//------------------------------//
// Game Crash 
// Story: Reboot: New Generation 
// by The Irish Brony 
//------------------------------//

Mainframe sits in a gray, desolate quiet. No one is moving, not a sound from anything. No sound except the sound of laughter from Hex. She sits in her chair with a vid window of Mainframe in front of her with her pet scuzzy. Scuzzy is a sphere-shaped cat-looking sprite with a green gem on its head. He floats next to Hex as she laughs.
“How do you like what I’ve done to Mainframe?” She asks scuzzy, who doesn’t respond. “Well! Why so stoned face!” Hex yells at Scuzzy before calming down and realizing, “Oh wait, I forgot you are literally stoned,” Hex says before tapping on the frozen Scuzzy, causing him to float a bit back. “Oh well,” Hex shrugs as she leans back into her chair.



Spirits are frozen mid-run in the Principal Office. Some tried to run away, while others tried to hide. Standing on the far end are Pipp, Hitch, Sparky, and Phong. Pipp is looking up at the ceiling in horror while Phong has accepted his fate. Sparky is stuck in mid-stride with Hitch on his zip board holding onto Sparky’s shoulders.
The gray, concrete-like substance bursts off of Hitch as he screams out in raging anger, “HEXADECIMAL!” He sighs as he looks over at Phong. “I guess you were right, old friend, I am immune,” Hitch says before turning back to his son in his hands. “Lucky me,” Hitch says, his heart breaking at the distress on Sparky’s face. He pushes away from Sparky before using his zip board and flies over the spirits in the room. “Time to make a visit to Hexadecimal,” Hitch says as he flies out of the room before making his way out of the Principal Office.
He flies high over the city of Mainframe as he heads for the island of Lost Angels. Hitch looks at Glitch with sadness in his eyes. “Glitch, can you do a system scan?” Hitch says. Glitch beeps back at him before a small screen appears on the little blue box that was left of Glitch. “Nothing,” Hitch sighs. “As I feared. How much time do I have before total deletion?” Hitch asks before the sky turns purple.
He stops moving as the announcer yells out incoming game. A Gamecube is starting to fall onto the city. “Glitch, where is the game going to land?” Hitch asks, looking down at Glitch. Glitch beeps before a vid window appears in front of Hitch showing the location of the Gamecube. “I won’t be able to make it,” Hitch says as he watches the Gamecube land on a sector of the city.
Hitch goes back to flying toward the island before Glitch beeps again. Hitch stops and looks down at Glitch. Glitch projects another vid window in front of Hitch, who looks at it before his jaw drops. “No!” Hitch says with horror written on his face. The Gamecube was turning gray as its normally chaotic purple pattern slowly fades away.
“Warning, game crash in progress,” The announcer says as the Gamecube is completely frozen.
“No, no, no,” Hitch says, shaking his head back and forth. “Glitch, open up task manager,” Hitch commands. Glitch beeps back at him before popping up another vid window with a list of tasks. At the top is the game, listed as not responding. Hitch quickly taps the icon before going to the bottom left of the void window and pressing the end task. A pop-up appears saying admin password needed.
“Dangit Phong!” Hitch curses as he quickly tries a few passwords. Each one is denied before Hitch gives up and looks down at Glitch. “Do you think you have enough power left to crack a password?” Hitch asks Glitch. Glitch responds in beeps before the password box starts to rapidly go through the password. “Great, brute force,” Hitch says before Glitch beeps back at him. “I know it’s the only thing you can do right now,” Hitch responds as the announcer comes back.
“Game Crash imminent,”
“Here up Glitch!” Hitch yells. “Or else they will be partially nullified!” Hitch yells as the Gamecube starts to flicker as cracks start to show in the gray outer skin. White light starts to glow from the cracks before eventually going up in an explosion. “No!” Hitch yells as he watches the explosion whip out the buildings in the sector. Glitch beeps as the password goes green before fading away. “Too late Glitch,” Hitch sighs before closing the vid windows.
Hitch turns and keeps flying toward Hex’s island before the sky turns purple again. “What!” Hitch yells in surprise. “Not another one so soon!” Hitch says before looking down at Glitch. “Where is the game going to land this time?” Hitch asks as he stops. Glitch beeps at him as Hitch’s heart sinks. He looks up to see the Gamecube coming down on him. “Crap!”
