"Get down!" I yelled.The drones didn't wait. Blue rings of energy shot out from their lenses. The glass of the window didn't just break; it turned into dust."EMP!" Toby shrieked. He was curled in a ball under the bed. "They're using EMP blasters! You're dead! You're literally just ones and zeros! You're a circuit board in a microwave!"The first blast hit me right in the chest. I expected to vanish into the dark. Instead, the blue energy hit my static skin and stayed there. It didn't destroy me. It felt like a shot of pure caffeine. "Is that all you've got?" I asked.The drones fired again. Three shots hit my arms and legs. My body started to vibrate so fast that the air around me turned purple. A humming sound filled the room. The lights in the hallway outside started to pop."Why aren't you dead?" Toby peeked out from under the bed. "Everything digital in this room should be a brick right now! My phone is dead! My light is dead!""I'm not just digital anymore," I said. I looked

"Move," I told the puppet boss. The big man stepped aside. I sat down at the black-market terminal. The keys were covered in grease."You're actually going to use that?" Toby asked. He was pacing behind me. "It looks like junk held together by old gum.""It’s an uplink," I said. "That’s all I need.""Uplink to what?" Toby snapped. "The Moderator is five minutes away. We should be running, not playing on a computer.""I'm not leaving without her," I said.My fingers hit the keys. My code flowed into the machine. The screen flickered from blue to purple."Who is 'her'?" Toby asked. "Another glitch? Another freak like you?""My partner," I said. "Nyxra. She’s the reason I’m in this world. She’s the reason I’m alive.""Well, is she here?" Toby pointed at the screen. "Because I only see scrolling gibberish and a red warning light. That’s not a person.""I'm digging into the system," I muttered.I pushed my consciousness through the terminal. I hit the main city grid. It felt like a hive of

"We need a trillion credits, Vaxien," Nyxra said. She stood in the center of the junk cave, still wearing the Enforcer Captain's armor. The white visor glowed in the dark. Every time she moved, the heavy metal joints hissed. "A trillion?" Toby squeaked. He nearly fell off his crate. "That is not a number! That is a fairy tale! Nobody has a trillion credits unless they own the sun!""I don't need it to buy things, Toby," Nyxra snapped. Her metallic voice echoed off the walls. "I need it for Admin Access. To find the next User, we have to reach the Inner Circle. A trillion credit score is the only key that fits that lock.""But how?" I asked. I wiped grease from my hands. "We're hiding in a hole. We have nothing.""We aren't going to earn it," Nyxra said. "We are going to rob the Omni-Corp Central Bank."Toby actually hit the floor this time. "The Central Bank? Are you insane? That place has automated turrets that can smell your blood type from a mile away!""They don't have me," Nyx

The green mist touched my skin and it felt like being dipped in boiling grease. Nyxra let out a scream that sounded wrong through her helmet speakers. I looked over and saw the thick plates of her Enforcer armor bubbling. The metal was turning into black soup before my eyes."My suit! It’s eating the core systems!" Nyxra yelled. She tried to move her arm, but the joint was fused shut by the melting metal. "Vaxien, I’m losing motor control! I can't move!""Toby, stay behind me!" I shouted. I tried to take a breath to focus, but the air felt like a mouthful of needles. I coughed, and blood hit the back of my hand. It wasn't normal blood. It was bright neon and fizzing on my skin. "Don't breathe it in, you idiot!" Malakor’s pixelated face screamed from the rig. "That’s not just acid! It’s a corruption sequence! If it gets into your lungs, it’ll rewrite your DNA into garbage data! You'll be a walking error code!""I have to breathe, Malakor!" I wheezed. My chest felt like it was full of

I hit the white static and my stomach lurched. The bank was gone. The noise was gone.For a second, I thought I was dead. Then my boots slammed into a polished floor that felt too solid."Well, well. You really are a special one, aren't you?"Director Sterling was standing by a massive window, clapping his hands slowly. We were in a room that looked like a palace. "You survived a map deletion, Vaxien," Sterling said. "Do you have any idea how few people can say that?""Where are we?" I snapped. I looked at Nyxra and Toby. They were both on their knees, gasping for air."My private office," Sterling said. He walked toward me, his hands open. "I had to get us out of the bank. The cleanup crew was already moving in. They don't like witnesses to their failures.""You tried to kill us!" Toby yelled, shaking his tablet. "You deleted the whole sector!""A business necessity," Sterling shrugged. "But Vaxien, you changed the math. Seeing you dismantle those Elites was beautiful. It was profes