Ben continued to look at his friend Steven, and that weird flower on her head. It seemed a pretty pink flower.. He could actually smell it from where he was standing. A very sweet lilac. It actually made him want to lean closer but he stopped himself from doing so. I mean this was Steven! He glanced at her bare feet, noticing she had pink toe-nails... and he was trying not to stare even more. Why was she even bare foot!
"Um... so does that flower do anything?" Ben asked.
"No- can we talk about something else please?" the flower girl said annoyed.
"But how come I didn't realise? I mean.. you've got- er... boobs" They weren't big.. but they were definitely there! How could he miss it?
"I hid very well." Steven said almost hissing.
"Well.. I'm glad I could at least rescue you from that creep" Ben said with a smile.
"Rescue?!" Steven shouted. "I Don't. Need. Rescuing!" Sheesh. this was getting awkward very quickly. "I even managed to see what the day side was like you know and nobody worked it out!"
"S-sorry!" Said Ben.. "I didn't mean er... look why don't we play something?" He asked changing the subject. He glanced around, realising all the games were down. "When they come back. I hear there was some massive power surge."
"Um.. yeah..." Steven said glancing around. It shouldn't take that long though to get things up and running.
"What the?" Effie asked looking around. Why was everything shaking? It was like a massive quake, as data started to fall. The wind around them picked up to a howling, and she grabbed hold of Dennis in shear fright. It felt like they lost their footing as the ground itself gave way.
"What did you do!" Dennis shouted to the AI connected to the server. He held tightly to Effie.
The pink globe shimmered as she was losing her connection. "Get out of here. I will connect to another nearby system, if I can."
Effie and Dennis ran as the data tumbled all around them. One hit Dennis on his leg, causing him to bleed.
"Dennis!" Effie took hold of him and suddenly tensed out with her wings outstretched. She flew outward, pushing for the real world... eventually hitting the boundary where data ceased, and reality started.
She emerged in total darkness, holding Dennis. They seemed to be back in the real world now... all around them the lights had gone out.
Dennis started to move, wincing at the pain. It didn't look bad, his leg seemed to be grazed.
Effie couldn't help but realise... he was physically damaged. By a piece of data. A digital fairy could be... damaged physically. They knew so little about their bodies, and this was definitely one thing to remember.
The fairy quickly dragged Dennis and herself between arcade machines, as she saw the stampeding of feet, hooves, and claws. The last thing she wanted right now was to be kicked around.
"You okay?" She asked Dennis.
"Yeah... ouch. I'll be fine..." Dennis flashed a smile. "Thanks".
Effie blushed a bit. "Y-You're welcome. She said softly. "What happened?"
Dennis got up dusting himself. "It looks like a power surge. it knocked out the machine we were inside."
"W-what would have happened if we didn't get out by the time it crashed?" Effie asked worried.
"Don't... know..." said Dennis. "We're here and we're not here... I guess we would end up not being here? Or maybe in suspension.. or maybe we would end up back with Mikey... or maybe nothing."
"That's a lot of 'ors'" said Effie.
"power surges like that make things a bit unpredictable," Said Dennis thoughtfully. The systems should be back on soon after they fix it.
In the real world, in the absence of a power, or signal... Effie wondered how they were even here. Clearly they had to be connected to Mikey still... "Do you think the Cyborg did this?" She asked suspiciously. It seemed a bit too coincidental that it was after their conversation. Maybe she shouldn't have... said anything to him. If he was capable of this.
"... he can be imaginative at times," Dennis said rubbing the graze on his leg. "Cold and calculating at others."
"He'll pay," Effie said annoyed. In her mind she envisioned just what she might be able to do. Perhaps a little re-wiring would teach him a lesson.
"Let it go... we're fine." Dennis advised.
He was more worried about that AI. How much 'presence' did she have? How would a crash affect her? The fairy hoped she was not hurt... but probably more for the cyborgs fate. If that weird being pissed off an AI, the cyborg might not live.
The entity known as Hiro activated it's visual sensor as it considered the next logical move. The power disruption might invoke an emotional response on the digital entities. It was difficult to predict given they retained their organic functions. Would the attack have even fazed them at all? If not, surly that it was no longer broadcasting a signal was the ultimate fail-safe, and that the power also disrupted their ability to attack. One action had resulted in three positive scenarios to its favour.
If the emotional response is fear, they will not attack it, and the desired lesson was taught.
Extremely efficient manoeuvre.
It had a variety of options left to it now. Unfortunately the human cells required sustenance. It had in its possession ten dollars and 23 cents. It entered the store, observing how everyone decided to leave as soon as it entered.
It gathered sugar, and a bottle of water along with a vitamin tablet.
The woman with mouse like features, behind the counter looked a little scared by.. whatever- whoever it was that walked into her store. Still He was a changed person. He couldn't help what he looked like.. right?
"Two dollars, ten cents" she said... observing those soul less eyes. "Um.. are you okay?"
Strange, why did the organics always asked that? "Yes." It paid the ingredients and left, noting the sound of a sigh of relief behind it. This was not unusual, even when it had it's emotions. Everyone feared it, and it was always alone. but now it no longer felt... anything. It's systems were not glitching any more, and it was growing in relative efficiency. There was no war between its two halves any more. The machine did what it did.
Hiro started to mix the water with the sugar to an exact specification and crushed a vitamin tablet. One tenth of the volume of water should allow efficient uptake of his intestinal system with minimal waste. Unfortunate that there would be wastage at all in the form of some organic matter.
It started to head back towards the place designated home. Shelter remained required, due to the frail organic components of its body.
The walk took 23.4 minutes. It took out the key for the door.
There was another entity in there. The one designated little sister.
Directive #2: absolutely no harm through action or inaction must happen to Little sister, Hitomi.
