighed and focused his eyes on the creature, "I will handle this." He stepped in front of Wally.

For all his words to Liz about not running off to fight MissingNo alone, Harvey had barely hesitated before flying off after the creature himself once he'd seen where it was heading. The way he saw it, he had a score to settle with the glitch. This fight wasn't going to end the way it had back home. And even if it did, well, he knew pretty well by now what had happened to him back home. Better him than someone else, someone who had something to go back to other than being eaten by static-monsters wearing a friend's face.

He'd gone as fast as his wings could carry him, but he still wasn't the first one there. Harvey glided in to land alongside Kaldur, barely taking his eyes off the jumble of pixels and unreality cornered before them. "No worries, kid," he said, his tense tone belying the nonchalance of his words. "I got your back."

Okay, so that living glitch had gotten the better of her last time. At least now, Wilykit knew what to expect against it. So when she saw Harvey heading toward the fight, she had followed him. Sure, it meant ignoring that little voice in her head that was telling her that this was a bad idea and she should leave this fight to the adults, but she was a Thundercat. Thundercats didn't back down from a fight (even when they were stuck in the form of tiny, adorable pink kittens).

"Room for one more?" Wilykit asked as she bounded toward the others. "Every little bit helps, right?" she added, though it was almost more for her nerves' benefit than the others'.

Missingno flickered again, sending bits of data all around the edges of their vision. The shifting colors seemed to dart back and forth before finally settling on something, and its high-pitched cry echoed out, seeming to bounce off the walls from everywhere at once.

It flickered again, and suddenly all the colors of the deck shifted to a pink tint. To Kit, Harvey, Kaldur and Wally, it would appear as if their vision was distorting into strange waves. As the color and distortions subsided, Missingno sent out a strong psychic pulse certain to leave those susceptible to it in a lot of pain.

Wally cringed at the sudden distortions in his vision and tried to simply look down at Kaldur and the others to avoid it. But then there was that... that shriek that reminded him of electronics going haywire, and the pulse that felt like Megan's telekinetic attacks looked, and the next time he opened his eyes, he was on his knees, with a few of those red and white balls still rolling at his feet.

As he looked back up at Missingno, thoughts raced through his head on how to counter it. Antistatic agents, Faraday cage, ionizer... among others, but there was nothing he could use. This deck had none of the right materials he'd need to build one, even assuming he could make one fast enough to matter. None of that was an option, so he was left with... nothing.

"How do you guys plan on fighting this thing?" he demanded, glancing at Kaldur. He didn't expect a spoken answer, but an idea of how he could help might be nice.

"Let us hope that one of our attacks will be effective against it? Any suggestions?" He knew of those present, Harvey had the most knowledge of Pokemon. After all, Liz had been in no state to give information and was still disoriented from the previous attack. If anyone could figure out a strategy it was him. However, before he could reply to anyone, the MissingNo attacked.

Well, assaulted them with some sort of psychic, screechy energy. It was much worse than the attack Wheatley had assaulted him with earlier. Kaldur put his paws over his ears but it did little to stem the attack, perhaps because it was psychic and not an actual noise. He felt a strong headache coming on between that and the distorted vision. Still, he was not out of the fight yet.

Gritting his teeth, Kaldur pulled his shells off and lunged at the creature. It looked like it was solid, at least, more solid than mere static, and he sliced it with the Razor Shell.

Edited 2012-05-11 03:51 (UTC)

Harvey spread his wings slightly, nervously, as the glitch's colors shifted dizzingly in the corners of his vision. He cast a glance over at Kaldur and Wilykit - he was not at all okay with the kid being here, but now wasn't really the time to discuss it. "I know a face full of lead won't stop it," he replied, thinking. "Maybe if we - "

He flinched as the thing screeched, the world suddenly flashing bright pink as it - did nothing? No, the other two were clearly in pain, and he could hear as Wally dropped to his knees behind him. Pink. A psychic attack.

Harvey didn't waste the precious few seconds his immunity granted him. His wings glowed a dark purple as he immediately flew at the glitch, trying to put himself between the others and the attack. Of course, you couldn't really physically block a psychic assault - but at least the Night Slash he aimed at its face might keep it from tryin' that again.

Wilykit tried to ignore the flickering colors on the edges of her vision. It was just a trick, a distraction, the sort of thing she and her brother relied on all the time back home. Nothing but a--and then she felt a searing pain in her head as the world went pink. Kit cried out and staggered from the psychic assault, feeling weakened somehow in its aftermath, and not just from the pain.

She shook her head and clenched her teeth, ready to join the others in fighting back. As Harvey and Kaldur attacked from the front, she darted around behind the glitch. The end of her tail glowed as she smacked it loudly against the back of Missingno's head (or where she guessed its head was, at least). This was her only shot at using Fake Out, and she hoped it would buy them enough time to end the fight quickly.

Kaldur's razor shell unfortunately didn't hit home...while his shells passed through the mass of colors and pixels, it didn't appear to actually hit a solid mass. However, it was enough to spook the creature, as the static mess shifted over a little.

