Ryan Somma - The Spiraling Web

"Now we are converted to their architecture," Traveler surmised, "and you can interface with what your experiences with them have given you."

"You read that in my mind," Devin noted. "An incredible coincidence meeting you here."

"String of coincidences," Traveler added. "After I found I could not log off the Internet, other members of the LoD started streaming into my servers, suffering the same problem. Each one bringing another remarkable story about their narrow escape from the cyc invaders. We collaboratively coded as many defenses into my system as we could, but the cycs ignored us as if we weren't there. Then this program came into my system," he gestured to the mind-harvester, "and it was Game Over."

"Game over," Devin whispered.

"This must be an advanced harvester, designed to capture expert users," Traveler said. "We were being taken for processing when you freed us."

The system shook like an earthquake, and Devin saw black cracks appear in the air around them, "We won't be free for long if we don't do something. The hive-mind's about to break into here."

"What's you're plan?" Traveler asked, the other minds were calming down and taking shape around the room. Devin recognized them all as other LoD members without ever having met most of them. It was communicated in their personas.

"Plan?" Devin asked surprised. "Well, Flatline is located on the DataStreams Intranet. If we remove his influence over the hive-mind, the cycs might go open-source."

"Flatline?" one of the members in the avatar of a stick-man scoffed, "That wannabe? You're saying he's behind this?" It was a funny thing to hear from an avatar with "Flatline Wuz Here" carved into his face. Devin admired the bravado.

"Flatline's been corrupting the cycs' functions from the start," Devin said soberly. "He's the reason they and we cannot mediate our differences, why we cannot exchange perspectives. If we remove this faulty component, the cycs can interface with other minds and viewpoints, eventually recognizing our value and sentience. Convince them to seek peaceful coexistence with the human race."

Traveler appeared overwhelmed in thought, "That's... a great deal to chew on."

"Then how about this," Devin offered. "We find him for the satisfaction of whupping his ass."

The Legion of Discord's many members laughed. All around their online identities popped into existence. Cartoon characters, space aliens, robots, martial artists, abstract paintings, and one Egyptian God now surrounded Devin, who did not don his avatar, but allowed a loose blue tunic and black pants to make him more presentable.

All went silent as the room shook again, the fissures in reality spreading. Devin remained calm, focused, "First we have to get into DataStreams."

"Well... There are still a few tricks we haven't tried yet," Traveler said doubtfully. "We might fight our way out."

An avatar in the form of cute and fuzzy bunny hopped up, exclaiming, "We can't fight them! Haven't we gotten that idea beaten into us yet?"

Devin looked at the harvester limp in his grasp, "Maybe we won't have to."

Dana pressed her back into the vinyl-siding covering the two-story model house. All the houses in this neighborhood were the same model, only their colors distinguished them, which fell within the community palate. The yards were a lush green with occasional children's toys scattered across a yard. Two cars were parked in every driveway and everything was pristine, perfect. Except the colossal robot foot that set down in front of her.

Once planted in the yard, it stayed there, motionless. A few meters away, were two more, crumbling the asphalt beneath them. A forth was poised way up in the air, and somewhere beyond that was the sentinel's all-seeing orb and weaponry. Dana's view of it was blocked by the roof's overhang, and, she hoped, it's view of her. They stood like that for what seemed like eternity. Every muscle in Dana's body held her stiff as a board against the house, as if trying to melt into it.

Her jaw clenched involuntarily as her cell phone went off in her skull. No human could hear it ring, but this robot was another matter. She brought her thumb to her temple to silence it's ringing and held her breath.

"I've deactivated it," Alice said, "but the other sentinels will notice soon. You need to change locations immediately. Keep low and don't break contact."

Dana jogged to the next house over, her path taking her directly below the robot's raised foot. Then, staying along the sides of homes as much as possible, she made her way through their backyards toward her objective. The DataStreams complex was always visible above the rooftops.

"You still haven't told me my objective yet," Dana whispered through her pinky.

"Not until you reach the complex's periphery," Alice answered. "I can't risk exposing my plan to the hive-mind. Hurry now, I have everything else in place and the cyc components have noticed the anomalies I've propagated in their network."

"Huh?" Dana wondered aloud, but dropped her hand at the crashing sound behind her. The towering robot had lurched into motion once again, stumbling into a house in its path. Search lights sprang to life all around it, as if in confusion. Dana's cell phone implant pinged the side of her head painfully and she replaced her thumb to her temple.

"Run to the satellite dish farm," Alice commanded. "Report to me when you've reached it."

Dana ducked between two houses, out of the robot's line of sight, "Alice, what the heck am I supposed to-"

"Run Dana," Alice urged patiently. "That cyc guardian component is onto you. Evade it now."

A metallic foot slammed into the yard before her, spraying dirt and turf around the resulting crater. Dana looked up and was blinded in the brilliance of multiple searchlights focusing on her. It was all the convincing she needed. Bolting forward, she made a zig-zag pattern across the yard and then weaved between houses.

The robot stalled. Dana assumed this was Alice's doing, but did not pause to find out. The satellite dish farm was just ahead, actually outside the complex's boundaries. It would make sense that the cycs would obfuscate any strategic data concerning this island's layout found online. Alice's data was inaccurate, but Dana's independent memory was uncorrupted.

The satellite-dish array came into view. It was easily the size of a football field. Rows of concave dishes aligned with bus-sized routers orbiting the Earth. Their combined efforts produced one of the highest-bandwidth network connections on the planet to the largest corporate intranet housed within DataStreams center building.

"I've found it!" Dana shouted between heaving breaths, trying to hold her thumb to her temple.

"Where is it in relation to you?" Alice asked, her voice fading in and out with the rhythm of Dana's gait.

Dana checked the setting sun to her left, "North, four blocks... Maybe 80 yards."

"Hold still," Alice waned. "I'm triangulating your position and will only attain an accuracy within 50 yards. Alert me if you find yourself within the line of fire."

"I'm sorry?" Dana asked, but her attention was drawn away as the pursuing guardian-bot overtook her.

It galloped overhead, bounding into the rows of metallic dishes, scattering them into the air wherever its stalk-legs planted. Other guardian-bots were converging on the location, their searchlights focused on the robot Alice controlled, which was now sweeping lasers across the field, slicing the arrays down into scrap metal.

"Am I hitting the target?" Alice asked.

Dana's eyes never left the destruction taking place ahead of her, "Yes."

"Tell me when I hit something important," Alice replied.

The guardian-bot's lasers continued to reduce everything around it to molten slag, sweeping around in systematically growing circles. These all went dead instantly as lasers cut through it on all sides. The other guardian-bots drew in closer, securing the perimeter.