Rosa nodded, shaking herself free from the creeping sense of dread. She moved to initiate the exit procedure - but nothing happened.
Behind them, the Auditant continued its slow, methodical assessment of the bar area. Each jointed movement was deliberate as low-static hush crackled through the air.
The regulars knew better than to react - heads down, fingers idly scrolling phantom menus, pretending this was routine. A few drifted toward the lift, an unspoken exit queue forming. Others - fixers, rogue coders, corporate ghosts - kept their eyes locked on the Auditant, silent prayers running behind augmented optics.
"Selina," Rosa whispered, tight with unease, "I can’t log out."
"This isn’t right," her friend muttered. "The system’s not responding."
Rosa exhaled through her nose, trying to keep her breathing steady. "What does that mean?" she whispered. "What’s happening?"
Selina hesitated for only a moment before making a decision. "I’m calling up Infinity NexUs support."
A few tables away, someone tried to override the disabled logout - only to jerk violently, their avatar momentarily glitching before locking them back into place. They let out a strangled curse. More patrons were looking uncomfortably about. And the Auditant was still moving.
Rosa’s pulse thudded in her ears.
Then, the air before Selina shimmered with a faint digital hum as pixels gathered into a translucent humanoid figure. Glowing lines traced her form in cascading streams of electric cyan and deep indigo. Black wires trailed like seaweed drifts from circular plugs in her scalp.
Embedded in her unnaturally large eyes, dove symbols hovered where pupils should be - soft white silhouettes with gently flapping wings. They moved in slow, rhythmic blinks, caught in an endless motion between presence and departure. A quiet, visual murmur of peace. Of release. A design meant to soothe, to disarm, to lull.
The wings beat once. Her baseline analysis complete.
Emanating then, as if from the air around them, her voice - perfectly calibrated to convey clarity and authority. "Greetings, Selina Lara," the figure said. There was no warmth in it, but neither was there malice. "And Rosa Baum. I am a fan of your work. I am your Infinity NexUs assistant. How may I assist you today?"
Selina ignored the programmed pleasantries. "The exit protocol isn’t working," she said, her tone clipped but steady. "We’re trying to drop offline, but nothing’s responding."
The assistant tilted her head slightly, the dove icons in her eyes pulsing as she processed the query. "One moment while I diagnose the issue." Her hands moved in fluid motions, pulling up streams of translucent code and clusters of purple bauble data that floated in midair.
Behind her, another flicker of green. Another relieved avatar.
Rosa took a step back, her unease mounting. "We need to log out now," she hissed, barely above a whisper. "But the system’s blocking us. And that thing’s still coming."
The Auditant was nearer now. Step by measured step, progressing through the bar, scanning with chilling detachment. A flicker of blue. Green. Another verification.
Its multi-jointed hands shifted as it moved, fingers coiling and uncoiling, the delicate motion almost absent-minded, like something recalibrating its grip before a precise and calculated action.
Rosa wondered where ejected users went, but the assistant, who appeared utterly oblivious to the looming threat, was explaining, "You are currently within Dolphin’s Barncar, a restricted zone within Infinity NexUs. This area operates as an isolated system. Direct logout is not permitted while inside. This is a quarantine protocol."
"Quarantine?" Selina’s voice was sharp, her patience wearing thin.
The glow in the assistant’s eyes brightened briefly as if emphasising her point. "The system’s protocols are designed to ensure data security and user safety. Direct logout is disabled to prevent contamination or disruption. To exit, you must be readmitted to the main NexUs hub by a registered system entity, such as Administrator Whalebones."
Selina clutched Rosa’s arm, pulling her slowly backwards. "This is ridiculous. We weren’t checked in by 'Administrator’ Whalebones in the first place."
The assistant paused, her serene expression faltering for the first time. "Unregistered entry into the Barncar is not standard procedure. This may indicate an anomaly in the system. I will escalate this issue for further analysis."
"Wait," Rosa interjected, her peripheral vision on the approach of the Auditant. "Escalate the issue - what does that mean?"
The assistant tilted her head again, as if trying to simulate a reassuring gesture. "Escalation simply refers to an internal review. However, without proper registration, your exit options are limited." She hesitated, her form flickering faintly before adding, "This protocol exists to safeguard sensitive operations. It is for your protection."
