Nathan and 'Brad' journeyed across the internet, to reach Hikari's workshop.
Hikari was a legend... The fabled Thought-Coder that could make the world, just by thinking of it. If this were the real world, she would probably be considered some ultimate reality-bending wizard.
A lot of the most powerful coders had what might be called a 'base' or workshop in the last couple of years of digital existence. They had the skill and ability to work with data in such a way, as to create homes for themselves. Code were as building blocks and information as cement. Naturally, many of these people would share their expertise and help others less knowledgeable.
The Amiga fairy, Amy, was the effective 'leader', if there was one in this bizarre existence. She maintained the peer to peer runtime that allowed digital fairies to exist independent of a host. Almost all computers in the world were required by law, to provide some runtime for their environment. She also worked out the economics behind it, and gave fairies job roles that linked them to the real world. Many worked for government agencies, others were private... but it all worked out almost in parallel to the economic conditions of the real world.
Hiro was her closest confident...- or rather, Hikari. She was a very special programmer, able to help work with the code of life itself. Whatever strings that kept a digital fairy together, she was able to heal. she was like the ultimate doctor to them. As long as there was something of the life code left, Hikari could heal them.
Losing Hikari to this strange catastrophe was the worst thing to have happened to their world, short as history on the internet is for sentient beings living in it.
"Next firewall..." Nathan said as he held out the key towards it. The blazing wall was a cold blue, Like a laser light criss-crossing around the plane, mimicking an electric fence. She held up the key, as it glowed brighter advancing towards it.
please state your names said a voice. It seemed to emanate from the key itself? "I- er- Nathan." Said the PS3 fairy with a little confusion. Hikari never mentioned the key did this...
Brad remained silent for the moment.
Second entity detected. Please state name.
Nathan looked to Brad unsure. Clearly Hikari had upgraded her security... he gestured her to say something.
"I'm Brad."
Please stand by.
Brad was suddenly caged inside the laser lights! The Blue electric fence had warped around her in a circle. "What the hell?! Hey!"
Nathan Recognised. Do you wish to proceed with one extra guest? If so please, say yes. If not, please say no and Unknown Type digital fairy will be ported to Firewall prison.
"Uh- well-" Nathan looked at Brad.
The woman flashed her angry eyes at Nathan. "Get me out of this!"
"I.. I guess- yes."
Nathan was released immediately and the firewall dissolved. Brad recognised as guest. You may proceed.
"Freakin' hell!" Shouted Brad gasping as she felt free once more. There was something... incredibly unsettling about being a female 'and' confined. Much more so then when she had been male. It was a jolt to her senses at how unpredictable this crazy digital world was. "What was that? What is wrong with this programmer?!"
"Hikari... took her privacy seriously," said Nathan reluctantly.
"No shit. She's a bloody freak."
"No she wasn't!" Nathan suddenly shouted. Admittedly he never knew she was this serious about it.
Brad groaned. "Look. I get that you liked her... but that's the point. You liked her. The 'illusion'. Hikari never existed, and that's why she put all this together. Get it in your head, she was a sicko and a sexual freak. Let's just get to the workshop and steal his body."
The two walked together in some silence. Occasionally they looked at the strange rainbow clouds. It almost looked like there were... creatures in those clouds. Like strange multicoloured rainbows.
Nathan looked to Brad a few times. The silence was a little straining to him. He had to say something. "So.. you tried going into the sunlight again?"
"Yep."
"And you didn't change back?"
"Nope." Brad replied sharply. She brushed down her small skirt again, a little self conscious of it. If she had to be a girl, couldn't she have been one of those respectful looking ones? Why did she have to look like she was trying to get attention? All she wanted to do was crawl away from the eyes that gazed on her.
Nathan looked at her again, his eyes just... slightly darting down her body- but tried to stop himself. "Uh- you know... they say that the sun only changes back people who... can't deal with... well... the change."
Brad suddenly whipped round and pressed really close to Nathan, clutching at his shirt with her fisted hands. "Look! I've heard that argument from every freakin' 'psychologist' and 'councillor'. I've had people telling me I must be meant to be this way, and they are all douchbags. I was happy being what I was, and I want to get back to it. Screw the sunlight!"
Nathan was stunned but... looking at her- or rather down at her, he realised just how delicate this digital fairy was. Brad didn't have much if any muscle... he carefully pried her small arms from him.
"A- Hey!" Brad struggled briefly but was gently pushed down by the more powerful Playstation Fairy.
