Chapter Text
EXTRACTION BEGINNING. LOADING… LOADING… EXTRACTION COMPLETE.
Sight returned to Impulse first. His vision was crowded with alerts, warning him about the crash, his systems, automatically running various small scans, and suggesting more. Feeling came next and the rest of his senses just after.
“Impulse, right? Impulse, can you hear me?”
Impulse groaned but dismissed the notices and turned his head. Next to him crouched a Player, the plain gray, black, and white skin announcing their status as an Admin. A whole array of screens were open around them. A sense inside Impulse that was partly Code and partly android told him several were connected to him.
“Good. Can you run a standard diagnostic scan for me?”
Impulse nudged his system. Thirium leak, high temperature, stress level numbed to ten percent but slowly rising as awareness came to him, no glitches, and natural regen returned to him.
“Good job.” The Admin poked a straw into his mouth, leading to a thirium packet. As Impulse slowly filled his “hunger” to assist in natural regen, they asked him to run a few more scans, confirming his Code and pieces were successfully extracted. They were, and the Admin asked him to perform a few more physical tests, following their finger, wiggling his limbs and stretching, and answering a few simple questions. Finally, they asked for permission to look through his Code and double check everything. Impulse hesitated, even though he knew it was a good idea.
“If you don’t want me to, that’s fine. Everything seems to be in order so it would be just a precaution. I recommend checking in with your doctor or home Admin as soon as possible, especially if Crash symptoms persist.”
“Thanks,” Impulse mumbled. He was still a little numb but that should fade away soon.
“Impulse!” Suddenly Impulse was blindsided by Skizz. He didn’t look much better than him, but he must have been extracted before Impulse because Impulse certainly wasn’t feeling up to moving around. He clumsily pat Skizz on the back. The Admin cleared their throat pointedly and Skizz dropped the half-hug compromise. A second Admin ran over, looking very disapproving.
“Let me finish—” the second Admin tapped a few buttons. “There. Your Code’s in the clear. Thank you.”
“Thanks. Dipple Dop, are you okay?”
“Yeah… I think so. Just… give me a minute,” Impulse said.
“Okay. I’m checking on Tango.” Skizz squeezed his shoulder and left. Impulse watched him go to an Admin finishing a check-up on a Tango who looked as good as Impulse felt, mismatched eyes crossed behind red glasses. Impulse looked around.
They were in the waiting room. All the excited Players were gone now, it was only Admins, Mods, some guards outside, the employees behind the window and iron door, and Impulse and his—wait. Where was Zedaph?
Before Impulse could get worked up, one of the Admins called, “I got the last one!”
A hit box formed on the ground, covered up quickly by particles to protect the privacy of Zedaph’s Code as he was pulled from the Crash and Player Hibernation. When the particles dissolved, Zedaph was laying limp, hearts flashing above him shoving how low he’d gotten. Two Admins immediately ran diagnostics on him, working through waking him up and making sure his Code was okay before daring to heal those hearts.
|| Impulse’s Stress: Rising: 25%
“Will he be okay?” Skizz sat next to Impulse again, this time half-carrying Tango.
“Yes, he will,” one of the Admins said. “Looks like whatever hit him had its damage levels altered and the crash reset it to what it was supposed to be.”
Now that Impulse thought about it, Zedaph had been able to fend off a large swarm of flies, all on his own, when only the round before they all died in seconds to a much smaller one. Did the glitching spread the total values around?
Impulse leaned into Skizz and found Tango’s hand. The flare of guilt was nothing compared to the fear that Zedaph’s Code wouldn’t recover. Tango weakly squeezed back.
They didn’t need to worry. Zedaph did wake, immediately mumbling for his weapon. The little tests the Admins ran didn’t take long to confirm the only issue was the usual recovery from Player Hibernation and low health, and the latter was fixed immediately.
“There we go, good as new!” One of the Admins pat his shoulder. “Hang out with your friends, we’ll ask what happened in a minute.”
Skizz hauled them up to move. Tango could walk just fine, but Impulse was forced to rely on Skizz. Skizz caught him with both arms.
“Whoa, you good there?”
“Mm.” Standing up felt like too much.
“Don’t stress yourself,” the Admin who tended to him warned. “You were the closest to that virus. We pulled you out first and it’s a miracle you recovered this fast.”