Hitch yells before flying back the way he came. “Come one zip board, don’t fail me now,” Hitch whispers down at his zip board. But it was no use, the Gamecube landed on top of him, causing him to run into the wall of the game. 
“Just my luck,” Hitch grumbles as he rubs his nose. “When I don’t want in a game, I end up in one,” Hitch says as he steps off his zip board before picking it up and placing it on his hip. “Without Glitch, I’m gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way,” Hitch says, turning around to see he is at the end of a long wooden hallway. The wall goes up about two times his height before ending in an open roof to the blue sky.
“Here goes nothing,” Hitch says before double tapping his icon and yelling, “Reboot!” Green energy covers him before fading away and revealing him in a cat costume. He looks down at himself with a little confusion. “A cat, then what is the user?” Hitch says as a sound catches his attention. He looks up to see a giant mouse at the end of the hallway. It looks at him before running down another hallway.
“That must be the user,” Hitch says as he runs after the user. He slides to a stop at the turn and looks down the way the user just ran. Nothing but a long hallway with more turns that the user could have taken. “Great, he’s fast,” Hitch sighs. “And a literal cat and mouse game,”
“Hitch!” a loud, deep, and obnoxious voice yells out. Hitch sighs in deep annoyance before turning around as a walking golden crt tv walks up to him. “It’s been too long, how’ve you been!”
“Mike,” Hitch sighs as Mike keeps talking.
“Why haven’t you come back to the apartment?” Mike asks. “I have so many new products to show you,”
“Mike,” Hitch says with a bit more annoyance in his voice.
“Like the bucket-o-nothing!” Mike yells out in a dramatic voice.
“Mike,” Hitch says a bit louder.
“It’s a bucket of nothing for only ninety-nine ninety-nine ninety-nine!” Mike says.
“MIKE!” Hitch yells in anger, causing Mike to flinch as Hitch stares daggers down at the tv.
“Sorry,” Mike responds. Hitch sighs before pinching the bridge of his nose.
“This is why your remote ran away,” Hitch responds. Mike goes to talk but is interrupted when the ground jolts and shifts before returning to normal. “Crap,” Hitch says, looking up at the sky as it slowly starts to turn gray.
“What’s that?” Mike asks, looking up at the sky.
“And I thought you were the news anchor?” Hitch asks, looking down at Mike. He shrugs in response before Hitch sighs. “It’s the Medusa Bug I failed to stop from infecting Mainframe,”
“The guardian couldn’t stop a simple bug!” Mike says in shock.
“That’s the problem,” Hitch responds. “It’s simple and fast. Now if you don’t want to be partially deleted, then you will either help me delete the user, or stay out of my way,” Hitch explains, squatting down to Mike’s level.
“Yes sir!” Mike says as he salutes Hitch.
“Why does everyone keep calling me sir,” Hitch whispers to himself as he stands back up. Hitch turns around and starts walking down the hallway, checking down the other hallways as he passes them. Mike follows behind him as he hums a song.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Mike asks, looking up at Hitch. “What is partial deletion?”
“It’s when part of your code is forever deleted, no backup, no save state,” Hitch explains before stopping in front of a wall. He looks up as he scratches his chin. A smile crosses his face as he takes a few steps back before running at the wall. He jumps up and pushes his foot against the wall, jumping off of it and up towards the legend of the wall. He is stopped by an invisible energy wall that saps him back to the ground.
“You ok?” Mike asks, looking down at Hitch on the ground. Hitch takes a deep breath before sighing.
“Honestly,” Hitch says, sitting up. “No,” He states before standing up. “I’m not ok,” Hitch says before walking down another part of the maze. “I’ve failed as a guardian, I’ve failed my friends, I’ve failed to keep my son from danger, and now I’m going to get us all either deleted or partially deleted depending on if the user gets all six of the cheese coins before the game crashes,” Hitch explains in frustration. Mike stops walking as he turns and looks down one of the hallways.
“When you say cheese coins, do you mean that thing?” Mike asks, pointing down the hallway. Hitch stops and turns around to look at Mike.