"...I know I can't really imagine it." he said gently to her, his words measured trying not to be offensive. "But for now... you are a girl. Don't pick a fight with someone stronger then you."
"Are you saying you are STRONGER then me?!" Brad suddenly said very dangerously. "Oh Hell- you really should not have-"
Nathan grabbed both of Brad's arms. "Physically, I am..." he said, gently again.
Brad suddenly stared at Nathan as if seeing him for the first time. She tried to wrestle out of his grip but couldn't. Brad slowly let go of her. "I'm sorry... but you need to face a few facts. You are physically not as strong as you used to be. A girl just does not have as much physical strength as a man... as a general rule."
Brad looked to be seething at him. She was about to explode. "I'll freakin-"
"You can be angry about it," said Nathan. "But that's just how it is. Remember that, until you learn how to fight in that body. But if you try to use strength against strength, you are going to lose. I would never hurt you of course, but others might. Try not to tick off the wrong person."
Brad looked a bit stunned. She was feeling humiliated and very angry at Nathan. But there was an element of truth in what Nathan was saying. She wanted to beat his head in just to prove she could. A swift kick and punch might do it...
...might.
Almost certainly, if she was still a man.
"...fine," she whispered. "I'm.. I'm sorry. As soon as I get a male body, that wont be an issue any more. Why the hell would anyone want to be a girl..."
Nathan shrugged. "Why did any of us change at all? Not that I would have minded if that happened to me. Er- I think" he said. Though... this was probably just a little white lie.
"Hmph. You should have been the girl then. You're so understanding" she said with sarcasm.
"Not all guys are blockheads either," said Nathan Though when he thought back to his conversation with Amy. Maybe... he could have handled that better "Ah- the third and last firewall," he said quickly changing the subject as he held out the key.
It looked to be an ordinary and simple house, with a red front door. There was an audible click.. as the the door opened.
Hikari's workshop was a curious place indeed as they wondered around. Very simple and elegant. There were spiderplants and various objects. It looked like there was even a hello-kitty clock on the wall. It looked just so much like the real world... though the occasional flicker of code would show somewhere. The dimensions of everything had an inherent 'perfection' in them that was lost in the real world.
"She's got a garden back here," said Nathan. "We once had a little garden party."
Brad looked at it. There looked to be a stream of 'water'. Blue and shining, but with numbers and code flowing down it. It looked like a Japanese garden. "Nice flowers..." She said with a little shrug.
"Yeah- she coded that. Almost perfect actualisations of the real world." Nathan was quite happy to spend time there as he opened the back door to have a look.
"Did she code the butterflies too?"
"...butterflies?" Nathan asked as he looked. Sure enough, there seemed to be strange shimmering lights that looked a lot like butterflies. Their wings were glowing in irredecent colours... similar to the clouds. "No... Hikari... said she couldn't create life from un-living data."
"Eh, whatever... let's just get her daemon."
Nathan was just about to do that, when he became startled by the image of Hikari, standing in front of them.
"Hello Nathan." said Hikari.
"H-Hik-?"
The image didn't respond to his words. "This is a recording based on the following scenarios: I appear to have been permanently disconnected from the internet, and you have used my key to enter my digital house, without the company of Amy. I can only speculate why I would be forced to leave this world... there are only two possibilities. Either I have died... or... my secret has been discovered and I was forced to leave."
"Heh, Both." Brad said sticking her tongue.
"Shut up. I need to hear what this is about."
The image of Hikari stared into space for a while with a ghostly image. "I can only say... I'm sorry Nathan. I am composed of two beings. The female digital entity called Hikari, and a male cybernetic entity in the real world, called Hiro Hibiki. It was never my intention to deceive you, I only wished to avoid having any... relationship issues. Someone like me just can not have anyone in my life, as there is little chance they would accept one with the other. I did not lead a particularly good Real Life, stealing money from ATMs or the like... but the digital world gave me a chance. A new start of things. I enjoyed your company the most... and now that one of these events has happened, I wish to offer my apologies to you. I don't know if you will accept it.. but I never wanted to hurt you. You will find a copy of all my beta programs on this data node... please give it to Amy. She will be able to make the most use of it."
"Score!" Said Brad taking the node.
"Hey!"
"Oh screw it. This is exactly what we came here for. She'll have a recall program loaded in here to snag the daemon. Brad quickly inserted the node into her digital editor, as the powerful code merged with it. "Alright.. wow, lots of cool beta programs. Lets give it a whirl"
