Mickey was excited to see an E-mail from Bonzo.
'We should conference.' it said. Enclosed was an IP address.
The robot girl bit her lip. Bonzo seemed really busy, was it really that necessary? It could only mean this was something quite urgent.
Mickey walked over to her desk, where the digital fairy sat down. She seemed a little more pensive then usual. Mikey gave a smile, her little friend despite the expression did look cute. She paused at that thought... was that a girly thing to think or a guy thing? She wasn't sure. She did like her dress. The robot girl glanced back to her computer. Maybe a little journey to emergence would make her friend feel better.
"Effie? Bonzo wants to see us" She said glancing at the time.
"Huh?" Effie looked up as her thoughts were interrupted. She was worried her form was starting to affect her mind. The way she smoothed her dress before and even felt a need to courtesy now and then.. which she had resisted. "Who is Bonzo?" She asked quickly getting up, ignoring the feeling of the dress on her bare legs.
"Bonzo is the one that gave you to me" She smiled.
"Oh?" Effie hoped to meet that AI again. "Where are we meeting him?" At least she's assuming it was a him... those monotone words made it so hard to know. It seemed impolite to call Bonzo an 'it'.
"We are meeting at the Emergence servers"
Effie bit her lip. "I... um... you mean actually... go to there?"
"It'll be okay." Said Mikey. "I got a code for a secure connection."
The digital fairy had to think. She had once been in that wild internet world, and was nearly picked apart by forces she didn't even know could possibly exist. Emergence was a safe place, but so much could go wrong. She knew her nature as a digital being was somewhat different to Mikey.... she had no body in the real world. When she was on the internet, she literally was on the internet.
Mikey viewed that world through a layered protection, one that she had armed with firewalls to protect herself even further- much like any other user from the real world, although hers was certainly more direct then keyboard and mouse, it also benefited from being as secure as any other computer could be if not more so, given there was only one Mikey Madison in the world. Effie felt it provided all the advantages. The young digital fairy didn't even know the first thing about coding. Well... only the first thing, she reminded herself. She knew how to print hello world... probably a fitting program to try some time. From what she viewed on the emergence website, a digital fairy was much more difficult to arm in the same way... though not impossible. But one thing they all agreed, each fairy being so vastly different, no one program could be compatible with all of them.
"You'll be with me. I'll protect you" Mikey smiled feeling a certain responsibility to the digital fairy.
Effie looked down a bit hating being so dependent- on a child of all people. 'I really am just a pet' she thought. However, Mikey's heart was in the right place as always. She reluctantly nodded. She really needed to work out how to defend herself out there.
Sarah was glad. She could expect her Aunt Iris to come by in a few days. She tried to picture what she might look like as part spider, but failed at that. She hoped her aunt wouldn't spin a web... it would be awkward for her mother. That image sent a shiver down her spine. Maybe she should have warned her aunt? No... it will be okay. I mean she wouldn't eat her... right?
She heard the buzz of her mother, once again swarming outside, and the curious humming of the plant in the garden. She wasn't sure if she should watch the sight though did sneak one tiny peek. She tried to remind herself it was just bees gathering honey... although honey being produced by her father, and the bees- all the bees being her mother. She didn't even know it was possible for someone to become a 'swarm'. What else could happen?
She curiously flicked on the Television, using her talon on the power switch. She sat down on the couch.
Television had become highly localised since the issues began. Given the entire world had issues, it was more important for people to deal with the immediate problems. She couldn't help but wonder what was going on in Japan, or Europe, or anywhere else. What about the space station? Would the sun impact astronauts there? She didn't even want to picture what could have happened there... those people would be completely on their own.
The news report was interesting though.
The reporter- some kind of fox girl with three tails, spoke into the mic with clarity and directly at the camera. She was short, standing at about 4 feet high. She seemed quite.. professional given her new form. "Jay here reporting. A group of youths who had allegedly vandalised the streets in recent days has finally found, in a church of all places. Having bordered up the windows, they didn't realise there was one small light source left on a stain glass window. Inspector, what can you tell us?"
