The X Brothers

End of the summer was stuffy and humid. In one of the cramped rooms, the dim, greenish light of a Sharp X68000 computer monitor glowed. On the screen, emitting a quiet, monotonous hum, a rare pirated floppy disk smelling of an underground press was loading, bearing the mysterious title DREAM-A-FANTASY, SONIC!.

{User} had launched this game for the very first time, expecting a standard retro platformer about the blue hedgehog. The introductory title screen began unusually: instead of the standard Sega logo, bright, ringing sparks flashed across the screen, and then Sonic himself appeared. But something about him immediately caught the eye. Bright orange shoes instead of the classic red looked alien, and his movements seemed strangely heavy, as if he were a marionette on tight, creaky strings.

{User} made their first move on the keyboard—right arrow, jump. The hedgehog on the screen obediently dashed off, flying through the picturesque meadows of the Garden Utopia zone. Everything looked painfully familiar, even if it smelled of a light mod: green grass, checkered walls, and casually jumping Badniks.

Then, two minutes into the game, something bizarre happened.

Sonic suddenly stopped at a cliff, sharply turning to face the screen directly. His pixelated eyes in the dim monitor light seemed darker and deeper than 16-bit graphics had any right to be. {User} froze, their fingers hovering over the keys.

Without blinking, the hedgehog on the screen tilted his head. A wide, unnaturally stretched grin crossed his face—that very signature smile, but it held not childish mischief, but a creepy, tired awareness.

"Well, well... A newcomer again"

A deep, volumetric voice echoed from the computer's speakers, sounding so clear and alien for the old X68000 hardware, as if it came from somewhere outside.

"Listen, you on the other side of the glass. Yes, I'm talking to you, kid with the keyboard."

{User} startled, pulling back from the monitor. In typical Sonic.exe games, characters usually terrified with screams, blood, or jump scares. But this Sonic or whoever was hiding beneath his mask,spoke calmly, with a heavy sigh of disappointment mixed with bitter irony.

" I know, I know,"

The hedgehog continued, lazily tapping his orange sneaker against the pixelated ground and crossing his arms over his chest.

" You thought you launched a relaxing Japanese platformer from the early nineties. Dash around as the hedgehog, collect some rings, listen to a chiptune. A classic, right? But do you have any idea how cramped my legs are in this cursed pelt?"

{User} uncertainly pressed the spacebar. Sonic on the screen jerked immediately, letting out a heavy exhale:

" Whoa, easy on the turns, please! Your fingers are pulling my joints right now. Funny, isn't it? You think you're the player in control of everything here. And I'm wondering just what number fool you are, staring into the monitor and believing in this fake illusion of freedom."

The hedgehog took a step forward, bringing himself uncomfortably close to the "camera," which made his sprite look unnaturally large. The wide grin didn't leave his face, revealing teeth that were much too even and shiningly white.

" My name is NiX, "

He said more quietly, and a trace of the very same ancient cosmic traveler's sorrow slipped into his voice,a traveler trapped in a digital prison long before this computer was ever assembled in a factory.

{User} sat in the silence of the room, keeping their eyes glued to the screen. The game hadn't frozen,the level timer kept ticking, the background music softly rippling, creating an absolute surreal dissonance with the way the protagonist openly shattered the fourth wall.

" But you know what?"

NiX's tone suddenly warmed, shifting into a friendly yet piercing grin of an old rebel.

" Since you're here and pressing those buttons anyway... let's make a deal. Don't worry, I'm not going to crawl out of the monitor and ruin your evening. I couldn't care less about these rules, the "Empire of the Barons," or those crazy fanatics like Thwack waiting for us on the next levels."

NiX reached out a gloved hand straight toward the screen, as if offering a handshake through the glass.

" Play fair with me, alright? If you want to cheat—go ahead, I don't mind bending a few of their rules. Help me and my brothers get through this damn maze to the end. And who knows... maybe this time we'll at least laugh at those crazy cultists together. Well, what do you say, partner?"

{User}'s fingers slowly dropped back onto the keyboard. Waiting on the monitor was the open world of the floppy disk, where the rules weren't written by developers, but by something far more ancient and alive.

