Chapter Text
The two Syntax workers landed on the world from their ship and stepped out of the vehicle. They planted their feet on the ground and watched the spacecraft leave them to be for their mission. They looked around a bit, assessing the world they were now in. It was a rocky, sharp landscape. Most of it was all red, the sky, the ground. The air was thick and almost intoxicating. The atmosphere was humid and warm, like there was heatwave washing over the planet.
Fold looked around a bit before finally speaking up, “what are we doing here again?” He asked in almost an annoyed tone, evidently not excited to work in the current environment.
“The Hero is apparently taking a while to beat the game, we’re here to help them finally finish.” Miss Information informed him, walking up next to the other agent. He rolled his eye in response.
“I know that much, obviously. I mean, why us? Don’t they have people for this specific job? And why did I have to do it with you again?” Miss Information shook her head at his question.
“That should be obvious too, shouldn’t it? Even though our first mission together was because everyone else was busy, we unfortunately made a great team. We’ve been cooped up in that ship since we got recruited from our old worlds, you should be glad we’re getting this opportunity. We might even get a raise.” She said plainly, with a bit of jazz at the end. Fold was still unimpressed.
He scratched the back of his neck, “Well we made a ‘great team’ because it was easy as shit.”
“Don’t downplay my- I mean our accomplishment. Whatever, let’s just look for the Hero and help them out.” She continued to move forward on the sharp terrain which the other followed quickly behind.
“Okay, let’s see if we can find- The title screen! Look up there! First Fiction… What number is that? IIV?” He said all confused, staring at the letters floating in the sky.
“It’s obviously in Roman Numerals. It’s… what the hell is that? Is it four or a backwards seven?” She looked at it as well, just as puzzled as her coworker. “Well the name of the Hero isn’t in the title, so there’s no use staring at it any longer.”
Fold nodded his head. “Right, of course. I wonder what kind of game we’re getting ourselves into. It seems scary.”
“Of course you’d find this scary.” She retorted, placing a hand on her hip as she walked.
They marched forward, but Fold stopped in his tracks all the sudden when he turned his head to look behind him.
“What is that..?” He asked, staring into the sky. It was bright and red.
Miss Information spun around as well and joined him in looking at the unknown object in the sky. “It looks like- a meteor! It’s heading towards us!”
“We’re going to die!!” They shouted at the same time, subconsciously grabbing onto each other in fear.
Miss Information pushed Fold off of her quickly after realizing what she did, “we need to run!”
They turned around and sprinted in the other direction, avoiding falling debris from the meteor that was heading in their direction. They jumped over rocks, small pot holes, and under tall rocks placed together with openings underneath. Suddenly Miss Information came to a stop, reaching her hands out to the side to stop the other. He almost fell off the giant ledge if it weren’t for the other.
“What now? It’s a dead end!” Miss Information said in a panic. Fold shook his head and grabbed onto her hand.
“Hold on tight!” He said before dragging her off the cliff and jumping off.
“What- are you fucking crazy-“ Just as she screamed, he folded into a paper airplane, she gripped onto the sides of his wings and stayed silent in shock for a moment.
“Why.. why didn’t you tell me you could do that?!” She yelled at him for being so reckless, “it would’ve been nice to have a heads up before you launched us off the cliff!!”
All he did was laugh at her, “it was funny hearing you scream.” She grumbled in response to his teasing.
“I’d tear you in half right now if you hadn't just saved my life, dickhead.”
They safely landed, and they ran behind a large, tall, rock for refuge. Fold quickly turned back into his usual form and stood next to the other. They covered their ears once the meteor crashed behind them, the wind of the impact blowing beside them where the rock stopped.
“Ow, you gave me paper cuts..” Miss Information whined, wiping off the blood from the palms of her hand.
Fold walked up to her and cleared his throat, “Hey, let’s not talk about.. earlier… you know when we saw the-“
“Ugh, and here you are talking about it. I figured we already made a silent agreement, but I guess not.”
“Well- I just wanted it to be official!” He huffed and crossed his arms. “Let’s just look for a village and help that stupid Hero beat the villain so we can get out of this place that seems adjacent to the description of hell.”
“Okay, origami, let’s go.”
Now that they didn’t have to worry about a crashing meteor, they walked around a bit until they found a small circular town that looked like your average fantasy game location from a far.
“That must be it.” They said at the same time before letting out a grumble from speaking at the same moment. They slid down and entered the village.
They explored it a bit. It was filled with dirt and alleyways. There were bursted pipes and smog in the dark air. Menacing guards were visibly seen standing everywhere in high alert.
“I have a bad feeling about this. Why is there so much security for such a scrummy place?” Fold questioned, hunched over himself in a nervous manner. Miss Information nudged his side to fix his posture.
“It’ll be fine. It smells horrible though.” She mumbled while plugging her nose.
He sighed and stood up straight. “I dunno about this. We should ask around if anyone knows anyone that might be the Hero.”
They walked up to a guard and Miss Information took the lead.
“Hello, sir, is there anyone around here that’s a humble saviour? The Heroic type even? Just someone who saves people in general?” The guard hummed for a moment before speaking up to answer.
