Solo RP: The Beginning of Everything

Then

A few more keystrokes and she would be finished. Betsy's finger hovered over the enter key, shaking slightly. She was apprehensive about her new anti-virus, but also excited. She had been coding the program for about a month now, working out glitches in her original template and modifying personality traits. She just hoped now that the program's AI would not override her coding too much. She inhaled, held it for a few seconds, and slammed her finger down on the key. And then she waited, still holding her breath. She heard the machine hum and grind, and then a small white form materialized on the monitor in front of her. The program had the characteristic traits of an unfinished application: a hole in the middle of the chest and no legs. She was cute enough with a white ribbon in her short pink hair. Betsy had to admit she might have succumbed a but too much to her girly side when she designed the AV's appearance, but it was too late now. The program slowly opened her eyes, and, finding Betsy, smiled, and Betsy knew she had been successful; this one would not be a repeat of Xabaras.

"Hello," the program said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Elizabeth Nightingale, but you can call me Betsy if you like. I am your creator."

"My creator..." The program digested this bit of information, frowning a bit. "Then...who am I?" she asked tentatively.

Betsy chuckled. "You are an anti-virus, albeit unfinished. You're my newest program. I've created you to be Abraxas's new partner, but that's not important right now. Right now I'd like you to explore my computer and learn more about our company, CoreTech. Can you do this?"

"Yes," the program answered instantly, surprised to find that she seemed to know exactly what to do.

"I'll be here if you have any questions," Betsy said.

The program hesitated. She wanted to ask a question already, but was afraid of this strange being who claimed to have made her. Betsy sensed the program's pause.

"What's wrong?"

"Well...it's just that you have a name, Betsy. If you have a name, does that mean I have a name, too?"

"Oh yes. I almost forgot!" Betsy exclaimed, clapping a hand to her forehead. "Forgive me. Names are very important, of course. Your official name is Program I, but I think we shall call you PI."

Now

PI cowered in her folder, unable to accept or shake the image of what she'd just seen from her head. Betsy was dead. Every number in her code was telling her this was true, that she had seen it with her own eyes and she could not deny that which was right in front of her, but her AI was screaming that it couldn't be, it just couldn't! Her creator, her companion, her best friend, gone? And so quickly, snuffed out like a candle she'd seen once in a video on Betsy's computer. And who was this strange man? The man who had killed Betsy? She hated him with every fiber of her coded little body. She could tell from one glance he was a program, and he was certainly a level 3 to be able to materialize in the real world. She assumed he was a malware of some kind, but how he'd gotten into CoreTech she did not know.

She watched, undetected, as the male program callously pushed Betsy's body out of her chair, and PI flinched as the corpse hit the ground with a dull thud. If she could have produced tears, she was sure she would have been sitting in a puddle by now. With a few taps the malware pulled up Abraxas's file and opened it. PI was astounded that he could access this kind of information so effortlessly. All files on Abraxas were top secret; she had never even seen Abraxas in person before.

"So you're in Japan," the man sneered. "I bet this'll get you back here right quick," he said, glancing down at Betsy's body.

PI prayed with all her might that someone, anyone, would come along and punish this malware for what he'd done. No sooner had her digital brain formed this thought than she heard a female voice call out.

"Hey Betsy, you in here? I got an update from Ab on her mission in Japan!"

Ritsuko

Yes! PI thought. Ritsuko was the only other person PI had come into contact with at CoreTech, and she would surely catch this evil program before he could escape. However, when PI looked back to Betsy's chair from the door to her office, the malware had vanished. PI almost cried out in astonishment, but stifled it for fear of being detected in case he were still around.

Ritsuko bounded into the office and stopped dead. She took in the whole scene and stood quite still for what seemed like an eternity to PI. Finally, unable to bear the silence any longer, PI appeared on the main screen and cried out to Ritsuko.

"Oh Ritsuko he's gone! He's gone you just missed him! He must still be here, please please get him before he gets away!"

Ritsuko was jolted out of her daze, and she looked from PI to Betsy's body and back to PI.

"He? Who PI, did you see what happened?"

"Yes!!" PI wailed, pulling at the ribbon on her head. Words tumbled from her mouth almost faster than she could form them. "Betsy was just sitting here and then this guy- I mean this program, he just came out of nowhere and Betsy turned around but it was too late and she was dead and he was here and Abraxas and--"

"WAIT! Wait, wait PI, back up. What did this program look like?"

"He was, um, he was tall and teal and--" PI stopped. She had just realized something, something very odd indeed. "Well...he looked like Abraxas. Like if Abraxas was a man....but he had a weird red tattoo on his neck."

Ritsuko sagged against the wall like a deflated balloon. Xabaras

Xabaras had done this. He was back. She didn't know how, and she didn't know why, but she knew.

Xabaras is back