It's 2013, and for the past decade and a half, the Internet has dominated the world. All of the grids of the world are finally connected and tied together in unimaginable ways. Programs can jump from system to system, and work together to solve complex problems. But the days of peace on the internet are numbered. A group of web terrorists are calling for the end of certain websites. They are violently attacking and derezzing websites on a whim, and now, a group of programs must rise up to defeat this menace.

-----------------------

CHARACTER FORM:

Name:
Age:
Type of Program: (Basically, what your functions are)
Side:
Reason for Joining Side:
Physical Appearance:
Personality Description:
Extra Information:


You can have as many characters as you want, etc. etc. Also, I have no idea what the group of net vigilantes should be called, so any ideas are welcome. Basically, the point is that the rebellion against the vandals should grow into violence and become a full-scale war, with large websites (Facebook, Youtube, CNN, etc) used as pawns in the battle. And yes, if you have a villainous streak, you CAN join the bad guys if you want. I'm going to have one of each. Here are my forms:

Name: Thane
Age: 22
Type of Program: Thane functions as a distributor of pirated material. Basically, the vandals are after him because, well, he gives away intellectual property for free. He considers it a "moral and legal grey area" and doesn't think the fault lies with him, but with the programs and users who take advantage of his services.
Side: Good guys, (vigilantes)
Reason for Joining: He's lived a long, good life distributing pirated material, and the group of internet vandals will put an end to it, fast. So, he's helping with the group so he can put a stop to the vandals. Perhaps he's not a member of the group for the right reasons, but he's willing to fight nonetheless.
Physical Appearance: He's fairly large, and stocky. He has a black suit with green circuitry, and he has some light facial hair. Muscular, but not ripped, and so on and so forth.
Personality description: He looks like he could break your legs, but wouldn't hurt a fly. Though intimidating on the outside, he's actually a softy. If you get to know him, he jokes around alot and makes sarcastic quips.


Name: Derick
Age: 32
Type of Program: He's... a Captcha, essentially. Kind of like a security guard, he stands at the gates of large sites, and checks to make sure you're human and not a virus/spam bot.
Side: Bad guys, hes one of the vandals who wants to end piracy through somewhat violent means
Reason for Joining: His ex-wife, who unexpectedly died, was a very prominent artist, (vocaloid program) who lost lots of money from piracy. He's grown weary over the years, and hates his job: so he enjoys doing anything that might cause unrest or disruption amongst the people of the grid and the internet. He's mostly just using the anti-piracy thing as an excuse to try and take down buildings (websites) and cause riots, although he likes to hide behind his ex-wife's situation as an excuse.
Physical Appearance: Small and weaselly, this program is not threatening by any means. He's got a thin mustache and goatee, and is extremely short; his high-pitched voice doesn't help his situation much.
Personality Description: You can already tell he's spiteful and mean. He likes to cause destruction, and when he heard of the anti-piracy wars he joined quickly as an excuse to lay waste to sites and other online locations. He's very insecure, and short-tempered as well.

----------

FIRST POST
-THANE-

A small-looking, orange circuited man approached me. "So... you must be the Thane I've heard so much about," he said.

"The very same." I responded. "What are you looking for?"

"I enjoy playing games in my spare time. I'd like to put some sort of game on my disk, for me to play when I'm bored. Assassin's Creed, maybe?"

"Hand me your disk," I said in response. I pulled up the Disk-User interface, and opened up a file manager menu. This is where you could find all of the important files that belong to a program. I slipped in the requested file, closed the menu, and handed him his disk. As soon as it reached his hands, he moved directly to my throat. He didn't intimidate me. I pulled out my disk, and held it up in defense.

"Don't. You. Dare." I said. "What do you want, anyways?" He looked at me, and coldly said, "I want you to come with me." I pushed him out of the way, slammed him to the ground, and held my disk up to his throat. "The hell I will."

He was obviously terrified of me. I'd been used to situations like this, programs who try and derezz me thinking they can pick up my disk, and take any illegal files I had on it. I wondered if he was some sort of cop or something. "You'll be sorry," he said. I scoffed. He ran away, and I went into the building next to me- it was Facebook. I was trying to communicate to one of my distributor friends what had just happened, and warn him if anybody with his physical appearance showed up to him. Thats when the explosion happened. I was thrown out of the building, and the entire main hall of Facebook was destroyed. That's the last thing I remember.

