Nathan walked along the digital paths with his new ally.
To be honest, it was kind of nice to be walking (Or at least whatever it was digital fairies did) In cyberspace. The servers between servers were... well he hated to say it but it was kind of what it must be like, to walk in spaces between spaces. The PS3 digital fairy studied his new companion, the 'girl' Brad.
Brad was... young looking. Probably about sixteen. She was dressed in a crisp white dress, that was silvery thin. It didn't show anything through it, but her cleavage was certainly on display. Then there was her skirt... very short, to her thighs. Not to say it was obscene, but it was certainly... enticing. She wore boots that had a small heel on them, probably about an inch- which certainly helped her height a little. Then of course, there was her hair... a pale grey. Her eyes were a bit odd, with one being green, and another being grey... and pearl white skin. A strange kind of beauty really.
Looking at her, there was a certain 'rebellious freedom' in the way she looked. It was interesting and different... she was clearly not like other digital fairies-
"Stop it." she suddenly said turning to him. Her synthesised voice was unable to convey the iciness in her eyes.
"Stop what?" Asked Nathan confused.
"Staring at me. I told you before, I'm a guy. Not something for you to look at."
Nathan... was unsure quite what to say to that. He wasn't the kind to objectify girls.. well... usually. "Um- sorry." He said biting his lip. "Hikari- I mean 'Hiro's' workshop is just through this data-node. Its got some heavy duty firewalls, but the key she- HE gave me will work."
Brad nodded quietly looking around. "This place sure has become hell. I can't wait when we escape into the real world." The Famiclone Fairy pulled out her Editor. Every digital fairy had one, it was like a terminal to the code within themselves, and outside. A window that allowed one to create commands, or see what was going on. Every editor was different, and specific to the digital fairy...
Nathan looked at Brads, with some curiosity- and concern at how glitchy it looked. Characters were not displaying correctly... until brad hit it a few times, and blew across the window. Somehow that fixed it well enough to work on. Though it still seemed to spark around in strange colours. "What are you doing?" Asked Nathan curious.
"Just poking around with my cheat device." she replied glancing sideways. With a flick of a 'switch' the path started to glitch around them, moving and shifting sharply.
"Cheat.. device?" Asked Nathan warily looking around.
"Yeah, my system had one as part of it... so I guess it's part of me now. I can beat any game with it. I can even get any items I want- hell I can create unique items for any of my games," she said beaming. "'Course it helped that I had every game ever made too."
Brad frowned a bit. "What's... the point?"
"The point?"
"If you're cheating to win a game... what's the point in playing the game at all?" The whole concept was alien to him. Perhaps because... it was near impossible to cheat on a PS3... and that is why he loved his console.
Brad groaned, putting her hands on her hips. "Look. I study hard, I don't have time to 'play' a game over and over until I get everything. I cheat because that's the only way I get to see the game for real. To see levels nobody else gets to. You mess around with the codes you see things that the developers wanted to stay hidden! You just get to see more interesting stuff."
"But you pirated all your games."
"So? That's the way of the future. In the future there wont be any currency. People will download things for free. It's just the way its going to be."
They walked in silence for a while until they got to the first firewall. Hikari did like her privacy, but Brad had been here before. He held up the key, and the firewall opened up, letting the two entities pass. "First wall down... two to go." the PS3 fairy said with a smile.
Nathan didn't smile back, just brushed past the open port, tugging on her skirt a bit to make it lower. "Let's just hurry. I don't want to be in this body as long as I have to be."
"It's been five years since the sun changed... you still not used to it?"
"... I've been in suspension for five years."
"What?" Nathan stopped looking at her. "You.. want to talk about it?"
The girl gave another icy stare. "Not much to tell, but fine. Here's how it happened...."
The day the sun changed for Brad
Brad had just got back from college. He was excited though, as he had just found on the internet a new kind of 'famicon.' Today was the day it was going to be delivered! The idea of it was just unbelievable. The whole thing had a hard drive with every single game ever made for the console... a cheat device- and if that wasn't enough, it even had a modem! imagine that? an old system with a modem, capable of playing games across the internet. Something like this would have cost thousands just to buy all the games...
... but he got it for ten dollars.
He turned on the system, and was greeted by a curious string of text in Chinese. No problem though, he had an English manual for it. Brad thought he should start with something relatively simple... maybe super mario? But he couldn't work out which one that game was.. so he picked one of the options, only to get some weird anime-eque game.
Then something strange was going on outside his window...
The whole of his room was shifting in colours of a rainbow. It was so strange-
...then it was all dark.
Brad wasn't sure where he was- but he felt a ripple of coldness and the realisation that... something wasn't right. Not right at all. He glanced down to see two breasts on his chest! He screamed- in a strange artificial sounding voice, tinged with the imperfections as if coming out of a speaker. "H-HELP! Someone please help me!" She screamed. She patted down realising she was even wearing a dress! A horrible short skirt- God! This body couldn't be real could it? She pinched herself feeling it.. it... it was real. No... Please no! It just.. can't be! She had to wake up from this nightmare.
It wasn't completely dark.. there was a small light. But it was getting harder to think. She wasn't sure why... she went towards the light and heard... tones... of a modem. Was she... could she be 'inside' the famicon?
It seemed preposterous.
She saw the light fading away... and she had a quick look feeling a curious instinct. She touched the modem 'light'... only to realise the terrible truth.
...the modem was unplugged.
Brad had nowhere to go.
"Help!" She screamed again. "Someone please help me I'm trapped in the console! Help! Help me please help!"
Her voice was echoing outside the console, from the inside speaker... she raised her voice, as the imperfectly made circuitry was pushed to beyond their limits.
... and pushed too far... as a badly made fuse blew.
Brad felt everything go into slow motion. She was vaguely aware that the fuse must have blown. The system was shutting down. She could feel herself.. stopping? Dying? Was this it? Is this how she was going to end? Not like this... please not like-
... and the world for her, stopped.
Brad was suddenly aware. "What.. just happened?" she asked.
Hello? is someone in there?
"Yes! Please help me!" She shouted again.
Oh hell- There's someone in this one! The voice said in surprise. Stay calm girl, we'll connect you to a server. Don't worry.
"Server? I don't understand. What's going on? Can you please just tell me what happened?" Brad was starting to panic, even if the voice was so calm as if this was a 'normal' thing to happen to someone. "I've been turned into a girl!"
Eh- one problem at a time. Your system is dangerously unstable. Just go into the modem.
Brad feeling she had little choice did so.. and was suddenly in a bright room. It felt.. relaxing. Calm... she felt like she had space to breathe in here. There was a window there, of a harpy? She had strange white feathers. It looked to be likely an image from a webcam. "Aliens!" She exclaimed. Earth was taken over by monsters!
"Alien? Me?" said the girl a bit shocked. "No... I was human. About five years ago anyway."
"Five...years?" Said Brad. "What the hell is this! I've been turned into a girl!"
The harpy looked at the console and at a timestamp of the last command it executed before shutting down. She recognised the date... everyone did. "Oh dear..."
"...so that's how it happened," said Brad. "I was stuck in suspension for five freakin' years, and into a world of aliens and monsters... They said I could probably turn back to normal if I went into the sunlight- and I did... but nothing happened. NOTHING!"
Nathan listened quietly... not really sure what to say.
