Chapter 36 - New Problems

Mega sat next to Jerec on the small bed in the small bedroom and watched Jeff Veasey pace back and forth, mumbling to himself. Mega nd Jerec had both grown intensely annoyed with the genius in front of them, but, well, they couldn't do anything about it. They were both trapped, and the only way they could get out of this without facing jail time is by listening and following through with Jeff's crazy plan.

Mega eyed the large bullet hole in the wall, and recalled the stunned silence after Jeff fired the Magnum. The bullet missed completely and hit the wall directly next to Mega. Apparently, this was on purpose. Mega and Jerec were both confused, and Jeff filled them in on very small details.

Jerec leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees. "He won't go through with it. IrishGuy is a brawler, a petty yank criminal. You're stupid to think he would go along with this."

Jeff stopped pacing, and looked at Jerec. "I'm making the rules now. Don't forget, I have a separate laptop hidden somewhere with an e-mail message containing 8 months of enough evidence to get you both life in prison. And if I -"

"Yeah, we know," said Mega. "If you don't get back to it within the next 2 weeks, it'll be sent to the largest newspapers in the US. We get it. We just know it's stupid to even ask Irish to participate."

Jeff shook his head. "It may be for you two, but I'm not a killer. We have to ask first. And if he says no, you know what to do."

Jerec nodded, and ran his fingers along the smooth steel of the Magnum, which was hidden underneath the pillow on the bed. Jerec smiled, but immediately frowned. Jeff had told them the basics of what was going on, but there were some parts that were still missing. Jeff promised to inform everyone about what was going on as soon as Irish got there.

There was someone knocking on the door. Jeff smiled, and grabbed the doorknob and opened it. Irish was standing in the doorway, missing a right hand and a left eye. The eyesocket was bandaged up nicely, as was the stump of Irish's right arm. Jeff waved Irish inside, and he limped on in.

Jeff extended a hand to Irish. "Hi. I'm Jeff Veasey. I own and run GameFAQs."

Irish didn't shake Jeff's hand. "Aye, I know that. I'm not a damn fool."

Irish turned to Mega, and pointed to Jerec. "Who is this?"

"The name is Jerec. I'm Mega's personal friend and assistant."

Irish shook his head. "You could've said that you were Puff, the bloody magic dragon and I could've cared less. I want me money."

Jeff placed his hand on Irish's shoulder. "Um, about that. we can not give you the money right now."

Irish spun around. "What? I won this damn thing, I want me bloody money!"

"Something came up," said Mega. Irish turned around to look at him. "The money will be yours after you do us a favor."

Before Irish could say a word, Jeff started to talk. "Irish, I've been working on a revoultionary new type of video game. It's almost like a virtual reality simulator, but when you are placed inside of the game you don't remember who you are aside from what the
 games wants you to remember. You completely forget about everything outside of the game. Once you die in the game, you are awakened from the virtual reality world and remember every single moment of the game that happened. Neat, isn't it?"

Irish nodded, not really paying attention at all.

"It is the ultimate gaming experience. You are completely in the game! You live the game! You aren't simply controlling Mario or Luigi anymore: you fully believe you ARE Mario and Luigi. That is, until you die. You wake up from the virtual reality game with every single memory of your in-game experience. Isn't it fantastic?"

"I tested the game with a very strange, but interesting concept. 30 people sign up and participate in a game where they are supposed to kill each other with Pokemon. The last person standing is the winner."

"Aye, I believe I played that game myself." commented Irish.

Jeff nodded, and continued. "The only problem is that the game required other people to play. It was basically multiplayer only. So, I went to work creating a CPU bot to play the game against.

"I was working on it for a while, never getting the AI to fully work. One night, I go to bed and I wake up and suddenly she's alive. Don't ask me how, but the AI actually finished itself. It's the only explanation I could come up with.

"Intrigued, I started working with her inside of the game. I originally intended to make her look like she was in her teens, but apparently she had chosen the appearance of an 8 year old girl."

"How bloody cliché." muttered Irish.

"Anyway, I started putting myself into the game to work with her. I was using an experimental process that allows my outside memories to stay intact while I'm inside of the game. I couldn't very well go inside and work with her without knowing what I was doing, could I?"

Irish sighed, and wanted his money. "I guess not."

