Chapter 43: Into the Abyss

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The AbyssNet (Iron Sub-Layer)

Ripley

I wasn’t expecting us to quite literally jump into the abyss. Yet, I had willingly sunk myself through a fracture point the size of a ravine. A Fracture Gate, instead of a ‘point’, would be a much larger shortcut. Apparently it was the remnant of some old MALware attack.

I didn’t have a good grasp on things here, a simple walk of a few hours could feel like minutes in retrospect. A minute of talking could span the mental length of an hour if it was boring. Things just happened here without a care for time or effort, the only limit was how much Energy you had in your wallets.

When we finally set foot into the AbyssNet, I was not prepared for how… liquid, everything would be. The SurfaceNet had been relatively stable, the labyrinthine walls set on a firm foundation whereas the AbyssNet was formed on a roiling sea of code.

Tall towers of ‘code-stuffing’ moved in my periphery, some tilting while others pulsed mournfully to deeper horizons. This region wasn’t constrained to neatly organized rooms and corridors, it seemed more like a set of islands floating amidst the abyss.

The AbyssNet. Yeah, the name fit.

Attacks here were much more common, ranging from independant mercs to the more experienced variety of gang members. They acted sharper, pulled more devious tricks. One of them even pretended to be a lost child who then bared fleshy tendrils once I approached. All sorts of fiendish nightmares unearthed at the hint of prey.

Even the Net itself weighed down on us, finally drawing on something of a stamina within these digital avatars.

“Net degradation.” Mirage explained, her body untouched by the shiny aura emitted by the cloak Daylight formed atop of her. “A second security measure put in by NeoCore, The Framework is actively digesting, trying to eat us up. That’s why you should learn to float like me to avoid direct contact.”

I’d grown used to it, her flying across the islands and just slapping me into a bubble for the ride. “I’ve tried but… yeah it’s not working.”

She smirked. “I could make a DataShield that does it for you.”

“You could?”

“For a price.” Her eyes glinted at me.

I wasn’t all too keen on even hearing it, but the moment five zeroes shivered through me I knew it was better not to even think about it.

“Why don’t you just make a killing off that? Custom DataShields?” I tapped my own Silver skin, its glowing text resembling what ran through the floor.

“I sell one, they’ll get curious and get their friends to buy more from me for a discount. One of them screws up, gets caught, my secrets are scrapped by another. Maybe they don’t figure out everything, but now they can build countermeasures. Makes it harder for me in the long run. Speaking from experience, back from when I was an Iron.”

“You started at Iron?” Had she pushed up all the way to Silver? “How long have you been an Adapter?”

“Since I was… nine. Thirteen years now, 2484… maybe 85.” So she was a year older than me, I couldn’t really tell. “It’s pricey, let me tell you that.”

“You planning to continue pushing? To Gold? You never said how you went back down to Silver.”

“It’s not a story I’m privy to share, but I’m going to the top.” She had a rare resolve in her voice. “To Platinum.”

“To Platinum and beyond.” I whispered back, I’d said that once before… When was that? Ah, it doesn't really matter.

Yet… it hurt to say it.

The next few hours rolled by and it wasn’t until I’d absorbed twelve more nodes of Iron Warpcode that I got the next update.

Data Mimicry V.0.08 has updated to V.0.09

Effect: Increase to depth of Fractured Warpcode reading.

A bit vague but I understood it a little when I sucked in the next node. From what I understood, we weren’t exactly killing these people, not too many drove their whole consciousness into the Net like how we were right now. Instead, we only got the bits that were weaved together into their avatars… not enough to constitute a whole Feature.

Fractured Warpcode aligns with… Feature: Database.

Data Mimicry V.0.09 has updated to V.0.10

Effect: Consumed Warpcode now streams more efficiently into Features.

I was just about there, so close to getting a protocol.