Harvey's Night Shade, however, did actually land a hit on something solid. It didn't seem that effective, but it did weaken it at least a little bit.

Missingno prepared to counterattack with a new move, but Kit's quick thinking stopped it short as it flinched. It was apparently not happy with this, as it let out another loud, piercing screech, and shifted all over while spreading static at the corners of peoples' vision.

The attack was useless which was a disappointment. However Kaldur had other abilities up his sleeve in this form. He hopped back, taking a deep breath, and then slammed Missingno with a powerful burst of water. Perhaps he would have a better chance of dealing damage with a face full of water from Hydro Pump.

Harvey beat his wings quickly as he wheeled around, struggling to maneuver in the enclosed space. He'd hit something - he wasn't sure what, exactly, but he'd felt it. No sense changing something that was working; he went in for another Night Slash as he passed the glitch again, headed back towards the rest of the team.

"You okay, kid?" he asked, dipping down near Wilykit as Kaldur's blast of water passed. He'd heard her scream, and she was only a little cat. She shouldn't even be here.

Maybe it was just youthful naivete, but Wilykit was starting to feel a little optimistic about their chances of winning this. So long as they kept up the onslaught and kept Missingno pinned down, they just might be okay. That screech of protest it let out was a little too reminiscent of her last encounter with it for her liking, but compared to what else it was capable of, that was nothing.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied to Harvey's question. He was right; she really shouldn't have been there. But there was nothing to do about it now (aside from just running away, and the only way anyone was going to convince Kit to do that was by telling her to go fetch help). In the meantime, she raced forward, remembering the image of Harvey's last attack as she summoned an echo of that same dark energy around her paw and swiped at her foe.

This time, Kaldur's hydro pump was large enough that at least part of it did hit home. The pixels shifted all over again, and the creature screeched in anger. Harvey's second night slash missed, but Kit's copying of it did hit again, doing a little more damage.

The static shifted around again, then seemed to settle closer to the ground, and began to flicker. It let out another long, lasting screech, and the static began to build up and outwards.

It was clear that it was building up; preparing for a very powerful attack. However, since this attack too awhile to really get going, it gave Kit, Harvey and Kaldur a bit of extra time to try and bring it down for good.

Kaldur noted that the reaction was different this time. The screech not as deafening and the pixels themselves seemed to slump. There was no need to tell the others to keep attacking though. Kaldur decided he would follow Harvey's technique and use his effective attack again. The same blast of water surged forward.

Harvey flinched at the loud screech, watching with growing alarm as the pixels began to collect and grow. That didn't look good. They had to finish this fast.

As he spread his wings to take off again, something on the ground nearby caught his eye. A Pokeball! He'd forgotten they even had these down here! There were a couple lying around, too. "Hey, kid! Catch!" Harvey knew Wally couldn't understand him, but he just wanted to get the kid's attention as he swept the Pokeballs closer towards him with one wing.

Honestly, he wasn't sure what would happen if they actually worked on that thing. But if it was good enough for Pyramid Head, it was damn well good enough for Missingno. Harvey took off again, aiming a third Night Slash at the heart of the gathering static. Hopefully it would hit something this time.

Whatever it was that Missingno was powering up for, Wilykit had a bad feeling that she did not want to experience it firsthand. She had no idea what Harvey wanted Wally to do with those little red and white balls, but she figured he must have had some plan in mind.

In the meantime, while he and Kaldur aimed high, Kit decided to aim low for her next attack. For some reason, Missingno had felt strangely hefty for a giant mass of pixels. And the bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? At least, that was Wilykit's reasoning as she charged forward and to the side with her tail stretched out to use it as a makeshift trip cord against the glitch. (Could glitches even get tripped up? Only one way to find out...)

The creature was glowing brightly now, almost ready to unleash the attack. But unfortunately for it, and fortunately for everyone else, their own attacks all hit home this time. Kaldur's hydro pump hit it a bit more squarely in the center. Harvey's night slash also hit it, but just barely, grazing some corner in the pixels. Finally, the one thing that did prevent it from finishing the attack was Kit's grass knot, which seemed to strike home on a narrow section of the pixels. But, it was enough to make it flinch again...or more accurately, to make it trip.

It reacted strangely to falling over: the pixels distorted again around the corners of peoples' vision, and it flashed and screeched at a frequency that was enough to give everyone present a terrible headache. The lights on the deck flickered on and off too, and the pressure and gravity seemed to increase momentarily.

And then, just as suddenly as everything got worse, it all dropped off. The psychic energy that it sent out cleared up a bit, and the pixels began to collapse back into the center of the creature. The pixels seemed to slowly dissipate, congealing together tighter and tighter until they finally cleared away to reveal...

...A flamingo Pokemon, shaped rather like a question mark. It was squawking frantically, flapping its wings to try and flee now, but obviously too beaten up to make another escape.