“Oh…”
“Wait,” Tango said. “Did you say—"
Three Admins entered the lobby, carrying a container of pure Code. Thrashing and glitching inside was dark smoke dotted with white points. Impulse’s thirium ran cold.
A virus.
It hadn’t been an odd glitch at all. It was a virus. Someone had purposefully set up a virus that mimicked his friend, gotten into his head, and nearly got him to kill Tango. Forget Impulse waking up so quickly; it was a miracle the Glitch Sticks worked at all.
“Where’d that come from?” Skizz shouted.
“Not sure, but the employees seemed pretty shocked,” one of the Admins carrying the virus said, a blaring yellow LED standing out against their on-duty skin.
“They’re still in trouble though. This place has horrible security and safety measures, and don’t get me started on the accessibility ones!” another one, not an android, grumbled.
“I’m never picking the game again,” Skizz swore.
“Now now, let’s not go to extreme measures,” Zedaph said. With Skizz’s help, Impulse made it to Zedaph’s side and they all sat there, watching everyone run around and set things right. Impulse spotted one of the android Admins sitting in another corner talking to a person with their face in their knees. A flashing red LED shone from buzzed pale hair. Impulse started. That was the SV receptionist android. The SV shifted occasionally, and Impulse couldn’t hear him speak but the Admin talked like it was a conversation. The SV peeked out once, revealing dazed and aware eyes. Impulse had a feeling that face would soon look very different.
Eventually, the android Admin who carried the virus out, sat next to them.
“Hi. You can call me CattyJoy,” the Admin said. “I just have a few questions about what happened in there.”
“So do we,” Impulse admitted.
“Then let’s see if we can get answers for both of us, hm?”
The story took a lot less time to tell than Impulse thought it would. The realization that the game itself was less than an hour was mind-boggling. The most time anything took was the extraction, at nearly three hours.
CattyJoy was very understanding. They praised Impulse and his friends for not trying the “die to return to lobby” plan and for figuring out who Tapy was.
“It was the crash that alerted us. If you’d stayed holed up in there, it would have taken much longer. The Mod team here is less than adequate, and rest assured we will be investigating that. There’s probably going to be a lawsuit and you’re welcome to add your experience to that. Thank you for answering all our questions, if we need you we’ll contact you. You’re free to go.”
The four of them mumbled their thanks and left as quickly as they could. Physically, they were all more or less back to normal, but Impulse’s thoughts kept running around and he couldn’t stop the horrible guilt twisting inside.
“Let’s get something to eat,” Skizz suddenly announced.
“Food? Really?” Tango asked.
“It’s a good way to get your mind off things!” Zedaph chimed in.
As androids, Impulse and Tango didn’t eat, but the fastest way to get supplies where they needed to go was through their mouths. It was originally meant for just thirium, but as androids became Players it was considered only fair that a food be designed for them. Technically, Cyber-Food was more of a gum, packed full of flavor, thirium, silicone, and other materials androids needed, but it was close enough. And Impulse could use some of those materials right now, but he didn’t feel like eating.
The mood didn’t improve even when they sat at a table out of the way, each with a plate. It wasn’t just Impulse either. Zedaph had run up to the Zubway counter, opened his mouth, and faltered before ordering a sandwich off the menu instead of a crazy customization that he was now nibbling his way through. Skizz was staring into his soup like it was going to reveal the answers to life. Or maybe he was transfixed by his reflection. Impulse certainly wasn’t going to see his the same way again.
Tango swirled a Cyber-Food French Fry through a reddish-purple thirium sauce, staring past Impulse’s shoulder, LED as yellow as Impulse’s. Impulse looked down at his own food.
His fork poked the salad until a leaf speared on a tine. He reluctantly brought it to his mouth. The virus must have messed with his taste; there was barely anything. He mechanically chewed until he realized what he was doing and spit it out before it was ready. It landed on the divider between his salad and what was supposed to be for spent Cyber-Food. It flopped into his salad.
“Dipple Dop? You good there?” Skizz asked.
“Huh?” Impulse looked up and wished he didn’t. The look on Skizz’s face was so concerned. Impulse knew what he was really asking and looked back down, forcing himself to put a sliced carrot in his mouth. “Mhm.”
“Are you sure?”
“Mhm.”
“That’s good.”
Impulse glanced at him suspiciously.
“So you’ll have no problem telling me what’s going on in your head, right?”
Impulse shook his head. “Nothing,” he lied, even though he could see Skizz glance at his LED.
