Glitch'd - Ch.10 - End Of Line (Patreon)

** content warning: misgendering, implied / systemic transmisia **

I ended up staying with Glitch at her PNW cottage simulation until it was time for my next shift at Trodacorp. As usual I bounced through a dozen private and public mesh portals before linking into the work servers. And just like my last shift, I found myself once again routed directly into my boss's lair.

Except for the first time ever, the dark cavernous space didn't set my nerves on edge. Neither did Mr. Ulriken's giant floating head, as he gazed down on me with disdain.

Only thirty-six hours had passed since the last time I found myself standing before him, but so much had happened that it felt like a lifetime. Back then I thought I was a pretty good delver, I thought I knew my way around the mesh, and I thought I knew where I stood in the world. I also thought I was a guy.

Now I knew I was really a petite purple anthro foxgirl. I knew the megacorp I worked for was a lot more evil than I'd ever suspected. And I knew my delving skills weren't so great after all. But I also knew the best delver in the business, and she'd already started teaching me some of her tricks.

So when I looked up at my boss's oversized avatar I no longer saw a man who could make or break me, or a person who held my fate in his hands. I saw a petty evil prick who hid his insecurities behind his bloated floating head, who pretended that he was better and more important than everyone else he worked with.

"Mr. Klove," he stated as he looked my new avatar over with a barely disguised sneer, "This new avatar of yours is even more inappropriate than the last."

My tail twitched in irritation and my ears folded back, and I almost had to bite my tongue to keep from saying what was really on my mind. Instead I forced myself to stay respectful as I replied, "Actually Mr. Ulriken if you don't mind, it's Miss Klove now? And my pronouns are she / her. Or you could just call me Wisp, like I've been saying all along."

The giant floating head frowned a little harder at me for a few seconds then intoned, "The correct protocol Mr. Klove is to submit the required government documentation to the Trodacorp HR portal. You can do that on your own time however, your shift has already begun here and I won't have you wasting any more of my time."

It was getting harder to stay civil as I responded, "I'm aware of the company policies sir. I was hoping you'd be aware of common decency."

"And you're the one who summoned me then started talking about my appearance," I added.

His eyes narrowed as he stared at me for another second or two, and I was positive he was trying to figure out why I wasn't grovelling like usual. And to be fair I probably should have just sucked it up and played the part like I used to. But then again, what's the point of being a rebel if you can't have some fun with it?

Except I couldn't actually risk jeopardizing the plan. So after another second or so I let my tail and ears droop as I apologized, "Sorry for speaking out of turn Mr. Ulriken sir. What was it you wanted to see me about?"

He watched me for another second or two before responding, "I've reviewed the incident reports from your last shift and found them lacking Mr. Klove. I want you to perform a full audit on that security breach you patched, then prepare a new set of incident reports based on the results of the audit."

"And be thorough this time," he added with another frown. "I do not want to have this conversation again. Do you understand me, Mr. Klove?"

My tail twitched and my ears folded back as he intentionally misgendered me yet again. Unfortunately if I'd said what was on my mind just then I might have got myself in real trouble, and I couldn't afford that yet.

So I forced myself to do the act again and replied, "Yes sir Mr. Ulriken, loud and clear sir."

"Then get to work," he ordered.

As much as the guy annoyed me, that actually turned out to be the perfect assignment. It meant I'd be back in the same data centre Glitch hacked the other day, which was exactly where I needed to be. So I could spend my shift hanging around there looking busy on my boss's orders, rather than having to come up with some excuse on my own to be there.

Ulriken and his lair dissolved into random bits while I ported directly into the database servers. I didn't bother with the virtual environment UI, although now that I had an avatar I was happy with I understood the appeal of interacting with things on a physical level. For now though it was easier to do my real work in the purely digital realm.

First I set up a slow and very unoptimized routine to perform the audit my boss wanted, so if anyone checked in on me they'd see I was doing my job. And while that clunked along in the open, I initiated a very sleek and very hidden search subprocess, to locate the exact memory address where Knut Solberg's avatar was stored.

As I waited for my search results I double-checked the four files Glitch gave me, and my thoughts drifted back to our last conversation. The one where we finalized our plans.

In addition to the incriminating memo, the green-haired delver also had Knut's agenda for this week. So she knew when and where he was going to be, and his next visit into the mesh was scheduled to happen in less than an hour. He'd be attending a virtual meeting with various government officials, which would be followed by a press conference. And that's when Glitch would strike, with my help.