From then on, it became a bit easier to get Feature updates. Even two stray Bronzes had appeared, Mirage making quick work of them with her Twilight bladework while I handled an Iron on my side. The bullets shot from his gun harmlessly splattered against my runic armor, two Golden spider-legs convening on his masked helm.

She let me have one of the Bronze, but warned me that it would be the last time I consumed Warpcode today unless I was running out of my own. Her reasoning was sufficient when I remembered the blistering headache I’d had from my outing with Diamante. “Warp Burns.”

Psyche V.1.09 has updated to V.1.10

Effect: Better speech formation when talking to entities the Adapter finds attractive.

That’s what I got from the Bronze?

Then my hopes were fulfilled.

Data Mimicry V.0.10 has updated to V.1.00… Recalibrating…

Data Mimicry V.1.00 has gained the Protocol: Focused Consumption; enhanced reading of Warpcode during consumption allows the Adapter to choose areas of focus, compatibility will be forced even under circumstances where the Warpcode remains unsuited for targeted areas.

What… did that mean?

I flashed the screen over to her, and she rubbed her forehead. “Just… what sort of Implant did you even get… I thought it was just compatible with only you but now… that’s impossible.”

I stared at the screen for a long time before answering. “What do you mean?”

She rubbed her forehead, almost shaken by the revelation. “It’s not just compatible with you. It’s compatible with… everything. Normally whatever Warpcode you can’t directly utilize is instead unraveled to increase your stats but this? It’s saying that it will utilize a hundred percent of the Warpcode to improve yourself in whichever part you choose. You could digest a Network Feature and adapt it into Technician for like… I don’t know, remote Operating?”

“Compatible with everything… I don’t know, that makes sense but how is that possible? I-“ I burned up the courage within me. “What do you really know about the Dogwhistler? They were the one moving my Implant.”

“You really want to know?” Mirage clenched tight. “That they’re untraceable, unmistakably powerful. They could be a rogue AI or a Titanium powerhouse, but they’re real. I know you’re having Diana search for them but… honestly, call it off. She’s already in big trouble looking for Soul Killer.”

“Soul Killer?” That name did not sound like good news.

“Forget it. She’ll learn her lesson in time, but what the Soul Killer is for SIMs… the Dogwhistler is for BUGs. I’ve looked into them, Missy’s asked me to ever since your incident. Nothing’s come up. I’m good enough to have Little Requiem by the balls but… nothing.” She sounded defeated just talking about it.

“Anything you do know? Anything that could help?”

“That you shouldn’t worry about them now, get to Tier II, maybe even III before you dare dig into them. Just get your mother safe and secure before it all goes to shit, if you really do get to a point where you can threaten them. She’s who’ll suffer before you.”

I didn’t answer that, a chill in my bones answered for me. In silence, we moved deeper.

———

The islands turned Bronze, we were truly deep now. I felt like the air was scrubbing me down, only the DataShield atop my armor keeping me safe.

“We’re close.” Mirage floated me in a bubble to another island, the same as any other for miles around. Every so often, I felt the intense shift of the world beneath me, like a sleeping beast of apocalyptic proportions was stirring in it’s sleep.

“Is that the FIREWALL?” I guessed.

“Yup.” She said, not looking at me as she scanned around the island.

“What happens if you get past it?” I looked deeper one side of the islands, deep within that abyss… past the void. There was a faint scarlet glow of a giant wall of living fire burning ever since the Founder of NeoCore cast it. “What even is the Old_Data at this point?”

“Deadly. It nurtures all who taste it with madness.”

Curiosity gnawed at me. “What’s the closest you’ve ever been to it?”

Then, through our connection a new emotion stung through. One she hadn’t felt once during our delve into the Net. Fear strung through her voice. “Enough that I could hear it’s whispers… it used to be Platinum, but now the Founders’ strengthened it with… something beyond that. Some of us try and chip flakes off it, most die.”

“To what?”

