Chapter Text
Boothill slammed open the door to his Motel room, closed and locked it behind him, and plopped down on the bed face first.
Dagnabbit I’m tired.
Reluctantly, he sat up, legs hanging over the side of his bed. Boothill stretched, then stood and grabbed the charger provided by the motel.
I should probably just steal my own portable charger, it’s gettin’ mighty annoying having to request one every time i’m not sleepin’ on my ship.
He plugged the charger into his body and turned back towards the bed.
He paused.
Wait… what was I doing? … I’m plugged into a charger… why…?
He felt a sudden onslaught of unexplainable fear.
Why am I scared? I’m Boothill, fer aeon’s sake. I don’t git scared. … Why am I scared??
[Error. Unable to obtain Memory. Logic Module Is Not Responding. Legs Disconnecting. Reconnecting…]
Boothill collapsed onto the floor, still plugged into the charger.
Oh fer the love of Lan, fork me… what the muddlefudgin’...
Boothill could feel his processing speed slow down dramatically.
No… I can’t- I… I need… help……
He heard a strange notification sound in his head.
[Congratulations! You Have Been Selected For-]
What the Blazes–?! Can cyborgs even Get Pop up ads?!?!
Boothill fought through the virus to retrieve his phone from his pocket.
[Warning: Virus Detected. Unable to Eradicate.]
Gee, thanks. Hadn’t noticed…
He opened messages and selected the first name that jumped out to him: ‘Greatest Competition and Nemesis’.
That popup noise went off again. And again.
[Free Download! Download Now!]
[Get Free Credits Quick with These Five Tips!]
[Warning: Memory Error.]
He tried to text.
[Error.]
He activated the voice to talk texting.
[Error. Please Wait… Voice has Malfunctioned. Voice Module has Unexpectedly Crashed. Failure To Connect. Reloading… Reloading… Pop up Ad! Reloading…]
Panic continued to build. Rapidly .
Stupid Muddlefudging shirt bag ash voles son of a forking nice lady–
Boothill felt his internal fans turn to full blast. His mind was filled with various mechanical noises and warnings. It was hard to think. So hard to think. He just wanted to sleep…
NO. With one final effort, he managed to send Aventurine his location.
Boothill let out a sigh of relief amidst the panic and fear and chaos.
There… now, to make sure those muddlefudging hackers can’t take control of me…
[Input Registered. Emergency Shutdown Commencing. Emergency Shutdown Complete. All Systems have been shut down. Entering Forced Sleep Mode.]
Everything faded to black.
~~
[Rebooting Audio Module. Audio Module is Now Active.]
Background noises started filtering back in. He still couldn’t see anything, or feel anything, or control his body, or do anything but listen. But that’s good. That was his plan, after all.
For anyone else, it would look like he’s completely off and unconscious. And, most importantly, useless to stupid hackers, since he doesn’t have an external power button.
Boothill tried to fight back the panic and focus on listening.
“-gonna be Rich! Can you believe the bounty this guy has? And look how easy it was to incapacitate him!”
“Yeah, but look! He’s completely unresponsive. Did we break him?”
Boothill didn’t recognize either of these voices. If he ever gets out of this situation, thats lucky for those shirt bag hackers.
“Bah,” voice one replied. “Who cares? It’s not like his bounty requires him alive.”
“Eh, you’re right,” voice two agreed. “Let’s just leave him here. It’s not like anyone knows where he is or anything, and I’m not about to try and pick up that hunk of metal.”
Boothill heard a metallic thunk. Did he just kick me?!
Voice one laughed. “You can say that again.”
“I’m not about to-”
“Shut up! I didn’t mean literally.”
Muddlefudging… Shirt, how the Aeon do I get out of this one? I can’t move. I can’t do anything. If I try to do anything, that just opens it up to letting them hack into and override my Central Processing Unit. No matter what, I cannot let them control me.
“What do we do with this?”
“What, the charger we infected with the virus? Just leave it. Who cares?”
Did Aventurine get my message? … does he even care? Boothill’s glimmer of hope slowly faded. Aw, who am I foolin’. Why would he? I’m just a criminal and a thorn in his side. He’s probably happy to be rid of me.
“Well, now what?”
“...dunno. I didn’t think that virus would actually work.
…
This may be it. I don’t think I’m making it out of this one…
“You doubt my skills?”
“What? No, No, of course not.”
What was I thinking about again? Who are these people? Why can’t I see anything? What’s going on? No. Stay Focused. You have to…
“You doubted me. After all we’ve been through together.”
“Whatever, bro.”
[Low Power. Please Connect to a Charger Soon.]
What the forkin’ blazes- did the shirt bags disconnect me, too?!”
[Entering Power Saving Mode.]
“What was that?”
“Who is it??”
Boothill faintly heard wood splintering.
[Audio Module Error.]
The voices and sounds became garbled, and he struggled to make them out.
[Audio Module is not Responding.]
“Boothill??” A new voice. Panicked. Unknown, but vaguely familiar. “Boothill!! Oh my gosh he’s dead-”
“He’s-” another new voice. Calmer, but also sounds a little panicked. “~~~ -come on, — get– —~– to Ratio- –~–”
Who’s… Ratio…?
[Audio Module Disconnected.]
[Power Lost. Entering Emergency Life Sustaining Mode. Powering Off All Other Systems.]
~~~
[Power Source Connected.]
[Charging…]
...
[Powering On]
[Rebooting Audio Module. Audio Module is Connected.]
“-be okay?”
Who is that?
“if you are going to continue to panic and ask pointless questions over and over again, I am going to have to ask you to leave.”
A new voice. Male, irritated.
“Hey, Aven, why don’t we go make some dinner or something?”
A soft female voice.
Why can’t he recognize any of them? Why does he feel like he knows these people?
“...alright, Fine.”
The first voice again. Male, very concerned.
Who is he? Who are these people? Why do they sound so familiar? What’s going on? Why can’t I remember anything?
[External Input Detected. Powering Off.]
~~~