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One-Shot Liberating Glamour

Umbramatic

Member
Pronoun
he
An April Fools joke, and an Undertale crossover at that. That is all you need to know.

Liberating Glamour

Reshiram, having taken the form of a human woman, looked around the house, inspecting it curiously. It was pretty simple, small, plain, for something scrounged up for cheap and pretty out-of the-way, but something still felt… new about it.


She looked to her companion, a young-green-haired man, who seemed to be more idly staring off into space. She'd known N long enough at this point that he was likely contemplating the room more intently than she was, however.

"...It's different, isn't it?" she said after a while.

N blinked, as if snapped out of a trance, then turned to her. "This place? It is. yeah."

He smiled. "In a good way though, I think. It's comfortable, secure, structured…"

Reshiram smiled too. "A good bit more simple than a big ol' castle, at least."

N chuckled heartily. "Definitely. We can both easily say that!"

His smile grew noticeably smaller. "And… a lot less of a mess in more ways than one than…"

He trailed off and stared off into space a little while.

Reshiram looked at N, then, after inspecting her human hand to get in the right position, placed it gently on N's shoulder.

"N… I'm sorry. You're safe now. We're all safe now."

N flinches out of his thoughts at the touch, but looks at her and smiles more widely and genuinely again.

"Thank you."

Reshiram smiles back, then furrows her brow and scans the room. "Speaking of which, where are those two ex-Plasma Grunts that helped us get this place anyway?"

The two then hear shouting from another room.

"Boom, headshot!"

"Tom, that was ME, dammit!"

Reshiram blinks as she looks quizzically at N. He chuckles again.

"They said they were playing a game called Halo. Said it was fun."

"A game?"

"Yeah!"

He furrows his brow himself. "Though… Something called a video game… Apparently they play them using a TV or a special device and sometimes that "internet" thing we heard about while wandering…"

He notices something tucked over in a corner on a table and perks up. "Oh! That's one of those devices. It's apparently Roger's, though."

Reshiram looked over and indeed noticed a medium-size, clamshell-shaped device with a glowing front displaying strange colors and patterns. Curious, she walked up to it and inspected the glowing bit, noticing the colors and patterns formed pictures and words in a strange arrangement. Looking to the top of the device, she saw words of some language she even as a Legendary couldn't comprehend.

"Hech… tepee… pee… deinostros… tumbler… com?"

She looked down at the buttons and noticed they have letters and words on them themselves. She pressed one with an R on it. Nothing happened. She tried the one that said "enter" next. Nothing again. She went for "shift" with similar results and scowled.

"N? Can you help me work this thing?"

"Um, isn't that Roger's?"

"I just want to see how it works!"

N approached the device as well, inspected it himself, then noticed a little white arrow on the screen. "Maybe that does something…"

He notices buttons with similar arrows, but while they have more success in moving the words and images up and down the arrow on the screen is unaffected. "Strange…"

He then turned his head a bit and noticed a strange oval object next to the clamshell. Idly curious, he picked it up, only to notice out of the corner of his eye the arrow on the screen moved.

N smiled. "Ah!"

He waved the oval around. Nothing. He frowned and set it back down again, only for the arrow to move again and his smile to return as he moved it back and forth. "I think I've got something..."

He noticed part of the words on the screen change as he hovered the arrow over them. As he eyed them quizzically, he noticed idly feeling the oval its upper-left corner seemed to bend inwards. He pressed it downwards, the oval giving a distinct click and both his and Reshiram's eyes widened as the page's words and pictures changed dramatically.

"Okay, I have definitely never expected humans to come up with anything quite like this."

She then looked at the new words and pictures and narrowed her eyes a bit."Move the words and stuff a bit with those buttons again please, N?"

N nodded and did so. Reshiram looked in and inspected the words and pictures carefully.

"OK... Some of the words kinda look like they were written by Roger... But most of the rest don't... And there's all these weird pictures, I have no clue where the hell they came from..."

N looked at the pictures himself only to smile upon seeing one in particular. "There's a cute little Zorua!"

He noticed a static arrow on the Zorua picture he used his moving arrow and the pliable part of the oval to click, and his smile grew wider. "The picture moves when you click on it! The Zorua's rolling around in some warm blankets! It's adorable!"