"The first few tests went well. I talked to her, she gave me her name and address, and even went so far as to call me 'daddy'. However, when I tried to leave the game, she became hostile and irritable. She wanted to spend more time with me. She said that if I left, bad things would happen.

"I rolled the dice and took myself out of the game. In doing so, I got an intense burning sensation in my head, kind of like a souped up headache. Upon further inspection, I noticed burn marks near the top of my head. I think she did that to me, she heated up the headset to teach me not to leave her like that.

"I decided not to do any in-game tests with her after that. She didn't like that, not at all. Soon, I saw her appear on my other computers in my very technologically advanced home. She began messing with the lights in my home, messing with the computer-controlled locks and the like. She locked me in my bedroom for nearly 4 hours after I scolded her for being a bad girl."

"She was getting more and more intelligent, and more and more hostile. She was even starting to play with other computers in the neighborhood. She told me that the neighbors were doing bad things, and that they deserved it.

"Needless to say, I was basically a prisoner in my own home. She kept me there and wouldn't let me leave. When she informed me that she detected that another network had hacked into my computer system and has been watching me for the last few years, I found a way of escape."

Mega coughed. He was getting bored with Jeff's story, he had already heard most of the details already. He scooted his ass back a little on the bed and looked at Jerec. Jerec was struggling to stay awake. Mega didn't know if Jerec was really falling asleep or if he was just being an ass to Jeff. Mega decided he didn't care either way.

Irish was leaning back up against the wall, his thick body covering the bullet hole. He pretended to be interested, but heard only a little. He quickly decided to not really listen to any of the words Jeff said besides "money".

"It turns out that Fedora has been monitoring my progress and work regarding my CEPBR game for a few years now. The hack was so well done; I didn't even notice it. She did, though, and I managed to get her to turn the hack back on them. She retrieved file after file regarding Fedora's unethical experiments and Mega's crimes against humanity. I also read much about Mega's CEPBR2 that was currently taking place, and the fascinating way that Fedora actually made Pokemon real living things."

Jeff turned to Mega, smiling. "I mean, who would've thought it'd be so simple? Yanking the electrical currents that represent Pokemon in the games and simply inserting them into a mish mash of tissue and blood samples along with certain chemicals! And even being able to transport people into the actual regions where the first two Pokemon games take place is astounding! I mean, who would've thought that we'd be able to actually visit Kanto or Johto?"

Mega frowned, and Jeff immediately nodded and turned back to Irish. "Sorry, I got off track there."

"I read the files she brought me, and I learned a lot about Fedora. She read them too, and decided that Mega was a man that needed to pay for what he did. So, I told her that if she found me the exact coordinates of the island Mega was currently on, I'd hunt him down and kill him.

"She happily did it for me, and I realized that I do have some sort of power over her. It's strange, considering, I mean, I didn't even actually finish creating her and she already calls me 'daddy'. I never programmed her to believe that I was her father, she just did that on her own."

Jeff trailed off, and was receiving blanks stares from Mega and Irish. Jerec was leaning forward, his eyes fighting to stay open. Jeff shook his head and apologized, and got back to the main story.

"So, I infiltrated the island due to her help. Because of the Fedora's hack, she was able to travel into their system and mess with their computers. I was basically invisible to all cameras and any real danger on the island, thanks to her.

"To end the story quite simply, I found Jerec, he led me to Mega, but I didn't kill him. I need him and Fedora to save everyone from the bot."

Irish shook his head, and rubbed his eyes. "Come on, then. Where is this going? It better be going towards money and me."

Jeff nodded. "It does involve you. I didn't kill Mega simply because what my bot is doing scares me. She's already talked about the possibility of venturing off more into other computers, causing more chaos and her idea of fun. She very well could control the entire world shortly if we don't stop her.

"So, we are sending a group of 35 people back into my game to try and stop and kill her. And we want you to come along."

Irish shook his head. "I ain't going nowhere. This is your problem, not mine. I played yer' wee little game, and I want me cash right now."

Jeff frowned, and studied Irish. "Are you sure? You can be a hero, Irish. You can save the world here. You'd get fame, fortune, riches."