Wally, as much as it frustrated him, knew that he wasn't going to be of any use in this fight, so he had simply been focusing on staying out of the way and trying to avoid looking at the pixels and getting a major headache from those screeches it kept letting out. That last one, though... His head was going to be pounding for a week after this, with the way that felt. And the bird trying to hit him with that ball? Not helping. But thankfully, he managed to catch it before it hit; he had enough speed left for that.

When he looked back at the glitch, it was starting to cool down again after its little freakout. Except... it was a bird now? A flamingo? Wally couldn't help but bark out a laugh at the absurdity. How had a glitch become... that? This was ridiculous!

And yet, he still felt like he'd seen worse.

With the bird still struggling, Wally did a quick analysis of the situation. Their opponent had turned from a jumbled mess of shrieking pixels into a flamingo. The others were all still poised to attack, and he knew they'd keep up until this was finished. He'd come racing to the rescue, and all he'd gotten out of it was a raging headache. And the glitch/bird thing was practically defeated already. He might as well just go ahead and leave.

But headaches tended to make Wally a mite irritable, and vindictive at that. So instead of leaving it to those who could actually do something about it, he scowled at it, took aim, and threw the ball in his hand straight at the flamingo's head. Maybe he could give it a headache.

Kaldur's head pounded from the noise and he brought his paws up to his ears to try to deafen the sound. It did little to stop it and Kaldur cried out in pain. This was probably the worst yet but it did seem to have SOME effect on it. He fell to his knees as gravity increased but just as it started to seem bad the pressure lightened and Kaldur managed to open his eyes again. The pixels were disappearing and a new form was emerging.

Kaldur couldn't help but gawk at it. How had a bird done that much damage? "Make sure it does not escape!" He managed to shout. But, just then, a pokeball flew over their heads and whacked Missingno on his. Kaldur blinked and found that Wally was the one that had thrown it.

Harvey winced at the noise, barely pulling up in time to avoid flying right into the opposite wall. The increase in gravity didn't help - it may not have lasted long, but it was enough to make flight impossible, bringing him crashing to the ground with a cry of pain.

As it let up, he struggled to his feet, his head pounding. It got worse as he realized exactly what was resolving outta that blob of pixels. A bird. A goddamn flamingo, of all things. Mindful of Kaldur's words, he positioned himself to attack again if necessary, but as Wally's Pokeball hit the thing he doubted it would be an issue. There was no way in hell this was the same thing he'd seen back home.

One thing Wilykit definitely wasn't going to miss by the time the week was over and everyone was more or less back to normal was the awful headaches that thing kept causing. The flickering lights and the crushing pressure that pushed her down against the floor certainly weren't helping, either. She would have screamed, but as powerful as it was, all she could get out was a strangled little squeak.

Just before Kit thought she was going to black out under the assault, however, it suddenly just stopped. She weakly lifted her head to see what was happening... and stared in disbelief as Missingno's true form was revealed.

"You've gotta be kidding me..." she said just before Wally pegged it in the head with one of the balls that were lying around. Good, now maybe it would have a headache, too.

The Missingno let out a startled squawk as the Pokeball bounced off its head. However, what most probably weren't expecting was for the ball to suddenly open up and release a bright red light that surrounded the creature. It remained frozen in mid-squawk for a moment before getting sucked with the red light back into the Pokeball, which then snapped shut and fell to the ground.

The Pokeball shook once...

Twice...

Three times...

And then finally made a clicking sound and stopped moving. All the static interference everyone had been experiencing finally lifted...Wally had managed to capture the elusive Missingno.

Wally stared at the spectacle in bewildered silence. Out of all the things he might have expected would happen, that was definitely not among them. That beam... It just swallowed Missingo and sucked it in. Could it have been some kind of Zeta beam? Only it looked like it worked differently than usual, with the transport point being inside the ball, and the shrinking. The shrinking was definitely new. He supposed it might not be that hard to integrate if you took the time, though.

But all of that, while definitely something to consider in the future, was not the important thing here.

"Cool!" Wally's face lit up with a smile and he rushed forward, grabbing the Pokeball to examine a little more closely. It was simple enough. Small. Meaningful.

Perfect.

"Souvenir!" He hadn't gotten one last time, despite looking. But this time was different. He was going to need a shelf.

Blink.

Well that was...odd.

The Dewott known as Kaldur shook his head. He was fairly certain that now he had just seen everything. Kaldur felt exhausted, but accomplished. The glitch was captured and they could rest at ease now.

He did not even roll his eyes when Wally claimed it as his Souvenir. After all, that was a "thing" now and certainly not going to stop just because of a change in location.

"Just keep it contained," he said without thinking. Oh, wait, Wally couldn't understand him. Wally was probably smart enough to figure out that he should keep the Missingno in the ball though.

Aaaaaaaand...that was it. It was over.

Harvey just sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing at his now-pounding head. That almost seemed too easy. "We oughta just toss that thing out an airlock," he commented to the other two Pokemon. Part of him wondered if Wally could control it now, but that wasn't something he really cared to test. Maybe if Discord ever got loose again.

...oh. Now he had to go let Liz out of her room. That should be fun.

Life's a glitch

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