“What does it look like?” Hitch asks before walking over to Mike. Hitch looks down the hallway to see a giant coin with a generic-looking piece of cheese etched into the golden coin. “Ya, that’s it,” Hitch says, walking over to the coin. “There are six of these all around the maze, and the user needs to get them to win the game,” Hitch explains as Mike walks up to him.
“So how are you going to stop him?” Mike asks.
“Well, let’s see what we have here,” Hitch looks over his body. “The tail doesn’t help,” Hitch says, looking back at the cat tail where his normal one used to be. “I wonder,” Hitch says before flexing his fingers. Sharp claws come out of the ends of his fingers. “Nice, I got claws,” Hitch says with a smile. “Meaning,” Hitch says before squatting down and jumping as hard as he can up. He springs into the air before ramming into the invisible energy field again. He falls back to the ground and lands on his feet. “High jump, check, landing on my feet, check,” Hitch says before turning to Mike. “Why haven’t you rebooted yet?”
“Null stole my icon,” Mike says, pointing to where his icon would rest normally on his face. Hitch sighs before looking around.
“Glitch,” Hitch says, looking down at his key tool. “Can you pull up the task manager?” Glitch beeps back at him before sparks fly off the key tool. “Right, you're broken and I can’t access video windows while in the game,” Hitch sighs before looking down at Mike. “So, how about you go and look for the user and anything that could help us, and I’ll stay here and protect this coin, ok?” Hitch explains.
“As you wish sir!” Mike responds before walking away.
“Stop calling me sir!” Hitch yells out as he watches Mike walk around the corner and disappear. Hitch sighs in reive before tensing back up again as he hears a loud thud from behind him. He turns around to see a part of the wall has fallen over with a binom laying on top of it. The user lands on top of the binomial and sniffs it.
“Hey! User!” Hitch yells out, causing the user to straighten up and look over at him. “Over here you overgrown mouse!” Hitch yells as the user runs towards him. “I hope this works,” Hitch whispers as he brings out his claws and is ready to jump. The user stampedes toward him as he stares down the user. He jumps up into the air, towards the user. He flies over the top of the user, barely scraping the energy field before falling back down on top of the user.
Hitch grabs his legs to hold onto the user before raising his hand and scratching the user a few times. The user screams out loud before the mouse collapses into little cubes. Hitch stands up and retracts his claws.
“Ya!” the binom yells as others join him. “We are saved!”
“Not yet,” Hitch responds, turning towards the group that had formed behind him. “The user has three lives, and we have only killed one of them,” Hitch finishes as the ground shakes again. “And the game is starting to crash because of the bug that has taken over Mainframe,”
“We know you can save us!” the binoms respond back. Hitch smiles down at the little spirits.
“All right, listen up!” Hitch commands as he places his hands on the sides of his hips. The group of binoms straightens up as Hitch looks down at them with a serious expression on his face. “I want you to spread out and find all the coins like the one behind me,” Hitch says, pointing behind him. “I then want you to try and set up traps to either delete or capture the user,” Hitch says as he scans the group. “You got that?”
“Yes sir!” They all yell.
“And don’t call me sir,” Hitch sighs. “Now go,” Hitch says, pointing over to them to leave. The group nods before running back down the way they came and spreading out into the different hallways.
“That solves one problem,” Hitch whispers to himself.
“Hitch!” Mike yells as he runs over to him.
“What is it Mike?” Hitch asks, turning around to face Mike.
“I found something that will be VERY useful,” Mike says before pulling out a small mouse trap.
“Nice work Mike!” Hitch says before taking the mouse trap from Mike. “Keep finding stuff like that and we’ll be home free,” Hitch says before the ground shakes again. “That’s if the bug doesn’t crash the game first,” Hitch whispers as he walks over to the coin. He throws the mousetrap at the coin, causing it to turn a light brown.
“All right, now we wait,” Hitch says as Mike turns down a hallway.
“Hitch!” Mike yells as he runs back to Hitch.
“What is it?” Hitch says, turning to see the user, how much bigger, turning the corner towers them. “Crap! He found an upgrade!” Hitch says before backing away. “We need to hide!” Hitch says before running behind a nearby hallway. Mike follows him as the user walks over to the coin. Hitch leans around the corner to watch the user.
