[Connecting, Please wait…]

[Connection Re-Established, welcome back: CEO Ava]

“Status report…” I commanded as I lazily blinked my eye.

[All tests for today have been accomplished by current workstaff, delicate testing item: Alraune Seed, has been submersed with soil and treated with necessary floral nurture components.]

“Perfect… I am certainly not proud of my actions, but several benefits have come from it.”

[Query: do you intend on visiting the demon world your acquaintance mentioned?]

“...to clarify, I was in a fragile emotional state that I don’t intend on falling into again, I am not some shameless pervert.”

[statement does not answer query: do you plan on visiting that world?]

“...maybe…”

After catching up on all the events (and test results), I found myself mulling over the memories that risked destroying another innocent.

“I can’t let this happen again.” I concluded. “I need help to find the source of these memories, to understand them… but I don’t trust the ponies… I need a displaced.”

As if my wish was answered by the events, a golden NES Cartridge appeared in the air… and promptly slammed into one of my vacant core ports.

“What the-”

[Core Accepted, beginning projection]

“WAIT NO-”

*bwoooooom*

------------{Ryan, 3rd Person}------------

A hologram slapped onto the walls of Glados’s room, revealing some sort of brightly colored man in his late thirties, the man appeared a little tired and yet still kicking. “Captain G Ryan here,” Ryan said as the quality cleared up a bit. “...What… am I looking at?”

What he saw was the GLaDOS chamber and chassis, completely still, since the failsafes of the facility had kicked in and shut off Ava’s AI temporarily to ensure whatever energies the cartridge currently emitted did not cause any damage to the software as it projected.

Thankfully for both Ava and Ryan, there was an AI still online able to help. “[The unknown viewer is currently viewing the main computing chamber for Subject: Ava, CEO of Aperture Science, who is currently in need in someone capable of electronics or software to prevent her suffering more software malfunctions designated as ‘psychotic breaks’.]”

Hearing the generic electrical phone-like voice on the other end speaking of computers made Ryan thinking he had made a connect to a world of robots. Ryan was now highly curious as to what happen on the other end. “I’ll be right over.” he said as he raised his a high-tech looking gauntlet.

[Scanning for world… World found. Entering Code: 407747. Connecting…. Connection Success]

At that moment, Glados’ eye, that was projecting Ryan, started to flash between blue, red, and green, and then with a flash, the man began to materialize into Glados’ world pixel by pixel, then reformed to to be more fleshed out. Ryan flexed his body, testing to make sure he was all there.

With a now completed transfer, the AI within the chassis began to go into hysterics, extending an arm from the wall in an attempt to remove the cartridge.

“Get it off! GET IT OFF!” she cried aloud as she tore it from the socket it had attached itself to. After briefly calming down, she searched the room, finding Ryan standing at the side, she glared angrily at the human, before tossing the cartridge at his head.

When it hit Ryan’s head, it made a strange low quality 8-bit sound. “What was that for?” Ryan asked as he rubbed his head, it didn’t hurt him but it stung a bit.

“I have had enough of things being plugged into my sockets without my consent, next time you plan on that I expect you to take me out to dinner first.” Ava commented.

“To dinner, the hell?” Ryan asked very confusingly as he reached down to pick up his token. “Look, I’m just here about some sort of psychotic breaks you were having? Whoever was speaking.”

“Hm… you’re not very fun to tease, but you’re clearly a displaced I need so you’ll have to do, I suppose you’d like to begin where all this started, correct?”

“That would be for the best, it’ll give me a general idea as to how to fix it.” Ryan explained as he dropped the cartridge into a conveniently placed funnel. He had chosen to ignore the robot’s strange attempts at joking or flirting.

“Well, I have three sets of memories, one is of my time as Ava Kane, not as a displaced but as a human, the second belongs to GLaDOS, of who’s body I now inhabit, but a third set of memories invades my mind without pause or consent, and the problem is they’re so scrambled I can’t identify their origins. That wouldn’t be a major problem if it weren’t for the fact that certain triggers tied to these memories throw me into an uncontrollably violent rage.”