-DERICK-

I'd heard of him alot. Thane, his name was. His clients weren't very good at keeping secrets. I approached him in an alley next to the Facebook Building, and asked to download something. I had to make up something on the spot, so I just picked a game- Assassin's Creed. Of course, I was going to try and hold him back with my disk so that I could bring him to my higher-ups as a captive, but it didn't work out so well.

The moment he returned my disk, I lunged at him. He kept his cool; he'd obviously dealt with similar situations before. He threw me back and refused to come as my captive- and so be it, it wasn't the reaction I wanted; but it was the reaction I expected. Luckily, I had a back up plan. As soon as he entered the Facebook Building, I activated a bomb I had planted in the main hall. Just enough to knock him out and close down the Login for a few minutes. That's when I grabbed him, and headed off.

Name: Baltimar
Age: 21
Type of Program: NeoGen Program
-Primary Function: Game Grid Warrior
-Secondary Function: Program Logic Assistant (essentially Grid psychiatry)Side: Vigilante
Reason for Joining Side: Ever since his creation, Baltimar was taught to treat all programs with kindness and respect. He detests the violent and malevolent motives of the mysterious terrorist organization.
Physical Appearance: Tall and lanky. Street clothes consist of a long-sleeve shirt, baggy jeans, and hooded coat, all in black. Grid Armor is custom-made to boast freedom of movement and agility. He has iridescent-colored circuitry, representative of NeoGen programs. The circuitry flashes brilliant rainbow shades.
Personality Description: Baltimar is a friendly and understanding program who becomes fierce when fighting for his beliefs. As a Game Grid Warrior, he loves to have fun when he's not working at his small Logic Assistant business.
Extra Information:
-Baltimar was coded with the NeoGen AI language, which implements more complex artificial intelligence.
-Baltimar drives an old and rare Argon Lightcycle modified to boost maneuverability.

***

It is a truly exciting night for Baltimar. He will soon be competing in a 4-way Lightcycle game as part of the opening rounds of the local Cycle Battles. He's confident his vintage Argon Lightcycle and disc combat skills will see him through the match.

For Baltimar, though, this year's particular Cycle Battles are not simply about the game. Baltimar hopes that by being crowned champion, he will be able to make a name of himself and finally get an invitation to the world-renowned Disc Wars. They are known to be brutal and merciless, but Baltimar is up for the challenge.

As the confident program is ready to leave his apartment, he gets a status alert on his disc. He opens up the GUI and accesses his messages. And there it is, in urgent, red letters:
*ATTENTION CYCLE BATTLES PARTICIPANTS*
It is our displeasure to inform you that this year's Cycle Battles Event is currently CANCELLED due to a cyber-terrorist attack which has temporarily crashed the social networking site Facebook's main server. AGAIN, the Event is currently CANCELLED. Do not attempt to attend the Event. Please watch for further instructions and news.
-The Battle Cycles Comity

No! He can't believe it! He had trained for several weeks for this competition and had polished up his Lightcycle in anticipation, only to have the whole thing cancelled by some punks. Baltimar hasn't been this angry in a long time. Well, that's it. He's going to get to the bottom of this right now...

LWSrocks2 Wrote:OOC: So, I'm assuming that all of us are already on the "net vigilantes" side, but I'm not sure, I guess I never made that clear. So have our characters joined yet, or not?

{OOC: I suppose it depends on what the character's profile says}

Name: Spark

Gender: Female

Age: 21 in appearance, in reality she is far older

Type of Program: Original function was Outlands Exploration/Security/Research. Recompiled by Sam Flynn into an investigation program and sent into the internet to determine what features - security and otherwise - the Grid will need before it can be connected to the net.

