A Newbie's Quest, Part 5: Hinobi Kart Mini

James Woods Elementary; 9:00 a.m.

A black racecar with white streaks whooshed across the pavement of the school's playground. It zoomed across a field-sized basketball court, expertly dodging the giant-sized kids playing their sport. It swerved and zoomed up a chalk-drawn racetrack, outrunning the giant racers, then it zoomed under a jump-roping girl just as she had leapt and the rope passed. It was then that a series of gigantic wheels carrying humongous shoes began to chase it. The gap was extremely tight as Jenny pursued the tiny car, making several tight turns. The car steadfastly sped faster toward the finish line, represented by Miko's shoes. The car passed as Miko threw a punch to shove Jenny back.

"WOO! New record!" Quill declared, holding the remote control.

"Wow, nice driving!" Miko praised, picking the car up. "These tiny wheels got a lot of juice!"

"Jenny and Mike may have their sports, but remote car racing is a whole different ballpark!" Quill declared with confidence. "Sure, it can't outrace the benders like Sheila or Wendy, but outpacing Jenny is good enough for me."

"Yo, gang!" They looked over as a boy in a black sweater and a blue streak in his black hair approached. "I thought I saw a little car zooming around."

A candy-haired girl with a cyan hoodie glitched up to Sector Q. "You ever been in a REAL racecar, Quill?" She glitched to sit on Drake's shoulder. "I mean, remote cars are cool, but it doesn't match the thrill of a real race!"

Miko gasped. "A GLITCH!" She whipped out her hammer and BASHED Vanellope across the playground. Miko ran after and tried to smash her, but Vanel glitched to evade. "Yo, what's the big idea, did I say a bad word or something?!"

"What're you doing to my sister?!" Dillon ran up as he and his shadow, Mario grabbed Miko.

"Your… sister?"

Drake came up and said, "We probably should've mentioned, but…" he explained Vanellope's origins.

"Ohhhhhh." Miko retracted the hammer. "Uh…sorry!"

"You're that new girl, aren't you?" Dillon asked. "Right, Maddy told us about you."

Vanel sprung up and said in anger, "And I for one feel I should raise a protest for your unfair treatment of glitches!"

"Hey, we only fight evil glitches! That doesn't mean all are bad. Like Ally here!" She materialized her ostrich companion. "She was a glitch that we turned good!"

Vanellope glared into the clueless eyes of the ostrich. "Ooo, I want you as my spirit animal, you little strawberry vanilla." Vanellope huggled the bird half-aggressively.

"Well, I'm glad we got that straightened out." Quill said. "Now, let's get back to practice."

"Practice? You entering a contest?" Dillon asked.

"Apparently, we're gonna challenge one of the other sectors." Miko replied. "Which sector was it again?"

"Sector GT." Jenny answered. "About a week after they joined a few years ago, we volunteered to be the New Sector Welcome Party. That's where we challenge new recruits and gauge their strength. Now we make it a yearly thing to test how strong they've gotten. One of their members, Uzu liked racecars, too, so he and Quill had a race. And Quill got SQUIIIISHED!"

"Yeah, but I'm not gonna let that oaf get the rubber on me again!" Quill stated. "I may be small, but I'll be doing the squashing this time!"

"You still have a height complex?" Dillon chortled. "Dude, there's a ton of people who're tinier than you."

"No, he and Uzu are actually pretty good friends." Carmine replied. "Hehe, they love to geek out over how to make remote cars cooler!"

This sparked an idea in Miko. "Speaking of how to make them cooler, I wanted to show you something, Quill!"

"Yeah?"

"Well, when you said we were gonna play with racecars, I brought this!" She reached in her backpack to get a white racecar marked with Hinobi's "H", along with a VR helmet.

"Oh, dear. Another Hinobi gizmo?" Eddy asked.

"Don't worry, it's really cool! Here, sit on this bench over here and try it on." Miko led Quill to the nearby bench. As Quill put the helmet on, she flipped a switch in the back and held the car up to her eyes.

Quill's vision turned pixelly and he strangely found himself sitting in a car, in front of a wheel. "AAAAAH!" he screamed at the pair of looming Asian eyes beyond the windshield, eclipsing his whole vision.

"HAH HAH HA!" Miko burst out a loud laugh as the car shook in her hand. "I did the same thing to my family, it's priceless every time!"