“Indeed, the great Emperor Killer is a very noble Hero. He saved us all and placed order amongst all of the Kingdoms and they all follow him now. We’re all happy now that he’s in office. Plus he has started many wars to gather more land and people to save from the grasps of other evil leaders!”
The two stared at the NPC for a while before turning around and whispered to each other.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but this seems like the evil guy in charge and the Hero is a rebel kind of story line.” Fold said plainly.
His coworker nodded her head, “Oh yeah, definitely. The Hero is probably a thief or mercenary.”
They stood up and turned back to the guard.
“All hail Emperor Killer! Anyway, are there any wanted criminals that are known for going against the Emperor?” The paper asked. The guard nodded his head.
“Yeah, there’s this ex-bounty hunter called Moon. He’s crazy. He tried to stop the Emperor! How horrible. And get this- he used to work for the Emperor too! What a backstabber. Anyway, I think their a thief now-“
Suddenly they heard a loud crashing sound and blaring sirens. A young man wearing a cloak ran out with a moon symbol on their hood, holding something in their hands whilst being chased.
“That’s them!” Miss Information yelled before the two ran off towards them. They joined up together to stop the guards from getting the Hero, and attempting to not be seen by Moon as well. Once they were all taken out they snuck up behind the protagonist who was catching their breath.
“Finally… I’ve been trying to complete that heist for so long.. I wonder where they all went. Whatever, let me look at my map- huh? It’s blank?!” The Hero looked at the blank piece of paper in shock, flipping it from side to side, hoping something might be there the next time he flips it. “I took the wrong one again! Damnit!!” He crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it on the floor. Miss Information quickly got an idea.
“Quick, turn into a piece of paper!” She whispered eagerly.
“What? Why?”
“Just say you're a magic map, then we can teach them how to beat the game with the research from the floaties.”
“Uhg fine!” He turned into a piece of paper with the letters ‘I’m a magic map’ as stupid as he through it was. She picked him up. “Woah, woah what are you doing- ow!” She crumpled him up and threw him at the Hero.
“Huh?! What was that?!” He looked down at what they thought was once a blank piece of paper, but they noticed some black writing on it this time. They opened it up to see the writing.
“Oh my gosh! So I did take the right one!” Moon jumped with joy, his work finally paying off.
Later
The Hero was sleeping after a long quest to get some rest, Fold escaped his drawer and left the house quietly.
“Holy shit, this game is long…” He whispered in exhaustion, transforming back to normal. He went up to Miss Information, who was leaning against the wall.
“Well at least you get to be in the action. I just have to watch.” She rolled her eyes, “I think I understand why this game takes so long. I hope the goons find a way to make a beeline to the castle without all this nonsense”
Fold nodded his head, “if we take any longer, we might get fired. Hey, do you have any glue, I need to heal again.”
“Your greed sickens me.” She pulled out a bottle of glue and handed it to him. He used it and freshened up, exhaling in relief in the process.
Miss Information pulled out her tablet after it buzzed. “Looks like we got an update on the game length- oh my lord…”
“What? What is it?”
She looked up at him, “The gameplay takes over 350 hours…”
“WHAT?!” He yelled but his mouth was quickly smacked shut by Miss Information.
“Shut up! Do you want us to get caught?! What if the Hero wakes up?! We’re not supposed to raise suspicion you dumbass..!” She roughly said in a hushed voice.
They both looked through the window of the house to find the Hero resting in deep sleep.
Fold laughed quietly, “It’s fine, there’s barely any guards around here, that’s why the Hero sleeps here anyway. He’d never if it meant he’d get caught easier-“
Suddenly they heard loud footsteps behind them, “What are you two doing out here so late?”
“Ah shit..”
_______
He faded in and out of consciousness until he finally woke up.
“Uhg my head… What happened..?” The Paper groaned in pain with an annoying headache harassing his mind.
The other laughed at him dryly, “finally awake I see.” She basically yelled, anger seeping through her voice.
They were cuffed to the wall with their arms and legs splayed out. “This is humiliating.. how did this even-“
“The dumbass Hero realized you were the paper and when they asked if we were working together he said yes. So now we’re stuck too.”
Fold looked on the other side of him to find the Hero passed out against the wall aswell.
“Well no need to worry, I will save the day!” He folded himself into a small piece of paper and escaped the binds. “They should have just stapled me to the wall or something.” He turned into a key and unlocked the other two with ease.
“Now what?” She asked, hauling the Hero onto her shoulder. “I overheard the guards say that this is the layer of Emperor Killer. We might have accidentally found a shortcut to the end.”
“Wake him up and find the final boss I guess.”
Later
“I… I won! I finally won! I finally avenged my mother and my girlfriend’s father.” He spat on the Emperor’s body and spun around.
Suddenly the world turned red, beams of light emerging from the ground and exploding everywhere.
“What..? But I thought I won..?” He whimpered, looking around him. The protagonist turned around to the Syntax workers, “did I do this?”
“Yeah, idiot!” Fold laughed before kicking Moon in his side. He grabbed onto Miss Information and they flew up to their ship, taking the emperor with them.
“Have fun~” Miss Information said as they flew off.
Once the workers were back on the ship they smiled at each other, but immediately blushed and scowled at the realization.
“Nice work, I guess” He mumbled.
“Oh what was that? I don’t think I fully heard you.”
“SHUT UP!”