Side: Vigilantes

Reason for Joining Side: An attack left Spark unable to communicate with or report to Sam Flynn, leaving her directive unfulfilled until her self-repair functions finish working. The vigilantes rescued her and gave her a place to rest while she healed. While the physical damage has been repaired, her links to the I/O functions - her ability to report to/communicate with the Users - will take much longer to heal. Not one to sit around and do nothing, Spark lends her experience and expertise to the vigilante's cause, working in almost any capacity, from healer to mechanic to code breaker. Has learned to modify disks/vehicles/batons - both her own and others - and shares that experience as well.

Physical Appearance: 5’6’’, medium-length black hair (falls past the shoulder blades, always braided, most of the time it’s a simple braid, but sometimes she does it a little fancier), deep blue eyes(that always have a liquid shimmer to them), black outfit, blue-white circuitry. Her helmet can become opaque at will and is often worn that way.

Weapons/Vehicles: Highly skilled with the duel Identity Disks, some skill with the Light-Staff and Light-Katana. Carries two batons, each with several special subroutines: Off-Grid Light-Cycle, Normal Light-Cycle, Light-Jet, prototype ‘Shadow-Cloak’ for each vehicle.

Personality Description: Very much a loner, Spark spent most of her time in the Outlands, whether she’s on duty or not. Even before the coup, Spark rarely stayed long in Tron City, or any of the other major population centers of the Grid. She would come in, deliver her report, and vanish again. Even when she was in the city, she preferred to stay in the background, and was easy to miss. Even now, in the midst of the internet, Spark dislikes crowds and will keep to herself. She is kind, yet somewhat distant. It takes a lot to earn her trust, but once earned, she is a loyal friend. Break her trust, however, and your chances of earning it back are close to zero. Make an enemy out of her, and you won’t survive very long if she decides she wants you gone.

History: Spark was created by Kevin Flynn about a cycle after the ISOs started to appear. Her function is to explore the Outlands and gather data and to report any anomalies that she finds there. She reports to Flynn directly, or to Tron if Flynn isn’t present. Designed to survive the low-energy environment of the Outlands, and to be able to find and use whatever natural energy sources are out there. Was a friend to the ISOs, especially the ones who inhabited the Bostrum colony. Was one of the few Basics who were allowed to visit the colony on a regular basis.

Spark was on her way back to Tron City to make a report when the coup took place. She was at the Bostrum colony when Abraxas attacked, and helped Flynn escape from there. After, she helped Flynn find the place for his safehouse - giving him a list of possible locations that would be ideal. She brought Flynn news of what was happening in Tron City, and taught Quorra how to be inconspicuous. After Abraxas' first appearance at the co-administration ceremony, Flynn thought that a program who often went alone into the Outlands might need some protection from possible infection, so he used an experimental encryption cypher on her disk. That encryption gave her enough protection from Clu's repurposing so she could vanish.

After the purge, Spark’s forays into Tron City became even shorter and less common. She would stay long enough to hear news, then leave again. Clu did not know that she helped Flynn, and when he questioned her, she told him that she wanted no part in his power games. She would not hinder him, but she would not help him. Clu was unwilling to derezz her at that time, thinking he might find a use for her later, and did not have the time or energy to try and break Flynn's encryption right then, so he let her go, planning to recapture her at another time. Spark anticipated this, and dropped out of sight as soon as she was free. After the reintegration, Spark’s visits to Tron City increased again, leading her to the meeting with Sam Flynn that resulted in her transfer to the net. But she is still wary, as she has always been.

----Post----

Watching from her perch on top of a building, Spark's eyes narrowed as she saw a thin program approach Thane. While she didn't much care for the green-circuited one, she had agreed to play guard and provide backup if necessary. And it looked like it was going to be necessary. Great, she thought as she saw Thane fall and the thin program pick him up and walk away. Spark stood and made for an intercept course. The small program turned a corner and Spark dropped down to land in front of him, disks in hand. "Release him. Now," she growled.

OOC: I get the impression that Spark is already in the group with Thane, so Spark, correct me if I'm wrong.

--DERRICK--

I walked off with the newly injured program, when I was stopped by someone. I thought she looked familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. She held her disk up, and told me to release Thane. I spent a moment contemplating exactly how I should handle the situation. It was obvious that I was causing a scene- a few programs in the distance were staring. However, I figured that with Thane having been so easy to capture this time, we could send in another one of our operatives later and catch him. So, reluctantly, I dropped him at the girl's feet and fled the scene.