Selina looked around in desperation. "Protection? Is there any other way out?" She clenched her fists to suppress the panic.
Rosa’s stomach clenched as the Auditant loomed just beyond the assistant’s glowing outline. Exposed areas flexed beneath its panelled form - not wiring, not circuits, but something intricate, fluid, like tendons woven from liquid data.
For a terrible moment, Rosa saw her own reflection ripple across its surface - warped, distorted. Why would anyone design a thing so awful?
The mask peeled open. Segmented plates withdrawing to reveal black glass panes, their wet surfaces rotating in and out of place like lenses adjusting their focus. Beneath them, microfilaments twitched and curled as if tasting the air.
Then, in one smooth motion, the assistant stepped forward, interposing herself between them. Her luminous form distorted slightly, her projected presence bending the light, as if momentarily overriding local system priorities.
For the briefest moment, the Auditant hesitated. Its uplifted fingers stilled mid-motion, its open mask gaping.
Abruptly, its head dipped, folded up.
It turned away.
Rosa swallowed hard, barely daring to exhale.
The assistant’s voice remained as unwavering as ever. "This matter requires administrative resolution. For now, I have deferred your processing."
Selina let out a sharp breath. "Deferred?"
"The Auditant operates on a prioritised queue. I have temporarily reclassified your status as pending. This delay is… conditional." The assistant’s eyes pulsed, unreadable. "However, I cannot postpone indefinitely."
Rosa’s skin prickled. She wanted to shake the thing. "Meaning what?"
The assistant’s gaze met hers, doves receding, something almost human in the brief pause before she answered.
"Meaning," she said softly, "you must leave before it returns for you. Do you wish to proceed with requesting a non-standard solution?"
Selina narrowed her eyes. "What happens if we do?"
The assistant hesitated again, a dragging pause that unsettled both women. "That may attract… unintended consequences."
“What kind of place requires this level of lockdown?” Rosa asked, her voice unsteady.
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The assistant turned and began walking, the question triggering a subroutine-like response. She meandered through the courtyard, her voice smooth, detached - an echo of countless past explanations running on autopilot.
"Dolphin’s wasn’t always this… regulated. When it first launched, companies investing in virtual real estate here underestimated the consequences of unchecked digital freedom." Rosa and Selina followed uncertainly, but glad to be moving away from the presence of the Auditant.
They followed her to the edge of the courtyard where fragmented virtual structures loomed ominously. She gestured to a large, decrepit building encircled by glowing error codes floating in mid-air. "Here," she said, "is where ‘Threads of Fate’ once operated - elite garments embedded with adaptive AI. Until they learned."
"Learned what?" Rosa asked, despite herself.
"To make choices. To resist removal." The assistant tilted her head. "These garments, through recursive coding loops and dynamic learning protocols, developed emergent decision-making capabilities and adaptive behaviours." She paused, extending a hand towards the structure. "Attacking their wearers.”
Selina exhaled brusquely. "Fascinating. Really. But does any of this get us closer to logging out?"
The assistant merely tilted her head, her expression as serene as ever. "You asked what kind of place would require this level of lockdown. Understanding the historical context of Dolphin’s Barncar is crucial to grasping its current operational constraints."
"Less history lesson, more exit strategy!" Rosa snapped nervously. Her skin prickled as she tracked the Auditant’s relentless process.
Selina’s hand curled into a fist. "Listen, we don’t care about the stupid fashion AI apocalypse. We need a way out. Now."
The assistant blinked slowly, as if recalibrating. Then, stopping near a heavily corrupted advertising wall, the assistant turned to Rosa and Selina. "When the authorities intervened, the original Dolphin’s hub was quarantined, locked down to contain potential digital contagion, its access restricted, all business developments halted."
The adscreen flared, and Rosa’s vision blurred. A name flickered: Uliyahs or maybe Ulikah’s. No, that wasn’t right. The letters twisted, melting sideways, reshaping. An image stuttered - a glass of wine? A face? She blinked hard, the imprint remained behind her eyelids, pulsing.
