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Visit my website to see where else you can find my work, follow my socials, join my Discord, or support me on Patreon/SubscribeStar!", "writing": "Chapter Two\n\nNoelle glided through the vastness of the net, extending her arms as if she were a bird gliding through the wind. She drifted across the smooth expanse, carefree as she took in the rolling colours of different programs and digital artifacts upon this almost infinite net. All these years of training and it still never got old.\n\nWho knew that ones and zeros could be so relaxing? No, this wasn't mere binary. Much like cells could come together, unifying into an organism, multiple strands of data could do the same, becoming an ecosystem made up of ones and zeroes rather than DNA and magic. They took on colour and shape, substance. She wove between pink squares and green triangles, floating by decayed relics that fed the entities which built upon its code.\n\nShe could feel the entirety of the world at her fingertips, the wonders of their society flowing between her digits like water in a river. Though much like any waterway these days, there were pollutants: garbage, viruses, and other assorted detritus that she did her best to avoid.\n\n``Berdly says that we're safe,'' Kris commented.\n\nNoelle stirred and saw them across from her, floating on the stream much like herself. They didn't seem nearly as joyous about this, keeping their eyes locked forwards, like a hawk trying to spot its next meal. \n\nWhen had they gotten so serious? They had always seemed so carefree as a kid. What had changed them like this?\n\nIt was interesting to see Kris in this context. Their exotic cosmetic mods were nothing compared to what they did with their cyber space avatar. In the net, they looked like an actual monster as if they'd been born one. They were a canine with sharp teeth and a pair of floppy ears that came jutting out of their shaggy hair. There were similarities that could be drawn to their brother but they were also clearly their own person, unique from Asriel's example.\n\nIt was a cute look but it still felt very much like them and Noelle respected that immensely. A part of her wished that she could be that free.\n\nBut that was just wishful thinking.\n\n``Any updates?'' Noelle asked.\n\n``Still nothing from Netwatch,'' Kris explained. ``I doubt we'll trip any alarms but it's never a bad idea to be careful.''\n\n``You know a lot of people,'' Noelle said.\n\nKris scoffed. ``You need to if you want to survive in this world.''\n\nWas there something to their voice there? An edge to it? It was hard to tell in person and their digital persona was even more cryptic than that.\n\n``Looks like we're coming up to your mom's security systems,'' Kris said.\n\nThe carefree currents of the digital space suddenly came to an end as the atmosphere became a stagnant and bureaucratic environment. Noelle felt the figment of herself land upon the edge of a program, feeling the very real warmth of a firewall beneath her digital hooves.\n\nIt seemed like a proper fortress, tall and daunting, with security programs floating around the perimeter who were just looking for an opportunity to make her prey. None of them seemed to take notice of them which was good.\n\nNoelle patted her pocket, feeling her basic clearance offering some feeble form of safety for the duo. At least at this current surface level depth.\n\nHow long would that last?\n\n``Blue Bird can you...'' Kris began.\n\nA hole suddenly opened in the firewall, big enough for them to slip through.\n\nKris looked at her, offering a thin smile. ``Last chance to back out, princess.''\n\nNoelle shook her head. ``We're doing this for Dess.''\n\nThat seemed to give Kris some pause as they slowly nodded at this confession. She knew they missed her just as much as herself. ``For Dess.''\n\nNoelle jumped through the hole and immediately felt like all eyes were upon her. She looked around and felt Kris come in beside her, investigating their surroundings as well. This was a restricted space, deep enough that not even her mother's basic training permissions would keep her safe if the code around them caught on to their presence.\n\nThis is where the fun really began.\n\nThe digital architecture lost a lot of its fun frills, becoming uniform and military in nature. It was all blocky and drab, a dull grey that held troves upon troves of restricted data. \n\nKris offered a crooked smile and said nothing about it, patting her upon the shoulder. They moved ahead at a trotting jog, turning briefly in order to fire off a pair of finger guns in her direction. Their avatar melded ahead easily enough and Noelle followed behind them. Not that it was particularly hard to do. They had always been slower than her and that extended to cyberspace just as much as the surface.\n\n``What do you think we're going to find?'' Kris asked.\n\nNoelle shook her head. ``Hopefully something from corporate security saying what happened to my sister.'' She frowned. ``I know mom knows something that she's not letting on. I just want...'' She sighed. ``I just want a little closure, that's all.''\n\nKris came to a stop and held out their arm, getting Noelle to come to a halt as well. She peered around the corner, seeing the floating engram of a security program off in the distance, strobing away at the mainframe's infrastructure. It looked sharp, painfully sharp.\n\n``Blue Bird can you...'' they began.\n\nThere was a bang and a strobe went off with the program quickly flying away to go check on whatever it was.\n\n``A brute force trojan,'' Kris said, whistling. ``Not very subtle but I like it.''\n\nThey continued ahead, nodding for Noelle to follow behind after them.