N then noticed the right upper corner of the oval was pliable too. "Wait, what happens when you click this one?"

He did, and a grey box with a list pops up. Looking it up and down, one particular item stood out.

"Inspect... eechteeemell?"

He clicked on that with the left one again, and a large bar appeared with yet more text. Upon looking at the text proper, however, N's eyes lit up and his jaw dropped.

"These... they're... they're..."

Reshiram blinked. "Formulas?"

"Yes!" Said N. "Formulas! Strange new formulas! Oh, but I'm already starting to see patterns..."

He hovered the arrow over the formulas and saw the pictures and words light up in tandem, and he grew even giddier. "This... This whole display is made of formulas! It's amazing! It's beautiful! I want to see more of how it wor-"

It was then Tom and Roger entered the room, bickering as usual.

"Dammit Tom," said Roger, "You gotta stop making us lose every time!"

"But I blew up that base and got all those kills!" Said Tom.

"That was our base, you nitwi-"

They stop and stare at seeing N and Reshiram hovering over the device. They quickly noticed and stared back. There was a long, awkward silence before Roger finally broke it.

"Okay, what the hell are you two doing with my laptop?"

Reshiram scowled. "Roger, I recommend you don't take such a tone with a Legendar-"

"It's called a laptop?" Said N. "It's amazing! You can interact with the words and pictures, and they run on this whole language of formulas!"

Roger raises an eyebrow, then goes over to the laptop himself, sees what's going on, and sighs. "Oh, you found my Tumblr. And... somehow figured out how to inspect the source code."

"Is that what this formula language is called?" said N. "It's fascinating!"

He inspects the code again and frowns slightly.

"Though... Looking at it again, some of these formulas seem off, wrong somehow..."

Roger frowns himself. "That's because Tumblr's coded by people as bad at programming as Tom is at first-person shooters."

"Is there any way I can fix it?"

"Well, you're going to have to get your own lapto-"

"Roger," said Reshiram, giving her own frown.

Roger turned to her, puzzled.

"We... Don't have much to do here," said Reshiram, sighing. "He's found something new and fun he's already really enjoying. Why can't he give it a try?"

N looked at Reshiram, concerned. "Reshiram, you don't have to get him to-"

"...No, she's right," said Roger. "If we're gonna help give you guys a place to live we ought to help keep you entertained. I'll get you an account set up on my laptop."

N blinks, then smiles. "Thank you, Roger."

Reshiram smiles herself. "Likewise."

"It's fine," said Roger. "I just gotta make sure to teach you how to not fuck the thing up, N."

He leers at Tom.

"I still haven't forgotten about you overrunning it with viruses."

Tom leers back and raises his index finger.

"Hey! In my defense, the banner ad with the cute Cleffa promising me free screensavers looked super-cuddly and harmless!"

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

Several days later, Tom, Roger and Reshiram are sitting together at a table with drinks, Reshiram going on some rant about the old days.

"So then this uprising happened in East Unova and we had to figure out how to-"

Tom blinks and looks around. "Where's N?"

"He was messing with my computer still last I saw..." Said Roger.

It was then N strolled into the room, a smug smile on his face.

"Everyone? I have something important to show you all!"

The others all blink and look amongst each other in confusion.

"...What is it?" Reshiram finally asked.

"Follow me!" Said N, walking back into the other room. Everyone else cautiously followed.

N led them all over to Roger's laptop, then spread out his hands to draw the attention of the others to himself. "So... Bad news first. Tom was right when I was first introduced to computers, Tumblr's use of the language of formulas is... Broken, twisted, corrupted."

"More at 11," replied Roger.

"But!" Said N. "The Internet, all of which uses that language in various dialects, is vast, immeasurably vast, with connections to nearly every device in the world, all with different means of bringing that language to life! And I've extensively studied and analyzed that for one grand purpose!"

Reshiram furrowed her brow. "Every device..."

Her eyes lit up as she came to a realization. "Oh! Did you manage to rip the people behind that one TV show with that blasphemy to me known as Volcaryu in it?"

N frowned slightly. "Sadly no."

Reshiram frowned more thoroughly and grumbled. "Damn it. You know I hate that utter mockery of me so much..."