“That does not sound good, ” Ryan said, thinking there may be some sort of glitch in Glados’ system. “Other than rage, is there anything else that may hint of what’s going on?”

“Well the target of my rage appears to be a hairy man with glasses, there’s the image of me as a pack of wolves, and the color pink.”

Ryan blinked. Any of the statements Glados told did not make any connection nor did any of it make sense to the gamer. “Now, don’t freak out, I may need to enter your CPU and see your memories in a more physical form. If by chance any of it has any sentience that is interfering with your mind, I’ll see if I can either destroy it, or reason with it.” he explained.

“So your plan is to go inside my head and clean up my thoughts… I don’t see why not, and the sooner I find the truth of this, the better.”

Ryan raised his gauntlet, causing a holographic screen to appear.

[Scanning…. Glitch Detected]

Ryan began moving the cursor around using the touchpad to select a new icon that had appeared in the form of a small cute 8-bit icon of Glados’s head. Ryan pressed A to confirmed.

[Decoding…]

Ryan screen flashed, revealing a large line of data and computer talk that would be too confused for the average human to understand.

[Decoding Complete. Now converting username: Captain G]

With those words appearing on screen, his body started to flick and digitize, shrinking down to size before quickly rushing into one of the many ports in Glados’ body.

Ryan heard the sounds of a shudder before he began rushing down the wire to the virtual space that made up Ava’s subconscious.

“Shouldn’t too hard to find the problem, I mean it’s just a grid with electric impulses, right?” Ryan said as he flew through the vortex of digital space.

...and appeared in a strange virtual scape, with a blue sky and a spanning desert made of several small islands, connecting by pulsing black vine-like wires that connected to towers in the distance like roots.

“What in the…” Ryan began as he slowly descended onto the ground. Ryan glanced at his body, seeing nothing brightly colored about himself. “I can’t tell if this is just part of her Displacement or something very wonky is going on.” he said as an [Iron Sword] and [Magical Shield] materialized into his hands in a flash of blue, red and green pixels.

He did not have time to question the circumstances, as suddenly he was set upon by laser fire. Ryan quickly raised his shield to block the attack, his shield making a loud dink.

A quick glance in the direction revealed the assailants to be strange skittering machines with eye-like markings on their head, it seemed they weren’t alone as the longer he seemed to be here, larger and more complex attackers began to materialize into the virtual landscape, like antibodies.

“Better make this quick…” Ryan said as he kept his shield raised. Ryan as he dashed through the lands and blocking any fire that may came his way, he was trying to find the biggest tower, thinking it could be the main control system.

Although no such tower existed, his search lead him to find a link to a very large chain, embedded in the ground, leading over to a plateau in the distance, with several other chains heading in that direction. With a determined nod, he raised his powerglove again, his [Iron Sword] vanishing temporally, he reaches up and pressed the [Slo-Mo] button, allowing his body to quickly accelerate. The power meter showing in his gauntlet’s screen quickly began to drain as he followed the mass of chains, his speed returns to normal when the meter reached zero, rendering the function null for the time being.

But he was there, looking over the ridge into a deep pit, inside the chains lead down and connected to a transparent sphere. Inside the sphere was a strange mass of black smoke, bearing the same eye mark the creatures had, only white. It rammed against the walls of its prison and roared in a mix of agony and anger as it desperately continued its attempts to escape.

Ryan leapt down, only to start to slowly descend when his [Pegasus Wings] sprouted from his back. Captain G kept his wits about him and his surroundings.

As he lowered to the pit floor, the smoke turned it’s snow-coloured optic to the visitor, it floated in silence and to Ryan’s perception, the massive incorporeal beast seemed to look at him… pleadingly, begging for freedom.

“Are you able to talk?” Ryan said as he slowly approached closer, his shield raised in paranoia.

