The Outsiders - Chapter 13
Net Runner
The Network quietly hummed, pulses of white light framed the structures and roadways. People mingled and traveled openly, a cavalcade of colors and lights. Blues and Pinks spoke and walked together, seemingly without fear of being seen in public.
“Yeah, I see them...” Iris spoke to a voice over her radio. “Two Reds in the alley, one Blue leading the Pinks down the street.”
“Reds still try'n t' prey on Pinks?” Yoshi's voice called over the radio. “It's b'n two cycles since ya brought down Zeffer 'n collapsed the structure 'f their group. Why still keep with this?”
“Perhaps residual scripts still playing out?” questioned Iris, shifting slightly on her perch. Light danced off her panels, reflecting a newly etched hex design in the blue. “However those scripts would require someone to execute the script...” Iris thought aloud.
“Ev'n still, scripts've b'n on the low lately,” Yoshi replied to Iris' rhetorical question. “Dear Hanna ain't b'n called in a cycle.”
“It's like whomever has been overseeing The Net has started giving up on it,” replied Iris, standing up to her feet and readying the spear she kept from the battle with Zeffer. “Time to drop...”
“Droppin' sounds good, ye ‘droid body ‘s good f’r it. Don' hurt ye'self out there.”
“Just a little further,” spoke the blue-lined person, leading the duo of Pinks down the barren street. “The security terminal is just ahead.” The pair looked around cautiously, as one of the Pinks spoke up.
“Are you certain this will work to secure our data?” they pink-lined person asked, trying to peer into each alley as they passed by. “I heard that Reds were acting up again, and I don't want to be caught by them since my Restore System was disabled.”
“Just a little further, the security terminal is just ahead,” the Blue spoke again, filling the inquisitive Pink with worry. The Pink paused in their tracks, watching their co-Pink and the Blue continue onward.
“Y-you... are you scripted?” the Pink asked, their lines fluttering and flickering in a panic. A moment later, the two Reds stepped out from the alley.
“Well, looks like we've been had,” spoke one of the Reds, rubbing his neck while resting glowing club on his shoulder. “Guess we'll just need to get that data the hard way.” The Reds chuckled as the shoved the Blue aside, stepping toward the pair of Pinks.
“Wh-why are you doing this?” The Pink asked. “What do you need this data for!?” The Pinks started to scramble away, as the Reds began to give chase. Not three paces into trek had a spear rained down from the sky, cleaving one of the Reds in two as it plunged through them into the ground, rattling with twang. The body of the Red quickly crumbled into two piles of glowing blue and white cubes.
“Dear gods! What in f-” the other Red started to shout, his lines glowing excessively bright, interrupted by Iris landing hard on the ground before him. The floor cratered significantly, her eyes and lines glowing a bright purple while wafting out small amounts of a glowing smoke. She stepped toward the Red, as her gauntlets whirled out from and encased her forearms.
“I can't seem to get rid of your lot,” spoke Iris, her voice mechanical and metallic. “Why have you sprang up again to prey upon the Pinks?” she asked, a violent rumbled sounding out from the floor with each of her footfalls. The Red turned to run, tripping over the pile of cubes on the ground, as Iris' hand fired out toward the man. Her hand spread open and grappled to the Red's back. He stumbled forward, trying to twist away from the cable tethering Iris' extended hand back to the rest of her arm. She reeled in the Red, dragging him through the cubes as he still struggled to flee. “Why... are you harvesting data?”
“Th-the terminals, th-they n-need access c-codes!” the Red blurted out, pointing toward a building node at the end of the street. His voice crackled and distorted as his lines began to flicker back to blue. “O-one is in there!” the Red shouted, his lines pulsing between red to blue frantically. Iris looked over the man's body, as the color fully drained from his lines and turning to a soft black. He had shut down completely and began to crumble away.
