"Alice has rescued some of the AI's," Zai said. "If she's successful with that one," she gestured to Alice's body, "then she might integrate them into society. They can rebuild."
"Are you acknowledging the sanctity of their existence?" Devin asked.
"No," Zai replied. "I'm telling you what you need to hear."
"Dammit!" Devin cursed and plunged into the pink, syrupy fluid.
He slammed the portal shut above him and the chamber filled the rest of the way, completely immersing him. He fought his burning lungs for as long as he could, but finally took a deep breath of the stuff. It was weird, but satisfied the need. The SDC read his heartbeat stabilizing and began the login sequence. Lights played across his eyes, synching with his retinas, and his skin tingled as electronic pulses sought to feed him touch sensations.
As he phased into the virtual world, Zai's voice came into his helmet, "Devin, I'm sorry. That was a stupid thing to say."
Devin stood in the middle of a bright white room. Taking a moment to gather himself, he ran a quick inventory. He was wearing an IWA avatar, a black jumpsuit with black goggles, completely anonymous. In his utility belt he found sector editors, the anti-virus program, and a host of other nasty tools. The five-layer drive formatter he found among them was particularly intriguing; with it he could irrecoverably destroy a flash drive. It was an envious arsenal.
Zai phased in beside him. She wore the same avatar with breasts, and a featureless mask with no goggles. Devin found the last an interesting detail. She turned to him expectantly.
Devin wasted no time; he punched in the address for DataStreams Incorporated and hit the 'Go' button, "Let's get this over with."
Zai realized he was transferring to another location and quickly followed suit, "Hold on, I'm-"
He was gone, materializing moments later on a mountaintop overlooking a vast, futuristic city tucked into a valley below. It pulsed with activity. Streams of light like water ran through it. The sky was filled with brightly lit futuristic flying devices. Floating in the air before the scene was the corporate logo, "DataStreams", glowing translucent against the stars. It was a beautiful introduction to the Corporation's Virtual Domain.
"The illusion of normalcy," Zai muttered from behind him.
Devin brought up a navigation window and tried logging into the domain, each time he was met with the error, "The site you have requested is unavailable."
Devin turned to Zai, "You said there was a back door."
"Yeah," she said. Hesitantly she keyed in the address and hit the transmit key. She vanished as the connection established.
Devin received the address and transmitted himself to the same location. He stood at the base of an enormous trellis, covered with vines and flowers. Butterflies danced in the air and rainbows arched across a cloud-free blue sky. The foliage was sculpted into a logo reading "Pixel Productions".
"More normalcy," Zai muttered. "Façade. Façade." She approached the trellis with her access key.
Devin noticed it was a RAZZ card, operating on a constantly changing key code. "I don't expect this to work," he said.
To his surprise, the vines parted to reveal an entrance. Zai stepped through and waited for Devin to follow. Inside, Devin was impressed with the presentation. This lobby served as the main menu for the company's virtual presence. It was very elegant, decorated with expensive works of digital art and original patterns for the carpets. Multiple doors lined the four walls, each one leading to a different section of the site.
Devin recognized several of the labels, "Your parents were in Web Development?"
Zai was still hearing about the room through her headset, so her response sounded distracted, "Yes. They got into it for the love of Virtual Architecture, but as the business grew they had to move into management. You know, requirements gathering, project planning, deployment, they were in charge of it all. Toward the end, their primary focus was churning out and copyrighting as many designs as possible. That's where the real money was."
"That's a lot of responsibility," Devin noted.
"It was," Zai said, "They didn't have time for much else."
"I'm sorry," Devin said.
Zai was silent for several moments as her SDC continued reading the details of the room to her. "There," she said suddenly, "Battle bots, there's a new department labeled 'Battle bots'. There was no such department or client before."
"Do you have administrative privileges?" Devin asked.
"Yes," Zai replied, and started sending commands to the building. She listened for confirmations, but nothing happened. The building groaned then, as if its supports were collapsing.
"It's a trap," Devin cursed. "We have to get out."
"How can you-" Zai stopped talking as her SDC informed her of other changes in the room.
Eyes opened along the walls, columns, and floor to look at them. Devin checked the way they had come, but the entrance was no longer there. An inky blackness spread in trails all around, connecting to other places, oozing black until the entire room was staring eyes and rippling darkness. Veins and wires sprouted from the surfaces to create a wriggling nonsense. AI's completely comprised the room.
"Zai," Devin said cautiously, afraid to make any sudden movements. "I want you to log out now and tell Dana what we found."
Zai shook her head, "I'm staying."
"Zai!" Devin shouted, brandishing a sector editor, for whatever good it would do. "Get out of here now!"
"Forget it," she held a sector editor as well. "If neither of us return, they'll figure it out."
Devin attempted a log out, just in case, but there was no such luck. "Zai, if you log out of here, I can piggyback," he lied.
Zai considered him. Tendrils descended around her from the ceiling. Finally, she toggled her log out sequence. Nothing.
"Can you find the emergency release?" Devin asked fearfully.
Zai reached out and clawed the air before her. "Can't seem to find it," she said in frustration.
"Keep trying," Devin said. He raised his rifle, looking for a good target, but it was the same everywhere. He aimed at the tendrils surrounding Zai, but the sector editor vanished from his hands. He caught a glimpse of it sinking into the writhing mass along the far wall.
There was a flash of light from Zai's direction, and Devin saw her weapon snatched away, a smoking crater healing in the ceiling. Other tendrils cocooned her. She gasped as they lifted her off the floor, constricting the air from her lungs.
Devin's hand found the five-layer fragmentor in his utility belt, but hesitated to use it. He first made for Zai's position, but the AI's snagged his feet, slowly pulling him down into their mass. Zai's head was slumped forward, unconscious.
Unexpectedly, the tendrils relaxed, allowing Devin to climb out of the mass and run over to where Zai was being lowered gently to the floor. She did not move. Devin took her in his arms and shook her. She gasped suddenly, taking in a deep breath that turned into a coughing fit.
"What happened?" she managed between breaths, her voice hoarse. "It felt like I was being squeezed to death."
"It must be Flatline," Devin told her, across the room he saw an opening in the tangle of eyes and tendrils. "Looks like he couldn't help but stop and gloat before killing us."
Devin steeled himself for Flatline's demonic avatar to emerge through the door, but, to his surprise and confusion, a little girl hovered through instead. She considered Devin and Zai carefully before approaching. She wore a black, hooded cloak that rippled as if wind were blowing through it. Toy robots circled the air and ground around her. She glided toward them, her cloak carrying her on rippling tendrils of fabric. The AI's parted before her, creating a smooth path.