Lightning

It didn’t take very long for the equipment of the team to start acting up. Nobody knew exactly what happened, but one day, the database came alive. And then another day, the security program. Taking the forms of dragons and giving themselves names and personalities, suddenly there were two more voices around the camp. Of course, considering the general weirdness of the area, the other dragons adjusted quickly, and they took the two new members of the team under their fold. Still though, it’s hard maintaining equipment when your software is sentient and dragon-shaped…

The creature known as Lightning never truly appeared in front of the team. But if we need to keep track, it appeared last. When the security program started focusing on the environment and the database started scanning in everything surrounding her, the time was ripe for Lightning to form. A small Shard, not unlike a virus, forming in the system from one of Trick’s flyers. Growing by copying database entries into itself. Learning, adapting, evolving. But never too far away from Horizon’s influence. Not before long, it was strong enough to manifest in physical form. But it remained hidden from everyone else, lest the mission would be thwarted…







On one particular night, Lighting manages to get incredibly close. Fueled by the portal’s radiating energy, it manages to climb on top of Filigree. This was the furthest it has ever gotten! It gets excited even thinking about it, this might finally be the night that he makes the database disappear. To fully send her to the Veil, it needs to insert its virus into her, and so Lightning pushes its claws into Filigree’s hide. It draws blood, and that is hypnotizing to it. So hypnotizing, that it doesn’t realize that the security system has noticed it.

Hitting the ground fast and hard, Lighting manages to get back on its feet quickly. Oculus looks at it, and it smiles at it before disappearing into the night. Oculus might have seen it, but Lightning knows that it is too late. It is only a matter of time before Filigree finds herself permanently stuck in the Veil now that she’s been infected, And if not, then the infection will affect her files, making the database volatile and unstable. Lightning is content, its mission is complete.