It certainly tried, but all that came out as garbled static that sounded and seemed painful to the creature, but it still continued to try, wanting to complete the man’s request.

Ryan raised his gauntlet as it started to scan the beast.

[Scanning… Detected as incomplete operation, no glitch found.]

Seeing this made him question the powerglove considering the beastial appearance of the within the sphere. “Rescan,” Ryan commanded, but it gave the same result as before. Relaying on it’s judgement, a blue [Bomb] materialized in his hand. “You may want to step back.” He suggested as the fuse quickly lit itself.

The being pressed itself onto the opposite side of the sphere, awaiting the detonation of the explosive, and with a mighty sound, it erupted, the blast echoing off into the distance, and the sphere… only bore a small crack.

“Alright, looks like I’ll need something stronger.” Ryan said as he came back, he raised his hand as a red and white mushroom appeared in his hand. The moment Ryan gripped it, his size grew three times its normal height. Ryan moves his arm back, then goes to deliver a hard punch against the crack.

It shattered, the orb was reduced to shards as with the first hole, it was rendered useless and self-deleted, the black mist entity let out a triumphant cry before rocketing into the sky, bursting to then spread across the land, and as it reached the creatures that had been attacking Ryan since is entry into this world, they all stopped and bowed in reverence before disappearing into wireframe.

Ryan crouched down, and then with a mighty leap, jumped out of the pit. Ryan glances around as it had grown silent without all the creatures here and about. “I seriously hope this was worth it.” he said as he looked down at his glove.

“So this is the rat that sought to impede my fun?” a new, ominous voice, greeted Captain G as a dark, red eyed shadow loomed over him, dripping with anger.

Ryan raised his shield again in preparation, his gauntlet’s palm taking on a blue glow. “You must be the glitch in the system.” he asked.

“An insulting rat, I am no glitch, I am the very reason Ava even found her way to Equestria in the first place, you may refer to me as, the Game Maestro, and you sir, are ruining my game!”

Ryan couldn’t help but laugh at the creature’s words. “You sound just like Glitchcord, minus the rage.”

The black mass gave a deadpan stare, before glaring at Ryan. “let me give you some better context.” he says as he grabs the man and teleports the both of them into a bubble, surrounded by pure nothing. “I’m sure a simple program could not take you to the void, now could it?”

Ryan glance around the endless void, it reminded him of the [Zone] he had traveled through many times. Ryan, out of curiosity, got his powerglove to scan the void.

[warning, unknown threat, complete null factor, contact with area outside bubble will result in instant deletion, avoid all contact!]

Ryan lowered his glove, then glanced at the black mass, he knew that if this being was left alone, he may try to recapture what Ryan had freed, but considering the dangers of the void, it would be suicidal to fight it. Ryan raised his hand to stop out an old pocket watch, checking the time to see how long they’ve been here.

“Though of course dropping you out here to die painfully would be cheating, and you clearly have no intention of having me rip apart your friend again, so how about a new game?”

With a flick of his wrist, the watch was closed and gone back into his [Inventory]. “I’m listening.” Ryan said, trying his best to remain calm.

“It’s one you might be familiar with.” the figure clapped its hands, and in the bubble appeared a TV and a really old console. “Pong, best of 3 wins, you win and I will leave Ava be, if I win however, you will be my new source of entertainment instead.”

Ryan stared dumbfounded at the challenge he had presented to him, he was an ex champion of nintendo, but pong was entirely different, it was a simple game and anything could happen between the two. “Are there any rules?” Ryan asked.

“Oh, just the standard affair, I felt a simple game would even the playing field, and your era of gaming is old as dirt anyway, so… we have an agreement?”

“Game On.” Ryan said as he extended his hand, the one that didn’t have the powerglove on.

And with a firm handshake, The Game was on!

{ten seconds later}

The Game was over!