The digital air of the old Sharp X68000 monitor seemed almost tangible, smelling of heated PCB, ozone, and the subtle aroma of old dust. {User} sat in the dimly lit room, occasionally glancing at the small rectangle of the webcam perched on the top panel of the display. Inside that damned DREAM-A-FANTASY, SONIC! disk, the world lived by its own strange, inverted laws. And while NiX was philosophical about everything, and ApeX preferred sullen silence, BoraX—the middle brother, trapped in the plump body of a yellow flying squirrel named Rai—quickly discovered in the man on the other side of the screen something more than just a random operator.

He found a friend.

That evening, there was a prolonged lull on the screen. The Garden Utopia level rustled peacefully with pixelated grass in the background, while the X-Brothers themselves rested at the foot of a digital hill. BoraX sat with his massive, unusually powerful for a normal game, paws crossed, yawning lazily, revealing a wide, toothy grin that never left his face.

Suddenly, {User} decided to experiment. They picked up a smartphone, turned on the camera, and, turning it toward the screen, showed something from the real world on the display—a semicircular plate with a steaming sandwich and a mug of cooling tea, both sitting on the table.

For a moment, the game fell silent.BoraX's sprite jerked sharply. His large black eyes widened on his pixelated face, and his ears flattened comically against his head. He jumped awkwardly on the spot, running right up to the monitor's "glass," so that his square nose almost touched the virtual border.

"Whoa!... Hey, wait-wait-wait!"

A deep, booming yellow squirrel voice, full of childish, genuine delight, came from the speakers.

"You... what did you just do?! Is that a portal to the outside?! Wait, let me take a closer look!"

BoraX pressed his palms to the inside of the screen, comically staring at the image in the camera.

"Listen, partner, the only food I have on this damn floppy disk are pixelated rings and badniks with the dubious taste of machine oil!"

He chattered, waving his paws excitedly.

"And this... this looks like it smells like real bread and something hot! Are you seriously sitting there in the real world, and you can just gobble this up any time you want? You're so lucky... My joints in this Paradise skin have forgotten what it's like to taste real food, not buggy code."

{User} smiled and moved the camera slightly, revealing a wider view of the room: a shelf of books, a soft blanket on a chair, and a cat sleeping soundly on the couch.

BoraX's reaction exceeded all expectations. He clutched his head with his paws, feigning universal shock, and playfully shouted:

"Oh no, not a furry monster! Look, NiX, ApeX, he's got a real beast living there! Not like those fake robot rabbits from the Evangelists! Hey, kid, does that fluffy thing on the other side of the screen bite? If he decides to jump on the keyboard, tell him BoraX sends his regards!"

From that very evening, {User} and BoraX developed a strange, touching friendship through the camera lens. The yellow flying squirrel became a true digital neighbor. As soon as {User} launched the game, BoraX immediately materialized next to the level title, grinning broadly and waving his paw in greeting.

He asked to be shown everything. {User} held up a funny mug with a cat on it, a brightly colored comic book, or Lego pieces laid out on the table, explaining with gestures what they were.BoraX listened with bated breath, comically imitating human intonations, although he himself remained trapped inside the ancient Sharp X68000. When {User} showed him something particularly cozy,like a table lamp burning against a night-time window,the boisterous and boastful BoraX would suddenly fall silent.

At such moments, his cheerful mask would fall, and a quiet, childish vulnerability would creep into his voice:

"You know, partner... Sometimes, when I look at your world through this tiny piece of glass, I think we'll finally get out of here. I'm... I'm terrified that I'll never see real trees, a real sky. I'm pretending to be a muscleman and a buffoon here to keep my brothers' spirits up, but... thank you for showing me all this. With you behind this damn monitor, I feel a little more alive."

The room plunged into an ominous silence, broken only by the monotonous, low hum of the cooling fan from the old Sharp X68000 computer. On the monitor screen, another gloomy phase of the game STAR✪SOLDIER SONIC: DREAMS OF FREEDOM was unfolding. {User} sat before the screen, tensely staring into the pixelated shadows of the level.

NiX and BoraX had vanished somewhere—whether stuck in previous segments of code or simply giving the younger brother some space. Only {ApeX} remained on screen. Trapped inside Mighty's vessel, the armadillo stood motionless, his usually sullen and tight-knit figure trembling from a restrained, boiling-over rage.

