Nothing can possibly go wrong...

[Jessie Winkler]

"Westworld?" Jessie says, confused. She quickly shakes her head "no".

[Machaeus]

"I have an idea," Urufu said, "But I don't want to put it out there in case I sound like an idiot or something, so please just enlighten us."

[tachyon]

"Well, we're an AR Themepark. Artificial Reality. We use Neural Immersement Pods to make the sensation of being in an 1880s world as real as possible. Mostly educational, we try to get things historically accurate, but the real draw is with off worlders wantin' to see what Earth was like pre-fusion age. Tech's complex, hell the processors take up 4 basement levels, but we've been perfecting it for almost 160 years."
Porky wiped away some sweat with his sleeve, then the main wallscreen began to show lines of running code, including, but not limited to, binary.
"Now this here is what the mainframe should look like. But about 6 hours ago this happened." he pointed a pudgy finger at the screen, "...there! Right there." He traced his finger down the screen, but the code was as indistinct as ever.
"Suppose you wouldn't have, I've been doing this my whole life. Here," Porky typed at his wrist computer and the wallscreen reloaded, this time the suspect line of code -barely a few characters long- was illuminated red. Then the screen zoomed out, showing what looked like a roadmap. This time, the Tech spoke.
"Whatever it was, it got in through the firewalls attached to an incoming packet and then embedded itself and started to multiply." The 'roadmap', which was actually a diagram of the different core programs and their links, began to change as the red glow began to spread through all the systems.
"We ain't got no idea what that thing is or who sent it," said Porky, "alls we know is that it's re-writing the core and it's dug in like an Alabama tick!"

[Jessie Winkler]

"I'm guessing that's a bad thing?" Jackie somewhat asked.

[Machaeus]

"So I was right," Urufu said thoughtfully. "So basically, someone put a virus in the system or otherwise hacked it. I have no programming experience, and Mach doesn't either...so why are we here? Did something nasty happen in the real world because of this technological mishap?"

[tachyon]

The CEO and the technician exchanged glances.
"I suppose you could say that," said Porky, "but nothing as...nothing that most people would consider important."
"Yeah, like that bastard-" began the tech, but his boss held up his hand to silence him. It didn't stop the look of absolute fury that was on his face.
"When this program, which we at first thought was a virus, hit, we had several people in there. Mostly tourists, but we had 3 GMs. And one of them was Kei... We've got contingencies for times like this, basically we try to hold back the virus out here until they can get out of there, then we wipe the whole system and do a reboot from one of the backups. But this program mutated so fast we barely had time to warn them...They all got out, she made sure of that. But..."
The large man looked sad and angry. The next words were spoken by the tech.
"Neural Immersment is a complex process, basically a being's entire consciousness is digitized and transfered to an online avatar. The effect on a person is that, for all they know, they're in the real world. Or in whatever world the program dictates. When the Westworld sever was corrupted, Kei's mind got severed from her body."

[Machaeus]

Machaeus' jaw drops. "Say WHAT?" he asks.
"Holy sh!t-kabobs, it's (dot)HACK://Sign all over again," Urufu laughs nervously.
"Waitwaitwait, if someone can project their consciousness into electronic devices, willingly or not...I've just found a new use for Astral Projection!" the warlock says with a smile. "But I'll think about that later," he says, shaking his head. "So we have to somehow get her out of there so you can shut everything down and reboot, correct? Otherwise, well, schhhkt?" he asks, drawing a finger across his throat.

[Ash]

"Okay. Okay. So you want us to get her out of there. Good. But how do WE get out once we found her? Wouldn't we be trapped in there too?", Ash asks, an eyebrow raised.

"Sounds like suicide. After all, she is a GM and should know how to escape. If she cant, how can we?"

[Jessie Winkler]

"I have the feeling that it would be a pain getting out of there," Jackie adds.

[tachyon]

"You won't be facing the same danger that Kei faced," said the technician, "the attack is over. And we've also modified the immersion protocols to automatically retrieve you if the danger is too great."
"We've re-established our connection to the server," explained Porky, "I was trying to say before; this thing ain't no virus. A virus infects, multiplies and spreads, and leaves destruction behind it. But this thing...It's a malicious program of some sorts. It does the first two things, but instead of destroying the infected files it mutates them into something else."
The wallscreen showed an image of a red pulse moving through the green lines and boxes of the simplified 'map' of the Westworld computer core. In it's wake, the images glowed purple as the spawned new links to one another in a growing, twisted digital spiderweb.
"Westworld's still there. Kei's still there. But they've been reprogrammed. That's why we needed you."
The wallscreen changed again, this time it showed a top-town view of what looked like a high-altitude photograph of a town in the middle of the desert. There was a small green dot glowing in the center of the settlement.
"A living beings mind's a complex thing; finding her was easy. But..." Porky wiped the sweat from his face again, the stress of the situation was taking it's toll, "look, when we rebooted Westworld a lot of things had been changed, reprogrammed. Including Kei. Now don't worry, it's not permanent, not yet; it's a little like a case of amnesia. And just like amnesia, the best chance she has of remembering herself is if her friends help her."
The tech spoke up as the wallscreen turned off.
"We could have forcibly retrieved her consciousness hours ago, but then we'd just be bringing the wrong Kei back. It's absolutely imperative that you make sure she's back to normal, otherwise we could loose her real self...forever."

[Ash]

"I see...", Ash mutters, rubbing his chin again. He then raises his finger into the air, for no particular reason.

"So. Our mission would be to get to Kei, help her to remember who she is and get out again. Correct?"

He lights up a cigarette without caring if the place they all are is a smoke-free area.

"Well, it does not sound to hard. But the most difficult things start like that...", he sighs. "Anything else we need to know about about this Artificial Reality? And how do we get in?"

[Machaeus]

"So help me if there's a cannon involved in getting there, there will be pain," Urufu says.
Machaeus bops him on the head. "Not likely."

[Jessie Winkler]

Jessie nods. "Got it."
"I guess we're supposed to go too?" Jackie asks curiously.

[Ash]

Ash raises an eyebrow and looks at Jackie.

"Hey. Don't tell me you are afraid."

He grins and raises his fist into the air.

"Nothing we cant handle!", he shouts... and looks like a total idiot.

His eyes wander from the left to the right, looking at everyone in the room. He slowly lowers his fist again. His grin also disappears.

"So... Uh. Shall we... start...then...?"

[tachyon]

"Right, if you'll follow me please..." the technician led them out of the room, through the room full of computers, and down another hallway to a door labled "GM Terminals". The room was filled with 10 large pods, clear lids raised, which were each big enough for someone to lay in. There were screens mounted on the wall behind them.
Only one pod had it's lid closed. On the wall behind it hung a familiar leather bomber jacket.
A robot was standing next to that pod, it's white body with large red crosses on the chest, left shoulder and head clearly declared it's purpose.