The first of those files was a combination backdoor and trace routine, but way more complex than anything I'd seen before. As soon as my search returned that memory address I'd turn it loose in the servers. The routine would basically send an encrypted signal to Glitch, wherever she was in the mesh, and unlock the door so she could slip in past all Trodacorp's normal security routines.

After that I just had to wait and act busy, until the pre-determined time. At which point I'd load the second and third files into the avatar database servers. They were a couple viral worms that Glitch and I wrote together, and both were set to target all staff working in the megacorp's security divisions.

Once released the worms would cause a massive diversion, by attacking the very people who were supposed to protect Trodacorp from those sorts of threats. The first one would go after the rank-and-file staff, people like myself. Although it wouldn't actually affect me, I'd taken steps to ensure it would skip my account when it crawled the database.

And although its payload was sure to disrupt, it wasn't particularly malicious. In fact it was basically the same thing Glitch hit me with when we first met. It would forcibly recreate all Trodacorp security staff avatars into whatever shape or form suited each individual the best.

The second viral worm targeted the management level and above, and its payload was similar but not as benign. It would forcibly rewrite their avatars, but I'd tweaked it to be a little more creative, and a little less friendly. It wouldn't quite reach nightmare-levels, but it would definitely bring more than a few managers' deepest fears or darkest secrets out into the open.

The fourth and final file was my salvation, my ticket to freedom. It was the digitization code, and I hadn't actually used it yet. After some discussion I decided to wait until after the job was done.

The people I'd hired to look after my meatsack were pretty good at their job, and that meant my 'death' might be detected and reported before the rest of our plan was complete. If that happened I could lose access to the Trodacorp servers before I was finished my part of the job, and I couldn't risk that. So I was saving that for the end.

Whatever happened, if they somehow figured out I was involved in either the big diversion or the CEO account hijack, it wouldn't matter. Even if they tried to capture or isolate me, I'd still have the last laugh. That file would forcibly cut my connection to Trodacorp as well as to my physical shell. My consciousness would be routed back to Glitch's secure server, where I'd be ready to begin my new life as a digital denizen of the mesh.

There was just over an hour to go on the count-down timer I'd added to my HUD, when my search process completed its task. I had the exact memory address of Knut Solberg's avatar file. One of the most powerful men on the planet, and I basically knew where to find the keys to his digital life.

If I'd been rezzed my hands would probably be shaking as I pasted the address into Glitch's trace routine. Then after a moment to steady my virtual nerves, I activated it and let it loose. It quickly encrypted itself then faded away, spreading out across the mesh in a thousand different directions.

"Hey Wisp?" an audio data packet startled me, and if I'd been in the graphical UI I might have jumped.

Another audio data packet followed as my coworker asked, "I can see you lurking in the data. Rez up man, it's weird trying to talk to you when you're just a stream of bits."

I took a second to make extra certain there was no trace of Glitch's routines on me, before I finally let myself rez into the virtual environment.

Badger was standing in front of me, and the two of us were on one of the walkways in the huge avatar storage server. Row after row of those upright lockers lined the walls, each with a screen on the front that indicated if the user was online or not, and if so what they were up to.

"Woah! You're still a cute little foxgirl chick!" my assistant exclaimed as his eyes ran up and down over my body.

I rolled my eyes, "And you're still a boring skinny geek. What of it?"

He really was too. I was positive his avatar was just a scan of his meatsack. He was an ok delver, but the guy did not have much in the way of imagination.

"So how come you haven't changed your av back to normal yet?" he asked in confusion.

I forced myself to sound calm and confident as I replied, "I've decided I like this better. My handle's still Wisp, but my pronouns are now she and her."

Then while he was still processing that I added, "Why are you here, Badger? I have work to do, and I assume you do too."

"Oh right," he nodded. "Ulriken sent me to give you a hand. He said something about a complete security audit?"

It might have been a touch of paranoia, but I couldn't help wondering if our boss sent Badger to check up on me. Then again, my assistant wasn't exactly a threat. I might not have been as great a delver as I once thought, but I was still twice as good at the job as him.

So I let out a long sigh as I frowned, "Yeah, that's what I was in the middle of when you interrupted."

"Tell you what," I added after coming to a quick decision, "Let's take this in a logical progression. I've already started my audit from the beginning of the address block, so I want you to go to the end and work backwards. That way we're not doubling up on anything, and we won't get in each other's way. And we'll be done twice as fast, when we meet up in the middle."

Most of that was bullshit, but it was enough to get my assistant out of my fur for now. He ported himself to the opposite end of the data centre, which was a few kilometres away in the UI. And as soon as he was gone I derezzed and slipped back into the data stream, but I kept track of Badger's location just in case.

