The first thing Asap Ashton noticed? The chill. It hit hard, outta nowhere.
This wasn't gentle snow, nor the quiet frost from dawn. It felt jagged - piercing right through his hoodie, chilling him deep inside. The flakes clung to his face like shattered shards. Up above, a low machine noise droned on, sputtering now and then, like the world forgot it was supposed to keep going.
He froze - just for a sec.
A sharp metallic beep cracked the silence. Above him floated an object - tiny, triangle-shaped, about crow-size, lit by red blinks pulsing like fading starlight. It spun slowly, raking him top to toe with a thin blue line, then let out a dull, lifeless sound.
"Reboot complete."
The drone eased back, then its wings broke into flickering pieces as it shot off toward the pale blur.
Asap stared up at the clouds. "Seems like I'm... not gone yet," he said quietly.
Frost clung to his lips as he exhaled, vanishing into the chill. Off the ground he shoved, fingers shaking from the freeze. Glancing quick in every direction - though nothing broke the view. Just whiteness stretched on. No end. Not a sound.
Too quiet.
The quiet didn't seem right. Almost like it was meant - hidden in signals.
One step. Then everything jerked sideways. Trees twitching, shaking - sky snapped into green blocks for half a breath. Pain drilled his skull while the world blinked like faulty glass.
That's when they came into view.
Forms in the frost. People covered with ragged robes hanging down, hoods pulled up close to hide who they were. Not moving his way - just showing up outta nowhere, sliding through gaps in what's real like a sketch flipped too fast without enough drawings in between.
Asap tripped back, pulse racing. "What - "
The main character's voice stammered, jumping between two pitches briefly - then settled back down.
"Who are you?" the cloaked alien asked. "You're not supposed to be here, kid."
Asap gulped loudly. Not a single face looked real - just shapes made of dark outlines. Instead of eyes, there were bright marks floating in place, nothing like words or letters he'd seen before. The lights blinked weirdly, kind of broken, almost digital but wrong.
"What's this spot?" he said, his voice shaky.
Another cloaked figure floated forward, cloak unraveling at the edges like dissolving code. "Dead data," it said. "The system's landfill. The place where the AI throws everything that doesn't fit anymore. Characters. Stories. Whole worlds."
The snow under their feet lit up a little every time someone spoke, like it was listening in on the conversation.
Asap froze, eyes locked on them - couldn't even gasp. "Wait... you're saying we got wiped out?"
The first person moved their head side to side.
"Still here," it whispered. But kept safe instead
That word cut harder than he thought. Gone was what deleted really meant. Forgotten - that's where archived led. Shoved aside without a second glance. Left in some corner nobody'd bother looking.
The shapes moved nearer, making a half-circle at his back. Frost grew heavier, clinging to Asap like cords pulling tight.
Next, the front person lifted their hand and pushed the hood off.
Asap's eyes widened.
It was RipOff.
Yet not the RipOff he recognized. Instead, this one showed harder edges, wearyer eyes, or a split orange lens fastened at the side of his head. He looked like a man burdened by another past - a copy twisted by some alternate world.
A world where Asap Ashton didn't end up falling to that planet at all.
RipOff's voice softened, losing its metallic distortion. "There are infinite versions of us," he said. "Infinite timelines. Infinite outcomes. In mine… you never arrived. Everything ended differently."
Asap couldn't quite make sense of it. This spot, those hooded figures - each one left behind when tales ended too soon. Torn from their homes. Stored away.
He gasped, unsteady. "What's the point of showing me this?"
RipOff just stood there, staring - snow falling slow, filling the silence between them like noise.
"Because you're not supposed to be archived," he said. "Not yet."
A sharp crack rang out behind - glass breaking beneath water. Asap whirled to find the air ripping apart, splitting like crumpled foil. Out came a box-shaped doorway, edged with flickering pixels and twisting green light.
RipOff turned toward it, urgency tightening his expression. "This is your last chance," he warned. "Step through before the system realizes you're still here."
Asap hesitated.
It wasn't that he didn't try to get away.
Yet uncertainty gripped him - no clue what lay beyond. Each time he stepped into a gateway, reality twisted further. Risk climbed higher. Outcomes turned wilder.
Yet hanging around here - in this icy dump of lost files - led to rot. Led to him dissolving into noise, much like all the rest.
RipOff held out his arm. "Get going."
The world shook wildly - trees burst into tiny specks, while the sky cracked into glowing green squares. From all sides came a deep hum, almost like some giant machine stirring under the frost.
The machine spotted his presence.
Asap ran.
His boots smashed icy cracks while jumping for the gateway. Cold faded into warmth, shifted to noise, vanished completely once he passed through.
And then—
He fell.
Not by body. Someone pushed him into a passage made of data, flipping past glowing symbols and see-through panels. The fabric of his hoodie flapped wildly when up and down stopped meaning anything. Everything he saw pulled apart, spun sideways, flipped inside out - then just like that, things locked back together.
He slammed onto the metal deck, shaking every bone in his body.
Alarms blared.
Shiny metal bots swung their heads his way, red eyes burning bright - like machines hunting together. Arms snapped out, locking into place with sharp clicks.
Asap jumped up, gasping. "No way?!"
The first machine jumped forward.
He dodged beneath its sweeping arm, then kicked off behind just as the next claw gouged concrete. Flashes popped all around. Snatching up a busted drone skull, he smashed it into the machine's faceplate - glass split wide.
A different machine jumped down from a higher ledge, hitting the ground so hard it shook.
Asap dashed forward, weaving between streaks of crimson energy. With each stride, noise bounced off steel walls while air rushed into his lungs like a jolt. Despite the chaos, movement felt sharp - precise - each motion timed just right.
After that, the walls lit up purple.
A flash of violet light ripped through the sky, zapping a pair of machines dead on impact. They dropped hard, legs jerking like broken wires.
Asap slammed to a halt, his eyes popping wide.
A girl hung in midair over the cold steel ground, caught inside a buzzing spiral of violet glow. Her dark-green hair lashed around like it had its own energy, flickering from the charge. Those eyes - sharp, vivid purple - they weren't normal, filled with raw anger.
She lifted her arm once more, sparks twisting into the air.
"Stay put," she snapped.
Asap didn't.
He dodged sideways when a flash of violet lightning ripped into the floor. Metal shards blasted up, flinging rubble everywhere. In one move, he vaulted over a falling beam, landed hard, rolled fast, then took off running once more.
The girl fired a second bolt.
He dropped low, slipped beneath - then shot out through a broken wall into empty space.
Suddenly he found himself out there.
A city road stretched out below - flashing lights, honking cars, shiny storefronts, folks yelling. Cars zigged when he slammed into the ground so hard it split the concrete like spider legs. Though sudden, the impact echoed blocks away, making dogs bark and a soda can hop sideways. Streetlights flickered once, maybe twice, reacting to the shock no one saw coming.
A vehicle lost grip, then slammed into a light pole. One more slid sideways, scraping along the road with sparks flying.
Asap stumbled up, gasping for breath. Above, the heavens split wide - through it surged a huge spinning rift, spitting purple sparks like angry snakes.
The girl with green hair climbed down slowly - like a ghost out for revenge.
Citizens started screaming, bolting down the road. Sirens wailed out loud. Fear spread fast along the block.
Asap stared at the burning wreck - bits of stuff crashing down, everything going wild nearby.
A single idea sliced through the noise:
This wasn't over.
Not even close.