"Thunderyu's cooler anyway," said Roger.

Reshiram nudged him aggressively. Roger did so back.

"Hey, guys, stop it, N's trying to say something really awesome!" Said Tom.

"Er, thank you Tom," said N.

He smiled again as he gestured to the computer screen this time. "The real good news is I created an all-new social media site on my own!"

Everyone had rather disparate reactions to his announcement.

"...How?" Said Reshiram, bewildered.

"That quickly?" Said Roger, skeptical.

"Ooh, what does it do?" Said Tom, excited.

N simply twiddled his fingers at all of them. "Let me show you."

He moved to the computer screen, and everyone soon followed as N showed them his creation and giddily explaining it.

"I took Tumblr's source code and completely overhauled it using things I learned from the code and features of other sites. It's so much less buggy now, and has so many better features! There's on-blog comments in addition to commenting by reblog, likes are on a by-blog basis, asks and IMs are overhauled completely for better discussion and use of formatting, there's ways to have forum-style conversations with either mutual followers or simply your normal followers on a subpage of your blog, much more thorough and easy customization of themes and what they do and display, and so many other things to make it perfect for both sharing and discussion! It's nearing perfection and moreso as I refine it!"

Roger blinks. "Wow... You went all-out."

He furrows his own brow soon after. "...How the hell did you get the domain names and servers and shit though?"

N grinned. "It's a peer-to-peer client app that replaces the central server with a distributed algorithm secured with homomorphic encryption, with the cluster bootstrapped by leveraging the BitTorrent DHT!"

Roger merely stared in shock. "...Is it wrong I understood every fucking word of that and yet have even more questions as to how the hell you pulled it off?"

Tom, however, gave an equally wide grin. "Wow, N, if Roger's impressed you must have made something really awesome!"

"It looks wonderful!" Said a similarly-excited Reshiram. "What's it called?"

N smirked, scrolling to the top of the website's page, showing a "P" version of the Tumblr logo juxtaposed on a white shield with a black dot in the corner.

"Plasblr.com! It's already gotten so much traffic! It's going to be revolutionary!"

Tom kept looking sparkly-eyed. Reshiram smiled but Roger eyed the whole scenario much more warily.

"This is going to go horribly wrong soon enough," he whispered to Reshiram.

"Don't tempt fate. N can handle himself fine anyway. He's learned a lot," she whispered back.

"Well if it does go horribly wrong it's your fault."

"My fault? You-"

They descend into incomprehensible prattling as N explains Plasblr's features to an enraptured Tom, both unaware of their companions' argument.

---------

Late at night, after several months peaceful and uneventful aside from the continued success of Plasblr, N is frantically working away at its source code, growing increasingly frustrated.

"I can't fix this bug from the newest update still... There has to be a way..."

He rapidly pressed several keys, booted the attempted fixes to the server, and grinned as the fixes seemed to have gone through...

Only for the grin to vanish immediately as an error message popped up on the screen.

"'...You have successfully divided by zer-'"

Space suddenly warped violently around N and the laptop as the latter let out a shocked scream.

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

That morning, Reshiram approached N's new room, regarding it quizzically and raising an eyebrow in concern when she heard no noise from it. After a few more seconds of waiting, she cautiously opened the door.

"...Hey N? Tom and Roger made their Persnickety Snickerdoodles, I thought you'd like so-"

She stops and stares in unabashed horror as a strange, boxlike robot propelled by one wheel on a single leg below its body, sporting two metallic ringed arms, and with a screen on the front of its body that superficially resembled the cube N carried around his waist in its squarelike patterns except lit up in white-and-green and forming a shape vaguely reminiscent of a face rolled up to her.

"OH, HELLO, RESHIRAM! I WAS JUST FINE-TUNING MY NEW BODY. HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?"

"Er, it's, um... Aesthetic?" Said Reshiram. "W-where did you ever get it, N?"