Quill panicked as he tried to get his bearings. He seemed to be buckled down to the seat as the car was suspended precariously in Miko's hand. As her looming face moved away, the giant visages of his teammates, Dillon, and Vanellope surrounded him. "WHOA!" He especially freaked at Carmine, whose mask looked like a terrifying sea monster. "What the heck?! I shrunk?!"

"I think it's a hologram." Carmine replied, her muffled voice sounding a bit more nightmarish when magnified. "Your real body's still on the bench."

Miko carried Quill over to his gigantic real body, moving in conjunction with his miniature self's confused movements. "…" Quill extended his finger forward, and seeing his own hulking finger approaching to poke himself sent an unusual nervous chill down his spine. "Man, this is so freaky! I tried to stay away from shrink rays as much as possible, but even a simulation just feels…EEESH!"

"I mean, it's safer than actually shrinking, right?" Miko shrugged. "And it still feels real! That's why videogames rule!"

"It's basically a ripoff of Mario Kart Live." Eddy said. "It did the same thing."

"No, you didn't get the live view like this." Dillon corrected.

"Meh."

"Yes, all your loud banter feels very real, how do I turn this off?" Quill demanded.

"Come on, Quill, you gotta try it at least once." Miko pled, holding him close to her mopey face. "Heck, I'll even shrink with you! Let's have a race!" Miko set him on the ground and pulled out another helmet and car. She put the other car beside Quill's and sat by him on the bench. As she placed the helmet on, "Zwoop!" a Mini Miko appeared in the car. "I'm ready when you are!"

Quill sighed at how persistent she was. At this level, he was totally dwarfed by his friends' footwear, and he hated that they were all looking down on him like some neat toy. "Sigh, alright, we'll try this once."

"GO!" Miko stomped the gas pedal and whooshed off, swiftly swerving around the giant shoes of the operatives.

"Hey, that didn't mean I was ready!" Quill hurriedly raced after, the giants scrambling to step aside. He could actually feel the momentum as he zoomed around the plain-sized playground. Quill would sometimes attach cameras to his remote cars to study the live perspective, but driving one this way felt somewhat amazing, but intimidating. He sped to catch up with Miko, the two driving circles around a tetherball court. He screamed as he hastily dodged the thundering sneakers of the titan kids. "Whoa! Heh, this is kind of exciting! You're mine, Miko!"

"Heh heh!" Vanellope chortled at the benched kids' motions. "It's like they're playing make-believe except they're not~"

As they left the tether court, Quill caught up to the violet-haired racer, ramming each other's car from the side. Miko drove away from him and began jigging her car side-to-side, causing her to zoom ahead of Quill. "Ha ha! When I spam quick-drifts, it enhances my engines to maximum speed! Gamer logic!"

"Yeah, well two can play at that-" Quill tried to jig his car the same way, "WAAAAH!" but he lost control and crashed into a misplaced lunchbox.

"OH, YEAH!" Miko punched to either side.

"OW!" Quill felt the impact as Miko's real body punched his head. His helmet flew off with a spark as Quill seemed to fall unconscious.

"Ouch!" Jenny cringed. "Maybe they shoulda sat further apart."

The Holo-Quill rubbed his head as his body flickered. "What did she…?" Quill looked over to his distant real body, noticing the helmet was knocked off. "Wait… shouldn't I be…" He drove back to rejoin the others.

"Hey, I thought we were gonna drive through the basketball court!" Miko yelled, racing after him.

"Miko, what happens if your helmet gets knocked off while you're still driving?!"

"I mean, you should be back in your real body. You're supposed to be able to take it off, anyway."

"Then why am I still in this?!"

"Uhhh…"

The racers returned to the bench as Miko removed her own helmet, finding herself back in her real body. She looked over Quill's unconscious form with concern, waving a hand by his open, pale eyes. "Uh, Quill? Are you… alright?"

"What the heck is going on?!" yelled the tiny Quill in his car. "Did you kill me?!"

"N-No, I can feel you're still alive." Carmine replied.

Eddy picked up the fallen helmet. "I think Miko broke it. Should we… put it back on him?"

"Hey, Quill! Wake up!" Jenny tried slapping the boy and pinching him, but even the tiny Quill couldn't feel the pain. "W…What's happened to him?"

"I'm starting to think this is a glitch!" Miko panicked.