--THANE--

When I regained consciousness, I looked up and saw Spark staring down at me. "What... what happened?" I asked. I stood up, and brushed off my shoulders. "Last thing I remember was an explosion..." I bent over, and picked up one of the live feed news tickers. It said "Explosion at the Facebook Headquarters". I sighed, as the memories began to slowly refill themselves. I was at Facebook, sending a message to a colleague. I thought to myself, better contact him, and make sure he wasn't damaged.

OOC: I might as well give this a shot..l
-----------------------

CHARACTER FORM:

Name: Tarker
Age: He would look 20-21 in human years, not sure how that translates to cycles.
Type of Program: (Basically, what your functions are) : He's a hacking program that Sam Flynn wrote for both recovering lost files and eventually for work with law enforcement.
Side: Vigilantes.
Reason for Joining Side: He was written with a strong sense of justice. He believes pirating materials is wrong, but he thinks that the vandals are equally if not more wrong as well. They are also the more pressing issue at the moment.
Physical Appearance: He has dark green circuitry, in the simple yet slightly complex style of Legacy. He usually has a long trenchcoat that can be rezzed up into his shoulder armor, similar to Tesler in Beck's Beginning. He has a youthful exuberance to his face, with a tousle of hair that can sometimes get in his eyes, but isn't much longer. He has sideburns, brown, to match his hair. His helmet is fairly unique, being made not only for protection during battle, but also to see farther and behind things as well, so it has several glowing circles over where his right eye would be. These rotate as he switches functions.
Personality Description: Young, brash, and bold. He is an eternal optimist, and always tries to have a wisecrack ready. He doesn't have much experience, since his first mission was a test by Sam to try to hack a friend's Facebook account. The vandal attack left him cut off from Sam and slightly disoriented.
Extra Information: As a hacking program, he was designed to be a jack of all trades, although a master of none. He can hold his own against most programs on the grid, probably most on the net, but a true master can put him in his place. However, if Tarker is able to use his great agility to its maximum potential, he may come out on top. He carries his disk, a lightjet baton, a light cycle baton, and a katana-baton, as well as some light grenades.

IC: Tarker reeled in the aftermath of the explosion. His connection to Sam was lost. Facebook was smashed up, and he had a scratch or two, but for the most part some quick movement left him unscathed. He wanted to find out who did this, and use his skills to stop them. He really had nothing better to do, since Facebook would be offline for a while. He spotted a couple of programs entering the wreckage. "Hey!" he shouted, and ran over to them. "There's a lot of hurt programs here, and I'm no good with fixing them up. Could you lend a hand so I can find out who did this without having hundreds of derezzed programs I could have helped on my conscience?"

As crowds of people come to survey the scene (at a safe distance, they can't be bothered to actually help anyone), Baltimar decides to step out of the shadows of the skyscrapers dominating the city. The atmosphere leaves him with a bad feeling, so he keeps his Grid armor on, with his disc ready for any more trouble. As he comes toward the scene, he notices many programs strewn about from the explosion. As Baltimar makes his way to the entrance of Facebook HQ, he assists nearby programs, releasing them from the rubble using his disc to cut the debris. The two programs from earlier appear to be conversing with a green-colored program, boasting unique headgear featuring many lenses, while the weird short man has run off to who-knows-where. Becoming interested in what they are discussing, he approaches the group and taps the big guy on the shoulder.

"Hey guys, I don't mean to interrupt, but can any of you please tell me what on the Grid is happening here?" Baltimar questions them. "I'm not from around these parts, so I'm not really in the loop on anything happening here..."

--THANE--

"Greetings, program. I'm Thane. I'm a... weapons specialist," I said, always coming up with different careers for whenever I met a new program. "Now, look- How about you guys go ahead and help some of the injured. I have to find this... uh, Derrick guy. I'm going to derezz him when I find him." It's not that I was bad at helping the injured programs, I just... I didn't want to. It brought back painful memories that I didn't want to revisit. An attack on a building awhile ago, back in the beginnings of the net, before I became a distributor. And so, I walked on ahead, under the guise of chasing Derrick- and I went back to our main grid.