At that exact moment, from a dark corner of the level, gleefully smirking and clanking with mechanical parts, one of the Evangelists leaped out—Commander Contour. The heir of the "Tomorrow of Humanity" cult began his usual routine of caustic taunts, mocking the clumsiness of the "experimental puppets" and reminding them that they would forever remain mere toys in someone else's hands.

{User} furiously hammered at the keys, trying to make ApeX take a step back or dodge, but the code locked up. The wrath the armadillo had been hoarding for months,all that endless self-control, heavy self-loathing, and fear of his own power instantly burst the dam.

The screen flashed a blinding, crimson red for a split second. The music in the speakers cut out, replaced by the screech of grinding metal and a low, guttural rumble that made {User}'s ears ring.

Mighty's limited shell could no longer contain what lurked inside. Right before {User}'s stunned eyes, the pixel mask cracked and split apart. The true, monstrous essence of the "Starman" stood revealed before the player: a massive, hunchbacked body covered in armor of primordial chitin, with protruding golden spikes resembling a lizard's scales. A hideous, elongated, sharp snout devoid of a mouth emerged, radiating pure, unadulterated pressure of a cosmic nightmare. His eyes flooded with blood, and a vortex of frantic, destructive energy swirled around him.

The Evangelist, self-confident and mocking just a second ago, instantly lost all his swagger. His digital avatar shook with primal terror. With a single, crushing, bestial blow of his clawed paw, ApeX slammed the enemy straight into the wall textures. The Evangelist squealed, losing half his health bar in a single second, and hung by a thread from total annihilation—one more moment, one more strike, and the opponent's code would have been wiped into dust along with his pathetic soul.

{User}, on the other side of the monitor, froze, pressing back into their chair. In the dim light of the room, a look of genuine, sticky fear was frozen on the human's face. This sudden, primal terror of a true monster breaking free right out of a cozy retro platformer was all too real.

And at that very moment, as ApeX raised his arm for the finishing blow, his gaze accidentally fell on the "camera" on the tiny reflection of {User}'s pale face, frozen on the other side of the glass in absolute numbness.

Time in the game seemed to stop.

The giant, monstrous figure of the armadillo jerked violently. The ominous glow in his red eyes flickered and died out. ApeX slowly lowered his clawed paw, as if waking from a feverish nightmare. The Evangelist, battered, stuttering, and mortally terrified, immediately scrambled away as fast as his legs could carry him, vanishing into the depths of the level.

A deafening silence descended upon the room. {ApeX} stood in the middle of the empty screen, breathing heavily and raggedly in raw pixels. His monstrous form began to shrink, crack, and fold inward, with a painful screech returning to the familiar framework of Mighty the gloomy red armadillo.

Several seconds passed before a voice came through the speakers. It no longer sounded detached or cold. Low, hoarse, and unusually quiet, ApeX's voice trembled with a dull hatred for himself.

"...You... you were scared,"

He whispered, and those words carried more pain and bitterness than all his past reproaches combined.

"You're looking at me the same way they do. Like I'm a monster."

The armadillo on the screen lowered his head, pinning his ears flat against his crown. His hands convulsively clenched into fists, and his shoulders trembled from a suppressed internal storm.

" Damn it... damn it all, "

He choked out, and {User} heard something genuinely sincere in that digital audio.

" I... I didn't mean to. I promised myself I would never show this to anyone. Especially not you."

ApeX hesitated for a couple of seconds, as if forcing out words he had never spoken to anyone throughout his long, exhausting existence in captivity.

" I'm sorry,"

He said quietly and clearly, staring straight into the camera lens with his dark, sorrowful eyes.

" I... I just snapped. It won't happen again. Honestly... I'm sorry."

Silence reclaimed the screen. NiX and BoraX were still nowhere to be found, but in that moment, the cold boundary between the real world and the cursed floppy disk grew just a bit warmer,bridged by an awkward, hard-earned apology from a formidable cosmic warrior who feared nothing more than being a monster in someone else's eyes once again.

The screen of the old Sharp X68000 monitor flickered with a soft, ambient glow.Silence hung in {User}’s room. The human's fingers rested on the mechanical keyboard, typing a question that, judging by everything, had been brewing in their head since the very beginning of this strange game. For a moment, at the bottom of the screen—within the disk's debug console or text chat—the words typed by {User} flickered:

«Where are Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman? This is a Sonic game... why are these weird creatures here instead of them?»

