Tari VS Miko (Meta Runner VS Glitch Techs)

 

“Will reality be augmented or virtual or some hybrid of the two? In any case, reality will no longer be the only game in town.” 

- Ced Kurtz

Tari, Tascorp’s runaway Meta Runner.

Miko Kubota, Hinobi’s newly recruited Glitch Tech.

For some, nothing quite compares to the thrill of the gaming experience, and for the societies of these two girls, that is the norm. Having to use their gaming talent for much more than simple games when the worlds of the virtual and the real cross paths. Will the Meta Runner play just right to win one last victory through her ability, or will the Glitch Tech finish her job of patching this glitchy girl from reality?

Before we start…

Both characters have pretty self explanatory media, and as such, expect heavy spoilers for both series.

Tari will exclusively get all three seasons of Meta Runner, including her one-off comic and misc official uploads from Glitch tying to Meta Runner. Obviously anything relating to SMG4 and so on will be ignored. Meanwhile, Miko will only have her two seasons of Glitch Techs and the official manual. 

Also as a ‘fun’ challenge, take a shot every time the word glitch is mentioned. (You not surviving)

How will Tari be analyzed?

Tari is a unique character to analyze, as all of her arsenal, abilities and feats come from the video games she enters, and by the end of the series, sacrifices herself and gets stuck inside Cyberspace in her own server where she has access to all games from the series. Which begs the question of how she should be treated.

For this debate, we’ll be treating Tari as a “glitch” from Glitch Techs, which are video game entities that come to real life from games when they glitch; which will allow Tari access to all her previously mentioned factors thanks to her Cyberspace. Glitches are actually a comparable physiology to characters brought to life by Project Blue, as they’re both physical versions of virtual data beings. More explanation can be read in the Before the Verdict section.

On one last note, Glitch Tech equipment only works on Hinobi technology, so for the sake of Miko actually being able to fight her opponent, this factor will be equalized by mixing the logic of both series.

Background

Tari

“MD5, let’s bring them hell!”

• Full name: Turbo Assisted Rapid Intelligence 

• Alias: Tari, BlueJay9, Duckgirl18

• Age: Less than 1 year (physically 22)

• An advanced sentient AI

• Member of MD5 and former Tascorp Meta Runner

• Likes: Rubber duckies, socks with sandals, anime waifus

• Dislikes: Corporations, cheaters, lobotomies

Video games, while they might’ve started out as nothing more than simple fun for all ages, slowly but surely they grew to be the dominant market for the world. Especially in Silica City, the largest gaming city filled to the brim with Meta Runners, competitive players willing to replace their own limbs to be the very best at the top of the food chain. Although in particular one company was responsible for this new world, Tascorp, the New Meta.

But all would change once more when Project Blue began development. Started by James Sheridan, the same scientist responsible for the Meta Runner arm, Project Blue sought to combine artificial intelligence with Meta Runners in order to create an even better player. The project began with an AI referred to as the Turbo Assisted Rapid Intelligence, nicknamed Tari. Tari was capable of learning and quickly becoming the top player of any game she was inserted in, but without a physical body, was nothing more than another AI. So when Sheridan had convinced Lucinia Porter, a very skilled Meta Runner, to try out the program, however, things took a wrong turn when synchronization was attempted, leading to the supposed death of Sheridan and fragments of Lucinia’s consciousness being implanted inside Tari.

After warping and waking up with no memories in an abandoned building, Tari wandered the streets of Silica City until stumbling into Tascorp, where after being mesmerized by a game played by Belle Frontiere, a Meta Runner, Tari attempted to play Ultra Jump Mania right there, which caused her to glitch in and warp inside the game. Amazed by this, Lucks, the CEO of Tascorp, had Tari literally pulled from the game by force, causing Tari to bring the main character from that game, Theo, into the real world. 

After narrowly escaping by always running (and a car crash too), Tari and Theo were rescued by MD5, a group of people who had their own grievances with Tascorp. And with the power of Tari’s fast learning and game warping, they hatched a plan to crash a Tascorp event in order to hack their servers, which luckily was happening soon since Theo was slowly dying by being outside his game. 

After a lot of training and a hard fought battle with Belle in-game, Tari ultimately was able to cause an exploit in the game Tempest, crashing the event and leaving the servers wide open. Unfortunately for them, Tascorp had expected this and cornered the entirety of MD5. With no other option, Tari made a deal with Lucks to let all of MD5 free and become their Meta Runner. 

While the future looked grim for her, Tari was able to communicate with MD5 via a multiplayer dating sim and made a plan with them to escape alongside Theo. And when the day came for the next big Tascorp event, their plan came into fruition at the cost of the leader of MD5, Masa, and Belle, who had come around to realize their true intentions, getting captured. But not before crashing another vehicle to free them. And while MD5 held Lucks at gunpoint, someone took over Masa’s Meta Runner arm, and made him pull the trigger on him. With no other alternative, all of MD5 ran off leaving behind Masa and Belle. But instead of the police, someone came for them, with a proposal they could not refuse.

James Sheridan was alive! And not only had he been responsible for hacking Masa’s arm to get payback, but also had captured and warped both he and Belle into Cyberspace, forcing them to join his new company, Shercorp, the Better Meta. So after digitally performing virtual brain surgery on them, he prepared to go after his runaway success alongside Evelyn, a spoiled Meta Runner that despised her, and remnants of Lucinia’s mind, which he had because HE STOLE HER COMATOSED BODY WITH HIM. 

Meanwhile, Tari and MD5 were in trouble with a debt they had to pay with a literal arms dealer, Marco. While they attempted to repay it with a gaming competition, Tari was sent to Sheridan’s Cyberspace, where Theo was narrowly able to save her and escape to the sky pirate game, Skybreakers, where she’d meet with MD5 and Marco, who had decided to join them after Sheridan hacked every single person with a Meta Runner arm worldwide into Cyberspace in order to for them to kill each other. 