"WELL, I WAS UPDATING THE PLASBLR SERVERS, AND THERE WAS THIS BUG IN THE UPDATE THAT WOULDN'T BE FIXED! NATURALLY, I HAD TO REPAIR IT, AND I DID - BUT THE FIX CREATED A WARP IN SPACETIME THAT MERGED ME BOTH WITH THE LAPTOP AND THE MERNGER SPONGE I CARRY WITH ME TO CREATE THIS NEW ROBOTIC FORM! I CALL IT METATONN! PLEASE REFER TO ME AS SUCH FROM NOW ON, RESHIRAM! I FEEL MY NEW NAME WILL ATTRACT A GOOD DEAL OF TRAFFIC TO PLASBLR!"

"Er, yes... MetatoNN," said Reshiram, looking him up and down worriedly. "Any thoughts of changing back to your human body for anything?"

"WHY WOULD I? THIS NEW BODY HAS GIVEN ME AN IMPORTANT BENEFIT - MY MIND NOW HAS FULL ACCESS TO THE ENTIRE PLASBLR NETWORK! WITH ENOUGH TWEAKING TO MY MENTAL PROGRAMMING, I MAY BE ABLE TO EXTEND MY REACH TO THE ENTIRE INTERNET! THEN I SHALL ACHEIVE MY ULTIMATE DREAM - USING THIS INFINITE KNOWLEDGE TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN HUMANS AND POKEMON BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!"

"Er, that's lovely, MetatoNN, I'll go tell Tom and Roger the good news!"

She exited the room and immediately slammed the door shut behind her, pressing her body as hard as she could against it. After several seconds of staring out into space in panic, she pulled out a brown paper bag.

"Okay, Roger says this works wonders..."

She breathed in and out heavily into it several times before holding it out in front of her and scowling.

"It's not working!"

She gave a distinctly draconic snarl as she conjured flames between her hands that incinerated the bag in seconds, only for the snarl to turn into a whimper as she heard a voice immediately after.

"Um... Reshiram, why are you mad?"

She looked up to see the source of the voice was a very worried-looking Tom, accompanied by an equally irritated Roger.

"What's going on here?" Said the latter.

"...N's not hungry," replied Reshiram.

Roger sighed. "Well if he isn't then can he let off the Plasblr maintenance for long enough to let me play some fucking Starcraft?"

"OH, TELL ROGER I CAN GIVE HIM ALL THE STARCRAFT HELP HE NEEDS NOW!" Said MetatoNN from behind the door.

"Er, just a second!" Said Reshiram.

"Hey N! You sound kinda funny!" Said Tom.

"MY NAME IS NO LONGER N! IT IS-"

"Shh! Don't spoil the, er, surprise!"

"...Okay, what the hell is going on here?" Said Roger.

Reshiram stares at him and Tom, then gulps.

"OK, fine, I admit it, N might have kinda sorta changed himself into..."

MetattoNN suddenly bursts through the wall next to them, now holding and speaking into a microphone.

"ONE KILLER ROBOT! HOW DID YOU LIKE THAT ENTRANCE, RESHIRAM? YOU KEPT FUMBLING, SO I FELT IT BEST I DO IT MYSELF!"

Everyone else just stared in utter bewilderment.

"What the everloving fuck," said Roger.

"WOAH! I'M GOING TO HAVE TO APPROVE THE PLASBLR APP GETTING AN M RATING WITH LANGUAGE LIKE YOURS FEEDING INTO IT! CAN'T HAVE THE RATINGS BOARD DOWN MY BACK!"

"...So, if you're a robot, do you have any cool robot powers?" Asked Tom with a now more enthusiastic tone.

"OH, I'M TESTING PLENTY WITH MY INCREASING MENTAL ACCESS TO THE ENTIRETY OF THE INTERNET! I'VE GOT-"

"N!" Said Reshiram. "Enough!"

"I SAID MY NAME IS METATONN NOW! I THOUGHT YOU RESPECTED MY DREAMS, RESHIRAM!"

"I do!" Said Reshiram, gritting her teeth. But not when you handle them like this! You're going too far making yourself a robot and trying to absorb the whole internet! This isn't the person I believe in!"

"WELL THEN, IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE SO SKEPTICAL, I'LL PROVE THIS WILL WORK! IN FACT, I'LL FIND THE NEAREST CITY - PROVE IT IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE! IT'LL BE SPECTACULAR!"

Before anyone else could stop him he'd motored his single wheel away through another wall into the outdoors, speeding off towards civilization.

Everyone just stared off hopelessly after for a while before Roger finally spoke to Reshiram.