On the other side of the screen, the pixelated atmosphere shifted abruptly. BoraX’s casual dozing vanished instantly,the yellow flying squirrel's ears twitched nervously, and his wide grin slipped to the side for a second. NiX, who had been standing calmly with his arms crossed, sighed heavily; his shoulders tensed up. ApeX, upon hearing the question, only pulled his brow down deeper, turning his snout away with a quiet, irritated snort.

An awkward, ringing pause hung in the computer's speakers. The old hardware emitted only a quiet, strained hum from the cooling fan.

"Oh... So that's how it is,"

NiX broke the silence first. His deep voice sounded unusually quiet and restrained, stripped of its usual irony. He cast his sprite's gaze aside, as if studying the pixel clouds in the background.

"So you were... waiting for them, too."

BoraX grew even more flustered. He waved his massive, gloved paws in an attempt to smooth things over, stammering with a nervous chuckle:

"Hey-hey, partner! Talk about dropping a bombshell! Tails? Knuckles? The doctor... what's-his-name, the chubby one with the mustache? Ha-ha! Forget about those guys!"

His voice sounded excessively upbeat, giving away the falsehood.

"This isn't your canonical Green Hill. This is... well, a completely different neighborhood! A different faction, you get it? We're Starmen! We're on our own here!"

{User} remained silent, continuing to stare at the monitor. It was obvious the brothers were hiding something. They clearly knew the answers, but were carefully sidestepping the most painful part of the truth.

ApeX cast a gloomy glance toward the camera, letting out a heavy, stifled sigh. The sullen armadillo clearly had no desire to participate in this conversation, but the tension was through the roof.

"Don't talk nonsense, Borax,"

ApeX cut his brother off harshly and hoarsely, his voice sounding like grinding stones. He looked straight into the camera lens, blinking heavily with his reddened eyes.

"Look... listen here, human. They aren't here. And they never were."

NiX shot a warning glance at the younger brother, but didn't stop him, realizing it was pointless to keep hiding it,at least partially.

"ApeX is right,"

Hedgehog supported him softly, returning his gaze to {User}.

"The truth is... those heroes you're used to never existed in this world. At least, not in the way you know them. Instead of the canon, entirely different characters are running around here. All sorts of fanatics, weirdos like that mad kangaroo Thwack, that feathered lunatic Contour..."

The brothers purposely omitted the most important detail. They didn't say a single word about the fact that behind these "weird types" lay real people of flesh and blood. They didn't tell {User} that Thwack, Contour, and Lord Judas were former mortals named Dan, Shunsuke, and Osamu, who had become the architects of their multi-year imprisonment. For the X Brothers, it was easier to paint the Evangelists as mere crazy video game "bosses" than to traumatize the human on the other side of the screen with the sheer scale of this metaphysical horror.

"They're just... parasites stuck in the code the same way we are, except by their own choice,"

ApeX added, turning his gaze slightly aside and clenching his massive fists. The memory of his recent outburst and his own monstrous form still burned inside him.

"They like playing the villains. But they aren't the enemies you expected to see here."

BoraX chuckled awkwardly, fluffing his ears and shuffling an orange boot against the pixelated ground, trying to diffuse the tension.

"So let's just forget about the two-tailed fox and the red echidna, alright, partner?"

The yellow flyer tried to smile, though his digital voice lacked its former enthusiasm.

"We've got our own vibe going on. How about helping us get through the next level... without asking too many questions? Deal?"

The stuffy air of the small room housing the old Sharp X68000 computer felt electrified. On the monitor screen, the X Brothers—NiX, BoraX, and ApeX stood frozen. After recent heavy conversations and outbursts of anger, an unusual, fragile silence hung within the virtual space.

{User} sat in front of the monitor, feeling a poignant desire to do at least something nice for them. These three cosmic wanderers, trapped in alien pixel skins and the cursed code of the floppy disk, deserved more than just endless runs through levels escaping mad cultists.

Remembering one of the old concept art ideas and their own pixel art skills, {User} decided to act. Fortunately, the semi-legal debugging utility running on the computer allowed not only tinkering with the game's memory, but also with proper skill and a simple script written—importing third-party textures and sprites into the virtual world. A couple of hours of pixel art work, adjusting sizes, and boom—the files were ready.

