"Oh, that? He's only getting familiarised with your anatomy. Your body's different from mine." Karl informated Tyro. He looked up at the LCD display and tilted his head in thought. "Now, i've dealed with several devices working the same way, but i've never seen one that's been implanted into my hoof." Karl continued looking at the display, tilting his head as he tried to figure out where the weapons overlay was hiding. Tyros scratchings on Silly comforted him, speeding up the process in which he merged with Tyros body. His "area" was now spanning all over Tyros backleg, invading all the red blood cells that passed through the leg, which was every single one. When one of the merged blood cells hits his heart, the next fase would begin: The Corrupting of Tyros eco-system. Once that fase would be done, it would be quite the task to remove Silly off Tyros body. (This will not make Tyro turn or anything. It will give him the ability to use Silly the same was a Karl does. That is, if he can take the corruption...)
"Karl! Why would he be getting familiar with my body?! I'd prerfer not to be carrying a paracite that's about as unhinged as you...were...No offence Silly but I'd prefer you got off, kugh!" One of Tyro's paws reaches for his chest while it felt like some sort of plant was sliding around under his skin. He stifles a cough or two, trying to keep his eyes open. "Karl, don't touch that. If it goes off, you'll go numb." He looks around for help of somekind. "Dark Shine? Wait, no! Snow! Mind shooting this thing off?! Snow!"
Dark Shine looks at Tyro as his name was mentioned. He tilted his head, before deciding to sit down before he fell to the ground.
"He usually does that whenever he's about to... merge with you. He can't live long without a host, you know." Karl says, putting down the robotic hoof. "It's best to just let him run his course, he won't get off anyways." He turns his head to Darkshine. "Sapping will only make him change host to the one who tried sapping him." Karl walked over to Dark Shine and helped him up, allowing him to lean on Karl as help. "I'm not a viable host anymore, Tyro. Same with Dark Shine or Snow. You're pretty much the only one with the energy to contain him right now." Silly expands over Tyros chest, closing in on Tyros heart; one more minute, and Tyro will be bodily merged with Silly, forming a chemical bond. After that, the spiritual bond, which will take much longer, will start. One of the red/black blood cells suddenly runs through Tyros brain, copying memories form Tyro and sending them to Silly, who swells up a bit, but cools down.
"Oh bugger...." Tyro breathlessly mumbles as his chest begins to feel like setting concrete. Part of his head felt numb and icy by on of his ears. Keeping upright seemed more like a case of leaning on stilts rather than legs being used to stay balanced. "Dark Shine, Snow. Try to keep an eye on Karl if I black out, *keh-khm*, I think I've seen that before. Usually it's removed when the process is finished but I guess it was interrupted. *Khah-kehm-khm* Oh blimey...Right, it would make no sense for that to be weaponry so it's either for tracking, incapasitation or both. If he flops over or something or Karl starts beeping, I'd keep a close eye on him. *Khm-khmm* Also Karl: it's gonna hurt..." Tyro drops his head, waiting for the woosiness to stop. "Great, Karl's been altered and now it's my turn. Now he hope there's no sudden monster of in the side or something...Is this going to hurt, Karl?"
"No. Well, it'll hurt you emotionally. Thing is, Silly is... different. He's gonna take control for a while, sending you through a trip in your memories. You'll feel anger, sadness, happiness, fear and craziness at the same time. I'm hoping your willpower is strong, or you'll plummet down into your subconscious. After that's over, you'll feel powerful. Very powerful. But don't give in to any feelings, or Silly'll rob you of all your energy." Karls irises was blue again, and he looked directly into Tyros eyes. "Now, let Silly carry that body of yours." Silly finally reached Tyros heart, and jumped all over it, corrupting it completely. Now he could take over Tyro for a while. The now black heart began pumping faster, sending out a black fluid that began taking up space inside the blood stream. Tyros body was completely swallowed in black flames and long, sharp claws protruded out from his paws. A familiar red eye and white smile appeared on Tyros face, showing that Silly was in charge of the body. Tyros mind was swallowed in darkness and he fell down into the darkness that is Silly. He finally reached the ground, and looked up. He was in a long, crooked, psychedelic hallway with lots and lots of doors seemingly stretching into infinity.
The essence slowly faded back into Snow as it realized it was pointless to keep it up. Snow sighed and wobbled a bit, "Ah well. I'll get started on fixin OPIAT. He showed me how as a just in case." Snow then disappeared among the banks of computer terminals.
