2017-12-22 - spike - The New Shop 55

Author: spike
Title: The New Shop 55
Date: 22 December 2017

Chapter 55
The step sat under the panel in the elevator, the dogs had been instructed to deliver their balls to the rec room and five of us stood before that screen while thirteen stood vigil over the thing in the gym in case they decided to make it use weights. We watched as the conversation, which seemed to have been going for a while, continued in that forum.

Kyle3421: You saw the message. Level two, get that blob to the peak of physical health and fitness. Look at the thing struggle! Haha. And did you see it at the elevator? Dunno what those other NPCs are doing though, they don’t seem to be a part of it anymore. They seem to be just observing now. And what is it with all those weird dog things? C0d3M45t3r’s amazing, hacking this thing.

V1x3n: Where is he anyway? He was howling with LOLz a couple of days ago when he had that thing squirming on the floor. Now I can’t see any room the blob’s not in!

Vamp1r3Saint: I tried contacting him. He’s not around. I can’t get back in!

V1x3n: What do you mean? The game’s still running fine here.

Vamp1r3Saint: I don’t know do I? I shocked it a few times just to see it fall off the treadmill. God that was funny. Then a health alert popped up. I shocked it one more time and it said, “Slave dead. Game over.” and I’ve not been able to do anything since!

V1x3n: Health Alert? What did it say?

Vamp1r3Saint: Warning. Slave health at critical.

Kyle3421: What the hell? Mine’s still at thirty percent. I ordered it to rest when it started losing points during its exercise, its heart rate was too high. Flashing red!

V1x3n: Oh god, you realise what this means? If we kill it, we lose the game. And we don’t just lose the game, we lose it completely. We’ll never be able to play again.

Vamp1r3Saint: What? Just cos I killed mine I’m locked out for good?! I’ve got to contact Codemaster. What the fuck was he thinking putting that in?

V1x3n: Don’t be so dense, Saint. He only grabbed the front end! Most of it has to be server side, it’s too complicated to fit into 4 megs. It’s the server that’s blocking, not the client.

Vamp1r3Saint: Ahhhhh, shit. So I’ve ruined it for myself then? Why isn’t everyone else blocked? Why didn’t it die for you? You saw it respond to the shocks I gave it too didn’t you? How many health points did you lose because of them?

V1x3n: 5, why?

Vamp1r3Saint: I lost 10! For each shock!

Kyle3421: Right then. Looks like we know what to do if we want to keep playing. Keep our eye on that health score and get it up. Up as high as possible and keep it there. As everything we do affects everyone else, we’ve got to work together rather than just punish it for the sake of it from now on. As it seems to be acting a bit like a human that probably means food and sleep too.

Vamp1r3Saint: Oh thank god. It’s just one of those shitty resource management games isn’t it? Like civilisation or farmland? Keep it going for as long as possible and that’s it? Lucky escape for me then. I hate that kind of game.

V1x3n: We’ll still get to see it suffer though and that was the best bit. We just have to be careful when. It looks like that hack he made to the program that causes it to get shocked at the elevator’s going to happen every time it uses it for one thing. That’s always good for a laugh.

Vamp1r3Saint: Buggeration! And everyone else with this game’s in a fucking different country so I can’t even crash around theirs to take part. Might as well sign off. I’m gone.

+++ Vamp1r3Saint has unsubscribed.

Th0rTheChunderG0d: LOL! Rage quit or what? Can we block him from here too? I agree with you though. Work together. Get it fighting fit. Who knows what level three is? Maybe we get to see it fight one of those other ones that’s watchin. I’m not logged in right now, what’s happening?

V1x3n: Kyle has it on a weight bench. Barbells. Fuck me it’s a bloated pile of crap. It’ll take months to get it to lose weight. I hope it isn’t in real time. It can barely handle the weights it’s been given. One of those other ones though… It’s spotting for it.

Th0rTheChunderG0d: Well you can’t deny, they’ve gone for realism. So what then? Work it some more and then send it to sleep in one of those cages we saw?

V1x3n: We might as well have it running around the place aimlessly for a while first. The elevator’s always good for a laugh. Just remember, keep an eye on its health from now on. If it gets too low, stop it from what you had it doing and let it rest.

“Looks like they’re learning at least.”