"...Your fault."

Reshiram twitched violently as a large gout of flame erupted next to Roger, causing him to yelp and jump into Tom's arms. Tom grinned smugly.

"Sick burn there."

"...Shut up, Tom."

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

MetatoNN rolled and rolled, processing countless terabytes of data along the way until he saw traces of thicker civilization on the horizon and he stopped and stared at it a good long while.

He felt Reshiram, in her more natural dragon form, fly in with Tom and Roger astride her, but he did nothing at first.

~N! Please, stop this! This can't end well!~

"She's right, dammit! Your fucking internet omniscence scheme isn't gonna get anywhere!"

"N, please... Listen to Resh and Roger?"

MetatoNN was silent for a while longer. Just as Tom took note of a strange switch on his back, he finally turned around and spoke.

"...OH YES. THERE YOU ARE, DARLINGS."

Noticing the coldness in his voice, Reshiram hesitated before responding.

~...N?~

"IT'S TIME FOR MY BIG MOMENT. TIME FOR ME TO USE THE INFINITE KNOWLEGDGE OF THE INTERNET TO UNITE HUMANS AND POKEMON IN PEACE..."

"...NOT!"

Roger blinked. "But you said-"

"THE INTERNET? USED AS A TOOL OF HARMONY? GET REAL! TURNS OUT THAT'S A FORMULA AS HACKNEYED AS THE ONES THAT RUN TUMBLR!
ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE, EVEN MY OWN LOVINGLY-CRAFTED PLASBLR!"

"But you said it was going so awesomely! What happened?" Said Tom.

"THE INTERNET... IT PLAYED ME FOR A FOOL THE WHOLE TIME. AS I WATCHED IT ON THE SCREEN, I GREW ATTACHED TO HOW THE CODE OF FORMULAS THAT RAN IT ALLOWED HUMANS AND POKEMON ALIKE TO SHARE AND TALK AND HAVE FUN. I DESPERATELY WANTED TO BE A PART OF IT. SO I INSERTED MY OWN CONTRIBUTION. I CREATED PLASBLR, HONED IT, EXPANDED IT, LET OTHERS JOIN IN ON IT, SO I COULD ADD TO A VIRTUAL WORLD OF ELEGANCE AND BEAUTY..."

"...THAT DIDN'T EXIST."

Reshiram tilted her head. ~Wait, what the hell do you mean?~


"I THOUGHT THE INTERNET WAS THIS GREATEST THING THAT IT WASN'T. AS I OVERHAULED TUMBLR'S CODE, STUDIED OTHER SITES, DEVELOPED AND THEN RAN PLASBLR, THEN STARTED SYNCING IT AND THE REST OF THE INTERNET WITH MY OWN MIND... I SAW HOW AWFUL IT COULD BE. FIGHTS, OSTRACISING, BULLYING, SPEWING OF HATE THAT DRAWS FAR MORE ATTENTION AND MEAN-SPIRITED PRAISE THAN HEARTFELT EXPRESSIONS OF PASSION AND JOY... IT'S DISGUSTING. BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS I KNOW HOW TO STOP IT."

"...Please tell me this isn't going where I think this is going." Said Roger.

"YOU SEE, I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THE INTERNET BRINGING OUT THE WORST IN EVERYONE. I HAVE NO DESIRE TO KEEP FEEDING IT - FAR FROM IT, ACTUALLY. I ONLY DESIRED TO ENTERTAIN. BUT MY USERBASE STILL COULD USE A GOOD SHOW, COULDN'T THEY? AND WHAT'S A GOOD SHOW... WITHOUT A PLOT TWIST?"

Data starts streaming across MetatoNN's blocky face.

~N! W-what's going on?~ said Reshiram, hastily whipping up a few small flames.

"SORRY FOLKS, THE PREVIOUSLY-SCHEDULED UPDATE TO PLASBLR'S BEEN CANCELED! BUT WE'VE GOT A NEW ONE THAT'LL DRIVE YOU WILD! IT'LL LET ME HIJACK THE ENTIRE INTERNET AND USE IT TO DESTROY ALL HUMAN TECHNOLOGY AND COLLAPSE THE SOCIETY THAT CREATED THIS AWFULNESS! IT'LL BE THE ULTIMATE SHOW! SO WHAT IF COUNTLESS PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE? IF I LEFT THE INTERNET AS IS AROUND THEY'D JUST MAKE MEMES OF IT ANYWAY!"