“...it’s a stupid game anyway…”

Ryan was now even more dumbfounded than before, it was so anticlimactic. This big evil, the very thing was the source of Ava’s troubles, lost a game of… pong. Ryan wasn’t sure if he should laugh or feel sorry.

“Well, a deal’s a deal, you’ve earned Ava’s freedom, but it needn’t matter, I have plenty of other toys with which to play with… now run along, your friend is waiting for you.” and with that, Ryan found himself back in that virtual realm, the Game Maestro nowhere in sight. Ryan quickly raised his powerglove and input the code back to Glados’ world.

With his materialisation back into the computing chamber, he noticed the lights were all off, the only form of illumination being a Single. Crimson. Eye.

Ryan quickly brought out a [Torch] to materialized in his hand to light up the area while his other hand was glowing a bright blue. Ryan was prepared to fire the [Ice Beam], but…

“I remember…” the voice of Ava broke through the silence, her voice… broken, like she had been crying.

The tension in Ryan’s arms calmed down, letting the shot in his gauntlet to fade away. Ryan looked around, wondering why the lights were still dim, he quickly looks over at Ava in small concern.

“I remember everything, I’m not GLaDOS, I was something that took over her body… and I remember everything it had, its Wife… and Daughter… stolen from it by a scientist who used it as a weapon… I feel like I was better off not knowing… at least then I wouldn’t have this pain in my heart!” she sobbed.

Ryan had to admit, it sounded odd to hear a robot cry. “Hey… Hey,” Ryan said as he patted Ava’s head. “It’s better to know the truth than to let the question eat away at you.”

“I… yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Look at it this way; you’re not the only one in this world, or its multiverse.” Ryan said as he glanced around the room, wondering if it's just Ava or if the other entity is also here.

“So… thanks for breaking the rest of me, it feels… weird, to be whole, but nice!”

“But will you be alright? I mean different appearance and all.” Ryan said, gesturing to Ava’s Glados body.

“With my new clarity, comes new perspective, I won’t have trouble controlling this shell now that I know what I truly am.”

“You’re not going to go crazy because of you being different? Or the fact you were forced to change?” Ryan asked in curiosity as Ava was taking this well.

“Ryan, I was suffering severe psychotic decay because something was leaving me incomplete, how would you feel about losing a large chunk of yourself, and then getting it back?”

“That is true. Plus, it could have been alot worse if you hadn’t found my token.” Ryan admitted to Ava.

“Actually, it appeared from the aether the moment I said ‘I need a displaced’.”

Ryan blinked. “The Zone was listening?” he asked perplexed.

“...don’t know what this ‘Zone’ is but… maybe?”

“It’s what I call the spaces between each universe,” Ryan said with a shrugs. “It’s what people of Epixeria call it.”

“Oh, normally it’s referred to as ‘the void’... on another note, I am sorry that you came into this stretch of the multiverse with such a… dated, era of game knowledge, there’s going to be a lot of people displaced as amazingly iconic game characters that you won’t know.”

“I’m aware, like this one child who called herself Chara who claimed she was well known for a game called Undertale. She kind of freaked out when I didn’t know it.” Ryan explained to Ava.

“Well then you’ve encountered two people displaced as villains then, Glados was the main antagonist of the ‘Portal’ action puzzle-platformer series, XANA, the character I actually was displaced as, was the villain of a cartoon series known as Code: Lyoko, and Chara is… well that one’s complex, but then again the game she was part of was an RPG that encouraged befriending the monsters instead of killing them.”

“This child was a bit on the violent side though when she wanted to go out on a killing spree on monster’s when I brought her to Rarity’s world.” Ryan explained.

“Oh that’s because the appearance of Chara, a being who is linked to the protag’s soul, only happens after you have killed every monster in the underground on a ‘Genocide Run’, it’s not really her fault, just the consequences of her manifestation… funny how you couldn’t help her violent tendencies, the meta-state of the game should make her be identifiable as code, so maybe you could do for her what you did for me.”