When I returned, the next day, Facebook had been completely repaired.

OOC: I think Derrick needs another villain to interact with :P If any of you are open to adding a second character, that'd be great.

--THANE--

"No luck on that front, I'm afraid," I said, to Tarker. "What we need to do is team up against those terrorists. They managed to take down Facebook, what's next? Twitter? YouTube? We need to stop the next attack before it happens. Spark and I already work as a team, how about you join us?"

--DERRICK--

Those fools. Thinking they can stop the uprising... they're already too late. After the female program stopped me, I decided it was time for me to take some of the money I'd saved up and spend it on some... modifications. If I can't hold my own in combat, there's no way I'll be successful. So I entered a Mod Shop, and had them load some extra characteristics onto my disk. That way, as long as the disk is tethered to my circuitry, I'll be bigger, stronger, faster, and, while this is just a bonus- more handsome.

After my disk got back from the shop, I placed it on my back and watched my circuitry spread throughout my body, as my scrawniness turned into muscle, and my mousy face became more defined. As I tried to speak, my voice had become deeper. I was Derrick 2.0! I felt amazing- and I knew that the first thing I should do with my new power... was take out our next target.

I rounded up my anti-piracy comrades, and decided what our next target would be. We flew our light jets across the vast internet when we came upon a huge, huge, huge building. It was bigger than any of us had dreamed; and impossibly difficult to destroy. We figured Thane and his comrades would be here, since it's practically the main hub for pirated material distribution; it was called...

...The Pirate Bay.

--THANE--

"Ah, yeah.. If you exit this sector at the North Gate, and just go straight down Construct Lane, you should see a Circuit-Mod Shop next to the YouTube theater," Thane said. "Although if you're going to team up with us, I could use some sort of way to keep in touch with you. I'm going to talk with Spark the next time I see her and maybe get her thoughts on the situation. I'm sure Derrick, and whoever he's working for, are up to something- and we need to be ready and prepared." As soon as I got contact info from him, I said, "Alright. The Dark Knight Rises came out today, and I'm sure hundreds of programs are looking for a free, quick way to watch it- so I'm gonna go back to my alley and set up shop."

OOC: Yeah, I like it too. I also have a couple theories on circuit design: I think the complexity of the circuitry represents the level of function the program has. Low function programs have less complex circuitry, and higher ones are more complicated.

--THANE--

After sending Tarker off, I received the transmission from Spark. "Tarker, wait!" I called out, seeing as he hadn't gotten too far. "We have to get to the Pirate Bay. There's a terrorist attack!" I rezzed up my light jet, hoping Tarker would come along, and flew across the internet, where I saw a few light jets and explosions in the distance. I recognized Spark's light jet, derezzing an enemy vehicle. "DAMN IT!" I shouted, looking down at Derrick. He'd abandoned his jet, and began lobbing grid bombs at the Pirate Bay gates. I dived in, shooting at him with my turrets, but it was no use- the shots scattered too far to land a hit. I jumped off, and began chasing Derrick on foot.

He looked different, for some reason- Was it really Derrick I was following? I only recognized him by face- as I got closer to him, I noticed he seemed much bigger. Either way, he wasn't on our side, and I saw him lob the grenades. Derrick or not, he's still an enemy. I began to weild my disk in an offensive stance. I threw it at him, but he deflected it. "Derrick?" I asked. "You've gotten much stronger."

--DERRICK--

The attack was underway. As our light jets had approached the Pirate Bay, I remember seeing someone on our tail. I turned to my left, and my accomplice, Eve, was derezzed by the shiny blue light jet I had seen in the distance a few seconds before. "Shit." I said. "We need a new course of action, somebody's on our tail. Alec and Jason, you two take down the blue guy," Alec and Jason were disposable- easy to replace. "And I'll start setting off the explosives." I landed.

Thats when two other light jets came. I watched Thane jump out, and follow me into the Bay. "Derrick?" I heard him ask. "You've gotten much stronger." I pulled out my disk.

"That's because I have."
----
OOC: I'm going to stop here in case any of you decide to join the party