User visit: Mark Grayson

[a1enzo]

"Okay," says Enzo, leading Mark into the digimat room, "just stand over there in the target area so I can shoot you with this laser."

Comments

[a1enzo]

"Hey, sprites come in all different configurations. You look fine. Just more different than usual."

Binome transformations don't count.

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Right,"says Mark. "I'll try not to think about how I am supposed to eat like this." His tone is light, so he seems okay with however it will be.

He lifts off of the floor by about six inches, and then lands again. "Powers seem unchanged," he announces. "So, now what? On to the Academy?"

[a1enzo]

Hack and Slash manage; he should be fine.

"You got it!"

They leave the room, go along the hall, down the stairs, through the barroom, out the Door, and a bunch of alarms go off.

[1nv1nc1ble]

Mark slows as he walks through the Bar. He looks around the room, expecting some sign that his vision has been changed with the digitization, but his brain is telling him that everything looks like it always has. Probably because it's been digitized too.

However, he does note that, as they step through the Door, that Enzo's home world (System, he mentally amends) somehow looks a lot more... natural than he expected. Of course, this thought is immediately overwhelmed by the screaming alarms. "Um... Enzo?"

[a1enzo]

"What the frag?" Enzo yelps. Lights are flashing as well. Additional noise comes from the other side of the door behind them—not from Milliways, but the other side of the normal door, which leads to the cafeteria. Most of the other cadets are still at dinner, and they are understandably surprised.

A few cadets already out in the hall stare at Enzo and Mark. Defensive stances are adopted, even before a voice on the loudspeakers starts bellowing. Between klaxon blares, phrases like "...in the building..." and "...NOT a drill..." and "...somebody want to explain just how the /dev/null it got..." can be heard (though that last probably wasn't supposed to be audible).

More cadets, upperclasssprites, start emerging from the cafeteria. Some of them have weapons.

"Dude," Enzo screams over the noise, "I promise, this is not normal!"

[1nv1nc1ble]

Invincible, being... well, invincible, does what he normally does in situations like this: step between oncoming hostility and less-invincible civilians. Okay, Enzo's not a civilian, but he's still more squishy than Mark, who's taken alien field artillery to the chin before and only been knocked around. Reflexively, his fists come up into a guarded position.

"I figured that," he replies, also shouting. The top edge of the visor on his face has slanted down, giving Enzo the first change in expression he's seen since the digimat. "But you should probably start talking. I really don't want to hurt your classmates."

[a1enzo]

"Right. Right! Guys! False alarm! FALSE ALARM! Stand down! He's just..."

A small camera drone, zipping along near the ceiling, stops as it gets a view of them and beeps frantically. A moment later, a vidwindow pwings open in front of them, displaying an elderly Guardian with an impressive beard.

"Cadet Matrix," he barks. "Please tell me why I should be surprised at this, because we are all dying to know!"

"Yes! Yes sir, Administrator, sir! This is my friend Mark! He's a User! He's tonight's guest! I don't know why..."

"Oh, for the love of..." The Administrator leans offscreen and does something, and the alarms stop. Still leaning offscreen, he declares and the PA system echoes: "Right, now we can all hear ourselves think. This is the Guardian Academy, unless I'm mistaken; I think we can all remain on alert without all this crashing noise. I will sound the all clear when it is."

Switching off the mike, he comes back into view, still scowling ferociously. "Right. Now, cadet, would you like to tell me why our security scanners inform me that A WEBCREATURE HAS PORTALED INTO MY CAMPUS?"

[1nv1nc1ble]

Principal Winslow, he ain't, thinks Mark, who's own school administrator prides himself on being softly spoken and prone to more quiet declarations. "Um, sir?" he says aloud, addressing the window. "I'm not sure exactly what you mean by a 'Webcreature,' but I'm just a superhero from Riverside. Enzo offered to show me the Academy and let you guys ask a few questions. I didn't mean to cause any problems."

He looks over at Enzo, the visor relaxing into what an imaginative observer might call 'confused'. "Webcreature?"

[a1enzo]

"It's a... creature. From the Web." Helpful.

Louder, he tells the Admin, "Sir, I vouch for him completely. I don't know why he's registering as a Webcreature. We digitized him just like normal. I mean, maybe he looks a little different from when he's human, but..."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Well, maybe more than a little different," interjects Mark. "I mean, normally, I have a nose and mouth, just like other people." He spies a binome in the crowd, and hastily adds, "Er... humans."

Suddenly, something occurs to Mark. "Um, Enzo... I'm only half human. Dad's a Viltrumite, remember?"

[a1enzo]

"Oh... crash it. That's gotta be it. He's half alien, sir. That part must have translated as..."