"This ain't the kind of glitch I expected." Dillon said. "I expected some kind of… sentient creature to come out or something?"

"What, I'm some kind of sentient creature to you?" Vanellope inquired.

"Um…yes?"

"Well, let's take him to Phil." Miko suggested, lifting Quill's body. "He'll know what to do. Come on!" Carmine picked up Quill's car and carried him with.

Hinobi Stop

"Sooo… you were playing with the Hinobi Kart Mini," Phil recapped, "and when you knocked his helmet off, he just got stuck in there?"

"Yes, that is a perfect summarization of what just happened!" Quill shouted. "Can you fix me or what?! Can't one of you just shine your derez thingy on the helmet or something?"

"I think I know the problem here." The manager said. "It's a Switch Glitch."

"A Switch Glitch?" Miko repeated.

"It happens with VR setups sometimes, where the player takes the helmet off, but they're still stuck in the avatar's body because it can't tell that they logged out. As a side-effect, the real body goes numb like that. It's actually a pretty rare occurrence, so tough luck to you, kid."

"What is that supposed to mean, am I stuck like this?!"

"Relax, I'm sure they got an answer for this." Phil typed on his desk computer. "Aha…it says we need a Memory Drive. Only problem is, we don't have those in our shipments because we never got VR sets, yet. I guess they didn't account for our little resident Kubota."

Vanellope glitched onto the desk and asked, "What if we just stomp the car and break it, would he jolt back awake?"

"A GLITCH!" Phil tried to shoot her, but Vanellope began zipping around the store in evasion.

"NONONONO!" Miko jumped in the way. "She's not a Hinobi glitch! She's someone else, she's friendly!"

"Yeah, we'll see how friendly I am when I get serious!" Vanel declared.

"Uh…okay??" Phil lowered his guard with a quizzical expression. "But no, destroying the car's a big no-no. It says there was an account of that happening and the guy was in a coma for a couple months."

"How hasn't this shady-ass company been sued, yet?" Eddy asked.

"Yeah, this is some pretty messed-up shit." Dillon agreed.

"Look, I didn't make the rules, kids. I'm just an ordinary store manager doin' his duty. (Or so I think…)" he mumbled under his breath.

"Haha, you don't think you did your doody?!" Vanellope warped on the desk and laughed.

"Get off that, kid!" Phil scared her off. "Anyway, if I send a call to corporate about this, they're probably gonna send someone to fix the problem. And I don't know how they'll feel about… y'know, the 'letting you keep memories' business."

"Ew, that's gonna pose a problem." Jenny said.

"Ooo, I know!" Miko perked up. "Try and get in contact with Five! See if you can get him to ask for a Memory Drive without saying the specifics! He can fly to Earth, and I can introduce him to my new friends!"

"That's… gonna be pretty complicated."

"Pleeeeaaaase, Phil?" Miko folded her hands with puppy-dog eyes.

Her response was a very long sigh of coffee-scented breath. "I'll see what I can do, kid."

"You're the best, Phil!" Miko reached over the desk for a loving hug, her beaming smile in contrast with Phil's gloomy frown.

"Right… now, protocol says we should keep the Switch Glitch victims in custody until help arrives, but I imagine you'd rather be with your pals."

"Ditto." Quill acknowledged.

"Alright, then you should probably go before anyone else sees. I'll try to phone Five."

The operatives exited the store as requested, crossing the parking lot leisurely. "I'm so sorry, Quill." Miko said. "I never heard of this happening before, I didn't know you'd be trapped in a tiny toy car. Are you mad?"

"Yeah, I am kind of livid, thanks."

"Don't worry, Quill." Carmine said. "This sort of thing happens to every sector. But we promise to take good care of you!" She patted the car gently.

"I guess we'll have to cancel our plans with Sector GT now." Drake figured. "Since Hinobi values their 'secrets.'"

"Pfft, I say you guys should go, anyway." Dillon inferred. "Tell them what happened and everything."

"Yeah!" Quill agreed. "No way I should miss our hangout over this!"

"It's fine by me." Eddy said. "Though I can't imagine Quill should race in this condition."

"Well, if you guys say so, the playdate is still on!" Drake decided. "Fine with you, Miko?"

"Sure! I'd love to see what other Earth sectors are like!"