\n\n``Don't you feel the same way?'' Noelle asked. She quickly glanced over her shoulder, sure that she felt something waiting in the wings behind them. Only, there was nothing back there, no whiff of a program nor even a hint of a security system. ``Don't you want to know what happened to Dess.''\n\nKris sighed. ``A little. I...'' They grunted. ``I miss her, Elly.''\n\nNoelle's eyes widened. She hadn't heard that name in a very long time.\n\n``Shit,'' Kris grunted, quickly dipping down the path of a subroutine. They grabbed Noelle?s arm and yanked her inside the alcove along with them. \n\nShe at least had the foresight not to yelp, biting her tongue in order to stay silent. Which was probably for the best as she heard the whirl of a program coming by.\n\nIt was a cramped little space but it offered just enough protection, keeping them squirreled away as the defense program lazily floated on by. Only, it decided to park itself right outside of their little hiding spot, seemingly frozen in place.\n\nNoelle swallowed, feeling this clammy fear crawling up her spine. They were pinned in place until that thing moved out of the way. And who knew when the fuck that was going to be.\n\nOnly, the wall on their other side opened into a corridor which bore no defense programs. In fact, the corridor looked different from the other infrastructure of Holiday Corp's programming by a fairly noticeable degree.\n\nBefore Noelle could really examine it, Kris dipped inside of the opening and Noelle was forced to follow after them.\n\n``Nice work on...'' Kris began into their comms, looking puzzled by whatever Berdly said in response. ``Wait, what do you mean that you didn't open that?''\n\nNoelle looked around, gawking at their surroundings. Her first instinct was to think of Dragon Blazers as was so often the case. The comparison was just too easy to make when she really took in the old faux brickwork all around her. It was like being in an old castle dungeon with pixelated torches offering a facsimile of green light to vaguely purple and black walls. There was even fake moss growing in the cracks, almost giving off a sense of dampness in a place where it should've been impossible to take hold.\n\nAlmost feeling it being the takeaway as Noelle knew it was just an illusion. What was real was a sense of herself physically warming from the strain of netrunning. That arid heat in her temples left little room for whatever faux dampness was supposedly all around her.\n\nJust as quickly as it began, another opening snapped into existence which brought them right back into the programming proper, shooting them out into that sameish grey bureaucracy. That detour was over just as quickly as it had begun.\n\n``What was that?'' Noelle asked.\n\nKris shook their head. ``No idea but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.''\n\nThe two of them kept ahead, moving at a slow jog as they pushed along the corridor. It was fascinating to see the systems from this perspective, intriguing to appreciate how mazelike and tightknit the network architecture really was.\n\nIf her mother could see this like she could, she'd probably comment about how important it was to hire the best programmer's money could buy. And if it wasn't for the fact that she was currently trying to punch through then she probably would've commended her mother's IT department on this marvel of wonderfully redundant engineering.\n\n``Your mother is paranoid,'' Kris grumbled.\n\nNoelle giggled nervously. ``I mean we're kind of proving her right by trying to break in.''\n\nKris scoffed and said nothing to that.\n\nThey stopped by a segment of wall and felt it beneath their hands, poking the tip of their tongue out from between their lips as they did so. \n\n``What do you see?'' Noelle asked.\n\n``It seems that the firewall is a little thinner here,'' Kris said, reaching out and pushing down upon it. They grunted as they tested it a couple of times, nodding towards her as they did so. ``Can you help me out here, Noelle. I think a deep code penetration from both of us might just open up a hole for us to slip in a little deeper.''\n\nNoelle nodded and planted her hands upon it, feeling the code as if it were a real tactile entity against her palms. She concentrated, focusing through the visual illusion and instead peering exclusively at the code layer below. Her mind worked quickly with her numerous implants churning as she formed strings of trojans on the fly in an attempt to worm anything through. It was easy enough, especially with Kris' help, feeling just how fragile this wall really was.\n\nHow had the programmers overlooked it?\n\n``Wait!'' a voice cried out. Noelle looked over, snapping back to the optical level. She saw a vapour upon the data streams, a white blur that barely had any substance to it. It was a shadow of a shadow, something darker than dark. ``That's boobie-trapped!''\n\n``What?'' Kris asked, stirring as well.\n\nBut it was too late.\n\nThe wall suddenly shattered, revealing another layer of protection immediately underneath. A layer which took notice of them, flashing red as it scanned the duo. \n\nAnd with that, all hell broke loose. A siren started to blare and a heavy chatter cut through the net, reverberated again and again as it seemed focused upon their current position.\n\n``This way!'' the figment shouted.\n\nKris looked at it and then at Noelle, shrugging. It was a very `what can you do about it' kind of gesture?\n\nNoelle decided that she couldn't do much. So, she followed after the creature, sprinting to keep up with both it and Kris. It was better than being caught here when the antiviruses started to gather together in order to eliminate them.\n\n``What's your name?'' Noelle called out after the program.\n\nThe white figment floated ahead with terrifying speed, not bothering to look back at them as it spoke. ``Ralsei.''\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Chapter Two