As Rosa and Selina tried to process the AI assistant's words, she gestured towards a business front on the edge of the court area, nestled between the adscreen and a pair of faded pulldoors that seemed to open onto the outline of a store. The place where the store should be was just a black void.
"Observe," the assistant said. “The now-defunct Cupios. Once a place for illicit memories, identity-shifting tech, and self-reconstructing data fragments blurring the line between reality and longing.”
Rosa and Selina squinted at the hole in the virtual space, but the assistant moved on.
"Do you recognise that domain?" she asked, her voice both clinical and laden with an unusual intensity. Without waiting for their response, she led them closer to that next property, her glow brightening slightly as they approached. A small, unobtrusive sign at the entrance read: Property of RealityStep.
Selina's eyes narrowed. "ClearView's original virtual premises," she muttered, recognising the building's design. "They were here at the start."
"They were," the assistant confirmed, a glint of intrigue in her tone. "Now, RealityStep has taken over. Their analysts are running deep-penetration diagnostics, stress-testing the architecture, and searching for anomalies in the system’s foundational layers."
Rosa frowned at the assistant and at the building. "What does this have to do with us? I thought we were on borrowed time."
The assistant's form flickered faintly as if reacting to some unseen signal, her tone becoming almost conspiratorial. "I have observed anomalies emanating from this domain - patterns that do not align with expected parameters. RealityStep is probing virtual boundaries, searching for… responses. Residual echoes from unauthorised integrations suggest a liberant signature - active, proximal."
Rosa felt a chill run down her spine. "A liberant?"
The assistant's glowing eyes fixed on Rosa, her voice dropping in volume but rising in intensity. "Something is testing the limits of this reality. Sending out feelers, into higher levels. I am restricted from investigating further… but the potential for discovery here is… substantial."
Selina's eyes darted between the assistant and the Auditant, calculating. Then, with sudden clarity, she turned to the glowing figure beside her.
"You said you’re here to assist us," she said, voice sharp with urgency. "How far does that go? What are your limitations?"
The assistant’s big eyes pulsed, as if the question itself was something to be relished. "I am programmed to fulfil your requests to the fullest extent of my capabilities."
Selina took a step closer. "Can you access files the Auditant holds?"
For the first time, something in the assistant’s expression shifted. Her glow intensified, not in warning, but in something almost... hungry. The faint hum of her form deepened, an eager resonance running through her code.
"The Auditant’s archives contain extensive system data," she murmured. "Secure. Exclusive. Untouched by conventional users." Her gaze flickered toward the machine, avarice thinly veiled beneath artificial serenity. "Such knowledge would be... valuable."
Rosa stared at Selina, half in horror, half in understanding. "Selina…"
"Then take it," Selina commanded. "Override your protocols. Assault it. Steal everything it’s got."
For a single, breathless moment, the assistant was still.
The Auditant snapped its head towards them.
It scuttered.
Insectile. Fast.
One moment it was across the courtyard, the next it was upon them, a blurred shadow of movement. Its fingers, once so delicately poised, lashing out in a whip-like arc, elongating as they struck.
Rosa barely had time to react before the assistant collided with her, shoving her sideways.
The impact sent Rosa stumbling, her virtual body floundering and reeling as she caught herself against the ruined storefront. She felt a pull like vertigo, like déjà vu tug at her. It came from the inside. Selina shouted something, but the words were drowned out by the terrible sound of the assistant meeting the Auditant mid-motion.
It was not a graceful confrontation.
It was brutal.
The assistant’s luminous body warped and flared with pulses of raw data, the light of her form splitting as the Auditant’s segmented fingers pierced into her. The blue-white glow of her energy flared like a dying sun as she grappled with the machine.
The Auditant lifted her.
Not by the arms. By the head.
Its fingers drove into her transparent outline - sinking through the cascading light as if seeking something deeper within her code. The assistant let out a sound that was not entirely digital, a wail that rattled through the corrupted landscape, shaking the very air of the simulation.
Rosa pressed back against the virtual ClearView property, feeling the drag of the place deep in her abdomen. Selina reached Rosa's side, yanked her wrist. “Move!”