(Right...And now I'm kinda glad I introduced O.P.I.A.T back into this. Karl won't derail this quite yet.) "Oh..." Tyro said, letting his eyes take in everything as he meanders downwards, taking in as many details of the confusing, crooked walls. It was like taking in a room made from a piece of screwed up paper. The black walls and the white doors sitting in the red frames stretched off into the long distance. The red carpet was soft and thick so Tyro figured it was going to be one of those dreams. The one's where he's likely to feel everything. Either he's going to be wondering through a small play written by his every action or he'll quantum leap into his body at random intervals. Either way, he wasn't going to be a nice sit down with pop-corn and a projector. "Right...Where first?" Tyro said, looking around. More of the screens in the room began to flicker back on. The same message over and over. Hello? I am cut off. I cannot access most of my hardware. Can you read this? It cascaded down the blue screens like torrential rain. A printer in the room started spitting out the same message on a long ribbon of paper, the motor scratching away to draw attention.
There was some sputtering and some curses from Snow heard a ways into the room, "Don't worry, I got this under control!" Snow yelled. Now let's see here...Manual override code is: 4t1Mkr6Cp01md3c83AKL987ckoal7529ocp. There was a sound that signified start-up (Think windows 97) and then a familiar voice that sounded very roboticzied came up, "Hello. I am O.P.I.A.T. Gatherer of all knowledge that ever was. How may I assist you today?" "OPIAT, preform restore process Level 5 Code Red-Yellow, and perform back-up." Snow said to the machine. "Of course." The room came to life with the sound of wizzing machinery and flashing computer lights. "Override Restore complete." a voice said, and a blue energy came seeping out of the computer that slowly came together in a form in front of Snow that she instantly reconized, "OPIAT!" she cried, "I would hug you right now if I could!" OPIAT floated past her. "Um, OPIAT." "One second." the ball replied, and Snow proceeded to follow him, confused.
What had once been a fox, was now a completely dark, slender, contorted and twisted body with long, sharp claws resembling knifes stretching out as fingers. The being was enshrouded in complete darkness, black flames radiating off of it. "Well, this is different. I never thought of having a body like this." Silly exclaimed as he examined his hands. He then looked around the room and noticed Karl with Dark Shine leaning on Karls side. He simply chuckled and said, "Hello, former master." Karl looked at the black being and smiled a bit. "From now on, you can call me Karl." He informed Silly. He then noticed OPIAT coming out of the terminals. "Hello OPIAT, finally coming out and seeing the aftermath, are ya?" He asked him jokingly. He steaded himself a bit to better support Dark Shine.
(Well, if I'm stuck like this, I might as well do something with it.) A realisation struck Tyro as he stood in this place with no pony directing him to do anything at the moment. Their new enemy was one of his oldest. He was the expert here. He was the one that could help the most and, well...He was being treated to a re-enactment of Labyrinth with David Bowie dressed like an electrocuted drag queen sadly absent at the moment. There would not be anypony here to guide him, it would seem. Puppet or otherwise, it was him and doors. Doors that lead to memories. Apparently, memories being something he's forced to centre time around despite getting rid of his Key long ago. So, maybe Silly's watching? What if Silly watched the memories that link especially with Digital. He can hopefully shed some light on how to fight the irritating robot for Silly to then relay to everypony else. Hopefully, that'll work....Otherwise, the Elements are running in blind.... But which door? Having probably little time, Tyro dashes towards the one in front of him. It ought to help if he can find the bits of his life Digital had a part in. "Silly!" Tyro calls to the ebony ceiling, "I'm going to try and find something useful out of my memories for you to share with everypony else! Watch carefully when you see Digital." He reaches up on his hind legs, landing with both paws on the door handle. He pulls it down and tries to walk the door open. Something on the other side is stopping it from swinging freely. An Arctic wind chills his fur, throwing flakes into the corridors. Tyro shoves with his shoulder, shoving the door open to look inside. Hopping off from the door to land in the thick snow, his eyes fall upon the all too familiar scene. The white tundra of some strange, unknown place was bitterly cold and only the slight wind disturbed the scene here. For whatever reason, a group of strange creatures gather in this frozen expanse of wasteland, surrounding a figure in smooth, silver armour that Tyro hadn't seen in a long while. The metal was half caked in frost, as was the Kitsune's black fur. His five, white tipped tails sweep the snow behind him, excitedly moving back and forth. He had the most horribly confident grin on his face that seemed to split his white muzzle apart like a razor blade. At arms length, this creature holds a young girl in his grip, clasping firmly around her throat. Her blond hair is largely covered in the snow and her already pale skin is practically turning white at this temperature. Her eyes are meeting the Kitsune's like a lamb to a butcher. Tyro sees himself. He is tall, with scarlet fur and dressed in the style he never changed for a century. Then the plan was to wear nothing, like he was now. He growls, useless in the situation, clearly fatigued by the attempt to rescue the girl.. The paws he stands on sunk into the snow with long