Effie waited, looking at her father as he stared back across the void between cyberspace and real space. She had never felt so helpless. There was nothing she could do to show she was once their son, although she was glad her mother believed her.
"What can you remember?" Asked Mr Grayson after he had calmed down. That he was talking to a strange entity on their computer was also very disconcerting. Part of him wondered if this was some kid of cruel trick. But the way she animated herself was just... too real. Nobody could animate something that well.
Effie sniffled a bit. "I... I remember... I remember your faces. But it's so hard..."
"And.. just what are you?"
"They call us digital fairies. We don't have bodies in the real world... any more. I don't really know how this works. I exist in machines now," She said sighing. Explaining her limitations was always distressing.
"It's okay dear," Said Mrs Grayson. "We're just glad you're alive. I always said you played too many computer games," she said smiling.
Mr Grayson Scoffed. "You haven't really given me any proof you are who you say you are... don't give me that look Deanna. We need to be sure."
"What can I do?" Asked Effie sadly.
"Just tell me one thing... anything, that only our son would know. Then I'll believe you."
"I... I can't!"
Deanna spoke gently. "Relax dear... just think of one image. Even something as simple as where you took off your socks."
"The kitchen-" Effie blinked. It just slipped out.
"And quite annoying it was too," Smiled her mother broadly. "Even after raising you, I never understood why you did that."
Mr Grayson's jaw dropped. "Are... you really Freddy?"
Effie bit her lip. "As... I said before. I'm what he became. But... I'm not the same any more, I'm Effie now... just Effie," She explained it as delicately as she could. "When my mind was erased- the programming of my body, sort of filled it up. I'm what you see."
"You're a what you see is what you get program," Chuckled Deanna. "Oh Sweety, I always thought that of you anyway."
Effie blushed a bit. She knew her mother was trying to make her feel better about things. She vaguely recalled, she always did that.. isn't that what moms are for? It made her feel happy, just to hear her voice. She cried a bit, wiping her eyes on her sleeves. The enormity of what she was saying would take a while to sink in. That Freddy was gone, and she was all that was left...
Mr Grayson in the end nodded. "Okay... I'm convinced. 'Effie' I guess..." Though saying her name felt really strange. Wasn't this supposed to be his son? "This will... take some getting used to."
"I- I know," Said the digital fairy softly. "I didn't want to upset either of you. I just thought... I should... see you."
"I am glad you came honey," Said Mrs Grayson. "You might not be what we remember... but... we are glad, some part of our son- however small, survives in you."
"T-Thanks," Effie said getting chocked up again. This all seemed unfair... she felt horrible.
Effie's editor started beeping, and another Digital fairy appeared, shimmering on the screen as if parting a curtain on the desktop.
"Effie, we got an urgent call from Mikey. She needs us."
"What?!" Effie said alarmed. She turned back to her parents. "Sorry- we- I have to go-"
"Will you come back?" Asked Deanna hopefully.
"Y-Yes. Just... I'll be back another day. I'm just... really sorry."
If she was apologising that she had to go so quickly, or for anything else, they never got to ask. Effie vanished in a flash of pink light, the other fairy following suit with a shimmer of blue.
The fairies used the recall program, and found themselves back inside their host, materialised into the real world. Dennis was in shock as he saw the face of his previous captor, the cyborg staring deadly with an expression between intense concentration and bewilderment.
"What have you done!" Dennis shouted. If he hurt Mikey...
"I'm okay," Said Mikey. "He's not. He can't even see you at the moment. He's got a virus."
The two digital fairy's jaw's dropped. A virus? Shouldn't that be... impossible?
Hiro wasn't in a state of panic exactly, though by any stretch of the imagination anyone should be at this moment. Perhaps living with the disadvantages of being part machine was allowing him to roll with things as they came, but for the moment there was no reason to panic in his mind. He had already figured out he was born under a very unlucky star, with a bad transformation, and now... this. Still, there was justifiable cause to have some optimism.
He had managed to get MIkey's attention, and his cybernetic systems were isolated... although he could tell something about this virus wasn't normal. It was learning. Working out his systems from the inside out. Eventually it might know him better then he did. However, it seemed dependent on his own processors, and at this moment that he was a slower machine was actually an advantage. It gave him more time...
He stared blankly, standing up right, as if facing fate itself, with his one human eye expressing bewilderment. "Mikey..." he said.
"We're here... we're all here," She said. "Can you bridge a connection to me?"
"Too risky. Firewall-" he said curtly. "Didn't work for me. It might infect you." If it got into an AI, there was no telling what it could do. As bad as Hiro had been, he didn't want to hurt anyone any more. He made a promise to his sister...
Dennis tried to think this problem through but had a simple solution. "Isolate the school network, and add him to it. We'll access him through the router, and find the virus."