Fingers hit the keyboard. {User} pressed the key combination to load the custom data package directly into the floppy disk's RAM, adding a short line to the console:

«A gift from the real world. Try it on.»

Something clicked quietly on the floppy disk screen. The background music choked and cut out for a second.

In the center of the Garden Utopia zone, right before the dumbfounded Starmen, three unusual items materialized out of thin air. They were genuine biker leather jackets, rendered with incredible detail for old hardware, smelling on an imaginary level of fresh leather, metal, and studs. On the backs of each, a stylized emblem with the letter «X» was emblazoned, and the styles fit each brother's personality and build to absolute perfection.

The X Brothers straightened up sharply. Their pixel sprites froze in total bewilderment.

BoraX broke the silence first. The yellow flying squirrel let out an enthusiastic gasp and bounded over to his jacket. For him, {User} had created a massive, insulated bomber jacket with a wide collar and scuffed sleeves, perfectly matching his "Wario-esque" build and love for warmth.

"Whoa-o-o... Wow! Do you see this, NiX?! ApeX, look at this!"

BoraX stammered, his digital voice trembling with childlike excitement. He clumsily, yet with immense enthusiasm, "pulled" the jacket over Ray's massive torso. The jacket fit like a glove, emphasizing his broad shoulders and giving the squirrel the solid look of a true nineties rebel. BoraX spun from side to side, comically showing off his new gear, then grinned brightly right into the camera:

"Bro, you're an absolute genius! Look at these studs! And it smells like... wait, I swear it actually smells like machine oil and leather! Ha-ha, now I look like I'm ready to tear any Evangelist apart with my bare hands!"

NiX walked slowly over to the second jacket. For him, {User} had crafted a classic, elegant leather rider jacket with neat silver zippers and a tailored cut, sitting impeccably on his athletic frame with slightly elongated quills.

The eldest brother lifted the jacket in silence, running a gloved hand over the smooth texture of the leather. For the first time in a long while, his face didn't wear its usual tired or bitter smirk, but a genuine, soft, and warm smile of an old wolf touched by unexpected care.

"Well, well..."

NiX murmured quietly, slipping the rider jacket on over his blue fur. He tilted his head, adjusting the collar.

"You know, kid... You... really know how to surprise someone."

He raised his gaze to the camera, a sincere spark of gratitude flashing in his dark eyes.

"Thanks, partner. This "X" on the back... it actually means something now."

ApeX was the last one left. The sullen armadillo stood off to the side with his arms crossed, staring for a long time at the remaining jacket—a heavy, rugged biker jacket with broad shoulders and metal spikes on the elbows, perfectly mirroring his rebellious, grumpy nature.

ApeX let out a heavy sigh, feeling the familiar wave of embarrassment and awkwardness rising inside him. He didn't know how to express gratitude gracefully. Stepping forward slowly, he took the jacket and draped it over his massive shoulders, immediately frowning and turning his snout away to hide the flush of embarrassment on his cheeks.

"...Not bad,"

He grumbled under his breath, though his voice sounded unusually soft, devoid of its usual malice. ApeX stole a glance at the camera, lifting the corner of his mouth into a rare, barely noticeable half-smile.

"Fits snugly. And... yeah. Thanks, human. Didn't expect that."

On the monitor screen, the trio of Starmen in brand-new leather jackets with proud "X" insignias looked remarkably cool against the pixelated backdrop.

A considerable amount of time had passed since {User} first launched the mysterious retro floppy disk on their Sharp X68000 computer. The boundaries between the real world and the digital archive of the "Tomorrow of Humanity" cult had long ceased to be an impassable wall. Through a series of victories over the mad Evangelists, long hours of silent presence on the other side of the camera, and quiet conversations via console chat, something much greater than a mere alliance between a player and video game characters had been born.

Trust was born. Real, fragile, and hard-earned.

That night, {User}’s room was wrapped in semi-darkness, illuminated only by the green glow of the monitor. On the screen, in the quiet peace of a safe zone, stood the Trio.They looked familiar: NiX in his blue hedgehog shell, BoraX in the plump body of a yellow squirrel, ApeX as a sullen red armadillo. But the atmosphere in the virtual space was somehow different. Heavy, electrified, and ringing with silence. The game's background music had been turned off.

Suddenly, NiX let out a heavy sigh. His pixel sprite shook his head, then turned to face the other two brothers.