forgotten people standing around him and this scene. Like the other black kitsune, female by the look of her. The other girls around this scene included a woman dressed in less than was would be needed in this climate. For some reason, a black belt like thing that covered her chest but left her stomach exposed. She was in black trousers. Out the back, a small wolf tail hung in anticipation. The ears pointing out of her short hair were flat to her head. You could also make out fangs in her mouth too. The other three women, Tyro could barely remember anything about them. One of them was in a hat and t-shirt in this frozen hell so it told a lot about the company he kept back then. The scene was over-whelming to find again. Not only was it the fact that he was back again in this place, at this time, but that this was the first memory to be shown to him after so long. He didn't realise how much he hated every minute of all this until the Black Kitsune spoke. "Any last words?" he asks, the girl. She was weak from the Kitsune's touch but brave, taking a moment to find peace. She turns to the others. "I......." She began, the speech became lodged in her throat. A tear rolls down her cheek as she tries again. "Thanks....For everything...." With a deathly glare to the Black Fox, she grins bravely to the group: "And kill this guy for me...Make sure he stays in the ground next time." "Good Luck." Tyro heard his former self say, frustratedly looking for something that could help here. "Bye." Says the other black kitsune. Suddenly, she lights a purple flame in her fingers. "Don't." She insists to her. She reluctantly complies. "It's been coming for a while....." She smiles faintly at the younger Tyro. "Tell everyone.....It's been fun." "Five!" The Black Kitsune begins, squeezing the girl's neck a little tighter. Small veins under her jaw line started to become more visible as though her skin was becoming thinner. "Four! Three!" "Good Luck." Younger Tyro said again. "You too." Sonja replies. The far older fox watching all of this for the second time couldn't quite bring himself to explain why no one was prepared to intervene. Why must they watch this? Why can't they stop it? He was weakened at the time but there were far more of them than there were of him. What happened that let this happen unchallenged? "Two!" Tyro was considering leaving. He was fighting back tears and finding it hard to watch. This wasn't what he needed to find so he ought to just turn around now. For the second time in this place, Tyro could find no better place to look than to watch the snow by his paws. A sudden reverse breath escapes from her mouth, loud and distinct as her lungs were emptied of all gasses. Again, he hears something slam into the crisp white, motionless and as cold as the landscape. The Stealing of Breath was complete. A method of killing that only Kitsune are capable of where they feast upon every scrap of energy within the victims body. Tyro runs back through the door and it slams shut on the scene by itself or possibly by a sudden rush of wind. Now alone again in the corridor, he wraps his tails around himself. Partly to warm himself up, partly as that was how he coped last time. And with any nightmares that followed. Sonja was an old friend and he was unable to stop her dying that time. They might not have the been the closest but to witness her execution after so long drew a tear or two as Tyro stared at the carpet, his brain replaying the same few frames of what he just saw over and over. And this was just the first door...What was behind everything else exactly? He had over 140 years worth of potential horror to fill this corridor with. Suddenly, looking for information on Digital look that much harder.
Suddenly, a dark flow passes around Tyro multiple times before setting it's claws on his shoulders. "Hello master." Said a raspy voice, confirming that it was Silly. "Looking through your memories is easier than you think. You just gotta know how the system works..." He crawled all over Tyro before shrinking down in size and forming into a necklace showing a black flame radiating of it.
Tyro was about to ask what the system was but held his tongue. Frankly, this sort of strange magical thingy that apparently likes to transform into jewellery will not likely be useful in anyway possible. It's basically trapped him here so why would Silly want to help? Actually...Actually, Silly did call Tyro 'Master'. So, that does mean that he might be co-operative or at least give a clue...Probably? "So...How does it work in here then?" He asks, expecting nothing useful in return, of course. He felt odd talking to his chest though. "'Cause I need you to talk to them out there about Digital."
The black necklace answered, pulsing with every syllabel, "Well, Master, it works like this: You concentrate about the subject you want to know about, and the memories will come to you, but with the earliest one you've had first. If you're looking for something special, then you're still gonna have to open every door infront of you to find out. One more thing: In this place you cannot remember things by heart or head, you have to look through the doors." The black flame went silent and waited for its master to speak and answer. Outside, Karl was working on something new. He had taken things and devices from all over the place, and were now chunking them up together to make a handle. He had everything he needed and had the Time needed, so why wait? "Up on Melancholy Hill, there's a plastic tree. Are you here with me? *Cus you are my medicine." He sang to himself while Silly watched him build. Karl was unsure whether Silly was with them, or if he was talking to Tyro. (Karl's building a PA, aka Proton Axe, meant to take down Digital extra fast and look good in the process. AAAWWW YEEEAHHH!)