From Skybreakers, the team was able to locate a gateway to Cyberspace, but not before losing Theo’s life at the hands of Evelyn and finding Sheridan’s location, which meant Marco went to stop him (he got doxxed). Inside Cyberspace, Tari faced off against Lucinia once more, and after the fight of their lives, Tari narrowly won by reverting her brainwashing; but just as that was happening, Marco arrived at Sheridan’s office, fried him with his own equipment, and started destroying his servers, including Cyberspace.

Knowing Lucinia would die if Cyberspace was destroyed, Tari decided to sacrifice herself in order to give Lucinia her mind back moments before being fully erased. After being supposedly dead for so much time, Lucinia finally woke up and reunited with her lover, Belle, and her old friends from MD5. While they honored Tari’s sacrifice, they were oblivious to the fact that inside the portable console they had taken from Sheridan’s office, Tari and Theo lived happily ever after playing video games in Cyberspace.

Miko

Yes this is official art

“You can pull the plug on my TV, but you can’t pull the plug on DESTINY!”

• Full name: Miko Kubota

• Alias: ME_K.O., Meeks, MKO

• Age: 16

• Is (MAYBE) a human 

• Works at Hinobi as a Glitch Tech

• Likes: FPS, action-based RPGs, J-Pop titles, the cat aesthetic

• Dislikes: Tutorials, cutscenes, Ralphie bear (aka discount Freddy Fazbear)

What happens when a videogame starts to glitch? Well in the town of Bailley, Glitches aren’t just unintended effects during gameplay, but instead they are code itself that manifests in reality, and upon entering into contact with computer data, it draws information from it to determine it’s behavior and personality, becoming monsters that threaten society. So Hinobi technology, the company behind all the consoles that creates Glitches, created a secret police force to take down glitch activities, and make sure to erase the memory of anyone that sees a Glitch as some men in black inspired organizations And not long after, they’d acquire one of their most valuable recruits.

Miko Kubota was more than just your average gamer, being one of the most skilled in their city; gaming was passion and it took priority over most of her real life duties, and eventually wound up being invited to the largest gaming event in her city, the Hinobi Smash tournament. While she and a rival she totally didn’t forget, Hi-Five, teamed up to win, as destiny would put it, a Glitch from the Hinobi store ruined the event and manifested in her house, leading to local douchebag Glitch Tech Mitch Willians to defeat it and erase everyone’s memory… or so he thought. 

But Miko wasn’t not affected, and upon contacting Five to confront Mitch with their deserved win, they ended up running into an incident with a runaway Glitch, forcing both to think fast on their feet and actually catch the Glitch. This act of bravery ended with both being recruited by Hinobi as official Glitch Techs members to combat Glitches… while also being the direct causes of Glitches themselves to appear from time to time but shush they do more good than harm, and their bond would grow closer as they put their gaming talent to good use.

Skill and Experience

Tari

Virtually, as an AI literally made to adapt to more or less any situation, not just games, Tari has proven to be able to rapidly improve at any game to the point of even beating professional Meta Runners who’ve trained for years in a matter of minutes. And not to mention that since Tari literally experiences games like reality, she manually has to perform all her movements in real time since she also feels the virtual pain that comes with it, making her far more skilled than any other player since she actually has something to lose unlike the rest.

Miko

In actual field combat, Miko is a very recent newbie that spends an undefined amount of time working as a Glitch Tech, however she not only showed to be one of the best gamers in town, owning the best scores in most games, but her skills in combat are very impressive, even Mitch Willians, the number one glitch tech in their city, refers to Miko as someone who possess abnormal skill and ability, to a point that even made him question if she’s even a human at all, she possess athletic skills like no other and can keep her ground against Glitches even without using her gauntlet.

Arsenal

Tari

Meta Runner Arm

Placed onto Tari’s left arm, the Meta Runner arm is a versatile enhancement that allows its user to consistently perform faster and harder to perform gaming techniques than any regular arm could. It possesses more features than to simply be a replacement arm, as it can enter into a turbo mode greatly enhancing its speed and precision, although an overuse of this function can lead to overheating.

Hoodie

Made by MD5, Tari’s iconic blue hoodie is not just any fashionable jacket, as its fiber is capable of blocking any tracking signals emitted by devices that might’ve been placed onto the wearer. (Also quite stylish and bird themed)

Games

Ending stuck inside Cyberspace, Tari has demonstrated the ability to manipulate and to will into existence any of the equipment from the entire series’ catalog of games. This is an ability Tari demonstrates in the finale, trailers, and comic itself.

Ultra Jump Mania

The titular platforming game revolving around a child known as Theo saving his island from the evil Crab Lord. Aside from friendships, Tari was able to get herself a long pineapple hammer to smash enemies to bits, homing coconut shells that can be used for extra jumps and explosive fruits. And let’s not forget that since this is a platformer, Tari’s able to use their gameplay mechanics to jump great distances as well as jump off walls. Lastly, while the game was being manipulated by Sheridan, Tari was able to exploit items in order to summon enemies, as showcased with the final boss, the Crab Lord, and as being the owner of its Cyberspace, in theory could manipulate and summon its enemies too.

Battle Blaze

Did you know that video games cause violence? That’s right, and Battle Blaze’s CoDe surrounds an endless battalion of gunfire. As your typical first fps game, you have several types of handguns, rifles, grenade guns, mini guns, and grenades.

Tempest

Goku VS Superman 2!?

