The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Hiro Protagonist]

"aaaaaAAAAAAHHH!"

Hiro tumbled down a long stone slide, whooshing through cramped tunnels as his own momentum bore him along helplessly. Shoved up against the side on twists and turns, frantically scrabbling for a handhold or something to slow him, he felt the surface drop away from under him. Now he was free falling, turning end over end. He shut his eyes, thinking, "This is really going to fricken' hurt." .

FWOOMP

He landed, surprisingly, on something incredibly soft. A huge, elegantly decorated bed, replete with pillows and blankets. Perhaps unwisely, he took the chance to catch his breath on the mattress, before a high pitched voice jolted him out of his moment's peace. "Oh! A hero has arrived!"

The hacker sat up and rolled off the bed to behold a gaggle of medieval maidens, clustered in the corner and regarding him fearfully. Rolling his eyes, he checked his goggles and equipment, before looking around the room for an exit. "Wait, brave hero! Please...stay with us a while? We have been kept prisoner by the Black Knight since he arrived." Another one chimed in. "Yes! He took us from our villages as tribute, in exchange for leaving them standing."

Hiro held up a hand to cut them off. "Look, ladies. That's a lovely story and all, but you don't register as living things on my scanner. So....nice try." The women disappear with an almost audible indignation, as a booming laugh echoed throughout the room. The trappings of luxury and intimacy faded away to reveal a plain stone room with a pile of hay and chains on the wall. "Truly, there is no fooling you, Hero. I knew you were a natural leader."

The silicon samurai proceeded out of the wooden door into a long long hallway...lined with formations of knights. Wielding all sorts of weapons and polearms, Hiro gripped his katana and prepared for battle. But they didn't move. The voice spoke again. "Proceed, champion. Come. Meet with me. We have much to discuss. PAy no mind to my guards, they are merely...decoration. For the time being."

Exasperated, Hiro started walking, his footsteps echoing off the banners and torches lining the long hallway. "You must be the big boss of this place, right? The Black Knight? Well, I'm a black knight too, and uh...there's only room for one in this biznitch, got it?" This hallway was taking forever to walk down.

"Untrue, Protagonist. Very untrue. See! Even your name cannot hide your role." Hiro opened his mouth again to speak, but was cut off. "And of course, as a leader, you are worrying about your compatriots. Do not. They are safe, for the time being. I wanted to speak to you 'behind closed doors', as it were."

The digital daimyo allowed himself a smirk. "You sure talk a lot for a personification of evil, buddy. This chat going to take much longer?" He picked up speed, loping into a jog until the knights lining the hall started to blur into a seamless image. Putting his speed on display might throw the Black Knight off.

"I will cut to the chase, then. You are obviously the most tactical, the most level headed of your allies. The mad plague knight, and the tormented, self-doubting shrew in armor so thick she doesn't have to expose her sins to the world. Compared to them, you are a noble! You deserve a noble's place." Hiro could see where this was going. Ugh, why did bad guys always have to result to this line of thinking? Raven had tried it, Rife had tried it, The Sage had tried it. "Join Nebula, and rule a verse as your own. I can sense it in you, you have already embraced the Dark Power. You can handle it, surely. There will be no gibbering mindless oblivion for you. Here."

And Hiro was suddenly in a throne room, the Black Knight standing; no, towering over him. A wickedly spiked gauntlet was outstretched towards the hacker. "Take this Darkchip, and swear fealty to Nebula. Help me destroy them and you may have your own verse to rule." 

Really....that easy, huh? Time slowed down as he stood there, two halves of his personality arguing with each other. Accepting the offer was unquestionably an act of evil. But what was evil, in the Omniverse? Hadn't he been beaten down, over and over again, and committed to gathering as much power as possible? Here was the fast track to it. He could feel the corruption inside him reacting to the darkchip's presence, whispering in his ear, trying to convince him. 

And then the samurai on his shoulder just shook his head and turned away. Really? Fucking really? He might as well shatter his blade if he took this offer. What kind of monumentally stupid person would take it in earnest? Besides, evil bastards never got the nice girls. 

Only heroes did.

"Sorry, tinpot. Gonna have to say no." The street ronin turned his back and marched out of the throne room...into a twisted stone maze. 

"You have chosen...poorly. Go then. Find your friends. Face me....and die."

Hiro leaned forward into a sprinter's pose, the goggles on his face blinking and analyzing possible courses through the maze.

"You first."

And he was gone.