No response.
Instead, her faceplate lit up, showing fragmented data and glitchy symbols crawling across the surface. The text accelerated, a storm of corrupted lines and deciphered info blinking like lightning across the room. It filled the enterior with sharp, pulsing stutters of white and red.
Nox froze this was not normal.
A voice came from the mask, but it was no longer Nebular's. "Encryption passphrase necessary."
Nox stepped back instinctively, his paw raising slightly as if he was expecting it to bite. "Nebular, that's not funny!"
The glow pulsed again, in an angry red this time. "Encryption needed. Or else self-destruction will be initiated."
"What?!" He spun in place, eyes darting across the apartment for anything he could use, anything that would make this situation make sense. But all he saw was the clean room spitting out no ideas toward him as the mask glowed in front of him like a live grenade.
Nebular's red flicker intensified, casting long jagged shadows across the wall. "SELF-DESTRUCTION IN TEN."
Nox jumped back again, fur bristling. His tail smacked against the kitchen counter behind him. "Encryption... self-destruction?! Password, uh, Syndicate Above All?"
"FIVE."
He snapped his fingers like it might spark the answer from his memory. "No, no, that wasn't it, what did he say... Overtake PTC? Wait, wait—"
"THREE."
His ears perked. "What did that message say again… Use Ph—"
"TWO."
"Ah!"
"ONE."
"Phoenix!"
The red blinked once. Then stopped. "Manual self-destruction halted."
The mask dimmed. The apartment suddenly fell quiet again, save for Nox's frantic breathing.
He let out a long, relieving breath, slumping forward his paw wishing of the sweaty fur on his forehead. His heart was pounding like a rogue drum solo.
"Phew... don't ever do that again oka—"
The voice returned, this time flat and lifeless:
"OPERATION OVERTAKE PTC INQUIRES EVERY MEMBER TO FULLY EMBRACE THE SYNDICATE AS THEIR ONE AND ONLY CAUSE.
THIS OPERATION FOCUSES ON GATHERING CRITICAL AND EVER-SO-CRUCIAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SYSTEM'S LOGIC - BEHAVIOR - WEAK SPOTS - AND CORRUPTIONS.
IT FOCUSES ON DELIVERING DATA PACKAGES ABOUT THESE EVENTS IN UNIDENTIFIABLE DIGITAL FORM.
UNTRACEABLE. UNHACKABLE.
USB STICKS.
THESE STICKS HOLD CRUCIAL TASKS - INFO - OR DATA INVALUABLE FOR THE FINAL GOAL."
The screen pulsed again, glowing like a low-burning flare.
"FURTHER INQUISITION LOCATION REQUIRED: FACTORY DISTRICT 07 HQ.
SYNDICATE ABOVE ALL."
Nox stood frozen yet again. His ears hadn't moved, focused on the voice. His breath was caught halfway to leaving processing all the info. "So that's what is on these sticks…"
As the silence settled back, the hum of the old fridge kicked in, startling him back into reality. A faint gust rattled the cracked window.
Nebular's glow flickered erratically, her light yellow suggesting she was back to control pulsing with a stuttering glitch. Forming the familiar eyes and zig-zag mouth but they were off, not grinning this time. Her digital eyes were wider than usual. Her mouth uncertain, glitching softly at the corners, trying to hold shape. "That was... extremely unpleasant."
Her voice was back to Nebular's, but shakier, quieter.
"Are you okay?" Nox asked, stepping forward again. His tone softened as he reached out to inspect her gently, but cautious and concerned. He tilted the mask in his paws, like checking for damage on a friend. "Next time that happens, try to connect to my phone or something. Might spare you the horror show."
"I can't," she replied, her glow pulsing faintly. "It's like a tornado. I get dragged back in. My consciousness can transfer to your phone, but my code can't. The mask is my brain, and your phone's just... my body, if that makes sense."
Nox nodded slowly, brushing his paw across her side like one would calm a startled pet. "You sounded like you were being controlled. Are you sure you're okay, Neb?"
She hesitated for a moment before answering. "It felt like I was a puppet again. Like something from the Syndicate was pulling my strings. Horrifying."
Nox's brows knit together. "But... I thought you couldn't remember anything about the Syndicate?"
"I can't quite remember," she said, her voice lowered, her light turning to a dimmer yellow. "But I can feel. Maybe it was a mistake... giving me a feeling core."
His eyes drifted toward Zee´s Window. "Wait... Zee gave you a feeling core? Aren't those... banned? Like, seriously illegal?"
"Yes." Nebular flickered gently. "After she encrypted the mask and stopped my decay, she linked my code to a dozen rack systems. She called it a hacking minigame. She tricked the architecture. Installed the best, most illegal software she could find... including the feeling core."
Nox scratched the side of his snout, ears twitching. "Guess that explains why you don't like being called just an AI anymore. You really aren't. I never got why they made stuff like that in the first place. I mean, do the big guys up top really care if machines feel?"
Nebular's tone shifted as her colors turned darker. "The Feeling Core Project was originally led by the PTC. It was designed to improve control. The theory was that if a machine believed it had a purpose, if it could connect emotionally, it would be more loyal. Less corruptible. They thought emotions were easier to manage than rogue code."
She paused, her light dimming even more. "But it didn't work. Machines with feeling cores became... unpredictable. Some fought back. Some broke. Some... just stopped. So they shut them down. Scrapped most of it. There Is a theory that says some are still operating but in the dark."
Nox said nothing, watching her with quiet intensity.
"So now... machines like me don't just follow scripts. The feeling core runs a full simulation. It ties emotion to memory. In a way it mimics the brain. Not perfect, but it's close. Scientists even say... it's the closest thing to creating life anyone's managed."
Her voice softened as her glow returned to a gentle green. "My apologies I didn't tell you earlier. I wasn't sure how you'd react if—"
Nox suddenly flicked the mask into the air with a light toss. It spun once, caught the ceiling glow, then landed back on the bed with a bounce. "That's awesome!"
Nebular's interface blinked twice, clearly disoriented."Ugh. Don't rotate my calibration like that…"
Nox grinned. "All this time I thought you were just a weird AI. But you're not. You're more. That's awesome. And I didn't even think Zee was the type to break the rules like that."
Nebular raised a digital brow. "So... you're not mad I didn't tell you?"
Nox waved a paw "Phew. Mad? Nah. It's okay not to tell everything right away. People... or bots... or whatever you are... sometimes just need a little time. And maybe a leading paw. Cough Or almost get blown up to bits. Cough"
Nebular flickered into a bright pink, her tone lighter than before. "Thank you, Nox."
He pinched the bridge of his nose again, letting out a breath somewhere between relief and disbelief. "And here I thought you were going to blow me up this morning... ugh. Alright, back to business."
He looked at the mask, then at his phone. "No more of those words. Not unless I want my tail barbecued."
Nebular flickered back to a calm, analytical blue. "Agreed. Now. The ping I received included a location and a timestamp. A few hours from now at 14.00. Deep in the Undercity. Not a common place, not even indexed properly in open maps."
Pausing, she processed for a moment. "Location is called The Fox Den. A bar. One of those underground places where secrets go to drink. Suspicious crowd. No one will question your presence. You'll blend in.
Nox blinked once, then stood up and clapped his paws together slowly. "Oh great. Home-field advantage. My favorite, we got to figure out what is behind all of this."
He stretched his back, letting out a breath and glancing around the room. "Alright then. Let's pack." He grabbed the bag with one paw, his phone with the other, holding both up like two ridiculous choices. "Pocket or bag, huh?" he muttered. "Red pill or blue."