"Do you two wanna come?" Jenny asked Dillon and Vanel.

"We think we'll hang around here a little bit." Dillon answered. "We kinda wanna… check the games out. But we hope things go all right with you, Quill."

"Yeah, I'll hang in there."

"It does feel kind of awkward meeting Sector GT in this state." Carmine said. "Are you sure you won't be scared, Quill?"

"Come on, GT may be huge, but they ain't scary."

"What, are they like football players?" Miko asked. "Or are they like college students?"

"Oh, yeah!" Jenny laughed. "I guess we didn't really mention that part."

Guatemala

Sector Q flew all the way out to Central America, soaring over the partly-clouded skies of Quetzaltenango, a name that Miko wasn't bound to remember any time soon. They closed in on the farming highlands, a lush and green collection of hills close to a forest. However, far from the village was the unmistakable shape of a KND treehouse, the colossal structure easily viewable from the town, designed to be this region's symbol of hope.

However, as their Q-Ship drew closer, Miko realized something: Sector GT's treehouse seemed a bit larger than Q's, built with rather thick wood. "I heard their treehouse is built with wood imported from Amazonia." Jenny mentioned. "It's the best way to support those lugs."

They landed inside an immensely large hangar, next to an oversized rocket-like ship. Miko was almost beginning to think that they all shrunk as well, crossing the vast hangar floor to a rather gaping doorway. "'EEEYOOOOO!" Drake's call echoed throughout the living room. There were six kids going about their own activities, and fitting with the décor, the GT operatives were the right scale to match it, some measuring up to at least 20 feet. "Where's the welcome party?!"

"Hey, Sector Q is here!" Ally cheered, looking up from sweeping the floor.

"Ah, I thought it was about time!" Sind said, picking up his soccerball. The floor shook violently as the six giants jogged over. Quill almost paled as the towering titans approached at the speed that they did. Though he was used to being around the Giant Sector, their sizes were more than intimidating from this angle.

"WHOOOOOAAA!" Miko's mouth had to grow to fully capture her surprise. "What do you guys EAT?! You're really packing it!"

"This girl's our new teammate, Miko!" Drake announced. "Miko, meet the Giants of Guatemala!"

The leader, Sind Diego was a blonde, Mexican boy with a red soccer jersey, black shorts, and red sneakers. The farmer, Doran Dodley was an orange-skinned boy with dim green hair, wearing bright orange shorts, shirt, and shoes. The housekeeper, Ally Mitchels had bowl-cut brown hair, a white dress with red polka-dots, and light-blue sandals. The smasher, Konbu Colins, the largest and huskiest giant, wore a green shirt and blue shorts, his black hair short on his pudgy head. His brother, Uzu had puffy brown hair, a yellow shirt with a waffle picture, blue jeans, and white shoes. Biyo Winston, despite his bulbous head, was the shortest giant at 14 feet, with a small bush of gray hair atop his scalp, a blue dress with black shorts, and white shoes. Shy and meek-looking, he served as the team's doctor.

"You guys are WAY too huge!" Miko expressed, going directly up to the giants and craning her neck back. "I bet you're like the strongest sector!"

"Not even close." Ally smiled sheepishly. "Most of us are only around 100 with Power Levels."

"How come this guy is wearing a dress?" Miko asked as she walked under Biyo. "Are you a boy or a girl?"

"I-I'm a boy!" Biyo flushed, backing up. "I just really like Numbuh 5, okay?"

"Numbuh High Five? You know him?!"

"No, Miko, he's talking about Numbuh 5 from the previous gen." Jenny corrected. "But yeah, Biyo is sort of a crossdresser."

"And this guy is so orange!" Miko walked up and climbed around Doran. "Are you a carrot monster?"

"I had a serious addiction to carrots since I was little." Doran replied with a blush. "When the Gigantification happened, my body turned this color as a result. Okay, my turn! Why is your hair like that?"

"No idea! I was just born with this color, even though no one in my family has it."

"So, where's Quill?" Uzu asked. "Did he not come today?"

"Actually, Quill got into a little accident." Carmine walked up and held up the Hinobi car. "He's right here."

Uzu crouched down as his squinted eyes focused on the tiny car. "Oh…did Quill shrink?"

"He shrunk?" Sind asked worriedly. "Um…should we get him fixed at Moonbase?"

"It's a little more complicated than that." Drake answered.