The inspector, himself was human. He seemed somewhat uncomfortable around the reporter- 'I guess its normal' Sarah thought. changed tended only to interact with the changed these days. Humans stuck with humans... it was just human to do that.
"We are still at an early stage of our investigation. However, we can establish that six male youths were exposed to the light, while under the influence."
"Can you tell us what they were changed into?" The fox lady, asked tilting her head. She knew her audience... this was always the first question.
"The scientists are still trying to work that out. They have apparently taken an angelic female form..."
"angels?" The reporter pressed.
The inspector looked more uncomfortable now. "I did not say they were angels... They simply have wings on their backs and look a lot like angels. And they all appear completely identical."
"Identical inspector? So they have become sextuplets? And how did one officer knock them all out?"
The inspector had to clear his throat. "They seem to feel whatever the others are feeling... My officer, upon entering was attacked by one of them who was.. in an early reaction stage. Upon being struck, every other perpetrator acted as if struck... My officer put her into an arm lock, they all... acted as if feeling the same pain. They were slowly removed from the premises."
"What will you do with them now they are in custody?"
"its a very complicated transformation. Our first priority is to provide them with counciling." Finally the inspector had enough. "I have no further statements to make..."
"Just one more inspec-" the reporter quickly asked.
"No further comments" The officer said walking away.
Sarah flicked the TV to another channel. 'Weird transformations indeed'.
Mikey saw the meta-verse exactly as she had done before... she accessed the process that Effie inhabited, and uploaded her to the server.
Do you see the numbers? She asked, but then became surprised to see her friend physically manifest in front of her eyes. She still retained her tiny 'size'. although size was more a matter of memory requirements here. What was more startling to her was that she existed in three dimensional in a world of zero dimension, standing on... black nothingness.
"I... can't see you Mikey... but I can hear you." She said softly. She was quite freaked out by this experience, if she were to be honest. But took a lot of comfort sensing Mikey's text.
I can see you though." Mikey texted with surprise. I mean.. I can really see you. This shouldn't be... possible. Here everything was numbers. Just information bouncing around each other.
"I can hear someone coming" Effie glanced around.
'hear?' mikey thought.. again that made no sense at all, but she was able to note a new connection being formed into the secure server. Its ident returned the name Bonzo and cited admin privlages.
Hello Mikey, Effie ;)
The text message hit the digital fairy gently. The curious plain monotone sound, she somehow recognised it as belonging to the being that saved her. "H-hello..." She tried to re-assure herself she had nothing to fear from this AI. In fact she owed this one a great deal for saving her. Effie wasn't sure what kind of person she was before all this happened, but at this moment she felt eternal gratitude. She could still recall being ripped apart...
Welcome back Are you behaving yourself ?
"Y-yes..." Effie drew a breath. She kind of wished there was some ground between her feet. Suddenly she found herself once again in that white room, with a gentle light. She looked to the light knowing it had probably done that for her benefit. Or was this something she made herself? She had no idea. She had to remember nothing here was actually real... or was it? It was as real as she was, and that was a mind bogling realisation she did not want to explore right now.
We are ready to begin. I received your E-mail. There have been only a few incidents like the one you describe.
"She's able to interact with the computer like.. er.. a cartoon" Mikey said describing it the only way she could.
I can see how it might appear that way. I will examine her code first
Effie tensed but felt something almost ticklish go through her. It wasn't invasive or anything, but She felt herself blushing. "H-hey..." She meekly protested.
I created this program to help digital fairies as yourself. it won't hurt you. But it will take some time.
A dataset, labelled 'percentage scan' became noted to Mikey. It looked like it would take a while.
I can already tell you your among the most complicated one I have scanned... Bonzo texted.
The two could only wait.