M nodded. “What do we do when it is fighting fit?”

“Wrestling tuition? Hell, boxing too. Alpha’s due for release in a few days after all. If any of them are still playing then, let them see it. Seems that’s what they want anyway, but it’ll still be entirely under their control. Just have level three be get it trained in the martial arts with a schedule for when the other… ahem… NPCs hold the lessons. Once we’ve got a few slaves trained up we can easily have bouts.”

“True. Oh god I love a good scrap now. Not worn a pair of gloves in months apart from the one with blank a few weeks ago. I could do with a bit of a brush up myself. What does NPC mean?”

“Non-Player Character. God, you really are a tech dumbo aren’t you?”

M chuckled. “I said that kind of thing never interested me. Suppose I always had better things to do than play computer games.”

“So how do we keep them engaged? They’re right, it’ll take months for it to lose all that weight. Maybe even years.”

“We could always ask Q to tell the people sending them messages to have it stand on the scales once a week. They’ll see the results then.”

“Oh well, looks like we’ll have to have Omega and Luke deal with spotting for it soon. Nearly time to be Tyson again.”

M nodded. “Couple more days. Oh god I’m looking forward to it.”

“Not half as much as I am.”

I glanced back at the screen and apart from a few agreements on how to proceed, the conversation in the forum seemed to have died.

We sat and played cards for a while as the dogs returned. Once six balls had been collected, I sent Slasher to redistribute them.
* * * * *
Dog training continued until the weekend of course. We utterly ignored the blob though. That one, who gives a shit. I didn’t even pay any heed to the cunt.

We saw it running, well… staggering around in a panic once in a while. We even forced it to wait for the elevator to return when we wanted to use it and then, before we knew it… Back to the gym and back into the dogs or into this dog for the first time in my case.

Oh my god it felt good getting into it. Even better as the flaps were stretched down and across, the tape backing peeled off and the suit completely sealed. No zip, no visible fastenings I could see at all. I couldn’t even see a seam. I looked perfect.

I turned around to admire myself, my tail wagging up a storm.

And this suit… Unless a specialist connector was attached to my head tube to feed in the solvent, nothing could get it off. Not quite permanent true, but one step closer to it. I almost hoped the connector would fail and they’d find it impossible to inject that solvent.

Training resumed with Luke taking the leashes, starting with getting our paws back. Of course, four of us were so used to it by then it only took an hour to be prancing around, mock fighting and outpacing the rest of the dogs. For M and Twelve it took a little longer.

Half way through the day, another dog joined us. I didn’t recognise him at first, he didn’t have a name tag but then, Sarge appeared and attached it before returning to the store.

Dixon! Back from Q’s. I’d be sure to ask him about that when we got back from the race because I knew this suit wasn’t coming off until then. Another two weeks of doggy bliss.

Even the blob paused to watch us in our training when it came to the gym. It seemed a little steadier on its feet on that treadmill too. I sat and watched as it walked. Walking was all it was capable of. Two hundred yards it managed before it collapsed to its knees and slid off the end, gasping for breath. God, how can anyone let themselves get into that state?

It turned to me. Crawled over to look at me. My tail wagged, I nuzzled its cheek, turned my back on it, flicked my tail in its face and returned to the rest. It wasn’t worth the effort… yet.

Just after Luke had ordered the other dogs to their cages…

“Tyson. Heal.”

Me and six other dogs entered the elevator, down to the cells, into block one and… A pod. Alpha’s pod. Time for his release. Wait, six? I glanced at the other name tags. Ah. Of course. Zeus.

Sarge was there waiting and the moment we were in and sat, he unlocked it, opened it and disconnected everything.

“Blank. Out. Follow me. Dogs, heal.”

Up to the shop, into the back and sat in front of the laptop, the Skype alert sounded and Q’s voice emerged as usual.

I really don’t know why he bothered with Skype anymore. Maybe it was just an excuse to get everyone together. Maybe force of habit? I shrugged.

“Ah, good. Blank. Sit.”

It sat at the computer looking around at all the dogs.

“Do you understand now, blank? What it is to be my property?”

“Yes, sir. Oh god, I’m sorry. I didn’t know before. I didn’t know how painful those shocks could be. How much that plug hurt before it settled. How nasty it felt to have the tubing. What it was to be one of these.”