"Yeah, Miko brought some cursed technology back from her alien planet." Eddy explained.

"Cursed technology?!" Biyo screamed.

Sector Q briefly went over the incident that happened, though they left out the bigger details regarding Hinobi's glitches and mind-wiping. "So, he's gonna be stuck that way for a while?" Sind summarized. "Well, we wouldn't have minded cancelling."

"Maybe he should eat something?" Konbu suggested. "I'll let him have one of my donuts!"

"Nice idea, but I don't think holograms can eat." Ally replied.

"Come on, we can still hang out!" Quill decided. "If I'm gonna be stuck in this car all day, no reason we can't do it here!"

"Yeah, Sind!" Uzu agreed. "We'll just have to be extra careful! That's what we do best, right?"

"I guess so…" Sind rubbed his arm nervously.

"Great, then SHOW ME WHAT YOU GIANTS CAN DO!" Miko leapt and PUNCHED Biyo in the gut, the force blasting the mini giant across the room as a chair shattered!

"Oooooww!"

"We should probably head outside first." Doran figured.

Hinobi Stop

Phil had sent an email to his old store, asking for a Memory Drive. Other customers were studying the shelves, such as a girl with braces and glasses, an African-American boy with a rocket hat, or a strange, black-clothed man with cowboy boots, who was checking out a parasite horror game. However, Phil's eyes fell to Dillon, the boy's eyes narrowed on the Chomp Kitty game in his hands. "You gonna buy something or what, kid?"

"Hey, I'm very selective with my games." Dillon remarked.

"Is there another reason you're still hanging around here?"

"Someone's gotta make sure you're doing your job."

"Oh, I'm doing my job, are you doing yours?"

"Yep, saving the universe, one bad game at a time. So, which of these have the riskiest glitch potential?"

"Ex-nay on the itches-glay, kid." Phil said as a firefly fluttered around him. "Ugh, would you go away?!" He tried to shoo the glowing bug away. "What're you doing here in the daytime…"

Meanwhile, as BITT was patrolling around the back area, the robot noticed the security network seemed to be glitchy. The camera behind him flashed as Vanellope zipped out. "Boo!" And she glitched directly into BITT's face. "Shhh-shhh-shhhhhhh!" Vanellope's form was shown on BITT's face, depicted as though she were behind him and putting a hand over his mouth. "It's okay, buddy, I'm not a bad glitch. I just wanna hack around a bit."

"Unauthorized personnel are not permitted on my hard-drive!"

"Yeah yeah, I'll make it up to you later. Just lemme poke around just a little bit."

The inside of BITT's cyberspace resembled a sea of blocks resembling countless files. "Whoa…" Vanellope's eyes fell wide before a rather huge and tightly secured file. There were large keys around the bottom of the file. "What's inside this big thing?"

"This is Phil's highly personal file, sealed with a code that not even he can crack!"

"Meh, I've cracked a few codes in my time. Let's start with…" Vanellope pressed one of the buttons, resulting in a jovial Boooop sound. "Ha ha ha!" She pushed another, Bip! "Haha!" Then another, Boop. "Hmmm…"

Bip bip bibibibi boop, bip bip bibibibi boop, bibi boop boop, BOOP doo-doo-doo doo, boop! Vanellope began pressing them in a rhythm that resembled the chicken dance. She had quickly forgotten trying to decrypt the code just to enjoy herself. BITT seemed to be enjoying it, too, dancing and singing along with her.

…

Dillon's shadow slithered behind the desk and whispered to Phil's shadow. The adult's shadow seemed to speak back, and afterwards, Mario returned to Dillon to pass on the info. Dillon cracked a smile and spoke smoothly. "But be straight with me, Phil. You ain't a bad guy. If you were, you would've wiped our memories already, right?"

"My generosity has its limits, kid. If too many of you know about the glitch problems, we'll all get in trouble with corporate."

"Buddy, we faced a universe-destroying time god, I think we can handle a few sleazy game-developers. But if I didn't know any better, I'd say you had something against them, too."

"Well, it's none of your business, anyway." Phil replied as he again had to shoo away the firefly.

"No, it kind of is." Dillon argued as the firefly flew over to the dark-clothed man, who proceeded to leave the store. "You Hinobi guys landed on our planet and are threatening us with your broken games. My friends wouldn't appreciate another crisis so soon, so we'd like to stop one before it happens."