Effie nodded. Helping Hiro wasn't exactly something he thought would happen today... he was still a jerk to her, for what he did to Dennis. Still, he did need help, and they were the only ones that could do it. "It could work. We should be able to go inside him like before, and... fight the virus physically." In their world, the virus would exist as something they could touch... maybe even remove. It shouldn't be any more difficult then moving a program out of the way.
Hiro blinked with his human eye. "It's... trying to access my wet-ware. But it doesn't understand the connections to it. It's accessed my directives... I don't know what it's trying to do to me..." The cyborg continued to speak calmly. He had to, if he was to have any chance in this. He had to make sure this kid understood everything that was happening to him. Which was difficult, given he had no idea what had happened!
Mikey isolated the router, from the other computers.
Hiro tried to listen for the router. Since it partially existed as wet ware, it was possible to power that aspect of his hard-wired state.
Disconnect
Hiro wished he could. There was no way for him to 'not' hear a signal, as it was so close to his wetwared systems. Though it was giving his human brain a migraine without the filter of his cybernetic systems. Like listening to a very loud hum. Hiro was in great pain, to maintain the connection. "I.. am.. on the router, now," Said the cyborg not wishing to show any pain in his expression. It felt like he was burning on the inside now! But how horrible it would be to admit it.. that this child was so much... better.
"Can you go in there?" asked Mikey to her digital fairies.
Effie felt the wind in her hair, as she felt the signal around them. It was certainly accessible now, and she almost drifted into the router, with Dennis in hand.
Mikey watched as the two disappeared.
They were now inside Hiro.
Dennis glanced around apprehensively. "I never thought I'd be here again..."
Effie looked around. It was certainly very strange place. Unlike the clean and almost clinical environment of the internet, this place was dark.. murky. Small points of light were above them, in a variety of colours, of every contrast. It created an interference pattern on the 'ground' they stood on, of various shades too complicated to discern. Small motes that reminded her of the forms an AI would take were around them, although these were a lot smaller and definitely not an AI in of itself.
Effie peered in one of the orbs, and could see... what seemed to be an image of a girl? She appeared to be a fairy... maybe one of Hiro's memories?
A more familiar 'road' interconnected itself around the system, likely the hardware aspect of the Cyborg.
"Not a pleasant place," the girl mused looking around.
"I lived here, for weeks," Sighed Dennis. "The place often depended on his mood. I was given a small server space here... but sometimes I saw other parts of Hiro when he hosted me. He can barely handle a digital fairy, let alone two... we must be careful not to lose our connection to Mikey."
Effie nodded. "So we find the virus... which way?"
"I don't know. But if Hiro is telling the truth, the virus is looking for a way to access his wetware. From what I can tell, a lot of his systems have been turned off voluntarily... but something inside his core is trying to activate them again."
Effie started onto the road. "Let's hurry then. This place is... creepy."
Lilly thought quietly about the sport's lesson as she changed back into her uniform. She glanced around a bit worried, but remembered she was now considered one of the girls here...
She had never, ever, run that fast before. No human had. But it seemed that it had it's own price to run like that. A burst of energy, and a very rapid loss of movement afterwards. A defensive mechanism against predictors... the last option available, to run... and hide.
... did that mean she was pray? In a word of carnivorous cats, and wolves, foxes, birds... where did a squirrel girl stand in the hierarchy of things? Probably not very high... that and she was a- a girl... but could she be a 'strong' girl? All the other girls she knew were never that strong. Not that she knew that many...
She glanced down at her chest, and at the four nipples that might one day grow. Jenny said she felt them growing on her own body.. did that mean she would know when they started to grow as well? How long would it take? What would she look like at the end? Would... it hurt?
She felt so glad, to have met Jenny. it was nice to know she wouldn't face it alone. Jenny as a real girl was so much more comfortable and happy with things. As Lilly slid on her panties though, and felt the void of nothingness down there, she felt the need to check and see her equipment- or lack there of discreetly.
She pushed her twin tails through the holes. The fact that she had two tails felt odd too. Her mom said she looked just like the news reporter, but she... she looked pretty- and something about that fox looked strong. When Lilly looked at herself in the mirror, all she saw was weakness, and confusion about who she was. When she was angry with people, that confusion subsided because she never had to deal with it.
... but now, she didn't have her big brother to shield her from anyone. Now she was alone.. having to be with people without that protection she once craved.
... she was just a little girl.
Jenny had finished changing and glanced to the pensive squirrel-girl. "You okay?"
"Uh huh, " she said. "I'm okay... what's next?"
"Now we gotta go do history," Said Jenny smiling. "Come on. You'll like it."
Lilly smiled shyly. So quickly, all her bad thoughts went away. She went hand in hand with her best friend to her next lesson.
