Glitch'd - Epilogue (Patreon)

"My name's Glitch," the infamous green-haired delver introduced herself to three of her biggest fans, "And I just came by to check on my partner."

Her smile shifted to a smirk as she focused on me, "How are you doing there Wisp? Holding up ok?"

Any answer I might have had was completely drowned out by three catgirls all loudly squeeing at once. That was followed by a chorus of questions for both Glitch and myself, while at the same time the triplets did their best to hug the floof out of me.

"You're working with Glitch?!"

"You're working with our Wisp?!"

"Glitch called you her partner?!"

"When were you going to tell us?!"

"Can we get in on this too?"

"Does your team have any more openings?"

"Have you two spent the last ten days hiding out together?!"

"Wait are you just delving partners? Or something more?"

"Oooh what's our Wisp really been up to?!"

I was blushing again under my fur as the barrage of questions started getting more personal, but fortunately Glitch was there to save me. Or at least, she was there to answer some of the questions. Unfortunately some of her answers only made things even worse.

"Yeah me and Wisp teamed up on this," she responded.

As soon as she spoke all three catgirls went silent, then sat there listening wide-eyed while their hero talked about our big heist.

"Honestly I couldn't have done it without your friend's help," she claimed. "Wisp got me the insider info I needed to hijack Solberg's account. Then she went above and beyond, by providing me with the perfect distraction too. The big Troda Worm Attack was all her idea."

By the time Glitch was done all three catgirls were staring at me again, with wide happy smiles on their faces.

"Wow," nil mumbled. "After all the times we tried to talk you into joining us -"

NaN took over, "All the times we tried to get you to pick a side..."

"You didn't just stop sitting on the fence," null stated softly. "You kicked the fence down then set it on fire."

"Absolutely epic," NaN concluded.

Then nil exclaimed, "Ok we need to celebrate! This calls for something special!"

"Excellent idea," Glitch agreed. Then with another smirk she asked, "Have you folks ever heard of a little place called Buffer Overflow?"

nil and NaN agreed to forget about that beef that was keeping them away from the club, then we routed over there together as a group. Except Glitch and I were still keeping her backdoor a secret, so all five of us went in the normal way.

The mirrored orb at the door looked surprised to have the infamous Glitch turn up at the club, and I couldn't help wondering how a featureless metal sphere could be so expressive. I also got the feeling TeeCee knew more about Glitch than she let on, but it wasn't the time or place to ask about that.

Things got even more hectic once we were inside, and I immediately understood why Glitch preferred her Hex alt out in public. Except folks weren't just interested in their delver idol. They were excited to meet me too, and that was a very strange new experience.

In fact we didn't get any real privacy until Glitch announced that the drinks were on her for a couple hours. That led to even more of a party atmosphere, but it also allowed us to claim a relatively quiet corner of the club for ourselves.

I somehow ended up in the middle as we got seated in a big semi-circular booth. I had Glitch next to me on my right and nil immediately to my left, with NaN sitting a little further to the left while Null was on Glitch's right. And we all had digital drinks in front of us, although none of them were as potent as the one I'd tried on my first visit. For now we were all just drinking digital cocktails, the software equivalent of a light alcoholic beverage.

"To our little Wisp," nil announced as she raised her glass. "For coming out, choosing a side, and quitting her job, all in the most epic way possible!"

I blushed once again as they all drank a toast to me. Then I countered, "To Glitch, for helping me break free of all the self-imposed shells and chains that were holding me back."

After we all drank to that my newest friend responded, "I just showed you what was possible Wisp. You're the one that made it happen. Although I'm sure the triplets here helped. NaN, null, nil, thank you all for looking out for Wisp, and for being such good friends to her."

"Of course we look out for her," null smiled. "Wisp's family, she's one of us."

nil and NaN both drank to that, which led to another round or two of toasts as we all thanked and congratulated each other again. Then nil asked Glitch about the possibility of working together, since all three catgirls were eager to join their hero and I as partners in crime.

