Agent Hawkins eyed the device...
The harpy Lieutenant showed him to the back storage areas. Hundreds of artefacts were here, from cases long abandoned as well as those still on going. There was a mix of old and the new here... and there, in a caged cabinet, was a 'box' from the bombing hoax.
"Open it," Said the Agent.
The police officer frowned slightly. "Removing evidence is highly irregular, Mister Hawkins..."
"I have the authority," He said calmly.
"Paranormal investigations?" the harpy folded her wings across herself. "I am not familiar with it."
"We are recently appointed by the president, given the crisis."
"Let me guess... this is about national security?" The harpy had to scoff at that.
Hawkins looked at the bird-woman with his poker face.
The harpy's eyes twitches slightly. This was starting to feel too much like 'big brother'. "I can not just release evidence to the government without some idea of what you plan to do with it. Where exactly do you think you are? I need to clear this with my sergeant first... and keep in mind, this place has a video recorder."
Hawkins shrugged. "By all means..."
Steve was quite tense now as his mother got changed to take him to the hospital. His secret had been blown... this was it. He clutched at the petal on his lap where he had attempted to cut if off, using a tissue to drain as much of the 'green' fluid from it as possible. Steve didn't want to admit it, but he was scared now. What would the hospital do?
But then... isn't there a small chance, they had a way to treat this condition?
He thought he had got away with being in the sunlight. The changes to him were easily hidden. He thought he had lucked out. He did take advantage of one day, to visit the 'changed' students... but they scared him. That fear made him do a few pranks based on that fear. It was just a way of coping.. probably the wrong way, he felt as he thought about it.
Now he was one of them?
No! He... wasn't a monster...
He carefully took his sweat pants, meshing it over the petals that formed around his waist. He winced painfully as the area he had already cut was crushed by the clothing. God Why did he do that! He... didn't know. His mother said he mutilated himself, but he didn't know it was 'part' of him. It was just a scab to remove, an unwanted growth a...
"Are you ready?" His mother came in to see her new daughter. She frowned seeing her wear the sweat pants. "Are you sure you are going to be okay like that?"
"Y-yes. Please mom... don't tell anyone." Steve said it as almost a whimper.
"Honey..." her mother hugged her warmly. "There's nothing wrong with you."
A little tearful, Steve got up and put on the sweat top. He glanced down at the strange flowers on her chest. When he first had them, they were closed buds. Now they had opened up, showing a yellow stamen. Her first instinct was to try and pull the stamen off, but given her experience with the petal around her waist, she was reluctant to even try- and since when was she thinking herself as a she!
"I'm a guy," she said quietly. She quickly put on her shoes, looking again at the hated toenails, with their pink sheen... She couldn't even tell her mother of the hours she had spent in hot water, trying to take it off. Burning her foot a week ago in the water was unpleasant, and made her stop trying. It was one of those tiny changes she could easily hide anyway.
The two exited the house, while Steve's mother did a mental check that they had everything they needed for the hospital, making especially sure she had her insurance card.
Steve took a deep breath of the damp air. That weird tingly sensation deep in her gut started again. She had to get to the hospital!
Inside the car, Steve's mother started the engine and drove- just a little higher then the speed limit. She didn't want to be pulled over, but her son- daughter needed her! It was about ten minutes to their usual hospital.. she figured they could go as accident and emergency. She kind of wished it was daylight, since the changed might be more knowledgeable on how to help her daughter. Still anyone was better then nobody... and maybe they could get some answers.
Steve hunched herself up... the motion of the car was making her feel a little unwell. It had to be just her nerves. Her stomach was still doing 'butterflies'. She felt a little fear she was about to pass wind and reached to open the window- but the feeling had just as suddenly gone?
her mother sniffed the air slightly in confusion. She glanced to her daughter. "Are... you wearing perfume?" She asked.
"N-no!" Steve said horrified at the very idea of it.
Her mother glanced to her again, as she picked up a little more speed.
"This is the workshop," said the Linux Fairy proudly.
Effie and Dennis looked around. It was hard to describe this place. There was a central plinth of some kind, it almost looked like a religious temple. Various 'statues' were situated on either side of the plinth, and different lines of code intersected it.
"Looks almost like a church," Said Dennis making the observation.
"Ha- well yeah." Janus said with just the hint of a blush. "I coded a lot of different visuals for it, but this one struck a chord with me. After all, what we're doing here is probing a new state of existence. We are almost godly in some ways."
Dennis and Effie looked at him blankly.
"What?" Effie said flatly. Had the Linux fairy lost his mind? They were at the whims of anyone in the real world here! They couldn't even do anything in the real world...
AI Virtigo's orb of light flashed softly. "Some AI's do feel this way... and there have been some terrible consequences of those actions."
"Hey, an AI is strong I don't dispute that," the Linux fairy said back. "But a digital fairy can go to places without encumbering code, and can be nearly untraceable. We're like shadows. Take a look at this," he pointed to a text file as it opened.