“To MALware, to the Sentinels of NeoCore… to I don’t know. Down there, the world follows a new set of laws, rogue AIs are overrun by MALware and turn into Daemons. The data itself speaks to you, it offers you power, it hunts you.” A unique flavor in our connection bit through. An oddity that felt like a whisper of the truth that failed to come through. She was lying about something.

“You’ve tried it?”

The pure stillness of our bond, like an air that refused to move, confirmed as much. “Was a job of mine.”

The sheer ridiculousness of it permeated my tone. “What kind of job requires you to brace the FIREWALL?”

“The kind that you don’t have a choice in.” Hot anger flared through, enough that for a second I felt like I’d been simmered under the sun’s scrutiny and flinched.

“Got it.” My DataShield reactively pulsed, that had been an… attack of sorts. Right, right… our minds were bound together. And no one else had better mastered the ability to chop off a piece of their personality off.

———

Probing around the unusually boring island, Mirage pulled enough strings, her shadows creeped around every corner until the island itself fractured. From the epicenter of it’s broken landmass flew up a reverse water-fall of Bronze and Silver upwards, the rushing Warpcode surging.

“We need to enter it.” She said, looking focused at the giant pillar flowing towards the sky of Iron. A Data Surge.

“Didn’t you say I would die?” Each blur of Bronze seemed sharp enough to rip me apart.

“Give me your hand.” She reached hers out to me. “And channel me your Gold. I’ll make a shield that can breach through, no one will expect someone to make it through this alive. They’ll have eyes on the surge but… I’ll make sure they don’t see us.”

I gripped her slender hands, the exponential rate of our minds merging letting her thoughts ripple through me. Ah of course, she was nervous… nervous about going through this into the unknown. Nervous about putting her fate into the hands of a stranger, quite literally.

But she was also nervous about holding my hand, a childish, frankly innocent anxiety. It calmed me, she wasn’t just some scarred being with a past too horrifying to speak off. She wasn’t some mysterious enigma with three sets of masks to wear. She wasn’t just a mercenary who did things for the sake of her job.

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Because she was also happy, holding her hand wasn’t just so she could get the Gold energy radiating off me. It flowed into her body just as easily as it came to me, and through it, I knew what she was thinking.

That she was glad she wasn’t alone through this.

“Remember… I’m protecting you.” My four Arachne arms spurned from my back, two of them hovering behind her body. “Elsa.”

Thank you. She didn’t need to say it, I felt it as easily as I could know that my body had bones. My physical one.

“We have to call ourselves by our pseudonyms… Ripper.” She chuckled, her grip on my hand just the lightest bit firmer. “You should find a new one, soon. That one sucks.”

A golden bubble wrapped around us both, and we plunged into the DataSurge.

———

So this is what being fire feels like? Imagine your body getting ripped apart, then pieced back together every second. Would not recommend. No no, not one bit. The only solace in my mind was that Elsa was with me throughout it all, that her hold over my hand meant I had something other than this pain. It was over as quick as it began.

We barged out of the Surge like two ragdolls onto the floor. It was odd… because it was an actual floor with desks and chairs strutted around. We seemed to be in a building.

“We’re still in the Net… this is just a more cozy space they built so that the permanent workers here don’t go mad. Even a day-night cycle to keep a virtual track of time.” She pointed to a window of an open skyline where a hundred street-level stars were shining out. But there was still a disconnect. It was almost a painting if you looked deep enough, because there wasn’t a depth.

“That DataSurge was a backport they abandoned usage off, it’ll ping up some alerts but Daylight’s got us concealed. They’ll know something’s off though, breaking in without alarms into a sealed off piece of the Corp’s Network takes years. We need to hurry first, before they get conscious eyes looking around here.”

She hurried me into a wall, quite literally phasing me through it… I guessed it was meant to be an imitation rather than a solid structure. I don’t know how she did it, but she found any nook and cranny of the space that was just illusory, guiding me through one fake space to another until pushed deep into an unusually long hallway.