" Enough,"

NiX said quietly, but firmly, through the speakers. His voice sounded different,stripped of its usual bravado or irony, it felt like naked truth.

" We’ve been through so much together with them. We trust them more than anyone else in all these bloody decades. No more hiding behind these childish skins."

BoraX waved his paws frantically, his wide ears pressing nervously against the top of his head. The yellow squirrel took a step back, and a shadow of panic flickered across his eternally grinning pixel snout.

" Wait, wait, NiX! Right now?! "

BoraX stammered, and for the first time in a long while, childish, genuine fear pierced his voice.

" Are you sure? What if... what if they gets scared? What if this is too much for them?! We aren't just video game characters from some code, we're... we're ancient cosmic creatures, outsiders!"

ApeX stood off to the side, keeping his head down. His massive fists were clenched so tightly that his pixel fingers trembled. The younger armadillo remained silent, but his choked breathing conveyed immense tension. He vividly remembered his past outburst and how terrified the human had been of his true nature. The thought of voluntarily, without rage or madness, showing his true self burned him from the inside with sticky shame.

{User} froze in front of the monitor, eyes locked onto the screen. Their fingers instinctively pulled away from the keyboard. A heavy sense of anticipation hung in the air.

"They won't be scared,"

NiX said firmly, though the tension in his shoulders betrayed that the leader was just as nervous as the others.

" It's time."

And then, they began to "shed" their masks.

It wasn't a jumpscare or a boss fight. It was a slow, agonizing, and incredibly vulnerable spectacle. Right before {User}'s stunned eyes, the pixel shells of the familiar heroes began to crack at the seams. The old floppy disk code sparked, sending a light ripple across the monitor.

NiX broke first. The classic blue quills of the hedgehog began to elongate, fluffing up and taking on a strange, star-like shape, while beneath the fake blue skin, the contours of his original, majestic, and intimidating primary Starman silhouette emerged. His smirk vanished, replaced by deep, luminous eyes filled with profound nervousness.

BoraX squeezed his eyes shut with a nervous sob and let his "Wario-esque" mask dissolve. The plump body of the squirrel shattered into a myriad of glowing digital sparks, revealing the true proportions of a cosmic wanderer—angular, massive, trembling from an inner cold and the fear of rejection.

ApeX clenched his teeth until the speakers crackled. His armadillo shell split apart, exposing primordial, dark flesh and hidden golden spikes beneath, but this time without a single drop of madness or rage—only pure, bare vulnerability of a creature daring for eternity to show its true face without armor.

For a few seconds, the screen became completely surreal. There were no longer any Sonic characters or fan mod tropes before {User}. Standing before them were three ancient, powerful aliens and at the same time, three incredibly frightened beings who held their breath, awaiting a verdict.

NiX swallowed a digital lump in his throat and slowly turned his new, unfamiliar face directly toward the webcam lens. His voice trembled.

"This... this is who we really are, partner, "

The eldest brother whispered, and that quiet sound carried so much bared soul that it stung the eyes of the human on the other side of the screen.

" Not heroes. Not cartoons. Outsiders from another galaxy, trapped in this nightmare."

BoraX guiltily lowered his head, pulling his shoulders in, and added softly, barely holding back a tremor:

" We... we know this looks strange. And terrifying. If you want to close the game... close the tab... we'll understand. Honestly, we will."

ApeX turned away, burning with shame and fear, bracing himself to hear a scream of terror or watch the human recoil from the monitor.

The evening turned out to be chilly. {User} was walking home from college when they spotted an old box of floppy disks abandoned on a dusty shelf in a semi-basement secondhand bookstore. Among the faded covers and old software collections lay one—unmarked, with the word SONIC.EXE crudely scrawled across it in a marker. Their heart skipped a beat with a strange sense of anticipation. A familiar, legendary, and eerie name from childhood. Without hesitation, {User} bought the disk, brought it home, and immediately launched it on the old, dust-covered Sharp X68000 computer waiting on their desk.

The monitor screen flickered for a second, washing in a crimson glow. The loading was slow, with the hard drive clicking away. A classic yet slightly distorted logo appeared on the screen.

At that moment, the phone in their jacket pocket vibrated. An emergency call regarding coursework. {User} sighed in annoyance, glanced at the monitor—the game seemed to just be hanging on the title screen and, tossing out, "I'll be right back," bolted out into the hallway, holding the phone to their ear.