Where are we dropping boys? Tempest is a battle royale revolving around the use of spells found throughout an entire mountain range where the most lucky skilled squad is victorious. This game actually looks rad fun. Throughout the game there exist dozens of very self-explanatory spellbooks, which are as follows:

• Windburst

• Fireball

• Protective Shield

• Dark Energy

• Earth Pillar

• Water Blast

• Ice Shards

• Electric Blast

• Knives

• Deflector Boots

• Crows

• Shadow Hand

• Teleport Scroll

• Sigil Deflector

• Healing

• Sword

• Speedy Boots

• Meteor

• Ice Wall

• Metal Transformation

• Finger Guns

• Magic Missile

• Dark Portal

As a heads up, Tari’s favorites are finger guns, windburst, and shadow hand.

Pocket Gakusei

For those in the audience interested in dating your favorite kawaii anime waifus. This online dating sim offers Tari more than your usual copious amounts of dialogue boxes to level up your virtual relationship, as a full relationship meter with characters allows Tari to perform heart to heart duo attacks with her partner. (For the record Tari’s ace)

Turbo Crash 9

Quite a twisted game of metal. As a vehicular combat game, only one player shall remain at the top of their opponents scraps. Not only does the game possess a variety of different vehicles, but they all include several murderous tools to help facilitate their one goal. These include machine guns, missile launchers, grappling hooks, and a ramming shield defense.

Hidden Heroes

In the year 20XX, Neo Lantern City must be protected by two robotic Hidden Heroes from the Terabotta Army’s invasion. As a play on hack and slash games, Hidden Heroes turns Tari into a sword wielding robot who’s capable of obtaining items scattered through the map as they face more and more foes. Those items consist of a Firecracker which momentarily stuns enemies and a Chain used for both mobility and getting over here fighters. 

Skybreakers

A fantastical steampunk pirate MMO where squads of pirates hop on their flying ships to loot, fight, and uncover hidden treasures across floating islands. Through this game, players can acquire sabers, rapiers, flintlocks, rifles, healing capsules that are shot, grenades, spring grenades, a gun-axe, robot mechs with cannons, robot helpers who can use weapons and throw players off maps, and so much more we don’t get to see. And not to mention the sweet flying ship every player acquires and respawns from, with cannons and a nice robot guide who can… distract at best in fights. Just make sure to keep the ship on air, as once it’s gone it’s game over for you!

FNF Microphone

Beep po! Did you know that Meta Runner has an OFFICIAL Friday Night Funkin mod!?!?!? Neither did I, but its freaking microphone will miraculously force any kind of challenger to have a rhythm based rap battle with you, from evil blood eyed hedgehogs to talking skeletons.

Miko

Glitch Tech Gauntlet

Gauntlets made by Hinobi technology, it’s an all encompassing tool that is used as the primary weapon of all Glitch techs. Besides the obvious, it can be used to scan for Glitches, lock in targets, call others, work as a flashlight, and is equipped with 360° AR cameras to laugh at all your blunders later with co. Also, Miko has the habit of using it to literally punch Glitches. It offers a variety of different abilities and powers useful for combat against glitches, such as:

Tech Armor

The titular Glitch Tech armor which protects our dear protagonists from digital evils. The armor grants its user an overshield (an invisible shield that covers the entire body) that both augments and protects their bodies with PLixel energy. Also, the armor can be customizable to fit the attire of certain video games, even changing size and strength to fit that mold.

De-Rez Emitters

The de-rez emitters, also called as “data streams”, shoot and siphon the energy and content from a Glitch by toggling it’s potency until it is drained and reduced enough to become tiny particles known as PLixels which then get stored by the gauntlet as if it were a vacuum. They can also be used to grab onto people, objects, and Glitches telekinetically. It is to note that varying on the Glitch’s level, one sole gauntlet might not be enough for the task and the Glitch could need heavy weakening before being absorbed.

Defensive Emitters

Gauntlets are equipped with a variety of both manual and automatic customizable shields a Glitch Tech can toggle on and off when needed. Shields can only sustain their form for a few seconds and can quickly get overwhelmed as noticed with their shield bar, which once shut or broken, require a cooldown before being activated once more.

Memory Interference Emitters

Utilizing T-Ray technology, the gauntlet’s memory interference emitters scan a neural map of a target's mind to alter or restore their natural memory pointers. After erasing any unwanted memory from a person, the target’s mind can be reformatted by whatever the Tech states, making them imagine or even follow a false scenario to cover up the Glitch encounter like your average MIB.

Restoration Emitters

Thanks to the gauntlet’s AR 360° camera autosave of the environment, the Glitch Tech is able to restore any kind of damage before any Glitch-related encounter in mere seconds. This can be done through the de-Rex emitters themselves or a patch disk.

PLixels

Through the use of PLixel technology, all Glitch Techs can form their own personalized weapons ranging from swords, rifles, cannons, or Miko’s favorite, a purple holographic hammer. Although it’s not just limited to weapons, as holograms, ladders, platforms, and so on can be created only limited by the user’s imagination and mastery over PLixels.

Portals

Who’s ready for some portal kombat? Cuz while you’d expect such tools to be used for fast travel, Miko prefers to use them more for quick witted combat purposes and mobility during struggles.

Cat Bubble

What do you do when a foe is running away? Well it’s obvious, trap them in your indestructible cat bubble! If it doesn’t kill them from cuteness overload it’ll kill them from asphyxiation!

Webs

By channeling her inner Spider-Man, Miko’s gauntlet can shoot highly sticky spider webs perfect for subduing and trapping Glitches.

Magnetic Glove

The gauntlet can latch to metal objects allowing the Tech to avoid the dangers of friction.