“Gold. Now.” She reached her hand for me with an urgency, once again pulling our minds to that threshold of merging. My light became her light, the golden energy feeding into a bedazzling crown made of Daylight’s Warpcode. The bliding pulse emitted by it tore through the hallway, ripping through its falsehoods until a door appeared right in our faces.

We entered through it, my hand pulled by hers as Midnight grew along her arm. We were already besieged by enemies.

“Wardens of Yuzhou’s.” She said as four Silver colored robotic creatures tore out from the ground. Without asking, purely by the rising tides of her emotions I knew to give her my Gold.

Midnight struck out as a river of black-and-gold death, washing into the robots and sweeping them away like rubble in a tsunami. Twilight hummed into being, growing over Mirage as gauntlets that ended with a chain blade in her hand.

While Midnight drowned two of the Wardens in her cold fury, Mirage and Twilight took on the other two. Daylight stuck by my side, still holding onto my hand. “Three Bronze’s coming from behind now, Ripper.”

Sinking her hand through me, my vision exploded as the intricate details of The Framework constructing this space happily spilled their tea. I think that’s how it can be said? Either way, my arms buzzed to motion, both the claws on my arms and the four Arachne limbs slashing at the appearing enemy who had tried to pounce.

Mechanical wolves of rust-colored Bronze. The first one felt like tissue-paper to my limbs that eviscerated its guts into a spray of code — the Silver DataCleaver easily overpowering Bronze. The second one leaped through the opening, my claws catching it in the jaw, a pulse of my Gold exploding it into shreds.

I was tiring already, vulnerable to the third wolf.

Daylight weaved a bubble over me, it’s claws and jaw deforming the Silver shield until it exploded backwards as the bubble popped like the world’s most dense balloon. Daylight cried in glee as six of my limbs freed up with a wrench of the torn contents from my first kill.

I was doing good enough to have time to slam my fist into another wolven Daemon, a single punch powered by my gold was enough to leave it as a puddle of scrap. Three Bronze nodes of energy floated off their bodies… tantalizing.

No, I can’t get distracted.

Mirage had taken out two of the Silver Sentinels, dancing through the orchestra of coordinated attacks that seemed to get ever so closer to us. I reached my hands out to her, refueling her with Gold that set her speed to double. The last two parted in a single uninterrupted slash of her Twilight blade, a literal DataCleaver, their heads rolling over the floor.

“Sorry, can’t leave any of the Silver ones for you.” She absorbed all four nodes, and I couldn’t lie if I said I wasn’t a bit envious of it.

Daylight screamed something I didn’t understand as she wrapped around me. Something burned through me before I could turn.

A blanket of darkness caught me from the impact, Midnight’s rage so evident that I was beginning to wonder if she was who had burnt my back. But then I saw a masked woman with four blaster arms at the end of the hallway, she was entirely made of Silver… and she wasn’t a Sentinel.

“Silverback.” Midnight seethed with recognition. “So you work for Yuzhou now?!”

“Pay’s better.” Three guns aimed at Midnight’s corporeal river of shadows, the last one aimed at me. Unfortunately, Midnight wasn’t as concerned with my wellbeing as Daylight. She abandoned me without a pause to devastate the Yuzhou mercenary in her shadows.

But the three blasts of arm-length Silver cast a brilliant light to erase darkness from existence. The river shriveled into a puddle, sinking back to the protection of Mirage’s body. Who herself moved to intercept my blast, pushing me aside left with Twilight taking the brink of the attack, her sword-form shattering until she was just a hilt.

“Mirage, I don’t know what it you’se doin’ here? But you’se lost your fancy girls. Ya’ ain’t shit without em.” Silverback’s four blasters all pointed at Mirage, who herself had a large tear around her torso where Twilight broke.

“That’s where you’re wrong…” She chuckled, a maddening look pulsating through her being, my Gold instinctively fled to her body. A tidal wave of it drained out of my own body until I began to quiver in weakness, it was as though it had fled to somewhere more worth existing in.