"Yes, yes, I get the picture. Hmph. And a hero, you say? Well, Mr. Hero, if that's true I'm sure you won't mind us giving you a proper scan?"

"You may as well," Enzo murmurs. "It doesn't take long, and all you have to do is stand there."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"If it makes everyone here happy," says Mark, "scan away. Heck, do it twice. Just to make sure."

He steps out, hands at his sides in as neutral a stance as he can offer.

[a1enzo]

"Glad to hear it." The Admin looks beyond them to such of the crowd as he can see behind them. "You and you, escort them to the infirmary." The vidwindow closes as abruptly as it opened.

One cadet precedes them down the hallway, while another follows behind. "I am so sorry about this," Enzo mutters, mortified. "The Guardian Collective, not everyone in it but as a group, is kind of... fundamentally paranoid. I mean, it has to be, that's our job, but..."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Hey, it's cool," replies Mark, lightly. "You're police. Police have to be like police. This isn't the first time I've had someone point a gun at me."

He looks around as they're escorted down the hall. "And it's certainly a different tour than you've given the other folks who've come here." He waves at a cadet, gawking as they pass. The Q&A should be interesting.

[a1enzo]

Actually, what the girl behind them (who looks at least as embarrassed about it as Enzo) is pointing at him is more like a crossbow, albeit one with a glowstick for a bolt.

They are indeed getting some excellent stares, but some cadets wave back. Others are already laughing themselves sick, and a few even cheer.

If nothing else, Mark has made the evening interesting.

[1nv1nc1ble]

Gun, crossbow, death ray... it's all pretty much the same. There's a right end and a wrong end, and as the man said, being on the wrong end means that things are going to go badly for you. (Unless you're, you know, invincible.)

"So, since we're here, you can always give me some of the tour now, if you want," he says to Enzo, looking around. "This appears to be an excellent example of a hallway, but I'm sure there's more here to see."

[a1enzo]

"Well, this is Academy CTRL. It's, you know, administration, assemblies, the cafeteria. That kind of thing. Everyone calls it Master Control."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Sounds familiar," Mark muses, nodding. He looks around, noting that it looks, pretty much, like a futuristic version of the administrative building at UCSC, which he saw when he went on his campus tour a few weeks ago. Hopefully, there won't be any cyborgs attacking during the tour.

"Everything else is linked to here?"

[a1enzo]

"The buildings? Nah. They're all spaced around the Hub. There's four academic buildings, the PE cluster, and the dorm."

[1nv1nc1ble]

Mark nods. He looks around, taking in the architecture and the long line of pictures (GIFs?) of what appear to be headmasters or other distinguished, somber educators looking down at the student body with expressions of disapproval. (Either that, or that fellow with the chrome handlebar moustache had a bad case of gas when they took the picture).

"Is the PE stuff just like sports, or do you guys learn the tools of the trade over there?" He indicates the crossbow-like armament in his escort's hands with a glance. "Or is that part of the field training you're doing with Whatshisname?"

[a1enzo]

Their escort (a pale blue girl with copper hair and big goggles) speaks up. "It's mostly combat t-training. There's also the g-general stuff, though. Climbing, running, swimming, weights. Sports are mostly in G-Game training."

[1nv1nc1ble]

Mark starts a little when the girl speaks, but nods. "Plenty of places to blow off steam, too, it sounds like. Or do you guys prefer to be away from the Admins when you have fun?"

He turns and addresses the girl directly. "Hi. I'm Mark. The dangerous Webcreature." He raises his hands and claws the air. "Rar."

[a1enzo]

"We go out into the system a lot in the evenings, yeah." One does need to get off campus occasionally.

The girl smiles at him, to make it quite clear that this was not her idea. "I'm Alvey."

"She's cool," Enzo informs Mark. "She's one of my roommates' girlfriend, actually."

"I'm Gil," supplies their forward escort. He's a couple years days older than Enzo, with teal skin and a more conventional (if sci-fi-ish) sidearm.

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Well, that's good," replies Mark. "It'd suck if this was run like some weird digital boarding school."

"It's nice to meet both of you," says Mark sincerely. "So, now that we're all on speaking terms, can someone tell me what it is about Webcreatures that got the talking head with the Santa Claus beard so worked up?"

[a1enzo]

It is a weird digital boarding school. It's not a prison, though.

"Some Webcreatures are invasive," Alvey explains. "They're not really adapted to life in the Net, b-but it's still a safer environment than the Web. At least, we think that's why. Anyway, if one turns up in a system at all, it's usually the bad k-kind."

"And some of them can create portals," Gil adds. "So if they're not contained, they can spread from system to system."

Enzo says nothing, but looks grim. It's not a favourite topic.