Pause

A very special tool which completely freezes a Glitch for five seconds. If used on real creatures, it can freeze humans for an indefinite amount of times, which is quite useful for keeping the public oblivious to your daily fights. Miko and Five are implied to have used this ability during “The New Recruit” offscreen.

EMP

In dire situations when some Glitch Tech related issue goes wrong, an EMP which exclusively targets Hinobi technology may be deployed. It has an extremely large area of effect encompassing several city blocks, which is a heavy downside as the Glitch Tech using it is likely to disable their gauntlet as well.

Power-Ups

The gauntlet possesses a variety of power-ups which can affect both Glitches and Techs. While these regularly only boost the capacity of the consumer, they can be inflicted with negative attributes to quite literally make Glitches explode once absorbed. One of Miko and Five’s favorite power-ups is the speed boost, increasing their reaction and movement capabilities to outperform Glitches.

Overclock

This functionality of the gauntlet greatly augments the speed of the functions of the glove, giving superspeed to the user, but after thirty-second usage, the glove overheats and stops working for a short period of time, this can be avoided if the overclock is stopped before the time runs out.

Tech Visor

As an additional part to the Glitch Tech attire, the tech visor has displays through augmented reality a radar, infrared vision, a mini map, and auto lock-on targeting to any and all Glitch that may be encountered.

Wired Controllers

Don’t underestimate a professional even without their gear, for this gamer girl knows how to yee her haws with game controllers.

Glitch Tech Van

These Hinobi van hold a lot more beneath the surface, as they aren’t actually physical, they’re made up of PLixels and can detect Glitches throughout the whole city, recharge Glitch Tech gauntlets, work on smart autopilots, create portals with a wider range than the gauntlet (with a vague limit below 6 miles), have comically large a hammer and boxing glove for road fights, and trap any real or unreal menace inside it. And don’t forget, this bad boy can also soar through the skies with its hover wheels.

Ralphie Bear Suit

HUR HUR HUR HUR HUR, HUR HUR HUR HUR HUR.

Abilities

Tari

Project Blue

Project Blue, the program responsible for every single conflict in the series. Not only does it allow its user to enter their consciousness into any video game they play as well as bring video game characters to reality, whether willing or accidentally, but it also gives the ability to predict the best and likeliest of outcomes and strategies for the user whether it be by predicting in-coming danger, enemies, aiming, driving, or even by exploiting invisible video game mechanics, glitches, and mistakes by analyzing the environment and players themselves for their abilities. The program itself allows Tari to adapt to any situation she finds herself in, whether real or virtual, and will progressively become better at its analysis the longer it is activated for.

Gameplay Mechanics

Thanks to the power of fun, the many games Tari enters have unique forms of gameplay mechanics she can exploit, particularly platformer games as they’re the ones with the most versatility in movement as they allow both exploits through developer oversights and the ability to leap higher distances without any repercussions.

Lives

As a part of Ultra Jump Mania, Tari and Theo start with a bare minimum of 6 lives they can waste before ending their game permanently. Although they’ll always respawn in the same predictable location.

Cyberspace

This virtual server collected inside a game console holds all the games showcased through the series with Tari and Theo. Tari possesses the ability to control all of it and create whatever she desires here. Under the assumption that Tari holds a similar control to Sheridan as they did, Tari could bring out content from each game and even alter the content itself, albeit the latter is questionable as Sheridan coded that and has far more knowledge than Tari on it. Nonetheless, Tari can warp and mold it to her own desire, although she does need more time to work it out effectively.

Miko

Martial Arts

Despite being a newcomer as a glitch tech, her combat skills were recognized by the current best glitch tech Mitch Willians as impressive to a point where he was convinced she couldn’t be human in the first place.

Resistances / Immunities

Memory Wiping: Miko is mysteriously immune to the mind wiping capabilities of the Glitch Tech gauntlet, even at top levels of potency. While theories exist to explain why, they are nothing more than speculation because Glitch Techs is not getting a third season. Nickelodeon, have I ever told you how much I hate you for more reasons than one?

Summons

Tari

Theo

Coconut boy! Theo’s been Tari’s best pal since she turned him real and they’ve faced every conflict together. Inside his game, Theo had several tools to fend off against his enemies, such as with his returning coconut shell and his prolific explosive fruits, and not to mention his ability to home in on targets with a spin dash attack. And lastly, Theo carries the elder tomato who raised him, which while not very smart at all, can tell the backstory of his own game so boringly it’s able to make anyone fall asleep, which yes, is something Theo has exploited.

Although after becoming a real boy, he gained the innate ability to enter whichever game he comes in contact with, which included the ability to use and experience their arsenal and abilities. As an added bonus, thanks to Belle’s gameplay, he was able to learn some exploits from his very own game, particularly learning an infinite speed glitch which launches him at high speeds in the direction he needs to.

Crab King

By using an exploit which alternates between Ultra Jump Mania’s assets, Tari is able to summon a friendly version of the main boss itself, the Crab King. It possesses giant yet strong claws and tough exterior making it practically invincible, although its weak spot is its circular belly.

Satsuki-chan

Originating from the game Nova Explorers but found through an event in Pocket Gakusei by Tari, Satsuki-chan your run of the mill cyan haired anime waifu which makes you spend a lot of money and time to gamble your way to obtaining her. Although in a combat sense, since Tari grew a full relationship meter with her, she is able to perform a special brawling attack with her as she’s more than willing to fight for her love. 

Petey

Ahoy matey, welcome to Skybreakers! Petey, despite being the tutorial mascot of the game, managed to be a really useful to Tari thanks to his need for protecting and helping new players from cheaters and trolls who mercilessly wreck havoc to beginners. To perform his task, Petey is equipped with a flintlock and a saber to defend us noobs. It is noteworthy that he cannot leave the tutorial area of the game at all.