“My Persona’s are all just imitators of me after all…” Mirage’s body burned the gold, crunching out a violent eruption of light that spawned nearly twenty copies of herself surrounding Silverback, all colored Gold.

Silverback moved one inch before threads of Gold shot out like hungering snakes from her copies, they all ensnared and wrapped Silverback in a cocoon until I could barely make her out.

Then they wrenched back.

Silverback flew apart in pieces, each dissolving into light that Mirage fed on. I’d be amazed by the sight if I didn’t know we were still being attacked, a final Sentinel appearing behind Mirage.

My body acted with no thought, the very concept of my four arms’ creation pulled me into motion. A Golden blade burst right above Mirage’s tired Avatar, with it came the falling head of the final Sentinel… Silver fell to Gold in the hierarchy of things.

“Ripl-Ripper?” She screamed as she looked back at the state of me.

I wasn’t in the best shape, one of the Sentinel’s own arms had pierced my Datashield, it sunk neatly into my digital flesh, cleanly through where my heart should be.

“Absorb it, Ripper!” I tried to, I really did but there was so much pain so much- the blade shouldn’t be fatal but… I- I didn’t have enough Gold. I gave it all to her.

Mirage’s hands gripped over me, sending her Silver Warp Energy into my body. And then I-

What? Was this how she felt?

Don’t die, please don’t die. I’ll be so fucked if I let you…!

I don’t know what’ll happen…

Survive…

Not now, not when I finally…

Please… survive…!

We will not let you die!

Everything came through without restraint, her desperation, her fears, her hopes — even possesiveness. I don’t know if I’d ever recall feeling like someone had been mine, like I would give everything to another and be happy about it… but I… I could live with this…

Absorbing Warpcode… Feature: [Error]… Feature: Dre-a-taweaving absorbed… Where would the Adapter like to focus the Warpcode?

To my life… To…

I saw a flash of pink pull from my eyes, a beautiful angel who could take my pain away.

…to that.

Confirmed… Forcing Compatibility.

Psyche V.1.10 has updated to V.1.14

Effect: Preservation Matrix now greatly collaborates all sources of Data into processing.

Effect: Increased neural integration of Preservation Matrix with the Personality Matrix software.

Effect: Increased surge of Preservation Matrix activity when supplied with higher levels of Warp Energy.

Effect: When near someone the Adapter considers close… The Preservation Matrix will accordingly.

“Twilight, Midnight! Get what we need!” Mirage looked pale as her Personas fled her body, she yelled, hollowed out by the sheer amount of Warpcode she’d dumped into me. Why do it?

“Because I know you’re worth it…” She held me closer, and I moved closer to her.

The place vibrated like an earthquake was rattling through it, ever so slowly caving in on us yet I felt… happy, satisfied. If I could just stay like this, stay in the state where I knew someone was holding me so closely with no boundaries in between our thoughts… I would die happy.

“Your mother needs you!”

My Preservation Matrix flared at the words, pushing me to survive. It was enough that my Avatar reformed the wound I’d received, and that I could support the limping body of Mirage against my weight.

Mirage panted, her form flickering and unstable. I held her now. “Are… you okay?”

“Exhausted… Gold is several times more dense than… Silver.” She was too weak to even push herself up, even as Midnight and Twilight returned, neither of them uttering a word.

“They called in a surge…” Mirage weakly uttered. “You’re gonna need to feed… Daylight. Just anything.”

A ray of hope pulsed into my hands, a small collection of white cloth that I fed my four arms into… the fabric pulsed brighter, until it was strong enough to rematerialize into Daylight’s actual being. Just a lot smaller.

A sad look was held in her gaze as she stared at me, three Silver Sentinels barging into the room at that moment. A Gold one stood at their rear.

“Goodbye, Ripley.” Daylight touched my face, tears streaming down her face, before her light overtook everything.

Wait… goodbye?