Noelle glided through the vastness of the net, extending her arms as if she were a bird gliding through the wind. She drifted across the smooth expanse, carefree as she took in the rolling colours of different programs and digital artifacts upon this almost infinite net. All these years of training and it still never got old.

Who knew that ones and zeros could be so relaxing? No, this wasn't mere binary. Much like cells could come together, unifying into an organism, multiple strands of data could do the same, becoming an ecosystem made up of ones and zeroes rather than DNA and magic. They took on colour and shape, substance. She wove between pink squares and green triangles, floating by decayed relics that fed the entities which built upon its code.

She could feel the entirety of the world at her fingertips, the wonders of their society flowing between her digits like water in a river. Though much like any waterway these days, there were pollutants: garbage, viruses, and other assorted detritus that she did her best to avoid.

``Berdly says that we're safe,'' Kris commented.

Noelle stirred and saw them across from her, floating on the stream much like herself. They didn't seem nearly as joyous about this, keeping their eyes locked forwards, like a hawk trying to spot its next meal.

When had they gotten so serious? They had always seemed so carefree as a kid. What had changed them like this?

It was interesting to see Kris in this context. Their exotic cosmetic mods were nothing compared to what they did with their cyber space avatar. In the net, they looked like an actual monster as if they'd been born one. They were a canine with sharp teeth and a pair of floppy ears that came jutting out of their shaggy hair. There were similarities that could be drawn to their brother but they were also clearly their own person, unique from Asriel's example.

It was a cute look but it still felt very much like them and Noelle respected that immensely. A part of her wished that she could be that free.

But that was just wishful thinking.

``Any updates?'' Noelle asked.

``Still nothing from Netwatch,'' Kris explained. ``I doubt we'll trip any alarms but it's never a bad idea to be careful.''

``You know a lot of people,'' Noelle said.

Kris scoffed. ``You need to if you want to survive in this world.''

Was there something to their voice there? An edge to it? It was hard to tell in person and their digital persona was even more cryptic than that.

``Looks like we're coming up to your mom's security systems,'' Kris said.

The carefree currents of the digital space suddenly came to an end as the atmosphere became a stagnant and bureaucratic environment. Noelle felt the figment of herself land upon the edge of a program, feeling the very real warmth of a firewall beneath her digital hooves.

It seemed like a proper fortress, tall and daunting, with security programs floating around the perimeter who were just looking for an opportunity to make her prey. None of them seemed to take notice of them which was good.

Noelle patted her pocket, feeling her basic clearance offering some feeble form of safety for the duo. At least at this current surface level depth.

How long would that last?

``Blue Bird can you...'' Kris began.

A hole suddenly opened in the firewall, big enough for them to slip through.

Kris looked at her, offering a thin smile. ``Last chance to back out, princess.''

Noelle shook her head. ``We're doing this for Dess.''

That seemed to give Kris some pause as they slowly nodded at this confession. She knew they missed her just as much as herself. ``For Dess.''

Noelle jumped through the hole and immediately felt like all eyes were upon her. She looked around and felt Kris come in beside her, investigating their surroundings as well. This was a restricted space, deep enough that not even her mother's basic training permissions would keep her safe if the code around them caught on to their presence.

This is where the fun really began.

The digital architecture lost a lot of its fun frills, becoming uniform and military in nature. It was all blocky and drab, a dull grey that held troves upon troves of restricted data.

Kris offered a crooked smile and said nothing about it, patting her upon the shoulder. They moved ahead at a trotting jog, turning briefly in order to fire off a pair of finger guns in her direction. Their avatar melded ahead easily enough and Noelle followed behind them. Not that it was particularly hard to do. They had always been slower than her and that extended to cyberspace just as much as the surface.

``What do you think we're going to find?'' Kris asked.

Noelle shook her head. ``Hopefully something from corporate security saying what happened to my sister.'' She frowned. ``I know mom knows something that she's not letting on. I just want...'' She sighed. ``I just want a little closure, that's all.''

Kris came to a stop and held out their arm, getting Noelle to come to a halt as well. She peered around the corner, seeing the floating engram of a security program off in the distance, strobing away at the mainframe's infrastructure. It looked sharp, painfully sharp.

``Blue Bird can you...'' they began.

There was a bang and a strobe went off with the program quickly flying away to go check on whatever it was.

``A brute force trojan,'' Kris said, whistling. ``Not very subtle but I like it.''

