We're all in this virtual space together.
Alcor

You call out quietly, not wanting to overreact. Your party answersimmediately, and the hallway brightens enough for you to see their figuresclearly. You almost sigh in relief but then realize how noticeable it would be.The man with the shield questions you, but you assure him nothing is wrong. Thesorceress looks as if she doesn’t believe you, but doesn’t press. Theswordswoman has forged ahead, continuing along the ever brightening path. Youand your party members follow, and the prick of loneliness you began to feelfades. Your surroundings are still blank and uneventful, merely walls of codingin various degrees of brightness. This virtual space needs some redecorating,you think.

The swordswoman yells in frustration, and you assume the roomahead has reverted to those the party had seen before. Your suspicions are confirmedwhen you enter the cramped space walled in by suspended codes. However the roomwas occupied by two identical twin girls, one with a somber and serious faceand the other with a mischievous glint in her eye and a coquettish grin. Thetwo motion in unison for you to step forward.

What do you do?

Myos walked intoAchernar’s bar, immediately being greeted by a blonde in high waisted purpleshorts. “Hey slowpoke! You’re the last one to show up,” she giggled.

After Myos had metAmaya, he spent the next few days introducing her to both Zeke and Achernar,knowing it would take both of them time to get accustomed to the stranger.Achernar didn’t take as much convincing as he thought, however, as she was gladto welcome anyone who wasn’t a guard into her fold. Zeke, on the other hand,wasn’t quite as welcoming. After a day of not speaking to him, Myos brought thefour together to have a sit down and the guarded man eventually was broughtover to her side. They had been biding their time since then, and it wasn’tuntil today that the four had scheduled another meeting with each other.

Myos glanced around,realizing he was indeed the last to show up. Achernar had closed up businessfor today so that they could plan this rebellion that so far had only been discussedin theory. The woman in question was putting up her long oceanic hair andadjusting the red visor-like computer glasses on her face while scowling atZeke. The ravenette kept peeking over at a girl curled up in one of the plushbubble chairs behind the counter with a heavily modified computer shoved infront of her face.

The girl had ivory hairstreaked with pink and lime cut in a short bob, and topped with a pink kittenhead bow. Her most attention grabbing feature was the green jacket she wore, ofwhich purple fur exploded from the collar. Myos unintentionally rubbed at hisneck, wondering how the girl could stand that brushing against her all day. Sheflipped her hair with a black leather gloved hand, long, black bottom lashesdusting her cheeks as she narrowed her eyes at whatever code was scrollingacross her screen at the moment - both on the computer in front of her, andmost likely a different set in the squarish monocled computer glasses thatadorned the right side of her face.

“Hey, Razzy,” Myos said,waving a hand at the girl who worked in technological development for theEmpire. She merely ‘hmphed’ in response. Typical.

“Is she alwaysthis...taciturn?” Zeke asked, raising a perfectly manicured brow and recrossing his legs, eye finally being drawn to the boy who had just walked inand not the girl in front of him.

“You got a problem withthat?” Achernar snapped, slamming her palms on the chrome counter, nose to nosewith the larger man. Anger sparked in her eyes, and you could cut the tensionbetween them with a knife. Amaya ran over them, trying to assuage whateverconflict had arisen for the hundredth time this morning, smiling cheerfully atthe both of them until they had calmed down enough to go back to just angrilyglaring at each other instead of coming to blows - after all, Zeke was stilltrying to nurse his black eye that he had gotten from merely walking into thebar.

“So, Razzy, I’m assumingAchernar told you about everything? And you decided to help us?” Myos askedcheerfully, taking the focus away from his wounded friend. He walked over tothe bar counter and rested his elbows on it, body flowing with the grace of arunner gained from so many game campaigns.

“No, I’m not,” the girlreplied, twisting an ivory lock between her fingers and finally looking up fromthe blue glow of her screen. Her eye flicked between the others in the bar fora moment before seemingly coming to a conclusion. She set her computer asideand rose from the chair, her black heeled boots clicking across the transparentglass surface as she walked over to hop up on the counter, the silver O-ring onher collar bouncing against her slender neck as she did so.

“C’mon, Razz,” Myospleaded, gesturing everywhere with his animated hands. He felt a sense of déjàvu coming on, but continued anyway. “This is such a huge deal! Do you wanna bea robot?” She merely shrugged in response, emotion – or lack thereof - in hericy blue eyes never changing.

“I’m not here to stopyou. Just not here to help,” Razzy explained, snorting and disturbing the ringaround her left nostril. Her fingers twitched, and Myos assumed the girl onceagain wished she had her keyboard in front of her.

“Well, anyway, the restof us can do it no problem! We’ll be an amazing team, and she’s welcome to joinwhenever she wants to, okay?” Amaya said brightly, immediately taking up therole of positivity. She bounced over to the counter and sat on a stool next toZeke, grape colored eyes following the giant fish below her, and almosttripping due to not paying attention.

“Whatever,” the othergirl replied, absentmindedly spinning the belt the hovered around her waist.

“Her aside, the rest ofus can infiltrate the main citadel,” Zeke said, finger tapping the side of hissleek computer glasses, obviously pulling up relevant information. Myos hopedit was a map of some sort, and that his friend would be distributing it to therest of them later. “It’s information not known to the public, but that’s wherethe Empress lives. The main gates that are guarded and the room behind it arejust for show, the real ruling of this Empire goes down in a heavily guardedcitadel,” he explained, eyes flicking over the words on his screen. “And beforeyou ask, no I don’t know how heavily guarded, and I don’t know what she lookslike.”

“I don’t care howheavily guarded it is, I’m gonna fucking smash them!” Achernar yelled, pumpingher fist in the air. “Fuckers’ll never know what hit ‘em.”

“Quite. But howeverenthusiastic you may be, we need weapons other than our fists or we’re as goodas dead,” Zeke replied, shaking his head. “Did you factor that into your plans,Myos? How are we supposed to acquire weapons to stage this little coup d'étatof yours?”

“It’s not just my coowhatever the hell you said, it’s all of ours,” Myos corrected, waving his handdismissively. “And I just assumed, y’know, you could get them for us? We’djust, like, replace them?”

“You expected us to just‘like, replace’ military grade weapons lying around a peaceful spacecraft that’shad no known wars up to date,” the ravenette asked, deadpan.

“Yeah, I did, now yougonna lay off man and stop criticizing me and actually help?” Myos sneered,seconds away from shoving his friend from where he sat perched on the stool. Hewas normally laid back and easygoing, but something about Zeke’s nonchalanceabout almost everything got under his skin.

“I think maybe if we alltook a break and gave it some thought; we could meet back here tomorrow andtell everybody what we’ve come up with?” Amaya ventured, once again noticingthe hostile situation and trying to calm it. She fiddled with the star charm onthe front of her sailor collar, waiting for their reactions.

Myos sat back, theblonde’s words hitting home. He looked away, twisting the metal gauntlet thatcovered his lower right arm and sighed. They couldn’t just tear at each other’sthroat; they had to be a team if anything was going to get done. “Sounds like aplan, Amaya.”