Miko

Ally

Miko’s Glitch turned pet bird from the game Bravestone XII that lives inside Miko’s gauntlet and assists in Miko’s battles. She can fly, teleport, and can absorb the powers of anything she eats. By consuming berries from her home game, she can transform into a more powerful version of herself colored yellow, in this form she can fly much faster, shoot fireballs and cover her whole body in fire. Also, Miko can enhance her prowess by adding a PLixel armor with jet boosts.

BITT

The friendly Binary Intelligence Tech Tool of the Glitch Techs training new recruits, tracking their progress, and offering general wisdom. It isn’t actually made of metal, it is PLixels. Even if BITT is an outdated model, it nonetheless is equipped with some ridiculous amount of transformations to make it kick some pixelated ass, such as a mech form where it gains limbs and jet boots, a quadruped with a shooter, a car, or, once rebooted into his “safe mode”, it achieves BITT PRIME, a larger mecha which overuses the Pause function.

Feats

Tari

Overall

• Actually became best friends with a video game character

• Defeated top tier Meta Runners like Masa, Belle, and Evelyn

• Successfully took down Tascorp and Shercorp

• Returned Lucinia’s consciousness back

• Successfully save Theo

Power

• Caused a shockwave in real life

• Slashed a meteorite in half

• Reflected and parried a boulder so hard it caused a massive shockwave (1.41 Tons of TNT)

• Debatable: Controls Cyberspace, which was referred to by Theo as a “‘universe”

Speed

• Meta Runners are able to perform frame perfect gaming procedures

• Can drastically enhance her speed with the Speedy Boots Spellbook to the point of blitzing equal foes

• Maneuvers her tutorial ship through cannon fire

• Can slash arrows and bullets

• Dodged multiple meteors (Mach 10)

• Debatable: Searched through most of Cyberspace in six seconds (8.58e+39 to 1.39e+107 times FTL)

Durability

• Survived two car crashes

• Got launched through walls

• Got struck by lightning

• Was crushed with a portion of a map by Evelyn

Miko

Overall

• One of the best gamers in Bailey

• Was the one who actually won the Hinobi Smash tournament

• Defeated Mitch Williams, Count Nogrog, Freddy Fazbear

• Has played nearly every game in existence

• Is the notorious Birthday Ruiner

• This girl is probably not a human, the show hints at it a lot but we’ll never know because Nickelodeon sucks, the series ends on a cliffhanger and the episodes were already written and story boarded but never animated

Power

• Kicked several animatronic’s heads off with singular kicks, even as a child

• What do they feed kids these days…

• Fights building sized Glitches

• Busts down doors with kicks

Speed

• Outran a sewer system’s waste

• Almost caught up to the insanely fast Ping Glitch

• Dodges the Sonic scream from a Smashozaur Glitch

Durability

• Protected Five from a Glitch massive fireball that exploded in the background

• Gets beat up by Glitches on a daily basis

• Got thrown through walls and floors

Scaling

Tari

Meta Runners (and Theo)

In her long conflict with Tascorp, Tari has met and eventually adapted to beat many of her allies and foes in the games they battle in, and as such, should be as capable as their virtual avatars. And of course, Tari should’ve been physically comparable to them in real life.

• Lucinia and Sheridan survive his lab exploding.

• Marco’s Meta Runner arms block bullets.

• This is the ONLY NOTEWORTHY real life feat 

• Masa slashes a barrage of meteors (Mach 300)

• Belle summons a mountain-spanning storm with the meteor spellbook (455 Megatons of TNT)

• Spellbooks are absorbed by the players and Masa was able to slash many of the meteors. He only got overwhelmed by the quantity of meteors rather than their power, so it is likely that physicals are comparable to the spellbook.

• Debatable: Theo is able to perform “‘infinite speed” glitches.

Miko

The Glitch Techs

In Hinobi, all Glitch Techs start equal, and only through their personalized upgrades with their skill scores are they able to level up their gauntlet’s abilities. Although something as such as power should stay relatively consistent throughout the entire corporation, Miko's gauntlet is as capable as any.

• Five survives a Glitch explosion (326.35 Megajoules)

• Five dodges the GT Van’s security lasers

• Five and Mitch both have dodged the Glitch Tech’s gauntlet’s de-rez blasts (29% SoL - 41% SoL)

• Two Glitch Tech gauntlets together can create a holographic cannon strong enough to destroy the peak of a mountain (334 Kilotons of TNT)

• Since this feat required two gauntlets, halving the result gives us 167 Kilotons of TNT.

Glitches

With each game there exist hundreds of possible Glitches it could warp. From aggressive enemies to giant Kaijus to even just THE UNSTOPPABLE PONG PIXEL; whatever it may be, you know the Glitch Techs will deal with it in no time whatsoever.

• A Tritops Glitch was capable of dispersing a cloud formation with a jump.

• Debatable: In lore, Smashozaurs are powered by a comet which crashed into their planet (3.17 Exatons of TNT)

• The Oversight’s Tank Glitch dodges the gauntlet’s blasts

• He proclaims they’ll conquer Earth in a femtosecond (Should TOTALLY be taken literally!!!)

• If you’re curious, moving a meter within a femtosecond would be 3 Million times FTL. 

• Glitches can maneuver and dodge attacks through electrical currents (99% SoL)

• The Collossasaur Glitch was capable of obliterating a mountain (5.6 Gigatons of TNT)

• However, it took the combined power of 14 entire Glitch Techs‘ to take down the kaiju, meaning that a singular gauntlet would only be capable of 400 Megatons

Weaknesses

Tari

Tari is quite the unique individual, literally. While she may be an AI who overtime adapts to any circumstance she’s put in, she admittedly doesn’t deal well with tension and conflict, or at least at first. It takes some experience and getting used to for her to actually begin adapting to her situations, which can be game changing if she doesn’t learn fast. To add to this, Project Blue itself has been affected and temporarily taken by data stealing weapons, such as Lucinia’s knife, and that’s without forgetting to mention that Tari would die if all her data were to be stolen.