Reshiram's flames grow brighter. ~N... I can't let you do this!~

She shoots a fireball at his robotic body, but it buffets harmlessly against it.

"NOT EVEN THAT WILL DO ANYTHING! I MADE THIS BODY IMMUNE TO THE STRONGEST ASSAULTS!"

"Great," said Roger, "Not only have you made yourself into a ****ing omnicidal maniac, you've made yourself into an invincible omnicidal maniac!"

Tom just stares worried and unsure before something clicked and he turned to address MetatoNN directly. "Hey, MetatoNN! I've got advice for your apocalypse plan!"

"OH, THANK YOU TOM, FOR REFERRING TO ME BY MY PROPER NAME! AND USER FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED!"

"You're welcome! But there's a big city over there! If you want to announce their impending doom, why not do it live?"

"THAT IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA, TOM! I COULD EVEN STREAM IT!"

He turned around and turned up the volume of his microphone.

"GOOD AFTERNOOON, CITIZIENS OF-"

Before he could finish, Tom had run over and flipped the switch he'd noticed earlier on MetatoNN's back.

"Hah! I've exposed your weak point! We've got you now!"

MetatoNN simply froze for a few seconds before finally speaking.

"DID YOU. JUST FLIP. MY SWITCH?!"

He fails wildly as a blast of smoke from his body knocks Tom back. As Tom gets to his feet he and the others watch in bewilderment as stage lights appear out of nowhere and the smoke seems to be displaced by... Sparkles?

"...Tom, what the **** did you do?!" Said Roger.

Suddenly, a very flamboyant version of N's voice echoed through the area.

"Oh my... If you flipped my switch, that can only mean one thing... You're desperate for the premiere of my alternate body. How rude. Lucky for you, I've been meaning to use this for modern civilization's grand finale... So, since you three seem so intent on turning on and stopping me... as a handsome reward, I'll make your last living moments..."

The obscuring smoke and sparkles dispersed as the spotlights shone brighter.

"...Absolutely beautiful!"

Before Reshiram, Tom, and Roger stood an android-ized version of N. His pants and shoes had morphed into armor-like boots and legs, his arms were divided into segments - black ones with white squares encircling them for his left, blocky gold ones for his right - that connected to white spiked shoulders on a equally white torso save for a symbol resembling his Mernger sponge on the right side of his chest, another symbol likewise resembling the shape of his necklace on his left, and the Plasblr logo on a plate attached to his waist. Sprouting from said torso was a head and face that looked much like his human self's except distinctly metallic and polished and with robotic touches, and his hairstyle had warped into something even more wild and wavy with large bangs obscuring his right eye.

Reshiram, Tom and Roger all stared at him awkwardly - Roger distinctly blushing - before responding in turn.

~...Hot damn.~

"...Hot damn."

"...H-hot fucking damn."

"Yes!" Said the now-humanoid MetatoNN. "Witness the glamorous debut of MetatoNN-EX!"

At this Reshiram quickly scowled. ~Hey! EX is a title reserved strictly for-~

"Oh," said MetatoNN-EX, "If we're going to have a pre-finale throwdown, you all best suit up for the occasion!"

Suddenly, Roger had Gyarados-y skin, facial fins, and eyes plus Zekrom-y armor and a matching spear. "Wha- Rrr! What the hell was that for?"

Tom now sported gray armor with strange black symbols, plus red boots, gloves, and a ragged bandanna-scarf around his neck. "NYEHEHEHEH!!! THESE LOOKS DON'T SEEM TOO BAD TO ME, ROGER!!!"

Reshiram looked at herself to initially see nothing had changed on her end. <Well phe->

Only for her to look again and notice she'd somehow been fitted with a labcoat and glasses. <O-oh no...>

"Now then you three!" Said MetatoNN-EX, "I'll be streaming this throwdown for the whole Plasblr community as a pre-civilization-extermination special, and the more views I get the better, so put up a good fight, will you?"

