RE: {Amlipeda} - Homepage of Amity.EXE
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Excellent.
Here's a link to a public location we can meet and discuss further details.
Beach Net
See you soon
-CrypticMan
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A network link to the mission site. This was really happening.
"Eric! Wake up! We have work to do!" she yelled, knowing full well that he couldn't yet hear her.
Eric was fast asleep, which didn't surprise Amy at all. On their first morning together she'd been his alarm clock, and he'd been just as moody about being woken up early as she had been only moments ago, so it was probably going to take a similar motivation of jabbing or stirring to get him to wake. Amy pulled up the 'Transmission' menu in preparation of entering Hologen mode, but interestingly there was a new option available. Alongside 'Transfer', 'Interface' and 'Hologen', a new option was listed: 'Augment'.
Amy knew that Eric had stayed up later than she did; he said he was going to work as many hours as possible. Was it possible he'd also played with the server last night as well? One way to be certain; with a slight hesitation, she activated the 'Augment' option, not sure what to expect next.
With a blinding flash, Amy opened her eyes to find herself in Eric's room again. Not the miniature size she'd been in Hologen mode, but full size. At first Amy thought it may have been a simulation, just a replica of his room, but when she turned to her right Eric was fast asleep on his bed, sprawled out in a starfish formation.
A wide grin slowly crossed Amy's face. It was rude to assume Eric knew what he'd done, but Amy couldn't resist the opportunity that had been presented to her. He'd been so bashful about her possibly seeing him half naked; he'd probably freak out if he woke up with an unknown female next to him.
First, she had to know whether she was just a hologram or if she was real. She reached for the photo frame next to the server, and to her utter glee she was able to pick it up. Placing it down as delicately as she picked it up, she proceeded to gently pick up Eric's right arm and fold it back across his body. When Eric didn't stir, she nudged his body ever so slowly across the bed so that it occupied the left half only. With everything in place, Amy lowered herself onto the right side and laid down next to him.
"Eric. Errrrric..." she cooed into his ear.
His eyes fluttered as his consciousness began to return. A chain of groans, grunts and whines followed as his arms rotated to the wall so he could stretch out. It was too perfect; she giggled as the moments drew on.
That same giggling finally drew Eric's head back towards the source of the sounds. In a drunken-like state, his blurry eyes opened to stare directly into Amy's.
"Good morrrrning, precious..." she cooed further.
The reaction was swift and immediate. Eyes jerking wide open, Eric flew back in a panic towards the edge of the bed that met the wall. Such a strong thrust caused the bed to shift as well, opening up a gap between the bed and the wall which Eric's scrawny body was all too suitable to fit into. Tumbling into place, only his arms stuck out from the resulting gap as the rest of his body sank into it, further fuelling Amy's hysterical laughter.
"Oh my goodness!" The prankster was wiping back tears of joy. "That was PERFECT!" She may have to apologise for that later, but it had definitely been worth it to see his reaction.
Amy had to take a minute to compose herself before she finally decided to help Eric, who was too tightly jammed in the new crevice to be able to get out under his own power. Leveraging herself against the wall, Amy was able to give him a boost that allowed him to roll back onto the bed.
Eric rubbed the back of his head; he'd hit it against the wall in his bout of terror. "That really hurt..." he complained.
"Well, you shouldn't have let me find out the hard way that you'd been playing with my stuff without me!" she joked.
Eric had a supremely unimpressed look on his face, but as he stood up he took a look at his partner and squinted at her new form. "So. I guess I was right," he remarked.
"About what?"
"The 'Augment' function. It does make a real-life version of you after all."
"Are you... saying I can exist in the real world now...?"
Eric pointed to four small objects that were stuck to the corners of the room where the wall met the ceiling. She hadn't noticed them earlier. "According to the manual, they are wireless relays that allow you to 'augment' inside the field they create. But only inside the field; apparently you can't step outside of it," he added. "But... I think it might have been a bad ide-"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she appealed to him like a little child. "I couldn't resist! Please don't be mad! I won't do it again, promise!"
Eric just rubbed the back of his head again as he sighed and sat back down on the bed.
"In that case, let's try this out..." Amy remarked. A style change later and Amy now stood in front of Eric in the Spring style. She stole a glance at the full-length mirror that covered the doors of Eric's cupboard to see the same lady that had been holding her arm around Heather Dougherty.
"That was definitely me, wasn't it."
"I guess so." Eric looked a little embarrassed as he turned away.
"...What?"
"It's kinda weird, seeing you like this. You look... human. Like someone I'd avoid at the mall."