Miko

Me attending Glitch Techs’ funeral

As impressive as Miko is, she is nonetheless still a rookie Glitch Tech who still has a lot more to learn even with her experience in gaming. Generally speaking, she is a very impatient and hot-heated girl with difficulty planning who gets carried away by her emotions. And the gauntlet has some big weaknesses, such as only being able to work on Hinobi technologies (as it is incompatible with others), it can’t attack metal so emitters just bounces off it, and it has a limited battery life. 

Before the verdicts…

Tari

A Virtual Universe!?

In the finale of Meta Runner, Theo says the following after supposedly dying to Evelyn and Tari finding and implementing his data to Sheridan’s Cyberspace:

“It was like I was nothing and everything at the same time. Like the universe and I had become one, and all creation was laid out before me.”

Some peeps around have been using this singular statement from Theo as confirmation that Cyberspace is universal in size and, since Tari is in control and was able to search through most of Cyberspace in a short amount of time before the server got disconnected, this would be confirmation that Tari is universal.

The problem with arguing this however is that you’re using a singular one-off gag statement as completely true for a character who realistically shouldn’t have any knowledge over how Cyberspaces work and are. And even then, the statement itself never refers to the size of Cyberspace, it simply compares the restarting and movement of files into Cyberspace to omnipotence and a universe restarting, which itself could just be argued to be using ‘universe’ as a substitute for general existence or reality. But this now brings the real question. 

Processing Cyberspace

If Tari could scan, process and scavenge through most of Cyberspace in 6 short seconds, how fast would she have needed to be in order to perform such a feat? We’ll be honest, we are not entirely sure if our methods are the most accurate, but by calculating the rough size of the 7 games, we wound up multiplying the sizes of various games: 16 km X 16 km (Ultra Jump Mania’s map length and width) X 7 km (Tempest’s total mountain height). Then the processing speed was calculated by using the amount of data volume contained (which for your information, is a lot more than you’d expect it to actually be) within the time frame of 6 seconds; and finally by accounting for the processing to reaction speed ratio our results were achieved. This feat is ludicrous to calculate and requires many specific factors we have to vaguely assume are correct while applying maths we aren’t even sure are entirely accurate.

However this is not a feat that can simply be ignored (maybe deemed as a heavy outlier) but it must be acknowledged due to its importance. It’s not like some blink and you miss it gag feat, as this is quite literally is crucial to the finale of Meta Runner and how it ties everything together in the end, so to completely ignore it would be wrong. We thank you for reading our rambling on this very stupid feat we all collectively despise with every single fiber of our human will. :)

Infinite Speed Theo???

Due to how Ultra Jump Mania’s physics work, Theo is able to gain “infinite speed” by abusing his game mechanics. Despite what the name blatantly suggests, it is unlikely that this video game glitch actually results in Theo being flung at such incalculable speeds, and we can prove it with real life logic. 

This glitch is similar to Mario 64’s Backwards Long Jump glitch, which thanks to the game engine’s buggy mechanics that didn't set a limit to how fast the backwards long jump makes the player move, results in infinite acceleration, not infinite speed. Even if by some miracle MR’s interpretation of the glitch really did create infinite speed, Theo only performs and aims the glitch and doesn’t react to his momentum in any noticeable way. 

Miko

Should Miko get all gauntlet powers?

Nope! To be more specific, while all Glitch Tech gauntlets can have the same abilities, they’re unlocked through spending EXP based on the user’s customization; so abilities such as ice rays, hover boots and board, or even basic hacking are capabilities which Miko has never shown to unlock or use. As such, it would be disingenuous to assume Miko has all powers on hand.

Is the Glitch Tech gauntlet light speed?

If I had a penny for each Glitch productions female robotic protagonist who fought a teenage girl who shot data I’d have two very high voltage pennies

More than likely yes. The De-rez emitters are referred to as “data streams”, and data itself travels at near light speeds. Even ignoring that, they’ve been called lasers too, which have shown burning and bouncing from reflective surfaces but are inconsistent with force as sometimes they possess it but other times no.

GAME LORE

Very early on into Glitch Techs, we get introduced to the Smashozaurs arcade game surrounding a group of fighting dinosaurs empowered by a comet’s power; and as usual, the game glitches out this time transforming a human into one of its characters. This brings up an excellent question regarding whether or not lore from inside the game be accounted for when scaling to the real world.

Glitches are physical manifestations of pixels which burst into our world through creating replicas of the personality, abilities and goal of whatever video game character it brings to life; however, it’s questionable at best if the in-game lore behind these characters should apply as well. The lore is a written canon for that character which involves events that happen outside of gameplay, and that’s the keyword. Glitches manifest a coded representation of the data and information behind the gameplay. While the personality could be argued to be independent of gameplay, it is nonetheless something that is present in the gameplay which represents the character through information. In more simple powerscaling terminologies, gameplay and lore power levels should be separated with how Glitches only manifest the gameplay version of the characters rather than an exact replica lore wise.

Tari as a Glitch Explained

To give a brief explanation, there exist many different types of Glitches in the series with specific properties such as Gooblers, Companions, Entity, Mappers, Parasites, Multiplayer, etc. but for this debate, Tari will be treated as an Entity Glitch. While a Trapper Glitch makes sense as it’d allow Tari’s entire Cyberspace to be confined to an entire pocket dimension, those Glitches also drain the GT gauntlet’s energy very fast and that would be deemed too unfair of an advantage.