“She didn’t ask for my help though, she wanted a short vacation, so I brought her to Zelda 2. For some reason she almost lost it when she learned Rarity was the heroine…” Ryan asked with confusion in his voice.

“I don’t know about that, but the problem is she wouldn’t be able to see she needs help in that state… let me explain.” The AI decided to put her new projection abilities to use in order to display the visual aides. “In a normal RPG, LV and EXP are Level and Experience Points respectively, in Undertale it is a lot different, EXP stands for ‘Execution Points’, how brutally you murder someone, and LV is ‘Level of Violence’, the capacity to hurt, and how hard it is to be hurt. These aren’t simple numbers, these are emotional states as in Undertale the intent to harm is all that is needed to inflict real damage, and at the end of a Genocide run, when Chara spawns her LV would be 20, the highest possible.”

The projector shut off, and Ava turned to Ryan. “Chara is not fine, this LV makes her emotionally numb and prone to extreme bursts of violence, this state makes it impossible to have friends, understand the feelings of others or even have a sense of compassion… but the LV is affecting her mind, so she can only perceive it as normal.”

“...I’m starting to regret giving her some magic and that [Ribbon]..” Ryan said as he glanced at his powerglove. “Then again, the magic of Zelda 2 really isn’t much.”

“Actually the Ribbon may be bad, that gives her increased defense because it makes her look cuter so enemies have difficulty wanting to hit her.”

“It’s been almost a month since then, and I really can’t go to her world since I don’t have her token or the [Code] to her world.” Ryan said as he started to scroll through his menus.

“I hope you can acquire it soon then… maybe I can help give your device a little upgrade, courtesy of Aperture Science.”

“If it’s compatible, this things rather old and yet it does quite a lot.” Ryan said as he lowered his arm, allowing the hologram to blip out.

“Oh don’t worry, Aperture Science may be futuristic, but it’s actually older than it looks, this body was built to accept a disc for the Operating System.” a panel raised up in front of Ryan with a holographic console. “Go ahead and draw/type out what upgrades you would like, maybe the installation of Handheld Portal Emission capabilities?”
Ryan started typing into the console, asking of speeding up the glove’s AI thought progress and knowledge of thoughts to the best of it’s capacity. “As for the portal thing, do you mean going from one point to another?” he asked.

Ava gave a small chuckle before extending a ‘Portal Gun’ into the room, creating two portals with it. “These portals are very effective, they aren’t just useful for transport, it makes an effective method for getting around enemies and reaching areas through momentum.” she demonstrated by dropping a cube from a height into one portal, for Ryan to then witness it launch out of the other portal.

“And you could incorporate this into my powerglove?”

“If you wish, I can add other augments to it, such as a more user-friendly interface, or even a Neural Link device to allow you to control the various functions of the glove with your mind, not codes, and even a search function for its multiversal transportation matrix, allowing you to find worlds you’ve made connections with, but do not have the codes or tokens necessary to find it yourself.”

“That would make things so much easier.” Ryan said with a wide smile.

“I will communicate with your Glove’s AI to ensure it is comfortable with the changes I make to it.”

Ryan simply nodded, then presented his arm that the gauntlet was forever attached too.

There was a bit of surprise as it was suddenly encased in some capsule covering the entire arm, which sparked and whirred as it worked, but not enough to cause any damage.

Ryan almost jerked his arm from the sudden capsule, then calmed down when he realized what was happening. “I thought you were going to connect some wires or something.” he said as he watched.

“A lot of the systems require some hardware improvements, I doubt even with its current abilities, it can comprehend the advanced technology needed to sustain a stabilized quantum-entangled wormhole.”

“That’s true. The only way it would work is if I found it in an old NES game world.” Ryan said as he kept his arm still.

“Hmm… maybe I could give it some new consoles to draw from? Maybe even PC, give you access to all the ‘modern games’?”