"What's that?" Asked Dennis a little concerned.
"A previous hack from the pentagon. Oh don't worry, they have an AI working for them now. But given how few governments actually have one..." He grinned. "What you got there is a partial list of things going on... its not exactly complete, but I think I think the point is made. A digital fairy can do an 'awful' lot if they were so inclined..."
Dennis and Effie were intrigued yet also horrified at this prospect.
Dennis in particular wasn't sure he liked the idea of associating with such a calm hacker. "You do realise that can do an awful lot of damage, right?"
The Linux fairy chuckled. "It's perfectly safe. nothing sensitive was taken. it was just to make a point. We have to show the real world what we can do if they don't treat us right."
Effie wasn't so sure. She looked at the statues of the room they were in. "What are those?"
"Eh.. well, an experiment. Failed one," Janus said with some reluctance. "I'm trying to create a library of the common files of a digital fairy. Have you ever heard of DLL Hell? A fairy is so much worse," He shook his head.
"The idea was a good one," AI virtigo tried to explain. "Using an algorithm, we sought the commonalities of the digital fairies we scanned, in order to create a database. The idea was that if you were corrupted, we could simply replace the lost part with one of the common files."
"What went wrong?" asked Dennis.
"We have the same architecture, but we're all unique when it comes to code. What's worse, that code is constantly changing. I created a damn good scanner, but even if I used it to back you up, I could not use it. Because a second later, that program might not be the same any more. It might even be fatal."
"You're doing all this to help that digital fairy, aren't you," asked Effie.
AI Vertigo pulsed slightly. "We feel... an obligation. He took our beta programs, to access his program matrix... "
Janus looked at the daemon, as he stood as still as those statues. "I should have put better security. I just didn't think someone would hack our own systems."
Dennis sighed. That was just so... incredibly typical of a hacker it was almost funny. Were it not with such dire consequences.
suddenly the room shook.
"W-what just happened?" Asked Effie.
"Intruder detected," The Daemon spoke monotonously. "A user is attempting to upload the entire contents of this server."
"What?" Janus said angrily. How dare they! Someone was trying to hack him? Again?! "Vertigo?"
The AI pulsed rapidly. "I am attempting to block them... but... they are good."
"Oh for the love of god!" The Linux fairy said angrily. "Daemon activate security protocol 1. move us to the backup server."
"The backup server has been blocked, it is unavailable." The daemon said.
"Are you shitting me-"
With a shimmer, suddenly it was just AI Vertigo in the server, as the workshop and the digital fairies, along with the daemon were snatched away.
Steve's mother parked the car, as she helped her daughter out.
The flower girl shivered slightly as the cold air reached into her. The butterflies she had were still inside her stomach, and reacted ever so slightly to the outside air. She glanced down to her sweat pants, wincing terribly at the cut she had on the petal... she regretted doing it. She wouldn't be in pain forever would she? What if she cut something important? She shuddered realising how stupid she had been, and if anything happened to her now it would be all her own fault.
"It's not far now honey," She said encouragingly.
Steve glanced around, praying nobody she knew was here. It was very unlikely, given they were all at school. She felt a moment saddened that... if she was moved to the day side, she would lose all her friends. She wanted to be with them! She wanted to be.. herself.
"Don't move sweetie," her mother suddenly said tensely. "There's a bee on your shoulder."
Steve stood very still... and afraid. She hated bees bordering on a true phobia. Ever since she was stung as a child, she always suffered that fear. Her mother took a tissue, and carefully flung it at the bee, teasing it away from her daughter. The bee however buzzed for quite a while around them, so in the end Steve's mother took off her shoe and hit it on the side hard.
The bee hit the car-side, and Steve heaved a sigh of relief.
"Come on now," she said taking her daughter's hand as they entered the hospital.
The nameless man smiled a little despite himself. The girl... she seemed... so sincere? He wondered, could she be an angel? In this strange surreal place they existed in, she was his only ally... and he was her only ally in the dark.
He wanted her to trust him before... does that not mean, he had to trust her now? But she was just a child... how could she possibly protect him?
The light continued to brighten, and he tried to reach for the familiar comfort of his pistol... but it was gone. He looked around patting his clothes, but it really was completely gone.
"All bad things have to go," The girl reminded him.
He looked down a little sadly. Why did he place so much faith in a weapon? It was all for money. Yes... he remembered that. He loved money. He recalled how he once had a brother... who had become a doctor. But now he could not remember his brother's name. But he remembered being jealous. He just wasn't smart enough to do anything like that. His brother lived luxuriously, saving lives...
... what was he?
A skill with door locks, and guns... That was his skill... and only a few ways to apply it.
... what was a gun again? He suddenly realised he couldn't even picture it any more. what did one look like? It was like... it was all drifting away from his memory. "I- I-'m disappearing," he said to the girl. "I-I can't... remember..."
The girl took the man's hand, as it fit easily now to her palm. "We're almost there!" She said. "I'm here... 'promise... "
Her voice was... strangely comforting.