Entity Glitches more or less bring out a specific character from a console copying their data and information while trying to follow their programming in a real life while keeping their abilities. It is to note that with how inconsistent Glitches are, some stronger variants have managed to even warp their environment to our world, like a Smashozaur Parasite Glitch turning an entire bridge into its own game’s bridge or a Karate Trainer 4 Entity Glitch warping alongside it’s dojo in reality. As such, Tari’s Cyberspace will also become real for this debate with Miko fighting inside it.

And to get it out of the way, Glitches allow respawns as long as they’re programmed into the game, like with the team based shooter, Oversight, with a squad of 4 character classes which could indefinitely respawn as long as their ship was intact. So Tari’s Skybreakers respawns and lives would be accounted for by the Glitch.

For reference, this is a leeway that isn’t unique to just this debate nor fight, as to name an example, all Persona matchups have a similar leeway in starting the fight in their respective cognitive realm, and this is a fun way for both franchises and characters to interact which makes sense by combining the lore of both in a fair way for a debate.

Art

(Track by Therewolf, art by AwesomeEthan)

(Thumbnail by SoulSymbiote, the creator of this match)

(Thumbnail by Huntimis)

(By Liam Vickers… wait a second!)

The more you know…

Verdict

Oh boy oh boy are we in for quite the shocking debate. An artificial gamer girl who brings video games to life while taking down a corrupt gaming corporation against a (likely inhuman) gamer girl who works for a gaming corporation while taking down video games which come to life. Ain’t that the most glitchy contrast you’ve ever seen? 

Regardless, the contrasting nature of both characters is more than for show, as it affects the debate in a very interesting way. So grab your preferred snack and let’s speedrun through them.

Stats

With how these two’s power levels stack to each other, we have a very clear cut top tier in this regard. Sure, while some of the lesser feats of these verses are comparable such as surviving big explosions, Glitch Techs’ non-specific hate for beautiful scenery slightly lacks the oomph to stack simply moving some clouds (WE LOVE MATH). While scaling to a 14th of a Kaiju would put Miko on Mountain tiers of power with 400 Megatons, our AI girlie with her meteorite spellbook caused a 455 Megaton level storm. And as mentioned in the feat section, it is likely that Tari physically is comparable to the spellbook. So our gamer girls with blue hair and pronouns are actually on comparable tiers with an ever so slight difference which favors Tari, but through both’s multitude of methods to amplify their stats, this difference would not last long.

And as you’re more than likely aware by this point, Tari has two potential rankings to place her speed at, that being the lower end by scaling to Masa’s avatar slicing meteorites putting her on triple digit machs of speed (Mach 300), and her insane processing feat which ranges from 39 to over 100s of zeros of times the speed of light, which would obviously blow out of the water the many feats Glitch Techs have performed by avoiding their own data blasts and fighting Glitches as they traverse through electrical wires (99% SoL). With the lower ends, Miko would be over 2,000x faster, but the gap when including scavenging through Cyberspace would quite literally stay as large as it is since Miko is only slightly slower than light. HECK! Even by using the femtosecond Glitch feat which is not usable at all, Tari would still be several squared dozens of times faster. It is to note that both have ways to boost their speed to the point of blitzing characters on par with their regular speed, with the Speedy Boots spellbook, power-ups & overclock respectively, but Miko by all means has two which could likely stack. Either way, it’s unlikely that they’d help much when the two speed gaps are astronomical.

Arsenal & Abilities

To start off with a literal bang, a lot of Tari’s arsenal consists simply of various types of firearms. From Battle Blaze to Turbo Crash 9 to Skybreakers at last, Tari is packing a lot of expected heat as a titular gamer. And while Ultra Jump Mania and Pocket Gakusei don’t offer too much in terms of items, Tempest more than makes up for them with its many unique spells. From elemental magic to dark magic, this is one of Tari’s most experienced games by far. Also, not to forget Hidden Heroes, as the grappling hook function and stunning do in fact come in handy for close fights. This all mixed with her Meta Runner implant, Tari becomes a formidable opponent capable of utilizing all these tools at precise turbo speeds. But to be entirely honest, it simply doesn’t stack with the utility of Miko's gauntlet. Sure, it might not have every single upgrade unlocked, but it certainly can keep up with many of the admittedly predictable pieces of arsenal Tari has. The gauntlet grants Miko automatic shields, portals, several ways to stop Tari momentarily, cursed Power-Ups that can explode Tari, or how about any weapon she can think of with PLixels. Even comparing their vehicles Tari still falls behind as the Glitch Tech van is far more versatile with portals and flying as well as being capable of trapping Tari with no way of escaping out of it.

Although when we compare abilities, Tari certainly holds her own a lot more than totally a human girl Miko. Particularly thanks to her revives and ability to manipulate Cyberspace at will. Tari simply won’t stay dead as long as her Skybreakers ship is flying on air, and even then, Tari will still have six additional lives before ending her run. Meanwhile, although Tari isn’t the most experienced at manipulating Cyberspace, being able to change the environment to something you’re familiar with is still a huge advantage nonetheless. And this is all without mentioning Project Blue, which can directly scan to understand Miko’s gauntlet, successfully predict the coming danger and the best decisions for Tari to take.

And while we’re on this, Tari has several counters to Miko’s arsenal. The Cat Bubble and webbing wouldn’t do much as Tari could just teleport out of them or attack while trapped with Shadow Hand or a Meteor shower, the Gauntlet wouldn’t recognize Tari since she’s outside of Hinobi’s database, and the Tech visor especially wouldn’t be able to track her thanks to her jacket. And on one last note, Tari’s abilities and arsenal are inherent to her rather than depending on a singular piece of equipment. Even if something like a weapon is taken away from her, she can just will herself a new one with her control over Cyberspace. While if Miko’s gauntlet ever runs out of battery or is significantly damaged, she’s screwed without any real way to fight back.