"I kind of have a rule against working with other delvers," Glitch replied in an apologetic tone. "A lot of people have asked over the years, but it's safer for me to work alone."

After another sip of her drink she elaborated, "I don't do small jobs, and obviously trusting the wrong people could put me at risk. That goes both ways, bringing other people in on one of my gigs would put them in danger as well."

Before any of us could ask she admitted, "Wisp here's actually the first delver I've ever teamed up with."

That news caught me by surprise and I couldn't help giving her a quizzical look. "Then why'd you do it? You could have just stolen my security tokens and hacked Solberg's avatar yourself. Why take a chance with a corpo tool like me?"

Glitch gave me a warm smile, "Intuition? Like I said before Wisp, I saw something in you."

"Anyways even if I could have hacked that asshole's account on my own it wouldn't have been anywhere near as effective," she added. "Your worm attack bought me all the time I needed to dig up every last bit of dirt Solberg had on file."

I gave her a pointed look, "So what you're saying is, working with a partner was more effective than going solo? In that case, imagine what you could do with three more top-notch players on your team."

Just like that all three catgirls had pleading looks on their faces. All three pairs of black furry ears were folded back, they all had puffed-out cheeks and pouty lips, and three pairs of big doe-eyes stared at Glitch.

The infamous delver held up for almost five whole seconds, before her resolve crumbled.

"Ok. Maybe. I can't guarantee anything just yet," she sighed. "I'll keep you in mind though, next time a job comes up."

Then she grumbled into her drink, "You three are too damn good at that pleading-kitty look."

Of course by then their expressions had flipped. All six ears and three tails were standing straight up, their faces were all excited eyes and happy smiles. I could even hear the three of them purring, over the background din of the club.

"Thanks!" NaN exclaimed.

"We won't let you down," null added.

nil agreed, "You won't regret it!"

"I'm only doing this because I trust Wisp," Glitch stated. "And she seems to trust the three of you."

I nodded, "With my life. You heard what null said earlier, the triplets and I are family."

"We are," nil agreed.

It didn't happen overnight, but that family eventually grew to include Glitch as well. Despite she and I starting off on opposite sides of the fence we'd already grown pretty close. What began as a convenient partnership quickly blossomed into friendship, and that came with some benefits which both of us enjoyed.

My relationship with the triplets continued to grow as well, and I ended up dividing my time almost equally between them. I helped the catgirls with their various heists and crimes, while also teaming up with Glitch whenever she needed an assist. The infamous delver even brought nil null and NaN in on a couple really complex jobs, where it simply wasn't possible for one or even two delvers to succeed on their own.

And while we were busy in the mesh, all five of us also kept an eye on the ongoing fallout from the Trodacorp hack.

All that dirt Glitch uncovered led to hundreds of arrests, and dozens of high-profile trials. For a while it seemed like every news update brought more evidence of corpo greed, corruption, and crime into the spotlight. Stuff everyone suspected was suddenly proved to be true, and every new revelation led to even greater public outrage. Which in turn helped further empower those seeking justice, so they could do their jobs without fear of corpo retaliation.

Our biggest reward came when the sentences were handed out. Solberg and a bunch of his fellow execs and board members would all be enjoying some lengthy stays in the same sort of underwater work-house prisons that killed my mother.

The five of us had another celebration that day. In a way it felt like both my mom and my sister were avenged, and I hoped they'd be able to rest a little easier after that.

It also felt like Glitch and I maybe started a bit of a revolution. I knew the world wasn't going to change overnight. The megacorps and the rich folks who ran them would fight tooth and nail. But we'd shown the world that they weren't untouchable, and now everyone knew they weren't above the law either. That gave people hope, which in turn inspired more folks to stand up and do the right thing.

After decades of darkness and despair, it finally felt like the world had a future after all.

In fact there was only one ongoing source of dread still haunting me, and I couldn't blame that on the megacorps. It was because of all the secrets Glitch and I were keeping from the triplets.