The user sniffs the coin as he looks it over. He smiles before licking his lips. He goes and bites down on the coin. But before he can swallow, a giant mouse trap appears under him, springing the metal part down and crashing the mouse's neck. The user disintegrates into dust before the mousetrap does the same.
“Good, two down, one more life to go,” Hitch says before the ground joints hard. “Oh no, no, no, no!” Hitch says, shaking his head. The walls around them start to phase in and out of reality as new walls form. The user shows up and disappears at random as binoms run around in panic.
“This does not look good,” Mike says as he turns transparent.
“The game is beginning to crash!” Hitch yells as the game stabilizes. “This is bad, very bad. If we don’t end this game soon, we will have a fate worse than freezing!” Hitch yells as he drags his hands through his hair in worry. “Mike!” Hitch yells as he turns towards Mike. Mike flinches before turning towards Hitch. “I need you to go find more traps, all right,” Mike nods before running away.
“All right, user, where are you,” Hitch says as he walks up to the coin. He looks down the hallways. Each one starts to shift and disappears before reappearing. “There you… are?” Hitch says as he spots two users from different directions. “That’s not right, there is only one user in this game. Unless the crashing is causing a lagged version of the user to show up,” Hitch thinks as he looks between the two users coming from opposite hallways. “Which one, which one,” Hitch repeats to himself as he taps his chin with his finger.
“Iene Miene Mine, YOU!” Hitch says before running towards one of the users. He jumps up into the air and front flips over the top of the user. Hitch’s feet scrape the top of the energy field before he pushes against the field, sending him down toward the user. He goes straight through the user before it disappears. He faces plants into the ground as the user gets to the coin. Hitch shakes his head as he sits up.
“Ouch,” Hitch says as he rubs his jaw. He looks over to see the user eating the coin before turning around and heading back the way it came. “Oh no you don’t,” Hitch says, standing up and running towards the user. He jumps into the air and lands on the user's back. He digs his claws into the giant mouse as it starts to move rapidly around in an attempt to fling Hitch off its back.
“Curse the giant upgrade,” Hitch grumbles as he digs his claws deeper into the mouse as he tries to stay on. The user crashes into the walls of the maze, causing some to fall over. Hitch looks up to see Mike in the path the user was heading. “Mike!” Hitch yells, getting the walking tv’s attention. “Help!” Hitch yells before thinking, “Can’t believe I just asked Mike for help,”
“Mike the tv to the rescue!” Mike triumphantly states as he pulls out a spray bottle with rat repellent written across it. He spares it at the user, causing it to stop in its tracks before backing up a bit and crashing against the wall widely.
“I said help! Don't make it worse!” Hitch yells, trying to hold onto the user as they thrash about. Hitch uses his claws and drags himself up onto the mouse's face before looking into the user’s eyes. “Game over user,” Hitch says before clawing the user's eyes out. The mouse screams and pulls up as it covers its eyes. Hitch falls to the ground on his back. The game around them turns purple as it starts to leave. The announcer says game over as the Gamecube disappears and the sky returns back to normal.
“Yes!” Mike says as a group of binoms run over to them.
“You saved us Hitch!” the binomes yell out in a cheer.
“Not yet,” Hitch says as he throws down his zip board. “The bug that froze you in the first place is still at large,” Hitch says as he jumps onto his board. “But I know how to return the Mainframe back to normal,” Hitch says as he flies away. The gray color slowly returns to the sector.



“How do you like my new statue, Scuzzy?” Hex asks, turning around to face Scuzzy still floating by her chair. A row of frozen binoms floor behind her. “Oops, forgot you were made of stone,” Hex says with a little giggle as she turns back around. “Well, at least I like them. It’s not like they are falling to pieces,” Hex says with a maniacal laugh right before one of the binoms falls apart. “He was weak,” Hex comments on the statue's disintegration.
“Nice statues you have there,” Hitch compliments as he puts his legs up onto the arm of Hex’s chair. He then places his hands behind his head as he leans back in the chair.
“Oh, Hitch,” Hex says, turning around to face him. “What a lovely surprise, you aren’t made of stone?” Hex asks as her mask turns into a questioning face.