A crippling directive to be sure and one that could go against directive 1. It wondered if it should re-write these directives. However, they were deeply imbeded in the organic parts of its brain and to change them would require re-activation of emotional centers.
"B-Brother?" The young asian girl asked. She was a curious transformed person. a fairy apparently, though not quite as small as a fairy. She appeared to be about one quarter the size of a normal human. She had small gossamer wings and a pink dress. She still retained her normal face though it had an ethereal quality to it.
She smelled something burning on him, and saw his clothes slightly singed of electricity. "W-What happened!"
"Nothing," It explained monotonously. Afte rall nothing happened of any consequence.
"Are you burned?" Why did he look so... weird? Like he wasn't even there.
"Action had to be taken, to prevent this system being compromised." Hiro said.
"You... you electrocuted yourself?!" Hitomi looked aghast and worried. "Why?"
"To overloaded the chip located in my brain that connects to various systems." the cyborg explained. Though it was starting to wonder why it should bother explaining this to the little sister entity. "It was being used against this unit. It must not be compromised."
"B-Brother? You're ... scaring me..."
Hiro stared at the little sister, appraising the organic creature. They were not family really. Machines do not have siblings. Still as long as she called it brother, she was still to be designated little sister and the directive must be fulfilled. "There is no fear any more. Hitomi."
Did the use of her name help at all? Given the strange reaction it was not likely.
"B-Brother please... you're becoming like a machine. You got to fight it! I know how much it hurts looking at yourself.. I know... how you wish you could have been either one or the other but not..."
"Wish? Insufficient use of thought processes." why think about what is not there? "What is, is."
"What about that idea of using a digital fairy to help you? You said you could use one to protect your systems, and probably bridge the organic parts with the machine parts."
"Scenario... critically failed.."
Hitomi looked concerned. "What happened?"
"Digital Fairys are modelled after organic beings. This one can only provide a limited amount of run time. They exhibit traits of fear. They can not be trusted as much as they would not trust this being."
Hitomi sighed. "I wish mom and dad where here..."
The two were on a business trip and might come back in a week. due to the travel chaos, they were still stuck in Tokyo, which during the chaos was one of the slowest areas to recover. Apparently it had changed drastically over there, as well as quite a few other major cities.
"I have no directives concerning those entities," Hiro said after checking. It was not considered important at the time.
"D-Directives?" The fairy girl asked.
"This unit will now shut down. Awake it if need be."
"C-can I make sure you don't need a bandage... or anything? Those burns could have been bad."
"I am undamaged. If you wish you may see." Hiro started to take off his long coat and shirt, exposing the torso. The mesh of metal and human evident on his frame.
Hitomi winced a bit seeing it. Her poor brother... She leaned her head onto the flesh part of his chest, feeling the warmth of his heart beating. "I love you... brother..."
Hiro gave no response.
Alex sighed grateful for at least some talk with her mother. This just felt wrong! Still... there was always a small chance she was a different kind of dragon to the one they encountered, right? She had a few weeks more to find that out.
She... and her sister.
If they were twins, did that mean their reproductive cycles were also synchronised? That would be.. awkward. Without any comparison to how it was with normal humans, she didn't know if her fate would be better or worse.
Haru returned to her room, a little bewildered to see her mother had put a new wardrobe for her. She opened it, and it was full of the clothes she was continuously buying for her. She also hung that white dress that she wore on her date-
Er. Not date. Just going out as friends with Ken...
The clothes looked very nice. She had to admit she was a little curious to how she would look in them. But she really didn't want anyone to see her wearing them just yet... she anxiously closed the door to her room, and took out a pair of jeans.
She put them on finding them a curious fit around her hip and waist line... then blushed a bit realising where she was looking. "It's your body now," She said to herself. "It's not wrong to look.. is it?"
She found a few tops. They were definitely female ones. She found a few of them even had specific coloured bra's for them. Dare she... try one? Well nobody was looking. She took off the bra she wore, still very unused to the feeling... and put a new set on. It took a little work, but it fit her quite well.
How did her mother work out her clothes size so easily?
She then put on the light blue top. It was a casual top, nothing overly dramatic about it. She found herself wondering what she would eventually look like all grown up... and it made her shudder some. Still.. if this is what she was stuck with.. at least she didn't look bad. She didn't look bad before either. So in that sense, did she really change?
"Hi Haru," she said to the Mirror.
The oriental girl looked very shyly back at her.
Jenny had finished playing. She had never had so much fun in her life with her new friend. Everything was going so well right now, she was almost starting to forget she was some kind of magic girl too.
Why couldn't she play and have fun like this all the time? That was all she really wanted. Then nature called. "I gotta go to the toilet Lilly."
"Okay. It's down the hall on the right," The squirrel girl said shyly. Her expression made her look like she thought the toilet some kind of forbidden zone.
Jenny nodded and walked down the hall humming a bit to herself the four beat song Tetra taught her. She sat down and relaxed.
There it was again... that strange feeling. She wanted to ignore it. Whatever it was, it felt... bad. She didn't want to know. Her mind was going back to that moment she fought the creature. She still had the Lego toy with her shaped as her four pronged wand. She started to reshape it.
Without even looking... it became a gun in her hand. A toy Lego gun...but there it was.
She held it, knowing the exact pose needed to line her sight through it... her breathing slowed, as she gazed at an imagined person... she dropped the toy, the Lego blocks splintered into a dozen pieces.
The little girl got up quickly pulling up her dress. She washed her hands and cleaned up the mess of the lego blocks. "S-Sorry," She said with some tears in her eyes. Though she didn't really know who she was apologising to or why, she was even crying. She suddenly wished Mur- mommy was here. she always made her feel better.