"Huh..." Tyro said, mulling this new information over. "Right...So, I shouldn't get anything other than what I think of? OK..." He walks towards a door, shouting the name 'Digital' in his head repeatedly. Again, he leaps up onto the door handle, walking the door open before trotting inside. (Credit to Foxytail for partly writing this posts sourced material) The room was largely dark. The plastic, shiny floors covered the walls, having no describable detail or decoration on them at all. Just blank, easy to clean surfaces. Tyro, now either noticeably older or noticeably scruffier from the last time he had watched himself stood in a large glass tube with a rabbit woman. A lapine female of average build that Tyro seemed to tower over. She was in a blue suit too for rather long and complicated reasons. "This is the last world Digital invaded that I ended up on. He caught me again. It's where I met Samantha." He mumbles to Silly, presumably. "About 12-ish years before I stumbled into Equestria again." The Tyro in the glass tube smashes out of it with the large weapon he carried. The strange weapon bangs on the floor on the floor, still in his hand, along with Tyro himself who lands on his paws hard. His knees slam into his chest, forcing the air out as he rolls onto his side. "I'm OK...Be careful when you jump down here." He wheezes back once he has the breath. Samantha tentatively looks out the smashed glass. "He survived... he jumped, but he survived... he looks uninjured... but he can breath fire and has two tails... he's not normal... I'm normal... If I land correctly, I'll likely hurt my legs in some way... a sprained ankle... perhaps twisted something... but if I don't land correctly... broken legs... collarbone... death..." she retreats from the opening. "Not jumping." she says firmly. Tyro never really did figure out how she came to have such a strange method of talking. It was like a computer running through logical steps out loud. Tyro clambers to his paws once more...slowly. He rubs his chest with his free hand while he uses his weapon, that he managed to cling onto, as a crutch to stand upright again. He coughs and wheezes while keeping an eye on the pitch black in front of him. "Hopefully, no-ones about..." He mumbles before turning around, looking back up at Samantha. "Well...What if I caught you?" He asks. "Even if it all goes wrong, you'll land on me. I'm all soft and fluffy, me." Tyro flutters his eyelashes to go along with his cheeky grin. His chuckles are drowned out by a worried mumbling from an ear piece in Samantha's hand: "Oh no...no, no, no..." The lights suddenly flicked on. The darkness was purged by the brightness that made Tyro wheel around again. He holds his weapon ready by his side, still rubbing his new bruises. Footsteps echo through the server room, clicks of weapons; Tyro stands his ground. "I/O - what?!" The ear piece burbles. "Maybe the antenna needs adjusting..." The motors in the platform jerk into life. The platform quickly passes the hole and ceiling, upwards towards the top at quite a rate. Just as jets of green liquid fly from the darkness. You can see guns and figures emerge from the vale. "Yeah...Digital likes to add to his hardware. We're about to see some of it finish me off..." Tyro the older and more fox-shaped said to his necklace, presumably. Screens in the bunker flick on. Some show images taken of the meteor shower a few days ago. Others just show error readouts about the GPS system being offline or not functioning. On the photo, a red circle appears and zooms in. That zoomed area fills the screen and is then turned from blurry mess to the image of some kind of metal structure, buried into the surface of the meteor. Judging by what might be engines, it looks like a spacecraft of some kind.
Meanwhile on the outside, Karl looks over and is cleaning his new handmade weapon. It looks like a staff, although it has two strange stems in the front and on the back of it there's two leaning bulbs, fizzling regularly as Karl swipes the towel up and down the grey, mechanical handle. He then glances at Silly for a brief moment, and asks with a lower and a bit quieter voice, "How's it going with Tyro?" Silly clicks and snaps his view to Karls face and responds, "He's at the second memory. There's a slight chance that i can force him out, but that'll impact his connection with my mind." Karl sighs and flicks away a small metal flap from the handle. "I've heard of that happening. Last time it merged our memories together. I couldn't understand what was real and what was insanity." Silly chuckles a bit and changes to a gaze out into the darkness. Suddenly, Karl shoves his hoof through Silly and pulls a battery from the slender creatures chest, then looks at it and shrugs, putting it inside the device at the bottom. Karl looks at his device, then switches his sight to the multitudes of screens and freezes completely. "Is that the God-12 spaceship?" He then examines it a bit closer and loses interest, returning back to cleaning his device while saying, "Sorry, false alarm." (Who gets that reference i just made?)