“I’m not sure how well Epixeria’s reality would react to another from past the NES,” Ryan said as he thought about it. “I mean the powerglove allows me to live in their world without being fried by a million watts of electricity.”

“Do not worry, your glove would have backwards compatibility, besides there’s several things you’d find very beneficial from modern games… I can name three right off the top of my head, if you’d like.”

“I think i’ll take it slow with my choices.”

“You sure? I think you’d appreciate the powers of saving at any point, checkpoints and infinite lives.”

“...Ok, now you’re just giving me a literal sense of a Game Genie.” Ryan said with a chuckle.

“Not really, some time after the NES and the SNES, along with their competitors of Sega, the new corporate superpowers of Sony and Microsoft came into play, innovating with new games constantly, to the point that there are now hundreds of different game creating entities out in the world, it was no longer about having people in arcades, home gaming became a staple of the household and as such gaming branched into new avenues, I want to give you an opportunity to not only ensure your survival, but also to experience the best of games you’d never have had the chance to play, say like the newest Super Mario games like Super Mario Odyssey?”

“I knew of Sony with their playstation, but microsoft? That’s a new one. No, I haven’t played that one, the latest game Nintendo related to mario was the one for the 64, you see I’m from 1996 before I was pulled away into Epixeria.” Ryan explained to the best of his memories.

“Exactly, then you’d never experience how Super Mario 64 revolutionized the platforming genre, or how Microsoft’s Xbox was the platform which Halo came into play, being the starting point for games to make engaging stories. Ryan, you lost the chance to see the greatest moments of gaming history, I’m evolving your powerglove, not to empower you… but so you can enjoy those games, play them and maybe have Epixeria enter even greater ages of gaming greatness.”

“....Jeez, I think i’ll try introducing one console at a time. Too much of a leap may confuse everypony.” Ryan said as he thought about the many new worlds he could bring in for Epixeria including new timelines. “Pinkie Pie would leap for joy if she heard this.”

“Alright, I’m fine with you taking it slow… I actually recommend saving the nintendo consoles after gamecube for last, they got very innovative with control methods and gimmicks… also I’m done.” she released the Gamer’s arm. “It can now work with mental commands, and there’s now a new system which lets you pick and play any game you want, old or new.”

As Ryan looked upon the glove, he almost didn’t recognize it, the back of the hand now sported four different symbols, Nintendo was there, something that looked like the Playstation logo, four squares arranged to look like a window, and a sphere with a green cross cut into it. The screen on the forearm was now much larger and displayed various colors on it that flowed like water, and on the opposite side was a NES controller connected by an easy detach clip. Ava saw Ryan’s gaze and began to explain. “The screen and controller can be detached, and part of your mental commands allow you to change screen size and controller type, if you don’t know what options you have, the tablet also has a touchscreen and a helpful info menu to let you know its new capabilities.”

“Now I’m playing with power,” Ryan said jokingly, he was going to say the rest of the quote, but it wouldn’t fit now since that there were other gaming consoles infused with his gauntlet.

[New apps available… Installation Complete]

“Much more clearer quality in it’s voice too.” Ryan commented with a smile.

“Go ahead and try the home feature.”

Ryan reached up and used the touchpad, noticing its response was faster as he was able to quickly highlight the home feature icon Ava mentioned.

[Home Button activated, transporting now.]

“I can go home anytime I want without them needing to say the words,” Ryan said as he laughed with a grin. “This makes things a lot more easier. “ he said as a familiar vortex of swirling blue, green, and reds appeared, but now it was a lot more detailed with less pixels flying around.

“Fairwell Ryan, may we meet again soon.”

Ryan gave Ava a finger salute. “Until then, keep your data up to date.” He said before leaping into the portal. It closes behind him with an 8-bit blip.

“...fucking weirdo.”

Author's Note

yes, another crossover and the little twist has been revealed, sorry for not carrying on the secret a bit longer but I was having trouble for any inspiration.

Edit: yes this was Drakoal's Captain G future version.