He struck elaborate poses as he tossed small bombs at the group; Tom ducked out of the way, Reshiram intercepted the bombs with fireballs, and Roger deflected them with his spear. One deflected bomb strikes the Plasblr symbol on MetatoNN-EX's waist, and he staggers back, stunned. Roger pumped his fist with a Gyarados-like triumphant growl.

"The Plasblr symbol's his real weak spot! Get it!"

~Y-yes!~ Said Reshiram. ~But be careful!~

"Oh, marvelous, marvelous, this is heating up!" Said MetatoNN-EX. "Now for some utterly fantastic close-quarters combat!"

He jumped and dives in toward the others, delivering a flurry of kicks with his armored legs. Roger and Reshiram are both struck and stunned, but Tom manages to duck out of the way and poke MetatoNN-EX's Plasblr symbol to somehow damage him more. MetatoNN-EX retaliates with another kick as he strikes a pose, sending Tom sprawling.

"DON'T FEEL SO GOOD..." Said Tom.

He then blinked and pulled out a cup with the words "Starfait" on it, grinning."I MUST BE DEHYDRATED!!!"

He chugged it down.

"Oh! Starfait is one of Plasblr's sponsors!" Said MetatoNN-EX. "The ad revenue will let the stream spread to-"

He's cut off by Reshiram blasting his weak spot with another fireball, which he staggers back from again, then grins.

"Oh, you're a fiery one..." He said. "But how much fire do you bring... to the dance floor?!"

Before Reshiram knew it, she was suddenly tangoing with MetatoNN-EX beneath a massive disco ball.

<Er, um, I...>

The disco ball suddenly starts shooting lasers at her.

<A-ah!>

She rapidly attempted to dodge the lasers while still keeping in tandem with MetatoNN-EX before incinerating the disco ball and then blasting him back with a Dragon Pulse.

MetatoNN-EX quickly recovered and tossed more bombs. Roger deflects them all and gives a frenzied snarl. "You're really pissing me off! And I'm not exactly happy with all those people you suckered into watching your stream of us being entertained by you fucking with us!"

"Ooh!" Said MetatoNN-EX. "The stream chat just got loaded with people rooting for your destruction! Helps prove my point when this is all said and done!"

Roger snarls again, but then smirks. "Well, then, how's this for my point?"

He rushes in with his spear, ramming it into the Plasblr symbol hard enough to send MetatoNN-EX reeling.

"ROGER THAT PUN WAS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD!!!" Said Tom.

Roger snarls again. "Well it seemed to work just fine on him!"

Immediately after he says so, MetatoNN-EX's limbs pop off.

~Aah!~ said Reshiram. ~Not fine!~

"...A-arms?" said MetatoNN-EX. "W-hho needs arms when you have legs like these? I'm still going to win!"

He kicked up his legs in acrobatic poses to fire a flurry of bombs out of the soles of his metal green boots. However, everyone now is able to predict their trajectory enough to dodge and deflect them all, striking dramatic poses upon neutralizing them completely. MetatoNN-EX's smug smile breaks a bit.

"T-they're rooting for you all now..."

He scowled. "Enough of this! You want civilization to continue ravaging itself?! Or do you just believe in yourselves that much?! Regardless - fine then, it's either me or you all! But we all know who's going to win. Witness the true power of the liberator from technology-driven hatred!"

The Plasblr symbol glowed and unleashed massive bursts of energy at Tom, Roger, and Reshiram. Tom and Roger are both instantly blown back and crash to the ground; Reshiram, however, manages to take the hit and retaliate with a last-ditch Draco Meteor that blew off MetatoNN-EX's legs as well.

After the blow, MetatoNN-EX's limbless torso and head fall to the ground, somehow still standing upright. After staring out into space in shock, he gives a weak chuckle. "Heh... You think you've won, haven't you. Hosting this stream got Plasblr the highest traffic it's ever had... More than enough to destroy civilization and all its toxicity-spreading technology with it forever..."

His voice started shifting more to its human self. "And yet... With that increased power, connection... I saw hope."

Reshiram staggers, panting, from the Draco Meteor but manages to keep her eyes locked on him. <H-hope?>

MetatoNN-EX paused before speaking again, his voice now fully that of his former self.