Phil sighed. "Alright… I'm not gonna pretend to understand Hinobi's policy or their programming. Most of the time, I don't question it because I need my paycheck. But between you and me, I think they're hiding something from me, and when I find out-"

Beeee doop, bee-deeee, doop, bee-dooooooo…

"What the-?" Hearing the strange, yet familiar singing, Phil turned to the back door. "BITT?" The manager rushed over and barged in to find his robot dancing in the air, his face glitching. "BITT, what's wrong?!" Phil grabbed a gauntlet and flashed the Derez Light.

"YIPE!" Vanel immediately jumped out and glitched away.

"YOU!" Phil charged after her, and Dillon bolted out of the store alongside his sister. "YOU ROTTEN KIDS, you better not come back!" The other customers looked his direction with shock.

"You find anything, Vanel?!" Dillon asked.

"I tried, but we started playing chicken!"

"Ugh…" Phil huffed and returned to the back. "Great, what did they do to you, BITT?" He tapped the robot's face to stop its jittering. "They better not've broken any…thing?"

An unfamiliar file labeled Bio Program Project appeared on the screen. "What in the… Where did this…"

"Congratulations, Ph—&*%*—il! You cracked the code!" BITT glitched.

"I…I did? YES! I knew I wasn't clever enough to fool me! Hmmm…let's store this somewhere else for now. I'll have a look at it later."

Sector GT

"HYAH!!" Jenny zoomed at Sind for another charged kick, unable to bend the giant soccer star's leg. The soles of Sind's shoes glowed a cyan color as his soccerball magnetically returned. Jenny dodged the boulder-sized ball, but Sind dealt a kick that blasted the soccer like a cannonball, flinging Jenny across the court. "Your kicks are nothing compared to Karin's!" Sind declared.

Jenny switched rockets on the ankles of her shoes and shoved the ball back over with sheer momentum. The increased speed knocked Sind down with his own ball, then Jenny performed a high rocket-powered flip and stomped down on Sind's back. "At least I get to save strength by not running!"

Doran led Drake out to his farmland, where giant produce was grown and harvested. Using his plantbending, Corn Missiles launched off their stems and homed in on Drake, the leader evading as they exploded. But Drake was tripped as Doran bent some roots up from beneath him. Doran dropped Cabbage Bombs beside him, Drake enduring the explosions as they coated him in juices. Drake pushed himself up and used his sword-hand to chop the crops down. He ran toward Doran and shot his harpoon to latch around his leg, and as he reeled himself toward the giant, he flipped and imbued Haki to his boots. The impact to his stomach sent Doran several yards, landing on his back. Doran bent up gun-like plants to shoot grape and pea bullets. Drake changed his hand to a retractable shield and ran to engage him again.

Konbu stood face-to-face with Miko Kubota, the gamer smirking with confidence even as the boy completely dwarfed her. To Miko's surprise, Konbu curled his arms and legs up and seemed to retract his head into his body. The giant rolled at Miko and squished her like a 2D rug on the floor. Regardless, she reflated in good condition (gamer logic) and braced herself as Konbu rebounded. She pushed against the rounded mass, stopping Konbu in place. She struggled to push against the hefty boy, but was able to redirect him to her left. Konbu uncurled, and when Miko ran to him, Konbu bent down and dealt palm thrusts. Miko dealt thrusts of her own to negate his, then charged to shove him off his legs.

"Not bad!" Konbu praised. "You study Sumo Style?"

"I play sumo games!" Miko leapt to punch down against his face. Konbu coughed from the attack, then retracted his head to roll away once more.

"Yeah, but I can do it like Gorons do!" Konbu said as he emerged, squatting down. "I bet you're not heavy enough for this!" And before Miko's eyes, he lunged into the air, at least 12 meters! Miko wouldn't have expected a giant of such girth and small legs to accomplish this, but she would definitely be more than flattened if she didn't run out of the way. When Konbu crashed, the earth rumbled violently from his shockwave and knocked Miko off her feet. Konbu leapt once more and smashed the gamer beneath his belly.

"Hurrrrrah!" Miko extracted her purple hammer to force Konbu off and into the air. She expected another dramatic quake upon his landing and jumped at the same time, but she barely felt a vibration. "Hey, why didn't you shockwave that time?"