OPIAT floated by, "This Digital is not of this world." he said simply, "I gathered that he wants to investigate that crash during the meteor shower. That is about all I can say."
"Hey, what's with all the butterflies back - What in the hey is that?!" The voice that had suddenly filled the area was from Sulphy, transfixed by the hulking monster of metal lying dead against the wall. "You get a lot of monsters and stuff with this Elements stuff, huh? Oh yeah!" He holds up a rolled up parchment, sealed with wax. "I got a delivery for the furbag! Royal Seal an' all." The screens display one message currently. It blinks over and over. New signal found - Triangulating... An image of Equestria appears, slowly circling in on some part of it near Canterlot. Once the zooming stops, a little arrow points to a specific spot, listing the location as another bunker like the one they were in. "Uh...Is it meant to be doing that?" Sulphy asks, pointing to the screen.
Karl looks at the screens and shrugs. He didn't have a single idea what to do except test his new little toy. He switched his gaze to Silly, who was sharping his claws against a hunk of metal. "Silly, take the letter for Tyro. If you can, try to minimize the costs for the mind force. If we can get him out in one piece without his memory shattered, then we might get a slightly happier Tyro." All Silly did was nod and rise up from his sitting position, making him double the length of the sitting down Karl. Silly takes a step towards Sulphy, then immediately breaks down into a black, oozing goop which moves over beneath Sulphy. A slender claw reaches out and grabs the parchment with utter care in not to slice it apart, and goes into the goop again along with the parchment. He then moves over to Karl and drags himself out of the goop, sitting down on Beauties severed arm. He takes one quick look at the letter, then stuffs it inside of him, transporting the letter into his subconscious to get it to Tyro. Tyros necklace suddenly darkens and starts dripping, until a parchment comes out along with a hand holding it. It directs the parchment to Tyro, then Sillys voice is heard from the necklace. "Master, i'm gonna get you out of this place and back to the real world, but it might come with some... risks."
Sulphy was transfixed by the liquid creature snaking towards him as it look the scroll. He practically threw the comunication at Silly while retreating quickly. "You guys never have anything normal to do, huh?" He said, skirting away. "What is that thing?" Tyro the Fox watches Tyro the Fox swat one of the balls of green goo out of the air and into the wall. It begins to feast on the glossy plastic. The younger Tyro stands up straight, stepping forwards, paw by paw. Out from the darkness comes a man, short with short black hair. He was wearing a sharp blue suit with a matching tie and a blank look on his face while marching forwards. This guy was carrying a large gun with a nastly looking acid in a chamber. He was firing these acidic shots at Tyro, who was trying not to get caught. He was barely succeeding but gaining plenty of holes in his clothes. "What do you mean risks? I thought we were doing the whole memory thing? Pointless as that is, I figured that was what we were doing...Some sort of settling in thing I think..." Tyro asks the necklace as he tries to keep the parchment flat with his paws on both ends. Twister seemed easier to do. He scans the message. Tyro the Younger manages to get close enough to smack the man around the chops. While he does stumble, there's no change in expresion. He's back up as Tyro brings his weird weapon up for another strike. As the large, tail-shaped hand guard smashes into the man's teeth, the gun fires goo into Tyro's chest. It's through the white t-shirt in seconds, feasting on everything underneath. Tyro the Younger turns away, clutching at the new wound while the man hangs in an odd position. Sort of slumped backwards over one leg as though paralysed down one side. The gun clatters to the floor before Tyro does, turned away from the watchers. He curls up there before laying perfectly still. "Shouldn't take too long." Tyro the older said, looking back at the letter. "It's from Princess Luna. Digital appears to be on the move and has headed towards Canterlot on....Heh...riiight....A flying charriot. That almost sounds true. He's got another large something with him too. I guess that was a lot of metal..." Back in the scene before him, embers appeared. Like smoldering paper, a line of burning ash appears in the air, forming a nose, eyes, fur, a face. Tyro's head emerges out of these pyres, as though knitted together from the fire. He stands as his chest, arms, legs and paws are constructed next to the identicle body adjacent. He takes the weapon from the corpse. Two steps and he bats the man over the head, making him flop to the ground, motionless. "Digital controls entire worlds through assimilation. You are rounded up and then stuffed with electronics to become 'hardware'. From then on, your a processor in a super computer as well as a foot soldier. Or at least, the drones are. Samantha is about to meet the higher ups. Now they freak me out...." Tyro explained, collecting the message in his mouth and leaving the room while Tyro the Younger inspected the damage on his clothes. The door closes as he leaves. "I'm not letting Digital take Equestria and make it into another server. So, I gotta make this memory thing quick and you've got to tell the others what I'm showing you, Silly. Got it?"
