Thicc-Tac-Footfinger [Case File 30]

Immediately after Frogerio logged in, his screen would flood with an absurd amount of jumbled green code, an indecipherable stream of numbers and letters engulfing his entire browser and rushing down the tab while his keyboard and mouse silently shut off. It'd be blatantly obvious to anyone who'd interacted with a laptop before that this wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination; it was a bombastic wave of flair not unlike the kind of hacking you'd see in an outdated mediocre movie or a meme floating around the web, something that had to either a blatant display of supernatural power or an elaborate prank... or perhaps both? Regardless, while the sight might initially prove alarming, things would calm down not long after as the rapidly moving text slowed to a trickling crawl and control over the keys and cursor returned to the Wild Card. His browser would remain altered though and every tab he opened would load the same black screen, a masked figure slowly fading into sight and waving in his direction, the girl(?) hovering peacefully in a sea of code while the screen automatically began to zoom in on her head.


Most of the random text behind her would disappear and in the vacant space new words would be spelled out, the messages speedily darting in to fill the empty spot. But in spite of their swift arrival, they'd linger for a decent bit before vanishing and being replaced giving Frogerio a fair amount of time to read it over, likely thanks to the fact that the terrorist wasn't actually speaking aloud for him to hear. In the meantime, the rabbit-headed woman would stroke her mask's chin with her index finger, waiting for him to finish reading and then asking him a question.

"Well actually... Don't tell anybody, but this isn't my face. I'm not actually a sentient talking bunny, I'm just wearing a mask. But I appreciate your attention-to-detail nevertheless!" Tugging at the ears idly, she'd laugh to herself and only stop once she read Frogerio's next response. For a while nothing would happen as she just sort of... floated there staring blankly. Then after a few seconds of contemplation a coin would digitize between her fingers and she'd flip it, stare down at it, and look back up towards the screen. "Welp! I kinda expected you to play along like the rest, but whatever, I can roll with it. You're now on Side Ice, Mr. Special! ...or uh, Side Frost? Eh, you'll get what I mean soon enough." With a snap of her fingers she'd disappear and plain white lines would appear around the code-covered void in her place creating a crude but clear gameboard for them to play on. After the process was finished her head would pop up from the lower-right corner and a small box of basic information would open up at the very bottom.

Tic-Tac-Jack!:

As if gravity had suddenly been applied to them, the white lines and the pieces floating in the air would without warning fall down and gracelessly tumble off the screen, the rabbit mask exiting the corner as Con-Soul pushed herself out of it and hovered back into full view. But while she took center stage yet again, this time she'd seem much closer in proximity and the girl would only draw closer and closer as she floated over casually, hovering through the air until her large mascot-head obscured most of the background. "Nah don't worry. I just like having fun is all. Everyone does it for different reasons: justice, giggles, power, w/e... A lot of us (like me) aren't even actively rebelling, but I guess in the end that doesn't matter. Whatever happens next in the city reflects on us all. All I can do is hope for the best."


After the enthusiastic declaration, she'd reach out with her hand and press it up against the screen from the inside, the area around it beginning to ripple and distort as if a portal had just opened up between two destinations. Should he stare it for more than a split second, Frogerio would feel almost instinctively compelled to reach out and touch his screen, though it was ultimately his decision; nothing would force him to follow suit. If he did reach out to it though, his palm would slip through briefly and he'd feel tiny frail fingers interlock with his own, a chill washing over his hand and coursing through his entire body (which had begun to glow an almost unnoticeable shade of dim blue). It was a pleasant sensation to be sure, a feeling not unlike pushing your hand into ice-cold water on a hot summer evening, but it wouldn't last long as he felt something slip into his palm and the girl's hand recede along with the rippling gateway it'd conjured. A final message flashed across the screen.


Then everything cut to black. The computer would completely shut down before he could respond, although it'd restart on its own in a second or two. Were Frogerio to look at his palm he'd discover a small cyan gem and several glass-like shards resting within it... and were he to look at his desktop wallpaper, he'd also discover one last parting gift: a picture of Con-Soul flashing a peace sign and raising her mask just enough to expose a smile.