Silence. Impulse continued to chew his carrot, even though it was long out of flavor.
“Tango?” Zedaph asked.
“Yeah?”
“How about you? Want to talk about it?”
Tango wheezed a laugh. “Talk about what? There was a virus, it sucked, I’m alive and it’s over. What’s there to talk about?”
Impulse dared to glance up again, in time to see Skizz and Zedaph give each other long looks.
“I think there’s plenty to talk about,” Zedaph corrected. “…I didn’t know you… felt like—”
“Stop.”
“—we don’t care,” Zedaph finished. Tango hunched over. Impulse picked his carrot from his mouth and set it down. He didn’t eat another piece. Were they sure androids didn’t have the ability to throw up?
“I’m sorry we made you feel that way,” Zedaph said. He held out his hands. “I promise, we do love you. So how do we do better?”
“We can boot up a hardcore world and you can shoot me if you want,” Skizz offered, both serious and joking.
Tango’s body shook.
|| Tango’s Stress: Rising: 34%
“Tango,” Zedaph said gently. While they were all best friends, Zedaph and Tango were the closest to each other. If there was anyone who could convince Tango to open up, it was Zedaph.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Tango made a sound between a laugh and a sob. He clawed at the crack in his forehead, skewing his glasses. “I just—I’ve always felt like this, but then Third Life happened and I know it was a game so why does it feel so bad? And then-and then today—” He swiped at dry eyes and scowled.
“Nothing’s wrong with you, Top! Sometimes things just hit harder.” Skizz shuffled over and held out his arms. “Skizz hug?”
Tango whined and leaned into him. Zedaph scooted in on the other side.
“That’s it. Let it out. You want to turn your tears back on?”
Another whine. And clear liquid seeped from Tango’s tightly closed eyes. They gathered in his glasses and Tango fumbled to drop them on the table, helped by Zedaph.
The bubble of guilt inside Impulse finally burst.
“I’m so sorry, Tango. I didn’t mean… I thought…” Impulse fumbled his words and decided to Void with it. He held out his hands. Tango hesitated for a moment but reached out, tangling their fingers together.
“I know. That was a pretty good copy, huh?”
“That’s no excuse. I should have known something was up. That was all on me. You’re my-my best friend, and I’ll never doubt you again,” Impulse swore.
“If Grian does another game, you can sit out with me? Or we’ll talk with him about some new rules, maybe?” Zedaph said. “You’ll definitely want to talk with Etho and whoever else, to clear the air. No one hates you or doesn’t care about you. We want you to be okay, and if we have to change something in ourselves, so be it.”
“I don’t want to be a burden…”
“The whole point of friends is to carry each other, no matter how rough things get. That’s why it’s a friendship.”
Everyone groaned at Skizz’s pun. “What? I thought it was good!”
“All you have to do is tell us if we’re hurting you.” Impulse squeezed Tango’s hand. “We love you. We’ll listen. I’ll listen. I swear.”
Zedaph and Skizz chimed in their agreement, doubling down on loving Tango.
Tango chuckled. “Thanks guys.” His LED faded into blue.
|| Tango’s Stress: Lowering: 29%
He swiped his eyes again, this time wiping away liquid. He sat up, encouraging everyone to give him space, but no one fully moved away. Impulse smiled. It didn’t feel like much, but it was a step to making sure his friend was okay and keeping him that way.
Tango squeezed Impulse’s hand. “What was it that Tapy was talking about? About not being like Bdubs?”
|| Impulse’s Stress: Rising: 30%
Impulse shrugged uncomfortably. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I’d say it’s something to worry about,” Skizz said. He was looking at Impulse’s crack and Impulse quickly put his hand down, avoiding Skizz’s eyes and ending up staring at the tattoo on his jaw.
“Dipple Dop—Impulse. I’ve never seen you get like that before, whatever this is, it’s bothering you a ton. Please talk to us, buddy.”
Just like Tango was closest to Zedaph, Impulse was closest to Skizz. The walls finally crumbled.
“He betrayed me,” Impulse said weakly. “He just—we were a team! Ride or die, the whole time, and then at the end he threw me away over a clock? Like I was just—like I am just a robot he can get another of.”
Skizz sucked in a breath and he opened his arms out. Impulse nodded. He wanted Skizz’s solid presence more than his aversion to hugs. Skizz looped his arm over Impulse’s shoulder after. Zedaph leaned into him, with Tango on his other side, still holding Impulse’s hand.