It was true, she looked like a normal woman in her late teens or early 20s. Whoever had designed this style change had done an impeccable job of creating the illusion of a real lady, complete with clothing hues and textures. So much so that it was also disturbing Amy, who decided to return to her regular style. "There. That better?" she queried as the regular blue and purple returned.
"I didn't mean any offense, it's just..."
"...Yeah, I know what you mean. It is a little weird, isn't it."
'Weird' was a mild word compared to how Eric was feeling at present. There was another woman in his room that wasn't his sister. He knew it wasn't human, but somehow it still felt wrong to him.
"That's going to leave a bump, I just know it," he grumbled as he rubbed his head a third time. This kind of treatment had better not become a regular thing, he thought to himself.
"Aww, come on! Those kinds of moments don't come often! I told you; you need to loosen up!" she laughed as she threw herself back onto his bed.
Eric stood up and started moving toward his computer desk, but instead decided to pick up the PET from the top of the server. That way, he could continue making minor changes while reading the manual. As he raised the PET, Amy's image flickered on the bed and disappeared completely.
"...Amy?" he spoke to an empty room.
A moment passed before Amy reappeared on screen. "Whoo! That felt weird," she commented. "Why'd you do that?"
"That was my fault? I didn't mean to..." Eric looked back to the server. "I didn't tap anything, I just picked up the PET. Try doing it again."
"The option is gone. I can't Augment now."
Eric leaned over the server. On the top screen, a weird symbol was flashing with a red cross over it. The symbol itself looked like an upside down Y, but the lower half of the symbol was more like a rectangle than a V. An upside-down cubic Y.
"It looks like we might have disabled something," he advised as he picked up the manual. After reading a few lines on the troubleshooting page for Augmenting, the answer became clear. "Oh. It can only Augment a navi that's in a compatible PET that's 'connected to the relay pad'. I guess that means sitting directly on top of it, not wirelessly..."
"You need to put my PET on top of the server for it to work; okay. Okay, so just put it bac- wait, we have more important things to be doing!"
In her push for fun and games Amy had forgotten the reason she'd woken him up. "We got a response on the NetSquare post! Someone wants us to do work for an SP core!"
"Wait, already?" Eric didn't think such a request would be responded to so quickly, not after what Stacey said about SP cores being hard to obtain. "What's the request?"
"Someone wants us to go for a walk on a beach and swim in the ocean."
Eric's head instinctively tilted to the right with one eyebrow raised. "Huh? That's it?"
"That's all it said. Oh, and something about not talking to the fish while I swim."
"...Can you read me exactly what they said?" he asked with a hint of disbelief in his voice.
As Amy read the response out to Eric, he began shifting in his seat. He didn't like what he was hearing at all.
"I think it sounds like a trap..." Eric admitted as Amy finished talking. "...I mean, 'innocuous' is a strange word to use with someone you haven't met, and... I think 'fish' is a loose threat about talking to the police..."
"I think you're reading too much into it," Amy rebutted.
"...maybe let's just wait and see if anybody else has a better request?"
"Too late; I already accepted their offer," she countered. Eric opened his mouth to reply, but Amy cut him off. "They didn't say how long they'd wait, so hurry up and get ready." Amy was confident this would be over with quickly, and wasn't about to take no for an answer because of some shaky reasoning.
His many years of watching crime shows on television told him this was an obvious trip for something far more sinister. However, Amy seemed pretty keen to get the job done, and without any concrete proof, all he had were theories. His busting partner didn't want to let this opportunity go, it seemed, and he was about to be dragged along against his will.
Well, off you go then. I hope this doesn't get us into trouble.
Every part of him wanted no part of this mission. He should have said no and asserted dominance, like Stacey always did. Instead, he found himself walking towards the bathroom.
After a quick inventory clean-out, he came back to find Amy waiting for him on his bed in Hologen form. Only now did Eric remember an extra person notably absent from the room.
"Are you hiding Little Miss inside?" he asked, not pleased with himself for following directions like an obedient dog. Regardless of his reluctance to participate, he certainly didn't want a third potential victim being needlessly involved.
"No," was the kurt answer that followed. Amy turned and patted down her back to prove her statement.
"Oh. Wow. Okay. ...What did you do t-"
"I don't want to talk about it," she quickly interrupted.
Eric decided not to probe any further. Instead, he needed to best ensure their safety by being prepared. 'No half measures,' he reminded himself as he opened his backpack to remove and prepare the essentials; the battlechip folder, some blank chips, should the need arise, and of course, the NetPendium.
"Alright then," he half-confirmed, half-sighed. "Let's do this..."
[>>> To Beach Net: Pelagius Aquatic Research and Study Eco-centre >>>]
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