The catgirls were smart and observant, and it turned out they'd known all along that I wasn't logging out of the mesh like usual. Once they started working with both Glitch and me, it didn't take them long to figure out their hero didn't log off either. And eventually the three of them started asking some very awkward questions about that.

Which in turn led to a long private conversation between Glitch and I, ultimately resulting in the two of us agreeing to invite the triplets to join the club. When the time came all five of us met in one of our secure servers, and Glitch let me take the lead since I'd known the catgirls a lot longer than she had.

So I told nil null and NaN about digitization. I told them I'd done it, and confirmed that body the corpo cops found in the Nyfoss slums was really mine. I also admitted that I'd been in the mesh full-time long before being digitized. I didn't elaborate on my reasons, and thankfully they didn't ask.

They did have a lot of the questions about the actual process, mostly relating to safety, freedom, and data integrity. I was maybe a little more forthcoming with my answers to the catgirls than Glitch was to me back then, but only because I already knew and trusted them implicitly.

In the end the three of them needed less than ten minutes to talk it over before making the decision. And needless to say, they wanted in. Meatspace wasn't any better for them than it had been for me, although none of them were careless or stupid enough to try what I'd been doing before Glitch saved me. Still, they were all eager to ditch their meatsacks once and for all, and join us as permanent residents of the digital domain.

nil was actually ready to do it immediately, but when null and NaN both said they needed a day or two to prepare nil agreed to wait for them. It was important she said, that all three of them were reborn into their new digital lives at the same time. Out in meatspace they were separated by thousands of kilometres and dozens of years. When they started over in the mesh they wanted to be triplets in more than just appearance.

Just over a day and a half after telling them about digitization, I found myself back in one of our secure servers with the catgirls. All three were almost bouncing in anticipation, but I tried to stay serious.

"This is the file," I said as I passed each of them a copy of the same program I'd used more than half a year earlier. Then I reminded them, "You'll have to disable all your security settings first. Get rid of your HUDs, remove any defences. If you scan it it'll read as dangerous, and that's because it is."

After a brief dramatic pause I gave them the final warning, "Once you trigger that file there's no going back. You'll be digital entities, without any presence in the physical world. And you'll be stuck in this server with me for a while, so I can teach you everything you'll need to know about being digital denizens of the mesh."

The catgirls exchanged some naughty smiles. Then nil teased, "So we'll be 'trapped' here? With you? In this private luxury tropical island paradise simulation?"

"Three happy catgirls, all alone with our adorable sexy little foxgirl Wisp, for days on end?" null added in the same teasing tone.

"Sounds like a tough assignment," NaN smiled. Then her eyes flicked up and down over my figure and her smile became a smirk, "But I'm confident Wisp will survive. As long as we remember to go easy on her."

I did my best not to react to the taunts, but my wagging tail gave me away. The smiles and smirks faded a few seconds later anyways, as the triplets' focus shifted away from me and they all looked to each other.

nil null and NaN joined each other in a group hug, then closed their eyes and activated the digitization process as one. The three catgirl avatars flickered then dissolved into random bits and pixels, but I wasn't alone for long.

A second or two later I felt their data streams reforming, but they didn't rez right away. Instead they let their feeds mingle and run together as the digitization process continued.

Rather than three separate pools of data they flowed into a single unified resource, which grew until the triple-digitization was complete. Only then did their avatars rejoin me on the beach next to the simulated ocean. Three identical naked catgirls rezzed in place, still holding each other in a triple embrace.

Then they all let go and turned to face me, their movements perfectly synchronized. Three pairs of black fuzzy ears angled towards me, while three black furry tails twitched back and forth mischievously. Three pairs of eyes lit up, and I was met with three naughty grins.

"It's amazing Wisp," nil began.

"It's everything we ever wanted and more," null agreed.

NaN wrapped it up, "And now we're going to show you how grateful we are."

Three furry tails flicked, and three naked purring catgirls pounced at the same time. I was trapped in another three-way hug, as they all tried to squeeze the floof out of me once again.

~ The End ~

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