"I wasn't able to muster my chi in time." Konbu replied, rolling at Miko again. She shoved against and tried to haul him aside once more. "I can concentrate my weight to specific areas and add more force!" With some added pressure to his belly, Konbu rolled over Miko. He then got up to jump and smash her again, belly bouncing against the girl to keep her down.

"HURK! Okay… uncle… can't breathe!…"

"Hee hee hee!" Ally giggled, watching the battle with Carmine in her hands. "Come on, Miko, we've seen a ton of operatives lift Konbu up!"

"I guess videogames can only make you so strong." Carmine shrugged.

"Hey, why aren't you guys fighting?" Drake asked, trying to escape another of Doran's vine traps.

"Why fight when we can play?" Ally asked, swaying Carmine in the air. "Life's way more than just training!"

"You don't want me to blow up your Broom Vacuum again, right?" Carmine asked.

"Well, that's one reason." Ally blushed.

Elsewhere, Uzu was driving an RC car, the size of a normal car, around a track and shooting targets with a turret. "Check it out!" he said to the little Quill on his shoulder. "I installed the boat function we talked about!" He drove the car into a moat as a raft inflated around it.

"Hah, I added that to mine, too!" Quill replied. "Too bad I won't get to show you…"

"You can drive that thing around, right? We can still have a race."

"I don't wanna risk getting flattened. If this thing breaks, I could be out for months."

"I guess you're pretty confident I'd win, huh?"

"Yeah. I MEAN, NO, I NEVER SAID THAT!"

"Ha ha ha!"

"Yeah, ha ha, I don't appreciate the mocking."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Uzu said with mild guilt. Feeling he should change the subject, Uzu asked, "So, how's Miko like, anyway? She seems pretty fun."

"Well, she certainly brought a ton of messes with her." Quill replied. "Honestly… I'm not sure, anymore. I feel like our workload just increased tenfold with all this Hinobi business."

"How come?"

"Let's just say that Hinobi has a lot of problems, with this being an example. Because Miko works for Hinobi, she has to fix those problems, and that means we, her new teammates, have to help fix them. Though, I guess we would've had to either way, but still… I wonder if we wouldn't have to deal with them if she hadn't joined our sector. …Well, don't tell her I said that."

"No, I kind of understand." Uzu replied. "Actually… I kind of relate to her. We all had a hard time adapting back to normal life because of our sizes. That's sort of why we all moved to this town, because there's plenty of land for us. Even the town started working to accommodate us… well, after we stomped a few villains, of course. But I guess Miko's case is different, huh?"

"Yeah, it kind of is. I don't even know if it's her fault; even if they're accidents or if she apologizes…"

"Hoo! That was quite a workout!" Miko cheered, flexing her arms as she and Konbu approached the two. "So, where's the picnic you all were telling me about?"

"Hah, we'll get it set right up!" Uzu smiled, standing up to full height.

Once all the pairs were finished with their bouts, Doran and Ally laid a large blanket down. The giants shared their favorite foods with the normal-size operatives, with Drake eating Doran's carrot bread, Miko biting part of a large donut, while Carmine sipped part of Ally's warm water through a straw. Biyo was holding Quill's unmoving body in a basket with a pillow and blanket. "Biyo says that Quill's vital signs seem okay." Eddy explained.

"That's good!" Miko smiled. "See, everything's gonna be okay, Qui-"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna hold money on it though." The car-bound boy cut her off.

"Um…but when you are, want me to get you anything? Mocha slushy?"

"I'm not really in the mood for anything."

"Um…" Miko's face fell with guilt. They both knew it was her fault and she was unsure what to say. "Do you want me to do anything?"

"Besides protecting my body or making sure Hinobi does their job, I'm really not sure."

"I…I really am sorry."

"I'm feeling a little uncomfortable about this." Sind mentioned. "Maybe we should've just cancelled."

"No, maybe I should just leave." Miko stood and began to walk away. "I'll go wait on the ship or something."

"Come on, don't leave, yet." Jenny skated up and held her arm. "At least you're trying… That matters."

"I feel like it doesn't matter enough."

"Look, everybody makes mistakes they aren't proud of." Drake inputted. "Quill doesn't have to forgive her, but we already agreed to keep this hangout going despite Quill's condition. So, I think the whole team should be here."