They continued ahead, nodding for Noelle to follow behind after them.

``Don't you feel the same way?'' Noelle asked. She quickly glanced over her shoulder, sure that she felt something waiting in the wings behind them. Only, there was nothing back there, no whiff of a program nor even a hint of a security system. ``Don't you want to know what happened to Dess.''

Kris sighed. ``A little. I...'' They grunted. ``I miss her, Elly.''

Noelle's eyes widened. She hadn't heard that name in a very long time.

``Shit,'' Kris grunted, quickly dipping down the path of a subroutine. They grabbed Noelle?s arm and yanked her inside the alcove along with them.

She at least had the foresight not to yelp, biting her tongue in order to stay silent. Which was probably for the best as she heard the whirl of a program coming by.

It was a cramped little space but it offered just enough protection, keeping them squirreled away as the defense program lazily floated on by. Only, it decided to park itself right outside of their little hiding spot, seemingly frozen in place.

Noelle swallowed, feeling this clammy fear crawling up her spine. They were pinned in place until that thing moved out of the way. And who knew when the fuck that was going to be.

Only, the wall on their other side opened into a corridor which bore no defense programs. In fact, the corridor looked different from the other infrastructure of Holiday Corp's programming by a fairly noticeable degree.

Before Noelle could really examine it, Kris dipped inside of the opening and Noelle was forced to follow after them.

``Nice work on...'' Kris began into their comms, looking puzzled by whatever Berdly said in response. ``Wait, what do you mean that you didn't open that?''

Noelle looked around, gawking at their surroundings. Her first instinct was to think of Dragon Blazers as was so often the case. The comparison was just too easy to make when she really took in the old faux brickwork all around her. It was like being in an old castle dungeon with pixelated torches offering a facsimile of green light to vaguely purple and black walls. There was even fake moss growing in the cracks, almost giving off a sense of dampness in a place where it should've been impossible to take hold.

Almost feeling it being the takeaway as Noelle knew it was just an illusion. What was real was a sense of herself physically warming from the strain of netrunning. That arid heat in her temples left little room for whatever faux dampness was supposedly all around her.

Just as quickly as it began, another opening snapped into existence which brought them right back into the programming proper, shooting them out into that sameish grey bureaucracy. That detour was over just as quickly as it had begun.

``What was that?'' Noelle asked.

Kris shook their head. ``No idea but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.''

The two of them kept ahead, moving at a slow jog as they pushed along the corridor. It was fascinating to see the systems from this perspective, intriguing to appreciate how mazelike and tightknit the network architecture really was.

If her mother could see this like she could, she'd probably comment about how important it was to hire the best programmer's money could buy. And if it wasn't for the fact that she was currently trying to punch through then she probably would've commended her mother's IT department on this marvel of wonderfully redundant engineering.

``Your mother is paranoid,'' Kris grumbled.

Noelle giggled nervously. ``I mean we're kind of proving her right by trying to break in.''

Kris scoffed and said nothing to that.

They stopped by a segment of wall and felt it beneath their hands, poking the tip of their tongue out from between their lips as they did so.

``What do you see?'' Noelle asked.

``It seems that the firewall is a little thinner here,'' Kris said, reaching out and pushing down upon it. They grunted as they tested it a couple of times, nodding towards her as they did so. ``Can you help me out here, Noelle. I think a deep code penetration from both of us might just open up a hole for us to slip in a little deeper.''

Noelle nodded and planted her hands upon it, feeling the code as if it were a real tactile entity against her palms. She concentrated, focusing through the visual illusion and instead peering exclusively at the code layer below. Her mind worked quickly with her numerous implants churning as she formed strings of trojans on the fly in an attempt to worm anything through. It was easy enough, especially with Kris' help, feeling just how fragile this wall really was.

How had the programmers overlooked it?

``Wait!'' a voice cried out. Noelle looked over, snapping back to the optical level. She saw a vapour upon the data streams, a white blur that barely had any substance to it. It was a shadow of a shadow, something darker than dark. ``That's boobie-trapped!''

``What?'' Kris asked, stirring as well.

But it was too late.

The wall suddenly shattered, revealing another layer of protection immediately underneath. A layer which took notice of them, flashing red as it scanned the duo.

And with that, all hell broke loose. A siren started to blare and a heavy chatter cut through the net, reverberated again and again as it seemed focused upon their current position.

``This way!'' the figment shouted.

Kris looked at it and then at Noelle, shrugging. It was a very `what can you do about it' kind of gesture?

Noelle decided that she couldn't do much. So, she followed after the creature, sprinting to keep up with both it and Kris. It was better than being caught here when the antiviruses started to gather together in order to eliminate them.

``What's your name?'' Noelle called out after the program.

The white figment floated ahead with terrifying speed, not bothering to look back at them as it spoke. ``Ralsei.''

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