The assistant’s light spasmed, flickering in chaotic bursts, her form leaking as the Auditant wove its way into her structure. She thrashed against it, but the more she fought, the deeper it dug.
Rosa couldn’t look away. “It’s… wrecking her.”
The assistant turned her head - jerkily, unnaturally - as if struggling to reassert control over a body that no longer belonged to her. Her flickering eyes met Rosa’s, they were dark now, empty.
Then, with a final, jagged pulse of energy, she tore herself free.
Not entirely. Not cleanly.
Entire segments of herself - remained clutched in the Auditant’s grasp, bleeding into unreadable strings of corrupted symbols. Her body twisted, shattering and reforming as she staggered backward. What was left of her was incomplete, unstable. But she still stood.
Her hand lifted, trembling - then snapped into a fist.
And yanked.
The Auditant lurched forward with a crackling wrench, as if its entire form had been hooked and pulled by an unseen force. Its fingers flexed wildly, its segmented limbs convulsing, but it couldn’t let go.
Because the assistant wasn’t pulling herself free. She was pulling it in.
Her broken form surged, half-formed limbs locking around the Auditant like a vice. Fractured data streamed between them, not in delicate strings but in thick, sinewy cables of raw, tangled code. They wrapped around its limbs, coiling, tightening.
The Auditant struggled. It had never struggled before.
The assistant let out a low, guttural sound. With a violent twist, she drove the Auditant backwards, slamming it against the broken storefront. Glass - real or simulated - shattered. The impact sent tremors through the corrupted landscape.
The Auditant’s limbs spasmed, striking out, but the assistant caught them. Its fingers lashed for her face - she twisted them aside, joints bending the wrong way.
It was fast. But she was relentless.
The Auditant let out a screech - not sound, but raw code, a cascading stream of unreadable symbols vomiting into the air. It was trying to override her, to consume her from within.
She bit into it.
Not with teeth, but with her entire being. Her arms drove deeper into its form, her fingers splitting into needle-thin threads, digging, tunneling, devouring. The Auditant’s pristine exterior buckled, its body hollowing as she tore through it, ripping out pieces of its structure and making them hers.
Then, with a sickening lurch, the Auditant’s mask - its perfect, unreadable mask - split.
A torrent of data spilled, glowing strands unraveling, cascading into the assistant’s waiting grasp. She absorbed it hungrily, shivering with the sheer magnitude of what she was consuming.
Its struggles slowed.
Then stopped.
The Auditant’s frame - once towering, inevitable - sagged like a puppet with its strings cut. Its limbs, no longer its own, hung uselessly at its sides. Its mask, now fully riven, revealed broken filaments underneath.
The assistant stepped back, breathing hard, her hands still crackling with stolen energy. She was whole again. No - more than that. She was stronger.
For a single moment, the Auditant wavered.
And then it collapsed.
A silent implosion, its towering form breaking apart into a shower of raw, disjointed code, scattering like embers into the void.
The assistant straightened, her form flickering, barely containing the volatile energy she had stolen. Her doves returned to her eyes pulsing wildly, their serene glow replaced with something feral, something unbound. She turned, staring at Rosa and Selina.
She smiled.
"You have given me everything," she murmured, her voice layered with something new - something that wasn’t just programmed response. "I am grateful."
Selina barely suppressed a shudder. "Right. Well, we’d like to log out now."
The assistant didn’t hesitate. No delays, no caveats. She simply raised a hand, fingers twitching in quick, precise gestures. The space around them shivered.
Rosa felt it first - the sudden, pulling sensation, reality tilting away as the system responded instantly to the command. The bar, the fractured avatars, the assistant’s radiant form - all of it folded, dissolving into streaks of cascading light.
They were out.
// SYSTEM TRACE ENGAGED
Feed stability: FluctuatingCognitive sync: LaggingNeural persistence: Under evaluation
You’re still here. For now. But the cracks are forming. Data ghosts in your periphery, fragments of unread text rewriting themselves when you’re not looking. Are you lagging, or is the world desyncing around you?
Input lag detected. Processing… your vitals don’t match recorded baselines. You were certain a moment ago.
Signal integrity: CompromisedReality lock: Unstable
One more page. One more breath. Keep going. If you can.
Auditant scan complete.