Refractions [∞ Enigma ∞ - Hacker Event]

“Stop!” Skultone was only able to get the command out of his mouth before the orc caught him in the head with her staff. With a grunt he was knocked forwards and then backwards, the flail sending a sudden wave of pain through his body. The combo attack was enough to send him to his back, stars glittering around the corners of his vision. Reflexively he brought his rifle up and sent a shot at her midsection, the weighted bullet meant to slow down opponents sped at her and he rolled to his side and clambered to his feet without checking to see if it had hit.

Instead he was off and running towards the hacker, only now realizing the tiny gold dragon had flung themselves at the orc as well. Well enough, if that held her attention he could focus on-

The hacker, his hand already inside another NPC’s head. Skultone fired again, then twice more. Chains attaching to each bullet meant to snare and hold down the hacker. Now he was closer to the crowds of people, and they made themselves into obstacles all on their own as they lashed out at him. An arrow sped out from the faceless mob to stick out of his metal shoulder and he cried out in a mixture of anger and pain at the attack.

Enigma had intended to keep Jellybaby between himself and the SC.CO security officer, but the break to the side left him momentarily vulnerable. As Skultone lined up his shot and pulled the trigger, Jellybaby was already springing into action. The swirling cube of colors lurched sideways, racing to interrupt the passage as three gun reports went off.

Thanks to the slowing music flowing from the nearby bard, the summon managed to only catch a single one of the bullets with it's mass but thanks to the metaphysical chains that linked the three projectiles it was enough. One projectile whizzed into the gelatinous cube and wavered, slowing drastically and twisting and turning in the jell. The linked bullets shifted their course, being pulled by the one that was still in the cube before their own velocity pulled the stuck bullet out the side of the summon.

The three projectiles now thrown off course whizzed past Enigma and the dockmaster eliciting an curse from the hacker. "Careful where you aim those good boy. You might hurt someone with that. Didn't the little golden fish-eater tell everyone to stop fighting?" As he spoke, the summon moved back into position between his master and the security guard, pushing a few people to the side with pseudopods in order to do so.

"Poor little puppet Skultone. Can't even see the strings that hold him down. Doing the dirty work for his puppet masters who try so hard to remain in the shadows." Enigma removed his hand from the forehead of the Dockmaster he had been fiddling with. "The light is coming to chase away the shadows. You'll see."

When the small dragon hissed at the orc, Hikio turned their head toward the sound of hissing and spitting. Watching the orc attacking Skultone from behind was more than the ferret could bear. She had to do something!

Hikio was fearsome creature suddenly; in attempt to relieve her mind of anger she tried to intimidate the orc and get back at them for what they had done to Skultone. Hikio roared in their face, and then attacked. Running closer, Hikio attempted to claw them in the face with their bare claws. It was inconsiderate to attack someone for no good reason, and Skultone had done nothing to disserve Artemis' cowardly attempted grapple.

Hikio didn't care if protecting Skultone would let all of the other people on the ship through; if it was to protect someone, Hikio would do it.

Though Hikio was much smaller than the orc, she bared her teeth as she roared at the other woman. "You're about to find out that big things come in small packages!!!"

Artemis glared at the small ferret with annoyance. The cute creature bared it's teeth as a threat which Artemis dismissed quickly. Hikio did not scare her, but the little golden dragon with fierce looks did. Backing away from it, Artemis turned around, facing the hacker and his gelatinous cube of swirling rainbows. She glanced at the threatening bullets that the slime had caught and dismissed the sense of worry. Glancing back at the dragon, she quickly formulated her "peaceful" plan of actions.

Rushing forward, she stood alongside the large ooze. Turning on her heel, she moved with it, puffing up her chest to maker herself a bigger target. She was willing to take a hit or two, she had dealt with damage in this game a lot, and she was determined to aide the hacker in his goal. Using her own body as a shield was the only non combative tactic she could think of, so that's what she was going with.

Sensory overload should have been setting in for the securities agent at this point. The press of the playerbase shifting allegiances, NPCs struggling between their code and the hacker’s rewrites of their data and being unable to execute either with a great deal of success. And then the gold dragon screeching from on top of the blob of rainbow while the orc player continued to defend the hacker. That was what he ended up focusing on, his chest heaving and his weapon pointed directly at her head now, instead of the softer, less lethal areas he had shot at before.

“As an officer of safety and security for SC.CO. this is the last chance I’m offering you to stand aside before your character is terminated from the current play session and placed in confinement to determine if you’ve violated the game’s TOS. If you don’t want to possibly be banned, player Artemis, stand aside now.” his eyes were hard, the sickly yellowish green bright and flicking between her and the hacker hiding behind his color-changing blob.

“As for you,” He rasped, noting the way the players around them were beginning to slow as if falling into a slumber. “I’m executing my job. Cease your actions immediately before I execute your avatar as well.” He was bluffing, the rifle steady and pointed at Artemis. If she moved, he would fire, and if she disengaged he would fire on the hacker instead. His name was still inaccessible to Skultone, and between the static from the other members of his security team and the interference from the hacker he was alone and doing his damnedest to keep his cool. The fact that several players had stopped to help him bolstered his energy somewhat but it wouldn’t be enough if he couldn’t stop this entire zone from falling into chaos.

Enigma let a pained look wash across his tyedye face.  "Too much to do and too little time."  He moved slightly back to the dock guardian he had just left, letting the bulk of the gelatinous cube stay between himself and the pesky SC.CO agent.  He began working on the guardians code even as he spoke to his summon. "Help that curious creature that poorly choose it's perch will you?  And while you're at it, move that helpful Orc out of the way, wouldn't want her to get in trouble with the law now, would we?"

The cube responded almost before he finished speaking, a pseudopod pushing out of it's body where the small golden dragon had alighted on it's top.  The pseudopod lifted the dragon clear of it's body and deposited it carefully on the other side of Artemis.  Then the pseudopod just dissipated, leaving it's slime to drop down, potentially dousing the Orc in a wash of paralyzing slime if she didn't dodge to the side, removing her from Skultone's sights.  This of course left Enigma fully and nearly alone in Skultone's aim, excepting the cube which stayed put between the two, protecting it's master.

A pulse rippled out simultaneously from the three dockmasters that had been reprogramed by Enigma as he removed his hand again from the third one.  As the ripples expanded outward, the real dollar price tags washed away from all of the vendors and hawkers, leaving only the in game currency prices posted.

"That does it JellyBaby, time to make a hasty retreat."  He waved at the playerbase as his gateway expanded into existence next to him. "Enjoy everyone.  You've earned it."  The ooze began squeezing through the gate, finally clearing the shot for Skulltone and the report of his rifle echoed above the din of the music floating above the stunned to silence crowd.  Enigma dived into the gelatinous cube to try and dodge the bullet, but he had not counted on the slow effect of the music.  The bullet caught the technicolor avatar in the shoulder, letting a spray of tyedye blood splatter across the docks and hawkers behind the avatar even as he made good his escape.

As the gateway slid in on itself, closing down to a line then disappearing, every avatar in the town got a logout notice from SC.CO.
"We are sorry for the inconvenience, but this content has been temporarily taken offline for server maintenance."