“Huh... interesting...” mumbled Iris, kneeling down to lift some of the cube from the ground. “He wasn't damaged... why did his data crash?” Iris pieced through several other cubes as their white and blue glow began to fade. “Part of a control script? An auto-kill command?” Iris groaned as she looked over to the scripted Blue, as their operation ran out and snapped back to normal.
“W-wait!” the Blue shouted, resuming his mind and actions from when his script began. His arms flew up to cover his face, as if shielding himself from something. Iris blinked a few times, each in time with a blink from her purple lines.
“You are safe now,” Iris spoke to the Blue, a soft smile spreading over her face. “What happened that you ran this script?” she asked, slowly standing back to her feet.
“I-I...” the Blue stammered, spying the piles of cubes and the spear in the ground. “O-oh gods... What have I done!? What happened?”
“You're safe now,” Iris spoke, softly waving her hands in attempt to calm the Blue. “Were you attacked?”
“Th-the Reds, they jumped at me, told me it was time to script. H-he held this tool in his hand, a-and I think he hit me with i-it!” The Blue was starting to panic, as the Pinks skipped forward to take hold of the Blue by his arms.
“We'll get him back to the Firewalls, they can check his data for corruption,” spoke the assertive Pink. “Th-thank you for saving us!”
“You're welcome,” Iris spoke with a slight nod. She smiled to the trio, looking back toward the main center of the sector. “It'd be best to get out of here, in case more show up,” Iris spoke, glancing between the Blue and the Pinks. The Pinks nodded at Iris' advice before running off back to the side road.
“Was that her?” asked one of the Pinks. “You know, that android that everyone's been talking about!”
Iris stepped into the node, the bright light reflecting off of her panels. She stepped carefully through a long tunnel, eventually coming upon a glowing terminal in the center of a large open chamber. Iris crept inside, spying a Red standing near the base of the terminal.
“I guess it was only a matter of time...” spoke the Red, grinning as he vanished in a pulse of red light. Iris grit her teeth as the man disappeared, balling her fists tightly as she let loose a loud grunt. She slammed against the wall, her eyes focusing on the now fading terminal.
“Perraux... damn it...” Iris growled, as she stepping further into the node and up to the dormant terminal. The mechanism blinked to life, a red light pulsing a few times as she approached within a couple yalms, blaring out a sharp mechanical groan.
“Denied, please seek administrator for access,” the machine spoke out, as Iris stepped around further, spying a jumble of wires leading into the nearby wall. The machine groaned several more times, as Iris did her best to ignore its cries all while following along the wall to find a poorly hidden compartment. Iris pressed on the wall, sliding a large block back to the side, revealing a much darker chamber hidden behind the wall. Iris stepped through the newly formed arch, a wave of horror flushing over her as she looked over a column in the center of the room.
“Oh gods... what is this...” Iris asked aloud, her eyes following up a large column in the center of the room. Neatly strapped to the column were hundreds of blue and pink-lined people, all wearing a glowing mask over their eyes with circuitry lines pulsing over their skin.
“Hmm... Sounds like quite the strange setup...” spoke Yoshi, rubbing over her chin. “Perhaps th's Perraux is try'n t' hard slice 'to this new machine us'n th's programs. Any idea wh't the machine 's for?”
“None,” replied Iris. “But if it has Perraux's interest, it can't be anything good.”
“It's...” started Omi, as she stepped into the room. “It's a data reset terminal. It... was used in the early days of The Net for... punishments...” Omi trailed off, looking away and saddened from recalling her memories.
“Punishments?” asked Iris, slowly turning towards Omi. “They would reset the data of people as a form of punishment?”
“Yes, as a method of removing the one that caused the issue while still preserving the data. A fresh start for the body, but the self put in the terminal is effectively erased,” explained Omi, her fingers gripping at her arms tight enough to cause bits of static to scramble out. “When I uploaded my memories, many of my earliest ones were lost from me. I... I think you should visit the library node, take my access code and view what is there. At least see what you are up against if that thing is brought online...”
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