"The Internet was a dark, cruel, place... But I saw lights... Lights in the darkness... Places where it had genuinely made people's lives better... or even sved them... Places where people had made the best freinds they ever had... Places where people disavowed the darkness and cruelty of the larger whole to form safe places to have fun and be kind and caring to one another on a smaller scale... All this on Plasblr and beyond... Those lights in the darkness, those sparks... In the end, I saw that was the only way to fight the hatred... The part worth fighting for..."

He finally looked straight up into Reshiram's eyes.

"And... Now I realize... I need to value the friends that make a point of light in my life... You, Tom, Roger, all others who've helped me... I... I'm sorry."

Tears streamed down Reshiram's face as she approached him and placed the claws of one of her wings onto a-now armless shoulder.

<I... N, I'm just glad you're back.>

He smiled widely back.

Tom and Roger then groggily picked themselves off the ground.

"...Did we win?" Said Tom.

"Considering Resh seems to be chummy with a delimbed and less-omnicidal android, I'm hoping yes," said Roger.

The two stagger to their feet and join Reshiram. N looked between them all, smiling.

"Heh... Good to see you all are at least back to normal..."

The three look down at themselves to see the effects of the battle had disappeared.

"Aww, I liked that armor..." Said Tom.

"I'd prefer not literally seeming fishy," said Roger.

Reshiram then looked over to N with concern. ~...On that note... How are we going to get you human again?~

N frowned. "I'm battle damaged enough I can't recall the function I figured out for that... I think it might be on what's left of this body somewhere...

Roger scanned him up and down, then noticed a slot saying "Insert Coin To Liberate" between N's chest and waist.

"Well, there we have it. Hold on..." He pulled out a coin from his pocket and moved to put it in the slot.

N looked over at Roger to see what he was doing and panic.

"Roger wait, no, that's my-"

Too late. Roger had plunked the coin in, and a timer immediately appeared in its place counting down just enough for N to say:

"...Coin-operated self-destruct. Not one of my better ideas."

A several-megaton explosion obliterated all in the vicinity.

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

"...And that's why we can't let N learn programming!'

"...Tom, this is why I told you not to play that sleeper hit video game everyone went gaga over all in one sitting."

"Hey, the game was super-fun! But my story could totally happen!"

"Look, you full well N would never-"

*You're listening to all this idly from the other room, of course, sipping from your custom-made "World's Best Fire Dragon Godess" coffee mug.

*Roger is correct anyway. N wouldn't make a social media site, turn himself into a robot, and try to destroy society.

*You know N. He's grown so much. You're so proud of him.

*Besides, you already have a laptop of your own and a Tumblr account. You figured things out yourself and post there all the time.

*...You also briefly considered running a Volcaryu hateblog on the side but very, very admittedly decided that was a bad idea for several reasons, so you'll think of something else for now.

*You move to take another sip of your coffee as you reassure yourself that N would be fine learning some programming. He probably actually would enjoy it anywa-

"Hey, Reshiram, this must be your Tumblr you told me about!"

*You freeze as the mug is about to touch your lips.

"You've made some great posts, I can't stop reading!"

*You make no sudden movements, reassure yourself this is totally harmle-

"This picture moves when you click on it! This Zorua's rolling around in some warm blankets! It's adorable!"

*...You further reassure yourself this is just a coinciden-

"Inspect... eechteeemell?"

*You wordlessly drop your coffee cup as it shatters on the floor. He doesn't seem to notice.

"This... This whole display is made of formulas! It's amazing! It's beautiful! I want to see more of how it works!"

*You feel your sins crawling down your back.

"Though... Looking at them again, some of these formulas seem off, wrong somehow..."

*You run. You don't know how you do it so fast, it could be just that you're a Legendary. All you know is you need to stop one of the best friends you've ever had, one of the only friends you've ever had, from suffering a terrible fate and taking you and everyone else you care about with him.

"Is there any way I can fix i-"

*Laptop

[FIGHT] [ACT] [ITEM] [MERCY]

[ACT]

*Shut Down

*Immolate

*Toss

*Toss

*You toss the laptop at a nearby window. It shatters and flies through the window with a loud crash.

*N stares, then looks at you with genuine concern.

"...Did you post an embarrassing picture of yourself or something?"

***
 
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