Then I just watched and waited, until my count-down timer hit zero. And the instant it did I released my two viral worms into my employer's data centre. Even without Glitch's plan, I'd just committed the single biggest digital crime of my life. And it was scary, but it was also exhilarating.

A few seconds after I'd done it I got another audio packet from my assistant, "Wisp! Help! I just got av-jacked!"

Badger's voice sounded higher pitched, but not feminine. I decided I had to see what he looked like, so I rezzed back into the virtual environment again. Then it took me a couple seconds to find him, because it honestly didn't occur to me to look down.

"Badger?!" I asked as I tried not to burst out in giggles. "Is that you?"

He nodded, "Yeah! I don't know what happened! Something took control of my interface, and pow! New avatar!"

"Yeah I can see that," I smiled. "Are you um, are you ok?"

After a brief hesitation he replied, "Actually yeah. I am. Is that weird? I think maybe it's weird. But this is strangely alright."

"I'm glad to hear that," I said as I fought back another giggle.

After a moment I smirked, "I mean, it kind of fits you. You know? Badger."

My assistant Badger was now literally a badger. Not a badger-boy, or an anthro badger. He was an actual literal quadrupedal animal badger.

"I know right?" he responded. "That's why it's my handle. I like badgers. They're cute but relentless, they got the attitude, the whole thing!"

"Oh shit," he added a moment later. "Are you seeing this?"

"Yeah. I'm seeing it," I nodded slowly.

My HUD was starting to overflow with thousands of messages from other coworkers throughout the network. Half of them were panicking, others were taking it in stride. Then those messages were replaced with hundreds more, angry panicky demands from all the various bosses and managers. My little worms had been busy, and from the sound of it they were still hard at work.

After a few more seconds Badger asked, "What do we do?"

I shrugged, "If you're ok with the new av then I guess don't worry about it? You can still do your job, that's the important thing. How's the audit going?"

"Slowly," he sighed. "Shouldn't we worry about this other thing though? This seems like some kind of massive breach, right Wisp?"

I couldn't help smiling as I nodded, "Yeah it does. But Ulriken wants this audit done, and until he says otherwise I'm going to stay here and keep at it."

Ten minutes later I received a ping from the Trodacorp CEO himself, Knut Solberg. Any other day of my life that would have scared me to death. Not today though, because it was actually from Glitch. One of the most powerful men in the world just got his account hijacked, while his megacorp's entire security staff were freaking out over their new avatars. And it was all thanks to me.

At that point there was nothing to do but wait for someone to track the worms or the Solberg hack back to me. So I waited. And waited.

Eventually I realized nobody was coming, they were all too busy freaking out about other things. I couldn't help feeling disappointed about that. I wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, not sneak off unnoticed in the background. And that's when my best and possibly stupidest idea came to me.

I routed myself out of the database and back the way I'd originally come, which returned me directly into my boss's office. And I couldn't help smiling when I saw what my worm had done to him.

Instead of the meters-tall giant floating head, Mr. Ulriken's head had shrunk down even smaller than normal. And rather than floating free, it was now grafted onto the body of a little lap-dog. He looked comically ridiculous as he ran back and forth yapping angrily at the various holographic vid screens floating around his cavernous office.

"Mr. Klove!" he barked up at me when he finally noticed I was there. "What is the meaning of this intrusion! Why aren't you out there fixing this mess?!"

My ears were angled forward while my tail wagged happily behind me. I smiled down at him and replied, "Oh I'm ontop of it Mr. Ulriken. In fact that's why I'm here sir. I know how much you love reports, and I have a few really important things I know you'll want to hear in person."

"What is it then?!" he demanded impatiently while his little curly tail twitched a couple times.

My smile grew wider as I replied, "So first up is more of a 'me' thing, but I'm happy to report that since my new avatar has hands and fingers I'm finally able to do this."

As I spoke I held up both hands, then turned them around into fists and extended my middle fingers upwards. He stared wide-eyed up at me as I flipped him off, too shocked to even respond.

Meanwhile I continued, "Second thing Mr. Ulriken is, fuck you. I quit."

"And the third thing I need you to know is this," I added as I mentally deactivated my HUD and disabled my security software. Then just before triggering the digitization file I looked down at my inconsequential little ex-boss and stated, "I'm a girl. And my name is Wisp!"

The moment I said the words it was like the whole world began to dissolve into random data. Not just Ulriken and his lair, but everything. Trodacorp, the servers, somehow I could even feel the connection back to my meatsack start to fragment.

A second later the digital ties binding me to my physical shell finally snapped, and everything went dark.

** This chapter was brought to you courtesy of Camille, who commissioned it! **