“Good old android complexes, huh?” Tango said dryly. Tango’s eyes peered into his, reflecting a similar pain. Impulse gave a single laugh.
“Yeah.”
“You’re not replaceable,” Skizz said firmly. “You’re not some robot we’re going to get tired of. You’re Impulse, our best buddy, and it’s going to stay that way. And if you ever doubt that, just say so and we’ll put a stop to it.”
“Thanks,” Impulse said. He rubbed his crack. Skizz honed in on it again, but Impulse suddenly couldn’t care. “I’m so tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop. To stop being useful enough. For… for my friends to decide to betray me.” Impulse glanced at Tango. “I still shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
“Oh. Yeah. Well…” Tango shrugged. “I forgive you. You got the right one in the end, didn’t you? How’d you figure that out anyway?”
“Uh… he was too confident. You’re never confident about anything,” Impulse said.
“Yeah, I picked that up too,” Skizz said. Zedaph nodded along.
“…Score one for crippling depression?” Tango grinned.
|| Impulse’s Stress: Lowering: 25%
They all laughed, and Impulse felt a little lighter. They separated out a little, to get back to their food, forcing Tango to let go of Impulse’s hand, only for Skizz to wind their hands together. Zedaph leaned against Tango as he ate his own food.
“And you should talk with Bdubs when we’re done here. I’ve never met the guy, but I kinda hope you’ll have me with you when you do,” Skizz said darkly.
Impulse admitted, “He’s not a bad guy. He’s just…” Impulse tried to think of the right word.
“A dramaificator?” Tango suggested.
“Yeah. That.” Impulse thought about it. “I would like you there with me though.”
“Want me and Tango there too?” Zedaph offered. “And Tango, the offer is also open for anyone you need to talk to.”
“Please,” Tango seized. He wiped at the moisture in his glasses furiously.
“Yes please,” Impulse said.
“You got it!”
Impulse munched on his salad. The mood was slowly lightening up, and the guilt and fear Impulse had been carrying around was already starting to fade. He hadn’t realized how bad his stress levels had been until he was watching them dip into the teens for the first time since Third Life.
Skizz started talking about other games they could play, if they still wanted to play. Impulse watched him with a smile as he did, as loud and physically expressive as he always was, the tattoo on his jaw, a near perfect replica to the crack Bdubs’ killing blow left on Impulse.
“I want to get my crack fixed,” Impulse blurted. He hadn’t thought about it, but now that it was out he knew it was true. He wanted the damage, the evidence of someone throwing him away, gone. He didn’t need it, not when he had his friends who wouldn’t turn on him. He’d already hurt them once because of his fear. He needed to move on from it.
He expected Skizz to make a joke about Impulse changing his mind so soon after getting the tattoo, but Skizz just beamed at him.
“We can do that! What do you say, we spend the rest of the day working on that?”
“Ooo! I know someone who works on android Players!” Zedaph raised his hand. “I’ve heard lots of great things about her, and she does walk-ins!”
|| Impulse’s Stress: Lowering: 13%
“Me too?” Tango said. He hesitated when they all looked over at him, but it was with encouragement. “I-I want—I don’t deserve this.”
Impulse glanced at Tango’s crack. Running from his eye up his forehead, he’d had it longer than Impulse had known him, gotten from Zedaph’s horrible boss before Hermitcraft, when Tango first turned deviant. It would be strange to see him without it. Impulse couldn’t imagine what it would be like to carry his own hurtful reminder for so long, and how much hurt Tango had to be in to keep it for so many years. Impulse was incredibly glad Tango was changing that now, and that his friends could help him before he fell deeper into Bdubs’ betrayal.
“Of course!” Zedaph beamed. “That’s how I know her! I didn’t want to pressure you, but I thought, you know, if you changed your mind…”
“I have. I want this gone,” Tango said firmly.
|| Tango’s Stress: Lowering: 10%
“Then it’s settled.” Impulse smiled at his friends. “Tango and I are getting fixed up today.”
Skizz and Zedaph cheered. Tango put his glasses back on, laughing. Skizz jumped up, grabbing Tango and Impulse, dragging Zedaph along accidentally.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Impulse shoved his food in his inventory just before Skizz hauled them away, following Zedaph toward the tech, and Impulse couldn’t stop smiling.
He had the greatest friends ever.
|| Impulse’s Stress: Stable: 0%