"Hmmm…" Miko awkwardly returned to her spot. "Well… I promise not to make you guys play any more Hinobi games. I'll keep them to myself."

"I don't really think anyone should play Hinobi, anymore." Eddy said.

"It doesn't sound like their inventions are very safe." Ally figured.

"Yeah, and you don't know the worst parts."

Miko let out a little whimper. She had always felt loyal to Hinobi growing up… and even after she learned about the glitches and mind-wiping, she still felt that they had everyone's best interests at heart. Her old friends never felt like this… but if not for the mind-wiping, would everyone else feel like this?

"He…he's moving!"

Hearing Biyo speak up, everyone looked to Quill's body in his hands. Indeed, Quill seemed to be squirming to wake up. "Is he going back to his body?" Carmine asked hopefully.

"I don't feel anything happening on my end." The Quill in the car said. "Did Phil mention anything like this?"

"I don't think so…" Miko replied.

"Nnn…YAH!!" Quill's body jolted up, whipping out his Elementors as he blasted fire into Biyo's face, the shortest giant screaming and keeling backwards as he tried to put it out. "AAAAAGH!" He set fire to the whole picnic, the operatives jumping away. "Ooo, it feels so good to be in the flesh! Now, where is that little…" His corrupted white eyes locked on the tiny car in Carmine's hands. "THERE it is!" He quickly shot wind from the guns to blow Carmine over, dropping the car as it bounced away. The possessed Quill dashed for the car, but Ally jumped in the way, whipping out a broom and blowing a gust of wind from the brush. 'Quill' couldn't withstand the wind and was blown back, then Drake jumped the boy in attempt to tie him up.

'Quill' switched to wind to blow him off, then shot ice to freeze Drake—Konbu leapt to flatten the possessed boy, followed by Sind jumping on his friend's back to apply extra pressure. Konbu rolled off afterward, revealing 'Quill' to be battered and exhausted. Doran bent up some vines to tightly bind the boy, Carmine coming to confiscate his weapons.

With a stern expression, Miko marched up to the possessed boy. "You're a glitch, aren't you?"

"Not anymore! Now I'm finally free! Now, let me go!"

"Why did you try to hurt Quill?"

"So I couldn't be sent back to that puny prison! I can't even move around on my own unless someone pilots me! But even then, I have to act under their controls! You knocked a little sense in to me when you punched my helmet. It took some time, but I finally have a will of my own! Now, let me go!"

"Hell no!" Jenny yelled. "We ain't gonna let you smash our friend!"

"I just don't understand…" Miko spoke in a low tone.

"Understand what?" the glitch asked.

"Why do you glitches hurt people? Why do you hurt the people who enjoy your games? Do you all just feel like prisoners? Why?"

"I can't really speak for other games, but I don't like being trapped in a tiny car. Better this guy than me!"

"Give back my body, you jerk!" Quill yelled from Carmine's hands.

"Alright… this needs to stop." Miko turned and faced her friends with eyes of resolve. "I…I'm ashamed that my favorite company is doing this to you all. Hinobi… needs to answer for this."

"Whoa…" Quill had never heard Miko sound this serious. It was subtle and reserved, but the little operative could feel the severity in his teammate's voice. She actually sounded… pretty dependable.

Sind curved his eyes in a serious, agreeing fashion. "Yeah… You want us to help you guys?"

"We'd really appreciate it." Eddy nodded. "But what's even our first course of action?"

"Getting Biyo treated, for one." Ally said, helping the burnt-faced boy to stand.

"It's okay. I have something for this." Biyo reached into his med-kit to retrieve some medicine.

"We still need to wait for that Memory Drive to help Quill." Drake said. "Until then… I say we go bring this up with Cheren. Maddy might've already told him, but I say we get him to send word out to other sectors. We'll be ready in case Hinobi tries something."

"Yeah… that's a good idea." Miko nodded.

"Can I get one of those donuts?!" The Switch Glitch shouted.

Hinobi Stop; that twilight

"Sigh…" Phil couldn't believe what he had just read. Why was Hinobi… trying to do something like that? Why would they want to? And more importantly…

He couldn't finish his thought as a group of people walked into his store. It seems they've finally arrived. "Long time, no see, guys. Did you bring the Drive?"

"Right here, former boss." Mitch smiled and twirled the cord in his hand. "So, where is the little newb?"