“And now?”

He shuffled on the chair for a few seconds. “Before I say anything more, I want a promise from you, Sir. I know from what others have said that you never break them.”

“Slaves do not demand promises from their masters, blank!”

“Then I’ll have to quit… SIR! I…” It’s shoulders shook. “What you did to me in that fucking pod was unforgivable! I know I hurt eleven but fuck me! Those punishments! I thought you were a good Master until then.”

“Punishments? Explain! What punishments?”

“I don’t know how long I’d been in the pod. But ordering me to enter elevators and run around the complex? That was unfair, sir. I never thought you were a cruel Master but that was hell! I’ve never felt anything like it, shocks, incessant agonising shocks for what fell like weeks! I”

“Oh, fucking hell! I’m sorry, blank. I mean it too, I” Q took a deep breath.

Shit! How? How could he have been included? He was in the pod! Even his core was out while in that thing! I stood, my tail erect and shoved my nose at Slasher’s butt. Then looked at the camera.

“I know Tyson. It’s not your fault. Or the sarge’s for that matter. The core might not’ve been inserted but it was plugged into the pod. It still maintained the slave ident. Blank, we were hacked. They stole a program eleven wrote and edited it. Removed all the safeguards he put in place. It took about ten minutes before Eleven managed to get to room two to contact us. Order it to be stopped. It couldn’t be. The sarge ended up running around the complex removing the cores of the six who were suffering, including eleven. They continued to play the part the next day. Pretending to take shocks. In all the confusion it completely slipped my mind that you would still be receiving them.”

“Eleven? He did that?”

“Not intentionally, blank. I did say they stole it and corrupted it. If it makes you feel any better, we have the hacker. He’s down there now and he is now part of what he thought was a game. I promise you, nothing like that will be permitted to happen again.”

Blank just froze in front of the laptop. It took a minute before it pulled itself together.

“Then, I want it, sir. Get me out of this temp suit and seal me in permanently, sir. I don’t care if I spend the rest of my life sharing my name with another few hundred slaves. I love it, sir. Please! I beg you. Please!?”

“Max.”

Max perked up and his tale began to wag. He knew what was coming.

“I owe you a full day of pleasure. That can be after the race of course.”

Blank looked at the screen and glanced back at the dogs. “Race, sir?”

“Good lord, I’d forgotten you’d been in there so long. We’ve had quite a month. You missed all the excitement in that pod. As for your request. Denied. You know the reason you’re in the store. The suit and pod were to teach you a lesson, not to become a permanent suited slave. You will be removed from that suit tonight and resume your duties… properly, tomorrow.”

Its head sank. “Yes, sir.”

“Serve me well, blank. Just as Joel has over the past few years and I will grant you the honour. You will however retain the plug. Permanently. As compensation for the hell you suffered at the hands of that thing down there, I’ll grant you a full day of pleasure too.”

“Oh god, thank you, sir. Where is Joel right now, sir? I expected him to be here. I thought he was meant to be my temporary replacement.”

“Oh, he’s here. Zeus. Stand.”

Blank glanced behind him. “He’s a dog, sir?”

“His reward for serving me was a duration of his choice in a temp suit like yours. As he chose just as we began preparations and expressed a desire to take part, yes, he’s a dog.”

“How long did he choose, sir?”

“Joel no longer exists, blank. For the next two years, his name is Beta and he will serve as your assistant in the store. For the next two weeks however, he will remain as he is now, as Zeus. Apart from tomorrow when all the dogs apart from Max, Fry, Tyson, Slasher, Bandit, Dixon and Duke will be permitted time out of the suit. They’ve been in it all week, Tyson and the others only had them put back on today.”

It glanced back down at us again. “Why so many dogs, sir?”

“For that, I suggest the moment you’re free tonight, you first work out all the kinks in the gym from being frozen for so long after which, go to the rec room and select dog race 2021. Currently there’s a trailer and two episodes. The third is due for release this weekend. Luke, Omega and Sarge will fill you in on the rest. It really has been quite an… eventful month.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very good. Sarge, you know what to do.”

Sarge snapped to attention. “Yes, Sir! Blank. Come. It’s time you became human again.”

“Q. out.”