———

I woke up in my body, in that same room, Mirage slumped on her side, blood pouring from her nose and mouth. “Mirage?!- Elsa!”

I shook her, but she was stone in my hands.

“She’s breathing, Rip.” Missy placed a firm hand on my shoulder. “Was more worried for you… your heart stopped for a few seconds. Really had me going.”

“Forget about me!” My body ached, every fiber wanted to lay down and rest but I had to keep her alive. I had to save her, not like how I couldn’t save…

“She just needs rest.” Missy firmly held me. “So do you.”

“I need, I need… I need to help her.” My gaze fixed over Missy, unmoving, unrelenting… it persevered.

“You can help her by staying calm yourself. Her vitals are fine, blood pressure low and she’s low on Warp Energy but not to the extent that her Implant is degrading. She needs time to recover it, some feeding and sleep will do her better than panicking… How about I take you both home?”

“I’m not leaving her side.” I remained unchanged.

“Just… Rip, I get it… you like her but…” Missy paused, words failing to come out. “Romance isn’t cut for our business, especially among colleagues.”

“It’s not about that!” Anger swelled to a breaking point. “She- Let me help her!”

She slapped me, not a strong one, but one that shook my skull nonetheless. “Then stay calm!”

I grunted… the shock of the slap quite literally shaking my thoughts into a stir. Something deeper had struck through with that slap, a calmness… and with it. Dread. Shame. Memories. What was I doing? Shouting at her.

“Just…” Missy looked to the floor, then at her hand with a torn gaze. “…I’ll drive you over to her place. The two of you rest there, okay?”

“Okay.” My voice faltered, unsteady.

“She’s going to need medicine, can you give it?”

“I can.”

“Can you really?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” She moved her arm, a compartment inside opening that I only sensed power from. She took one out… a Silver Implant. A BUG. “She needs to eat it… you understand?”

“To replenish her Warpcode.” I anwered.

“Exactly, you won’t do anything?” She looked hesitant to hand it over to me, but locked it into my hands anyway.

“I have a Gold already.” I chuckled… “No. I won’t consume it. She’ll get it.”

“Good. I’m trusting you. Now help her up.”

———

The drive was quiet, I’d messaged my mom that I needed to stay back to help Mirage. She seemed quiet at that, I remembered that they didn’t exactly have the greatest first meeting but… that didn’t matter.

I sat next to Mirage, not taking my hand off hers for a moment. She was burned up, a fever in the high 100s, and my own hands were too cold.

Taking her back up to the apartment, we settled her into bed. And I sat on edge there even after Missy had left, for a long time.

She healed me because I’d taken the damage. Because I’d been weak and… why did Daylight say goodbye? She’d be alright, she had to be? God, I wish I took a picture of that butterfly… or was it a Ladybug? Yeah, it was a ladybug.

I made fun of her today, why? She’d been nothing but nice to me, about the only supportive friend I’d made since who knows how long. And I’d made fun of her. She didn’t deserve that, she was my-

I hated myself. Through all the fights down there, I’d just stood by and watched, too amazed by how Mirage fought to even acknowledge that I was a burden. A fucking battery… I was happy with that?

I stared at my own arm, the right arm that had been chipped again and again by that man’s blade. He’d been relatively weak, I remembered Whiplash’s monstrous onslaught of attacks against Diamante. A monster versus a devil. A single attack from her would have ripped me in half but Diamante just laughed like he was being tickled. Yeah, I’d hit her but… did that even do anything other than stun her for a moment?

Weak. That’s what I was. Even with Gold, I was so fucking weak. The only time I’d managed anything was with those arms digging into that Sentinel, weighing a difference in Grades rather than build an advantage stemming from myself.

I’d done one useful thing but even that nearly killed me.

And Mirage suffered for it.

I was too weak. Too fucking weak.

So silently, I rang up my communications… I had one contact who had promised me power. As shady as they were… what choice did I have?

Mr. Skeleton answered.