“Guardian code protected me from the bug, which might I add is very clever,” Hitch responds.
“Oh really?” Hex asks as her mask smiles.
“Ya,” Hitch says, sitting up. “Tricking Megabyte into using the bug, genius,”
“Oh Hitch, you know how much I love your compliments,” Hex starts as she turns her head away in a fake blush. “But please get out of my chair!” She yells, turning back around to face Hitch with her mask turned into an angry yell.
“You just had to ask nicely,” Hitch says as he stands up.
“Now what were you saying about my Medusa Bug?” Hex asks as she floats down to the ground near Hitch.
“I was saying just how clever of an idea it was to freeze Mainframe by using your brother's greed,” Hitch says as Hex floors around him.
“Ya, that was great of me, wasn’t it,” Hex says as she taps her chin with a wicked smile.
“Now nothing will change and you will always know exactly what will happen,” Hitch says as Hex floors in front of him.
“What was that?” Hex asks him, her face turning into question.
“Mainframe has now become so predictable. With the entire city frozen, you’ll know where everyone is at all the time,” Hitch says as he starts to dig deep into Hex’s mind.
“No!” Hex yells flying away from Hitch. “Stop it, I know what you are doing!” Hex outstretches her hand as she uses her magic to float Hitch into the air. Hitch grabs his throat as it starts to contract his airflow.
“No more Mebaybite, no more me, no more chaos,” Hitch says with a big gin.
“No! No!” Hex yells as she starts to freak out. “I can’t let this happen!” Hex yelled before snapping her fingers. Hitch drops to the ground as a pulse of energy is sent from Lost angels across the system. The energy clears the bug as it touches it until none of it was left.
“That was easy,” Hitch wipers as Scuzzy slides over to him. Scuzzy looks up at Hitch before making cat-like beeping sounds. “I made her go a bit crazy,” Hitch responds to Scuzzy. Scuzzy responds with a deed-pained expression. “Ok, crazier than normal,” Hitch says as Hex floats down to them.
“Now it was nice to see you again Hitch,” Hex says, clasping her hands together and placing them under her chin. “But could you,” Hex raises an arm up as her mask turns to anger. “Get out of my lair!” She yells as the ground below Hitch glows.
“Oh no,” Hitch says, looking down at the ground. “Not ag…” He is cut off when the ground springs up, sending him into the air and throwing him out of her lair. He goes flying up into the air and towards Mainframe.



“He did it!” SParky yells, pumping his fist into the air.
“But how?” Pipp asks as she watches the Mainframers leave the giant hallway-like room of the Principal Office.
“He must have convinced Hexadecimal to undo it,” Phone butts in. “How, I do not know,” Phong says, slowly shaking his head. The group flinches as a loud crash rings threw the room before Hitch falls down in front of them, deleting the vid window that was hovering there.
“Dad!” Sparky says with happiness and worry as he squats down. “You ok?”
“I think so,” Hitch responds as he sits up. He stretches his back before stretching out his neck.
“So how did you do it?” Pipp asks, holding a hand out for Hitch. Hitch grabs it before standing up with Pipp’s help.
“I realized that Hex loves chaos,” Hitch starts as SParky stands up. “So I used that against her. I told her that everything would never change again and that there would be no more Megabyte, or me,”
“So she reverted it because she likes the chaos of Mainframe?” Sparky asks.
“Exactly,” Hitch responds before stumbling a bit. Pipp catches him and helps him stand. “I think I need an energy drink and a hard reset,” Hitch says, rubbing his head.
“I know just the place,” Pipp responds.



“Wow, you were right,” Hitch says as he lays on a picnic blanket in one of Mainframe’s parks. “This is what I needed,” Hitch says before sipping on his energy drink.
“Try it again!” Pipp says to Sparky. Sparky hits the ignition again. The car hums to life as it floats off the ground.
“You were right about the broken compressor,” Pipp says as she shuts the hood of her car.
“Told ya,” Hitch says, sitting up as he looks over at them. Glitch beeps before the gear and orange road fly over to Hitch and land back onto Glitch. “I’m guessing your back to full power then?” Hitch asks Glitch as Pipp and Sparky walk over to him. Glitch beeps back as the two sit down with Hitch on the blanket.