We're all in this virtual space together.
Saidak

You turn to your left, feeling as though the shield might betelling you to travel that way. The hallway is cold; the coding seeming to movein a slow, almost catatonic pace like it was a freezing river. Occasionally,sparks would fly off of the slowly scrolling code, as if something had shortcircuited somewhere.

You think you are nearing the end of the path and still have notfound an exit when you see something glowing softly in front of you. You wonderif one of your lost friends lies ahead, or perhaps a trap of some sort set by whomeveror whatever controlled this strange virtual space.

What do you do?

The hallway seemed to belike the inside of a living breathing computer, with beeping and flashing intime with the mainframe’s pulse, wrapping wires for veins flowing withinformation, and organs lumped and heaped discarded computer parts. The onlysound was the silent shuffling of their footsteps as they tried not tohumiliate themselves on the cords strewn about the floor, and the incessantbeeping of working machinery. It seemed completely deserted.

“Where do you thinkAmaya is? She couldn’t have gone that far could she?’ Myos frowned in thought,not wanting to immediately jump to the conclusion that something awful hadhappened to her. The chipper blonde had been basically nothing but a sunny ballof encouragement thus far; she didn’t deserve anything like that.

“Who knows,” Zekeshrugged, the same frown on his face. Sometimes it was frightening how muchtheir facial expressions could mirror each other. “This pathway didn’t lookthat long.”

Myos nodded inagreement, but felt strange disturbing the silence for once. It was almosteerie how the only sound wasn’t even coming from a living being, just theconstant whirring of technology. He thought he was used to the stuff, butapparently without the feeling of human emotions beneath it, it was just hardplastic. He almost wanted to throw all of his various gizmos and gadgets off ofhim, afraid they may hack into his brainwaves and put him under theirmonotonous control. Get your wires off me, indeed.

Myos shook his head,afraid of going crazy again.

The pair continued on,noticing that the lights began to become more like a flicker, accompanied witha static pulse. The machinery around them began to appear degraded and worn, asif improperly used. Grime and dirt covered their surroundings and Zeke turnedup his nose in disgust, while Myos just made sure to take more careful steps.At the very end of the pathway lay a small circular room, by far the most grimefilled place in the whole ship. Strange sludge clung to every surface, and thetechnology was abused beyond repair. Loose wires and cables hung from everysurface, and seemed to be growing from the ground itself like a tangle ofvines. In the center of the room stood a large clear tube, which took up theentire vertical space, a large silver base holding up the cylinder thatextended all the way to the ceiling. The oversized test tube was filled withthe strange glowing sludge that was more viscous than it appeared, because itnever stayed in one place, moving like hot magma that was said to flow underthe outer surface of the planet humans once called home. Suspended in the verycenter of the tube was a small, frail girl, with short blonde hair billowingaround her. An unmistakable star tattoo on her shoulder made it obvious who itwas if the pair didn’t know already.

Amaya was curled in thefetal position, completely nude save for the elegant computer glasses stilldonned on her face. A device much like an oxygen mask covered her nose andmouth, with a large tube coming out from it and running up the remained of thespace and connecting somewhere in the ceiling. The girl’s eyes were closed, andit appeared as if she were sleeping peacefully within the confines of thethick, transparent glass.

Do you wish to know her secret?

Myos jumped back as thewords flashed across his screen just as he was about to call out to the girl.He looked over to Zeke for any indication that he had received the message aswell, but the other man was still staring blankly at the strange sight beforehim.

Secret? He didn’t carewhat kind of secret the girl had. It wasn’t anything that could change or erasethe emblazoned star across her skin. They were all partners, team members, andthey were staging a revolution. Everyone had secrets. Myos walked closer to theglass, which made Zeke balk in response and run over to him. “What do you thinkyou’re doing?” The ravenette asked in a hushed tone, as if the small girl couldhear them.

“Trying to get her outof here,” Myos replied with a whimsical wave of his hand, in theory tossingaway and doubts Zeke had - though it didn’t seem to work as the other man kepthovering around him as he made his way around the base looking for some sort ofrelease mechanism. There was none to be found, making the lean young man rubhis neck in confusion.

Leave her be. You do not want her.

She is destined to be Alone.

Myos’s signature smileturned into a harsh scowl at the final word of the message, and at that pointhe didn’t care if his friend thought he was insane. He raised his fist abovehim angrily, cursing wherever these godforsaken notes were coming from. “Listenhere, goddammit, nobody is this universe is meant to be alone!”

As his cry resounded,Myos bounded away from the giant container before sprinting back at full speedtowards it. He leaped in midair, metallic gauntlet swirling around him as hisarmor activated instantaneously, the cool steel flowing over his knucklesperfectly in time for it to connect with the wretched glass. The force of hisblow shattered in the area where he had struck, and as he felt his arm begin togo through the dark green viscous liquid, he reached around and pulled thefrail looking girl into a tight embrace, not worrying that it was the finelycrafted battle armor the girl was actually being held by. She was small andslight in his arms, reminding Myos of a baby bird. Waiting until they were outof the liquid so the girl wouldn’t drown, he removed the mask that covered herface and stood with bated breath waiting for her amaranthine eyes to flutteropen.