Irish chuckled, and arrogantly grinned at Jeff. "Screw that. I already got me riches because I won this damn game." Irish turned to Mega and Jerec. "Give me my blasted money, now." he ordered.

Jeff sighed, and stepped over to Jerec. Jeff lightly hit him on the head, and Jerec suddenly woke up. He looked up at Jeff, who was shaking his head at Jerec. Jerec nodded, and immediately pulled out the Magnum from under the pillow. He aimed it at Irish's face, and before Irish could even move, he pulled the trigger.

There was a bright splash of blood, and Irish fell to the ground. Jeff stared down at Irish, and then at his blood soaked clothes. Jeff sighed, and shook his head.

"I'm sorry," said Jeff.

"Damn it," said Mega. "The bastard barely even has a head anymore. You know that'll make the revitalization process a lot longer."

Jeff glared at Mega. "She won't bother us for nearly a week and a half. She told me she wouldn't. She said she was making something for me, and that she'd be away from my home for that time. That's enough time for us to gather up all the bodies and start work on cloning the dead contestants' brains and building the robotic bodies for those contestants missing multiple body parts."

"You believed her?" asked Jerec. "Why?"

Jeff exhaled loudly, obviously annoyed. "She's the perfect little girl, albeit a little insane. She wouldn't lie to me, her daddy."

Mega chuckled. "She nearly tried to fry your brain."

Jeff shot an icy stare at Mega. "This isn't going to get done with us bickering like idiots. Now, how long will it take to clone the important parts?"

"The hearts and brains? Damn, I don't know. Probably 6 or so days. We'd have to add a day or two to make sure that the memories and personality for each contestant would be intact. Fedora has never really bothered to work on keeping the basic memories and personality of a person after we bring them back from the dead." Mega said.

Jeff sighed. "It'll be cutting it close. Add a few hours flying them back to my mansion. and add another two hours for me trying to properly get them hooked up to the CEPBR game. It'll be cutting it very close. Odds are, by the time she returns we will be just staring the game up."

Jerec shook his head, and stood up. "How can we guarentee that she'll decide to play along with the game? How can we make sure that when one of the contestants kill her, she'll actually be dead?"

Jeff smiled. "It's simple. For starters, she was programmed to play the CEPBR game. She has to play; it's her only purpose in life. Secondly, she told me that she was working on fixing the kinks out of the CEPBR game herself. She said before that it would be
 much more fun if when people died in the game, they'd die outside of the game, too. She told me she finished it and made it so that the headset would heat up and melt the contestant's brain when they died. Needless to say, I didn't want to test it out.

"Also, she's a computer robot, guys. If she dies in the game, she doesn't have a body to go to outside of the game."

Mega groaned, and stood up. Jeff was missing a critical point. "What if someone does kill her? What if only one person survives? We have someone that died that is suddenly out of the game and walking around. What do we do then?"

Jeff grinned at Mega. "We offer Fedora's money to the survivor to keep him or her quiet."

Mega shook his head and sighed. "Jesus Christ."

"There may be a chance that someone who died here won't win this next CEPBR. The odds of us successfully using every contestant who died here's body is slim to none. We'll have to find other people to drug and put into the game to participate." Jeff said.

Mega nodded. "Should I make a call to all Fedora workers in the human revitalization process and tell them to get their asses back here?"

Jeff nodded. "Get the greatest computer hacking experts, too. We'll have to do this back at my home, and even with the bot being forced to participate in the CEPBR, we don't need to take any chances."

Mega nodded, and Jerec cleared his throat. Mega and Jeff turned to him.

"I'm not good with this technology crap. As much as it feels odd to say this, I want to help."

"Good," said Jeff. "We'll need muscle. Odds are the bot won't be too happy that we'll be trying to kill it. She might send something after us. I have a feeling that whatever she said she was making me isn't necessarily friendly. We'll need muscle and someone to protect us."

Jerec nodded and smiled. "I guess I'll be getting ahold of some of our best guards, then."

"Do it quickly. We don't have much time." Jeff said.

Jerec left the room, and Jeff went to follow him. Mega grabbed Jeff's arm and stopped him.

"What's her name?" Mega asked.

"What?"

"You created her, the CPU bot. You had to have given her a name."

"It's hardly important, but her name is BethanyM," said Jeff. "Now come on. Time is something that we don't have."