Nicole was…confused, for lack of a better term, as she walked through the expansive emptiness that was the digital world. Someplace isolated for her to go when things became too hectic or when she needed time to think like now. Sighing she slumped against one of the world’s digital trees, the green flora just resembling the real-life plant it was supposed to represent. Holding up one gloved hand, slowly the blacktopped, white-bottomed glove faded away revealing a slender brown hand. Flexing and unflexing her fingers she had to wonder just how real she was the truth revealed to her after revealing Dr.Ellidy had left her in a state of shock and for a while panic had overwhelmed her systems…her body. Shaking her head and groaning Nicole pulled her legs close together, she was not supposed to be this emotional though she did not want to go back to the logic-ruled machine she once was having feeling like this was….complicated.
“What am I?” Nicole muttered, her own holo-form, the presence of the digitizer one of Eliidy’s greatest inventions, which could digitize an individual’s mind, everything just made her question just how real she was. Was she no different from any other Mobian? She could feel, laugh, and as her present circumstances dictated feel stressed or anxious, but she was “born” as a computer program nothing more than... Nicole’s thoughts trailed off as she thought about her “purpose” within life. Always she had been acting in relation to another, with Dr.Ellidy and as loathe as she was to admit it, with Sally. She did not begrudge her friend, she was only a little girl when the two of them had first met and Sally was one of the reasons she had so desired, evolved to be more than just what she was. Yet she still acted only in relation to her friend, aiding the Freedom Fighters was a noble goal, they were acting to restore the whole world from the destruction Eggman had wrought and yet there had to be more to life? If there was more to life, than what was it? She was connected to the Royal Archive, so as she was wont to do she went searching through the vast repository of information, thousands of books worth of info, lifetimes of knowledge flowed through her in an instant as she searched desperately for that which so eluded her. As she finished her search a sigh escaped her soft gentle lips, there was no consensus on what the reason for life was, reasons ranging from money, to power, to the selfless sacrifice for another. There was a greater consensus on the more altruistic reasons, to help others, self-sacrifice, and of course love. Love, she had observed the emotion displayed by several of her teammates, Amy expressed it for Sonic, Sonic and Sally seemed to express it for each other though they seemed to attempt to hide the emotion. It was especially present in the actions between Antoine and Bunnie and yet despite multiple viewings of the emotion from several of her most trusted friends she still did not understand the emotion.
Standing up, she gazed up at the pale green sky of the Digital world, pixelated clouds outlined by dark lines of green floating overhead as the world attempted to simulate reality to some degree. Shaking her head she walked further and further into uncharted territory, though she knew Phage was out there somewhere, the malicious viral entity, a construct of Dr.Eggman she was fairly confident she was safe. She could return to her terminal at any time, and the Red Star Ring leant to her and the other Freedom Fighters by Dr.Ellidy now stayed permanently attached to her console. She could “overclock” as Sally had described the process, whenever she wished. Even without the power boost waiting in the wings the digital world was as large if not larger than the real Mobius, Phage would never find her even if it came looking, after their first encounter she had no intentions of meeting the entity again and had set up every personal firewall, and protection program she could not be tracked. Kilometer after virtual kilometer fell away beneath her paws as she walked, though the digital world had never seemed beautiful to her before she had gained a new insight into life and now looked on it with some awe. How such a massive program could have been built was beyond her, and in fact, no one on Mobius knew where the Digital World had come from. It already existed when Mobians first learned to access it, Rotor once describing it to her as “a global system of interconnected networks” though as far as anyone could tell the networks the Digital world had been connected to no longer existed yet it still remained.
As she walked the Digital world around her began to change as he forced some of her will on the landscape, gone were the plain green textures that outlined everything, spreading out from her the Digital World became “alive” for lack of a better term. “Grass” sprouting from the simulated ground, the sky above her changing to a pale azure rather than the digital green, the clouds lightening to soft white shapes, which flowed and changed as a gentle ephemeral breeze wafted over her blowing the lynx’s shoulder length black hair up and into her face. Nicole having to spit out the troublesome strands, tough she was annoyed for a second she could not help but laugh the unintended consequence of the wind, “chaos” one of the few things that separated the real from the digital. She had not intended such a thing but she was heartened by its occurrence, despite being a digital being she was not bothered by the unexpected. Smiling she watched as the area grew, stopping as it reached about a thirty-foot radius around her, she set off. Nicole watched with fascination as the area before her, which was once just barren pixels or items, which were at best caricatures of what they were supposed to represent change as she approached, and fade back to the way they had been as he moved away. It was as if the entire digital world was just lying in hibernation, waiting for someone to make use of it, she had to wonder just how much of an influence she had over the digital world. She had been able to affect it in some ways before, creating physical objects or weapons but never in such a way as she was now. ‘Is this a result of learning where I came from, or has some other variable been introduced into the digital world’ Nicole pondered for several seconds until a sudden shout appeared from out of the blue “help!”
Raising her head, Nicole was not able to pinpoint the direction of the sound immediately but after several seconds of searching, she found there was another presence in the digital world, though she could not get a precise lock on it, it was as if it was not even a digital entity. Confused by the sudden intrusion yet curious at the same time she knew she had to investigate. “I’ll just go tell Sally and the rest of the Freedom Fighters…” Nicole trailed off as she realized what she was doing. She was as much a Freedom Fighter as anyone else and she did not need anyone’s permission to do anything. If she got into trouble, she always had her overclocked form, and if the very worst should happen, she could always return to her handheld. Pausing she waited several seconds to confirm that the signal as strange as it was, was not Phage, getting a negative reading to the Doctor’s malicious entity she set off in the direction the shout had come from. Moments later, another shout of “help” reached her ears; thankfully, it came from the same direction, the shout louder though not by much, speeding up Nicole could not help but smile.
This was the Digital world; whatever she willed could happen here, and as she wanted to reach whom or whatever was calling for aid quickly her legs slowly began to spin, gaining momentum as she took on Sonic’s speed. Blasting across the digital landscape she almost missed the next call, as she had naturally assumed that there would be wind when Sonic moves, she barely heard the next shout over the roaring of the wind. Analyzing the shout, they were fairly even in timber, loud and clear with no signs of pause or impediment, so the shouter was not in any pain though there was a clear sense of anxiety and confusion emphasized by the pitch of the shout, whoever was yelling did not seem to know that they were in the digital world.
‘That’s strange’ Nicole thought as she raced across the digital landscape, the only way she knew to enter the digital world was if someone was hooked up to a Digitizer like Dr.Ellidy had created. As far as she knew the one Dr.Ellidy had was the only one of its kind, unless Phage had somehow been able to steal the plans for the device! She did not know what Dr.Eggman would do with such a device, but whatever it was, if the criminal mastermind had somehow gotten his hands on the plans for the Digitizer then some poor soul, might be lost within the Digital World. She would not say she was the “guardian” of the Digital World, but as she was the most knowledgeable member of the Freedom Fighters about its usage and in fact the only one who could freely enter it she felt a certain responsibility. Speeding up she became little more than a blur of light, streaking across the landscape the next cry came from right in front of her. Instinctively Nicole jumped; her momentum carrying her straight up, the height she gained would normally have been daunting to anyone but the holo-lynx, who simply descended gently, a purple aura of energy surrounding her as she landed gently upon the digital landscape. Looking around she could not see anything until she heard something below and slightly in front of her. Looking down Nicole quickly stepped back though she was careful to watch her step, one gloved hand gently covering her mouth as she saw…
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