Allies

Of course since both have the ability to bring their own personalized helpers onto the battlefield, it’s no surprise that they get their own segment. To start with our bird girl, Tari’s minions aren’t really that useful aside from Theo. She can summon the impenetrable Crab King with a glaring weak spot, Satsuki-Chan whom Tari can only perform an all-out attack with, and Petey, who at best would only distract with how predictable his approach is. Alongside Tari, Theo can equip any items from any of the game selection, although unlike her, he has zero control over it and needs Tari to hand them out for him. Although he shares the same respawns from Skybreakers and naturally has his own game’s lives too.

While our cat girl’s allies allow much more room to work with. Ally gives Miko a lot of mobility through its flying and teleportation as well as potentially being able to copy Tari’s spellbook abilities were she to consume them. And not to mention BITT, who while not that impressive in his base form, would be a heavy hindrance if he went to his Prime form as he’d constantly be Pausing Tari and all her summons.

Tertiary Factors

And to conclude, to absolutely no one’s surprise, Miko takes tertiaries by a landslide. Unlike Tari who just recently gained access to her complete powers and has very little gaming experience, Miko’s been a hardcore gamer since childhood and a Glitch Tech for well over several months. This knowledge also plays into the debate, as Miko would likely be familiar and accurately predict Tari’s abilities, especially her respawn with the Skybreakers ship, since it’s even something she called out in an episode. Miko is more accustomed with her arsenal and fights than Tari ever has. 

Although don’t count Tari out yet, as her hidden ace in the form Project Blue once more comes in clutch. With its ability to adapt to whatever situation and opponent she may find herself against, like Meta Runners, professional players with point accurate gaming skill for years, whom she’s quickly been able to adapt and overcome in a manner of minutes and retries, it’s not impossible for Tari to adapt to Miko. And seeing as how Tari has plenty or retries to adapt to Miko, it’s no shocker she’d eventually manage to predict even the wildcard that she is. While Miko certainly is one of the best gamers in Bailey, to the point of even being called inhuman by Mitch Williams, another one of the most highly ranked Glitch Techs, she’s still 16 years old, and with how impressive and experienced most Meta Runners are, especially thanks to their ages ranging in the late 20s, their bionic arm and toxic competitive mindsets, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say they’re in relative levels of skill.

Conclusion

While both glitchy girls were formidable players, in this competitive debate, only one could come out on top, and Tascorp takes a win over Hinobi with their Meta Runner, Tari! 

Power was borderline even between the two So it didn’t matter at all, but with the large gaps there are with Tari’s speed, you could assume that Miko could beat Tari in the out in the worst scenarios for her; although even disregarding that completely train wreck of a feat, it’s an uphill battle for Miko. 

What really set Tari apart was the amount of retries she had in comparison to Miko needing to execute her blitz and smarts to figure out how to bypass Tari’s many lives, while Tari could overtime adapt to Miko by exploring her respawns and either damage the gauntlet once or outlast its battery life, both of which she could do with area of effects attacks, changing the landscape to her favor, her specific versatility with Tempest, and allies.

Not to say that Miko can’t win, it’s far from the contrary actually. With her large speed and experience edge, she’d be taking down Tari many times and would be able to figure out how to stop her indefinite Skybreakers respawns with gamer logic. The difference is that in general Tari’s win conditions are far more simple and straightforward which constantly gets swayed in her favor the longer the fight goes on and Project Blue is active for.

Tari

“I’m sorry I was involved in what Sheridan did to you. But I wanna say thank you. Because I also got to meet some amazing friends.”

Advantages:

• Slightly stronger

• ​​Speedblitzes her if you buy that stupid server feat that I hate

• Fully controls the battlefield to her advantage

• Project Blue offers great adaptability the longer the fight goes on

• Has a larger amount of summons

• Could likely scan the gauntlet to understand all its abilities

• Teleportation nullifies most trapping methods…

• Has 6 lives plus an indefinite amount of respawns with the Skybreakers ship

• AJ DiSpirito

• Has a third season

Disadvantages:

• Does not start as experienced

• Her minions are overall inferior to Miko’s

• Tempest aside, her entire kit is very predictable

• … except the Van

• Would 100% lose the rhythm game battle were she to use the mic

• Meta Runner been completely forgotten by Glitch

• Look up her VA’s situation

Miko

“I wouldn’t have thought less of you. Beating one game isn’t that important.”

Advantages:

• Relative in power

• Blitzes without that monstrosity

• Automatic shields prevent fatal blows

• Power-Ups decrease Tari’s stats as well as offering a quick way to kill her

• Has several ways to momentarily incapacitate and hinder Tari’s mobility

• The Van is better than any vehicle Tari possesses

• Is such knowledgeable on games she’d adapt and figure out whatever Tari throws at her

• Knows how to deal with Glitch

• Liam Vickers worked on you

Disadvantages:

• The gauntlet would not recognize and be unable to track Tari thanks to her jacket and for being outside of Hinobi’s database 

• If the gauntlet were to be compromised in any way, Miko loses access to her entire arsenal

• Cannot asphyxiate or mind wipe Tari

• Nickelodeon…

Miko really should’ve brought more coins with her, cuz the glitchy girl’s taking home her sweet winner winner chicken dinner today. The winner is Tari.

Fun fact! The word Glitch was written 121 times throughout this entire blog.

Final Tally

Team Tari (4) - TheBiteRaptor, RedHeadedElf, Ultra27, Huntimis 

Team Miko (1) - Art (She won in their heart)

Coming 2025…