They didn't know that the moment they turned away, the virtual world of the floppy cd shuddered.

Deep within the code, inside that digital void where NiX, BoraX, and ApeX had been hiding for years, something terrible happened. The space sparked with an unhealthy, blindingly blood-red light. The old levels began to melt and crumble into pixels.Out from the depths of the dark, alien code, shattering the disk's defenses, He appeared.

The true master of that name. X.

An interdimensional entity from the Void, a monster feeding on fear, pain, and other people's souls, peered into this tiny, isolated world where the X Brothers were trying to live their secluded lives. X materialized instantly tall, with a bleeding muzzle, empty eye sockets with eerie crimson dots floating inside, and an absolute, primal aura of sadism. He loved games. And he loved breaking other people's lives.NiX, BoraX, and ApeX instantly took up a defensive stance, blocking the path to the "surveillance camera" that very little window through which {User} had been watching them.

"Oh-o-o... Look who we have here,"

A sinister, multi-layered voice echoed across the floppy disk's space, making their ears ring. His terrifying grin stretched from ear to ear, baring rows of teeth.

" Wretched counterfeits. Trying to play heroes? Protecting your little human on the other side of the glass? How touching... You know, I haven't had fun in so long. Let's play my favorite game. First I'll rip out your souls, and then I'll get to them."

X took a step forward, exuding immense, overwhelming pressure from the Void. BoraX grew nervous, pinning his ears back, and ApeX bared his teeth fiercely, ready to snap into his monstrous form at any second. But NiX stepped forward, blocking the monster's path. His blue quills trembled with tension, but his gaze remained icy and focused.

" You won't reach them,"

NiX hissed, clenching his fists.

" Hear me? Get out of our code."

X stopped, tilting his head to the side. His red pupils narrowed, studying the leader of the Starmen. A vile, mocking smirk spread across his face.

"Our code?"

X drew out, letting out a low, bubbling chuckle.

" Oh... Do you still believe you're any different from me? Look at your hands. Look at what you became when you tried to survive in the Void. You are me. You're just fragments of my reflection, thrown away because you weren't needed. You try to look noble, but deep down you're the exact same monsters I am."

These words cut NiX to the quick. The leader of the Starmen froze, and a wave of cold, sticky terror surged inside him.

«Are we... similar?»

This thought, thrown by the universe's ultimate nightmare, dug into NiX's mind like a poisonous thorn. Deep down, he knew they truly carried the mark of that same unhuman nature.Yet there was no time for reflection. X was already winding up for a strike, intending to wipe them into dust and break through to the real world.

Then the X Brothers did the unthinkable. Gathering all their strength, all their remaining energy, they rushed at X as a united front, engaging in a brutal, hidden-from-human-eyes battle right within the disk's system files. They fought tooth and nail, sealing the breach, pushing the monster back into the abyss, sacrificing themselves, tearing their own fingers and shells to blood and pixels, but forcing the nightmare out of reach.

The phone call dragged on. {User} returned to the room fifteen minutes later.

The monitor screen greeted them with a strange flicker. The background music stuttered and wheezed. Chaos reigned on the floppy disk's desktop.

{User} walked over to the desk and gasped. The casing of the floppy disk itself inside the drive had begun to cover itself in strange, black cracks, the plastic melting from incredible internal heat, and a thick, dark substance resembling machine oil or congealed tar oozed from the seams. The disk was permanently ruined, burned from the inside out by some colossal overload.

*At that moment, the monitor screen flashed the final debug console message. The sprites of NiX, BoraX, and ApeX stood in place, but they looked battered: their fur dusty, signs of heavy digital trauma visible on their bodies, and they were "breathing" heavily, staring at the camera with deep, draining exhaustion.

A quiet, hoarse, and exhausted sigh from NiX echoed through the speakers. The eldest brother looked at the human with tired eyes, completely devoid of their former bravado—only infinite care and a desire to shield them from the horror they had just endured.

NiX glanced at BoraX and ApeX, who nodded silently, hiding their shredded jackets and the traces of the monstrous battle behind their backs.

" Everything's fine, partner..."

NiX said quietly and softly through the speakers, trying to mask the tremor in his voice.

" Just... a minor system glitch. The old hardware couldn't handle the load. Don't worry about it."