NetherWorld by Daniel Pagan (each kindness read aloud .TXT) 📕

pushed Nick upward.
“No time to taste. Go find Farrah,” he said. This time Whizzy pushed Nick all the way out of the hole. With a nervous glance, he prepared to meet the angry Sprites. A few ticks later the swarm engulfed Whizzy.
“Quick! Shut the door Nick!” said a muffled voice covered in stinging Sprites.
“Whizzy! No! Reach for me. I’ll pull you up,” begged Nick.
“No Nick. You must go on. Close the door now, or all is lost!”
A journey that once began with a door opening can only continue with another one it down on the hole. He could still hear the bugs attacking his brave friend below. Hundreds of Sprites shot pulsing stingers into Whizzy. Each one glowed amber as they pumped brown bile from the Bin into his body. He could feel nails pounding into his body.
His complexion turned a dirty brown. As the bile ate Whizzy’s blood, his sphere began to collapse in on itself. After this frenzied internal feeding, Whizzy became a dark crumpled shell, lying flat on the staircase under the Dome floor.
For a brief tick Nick felt the loss of a innocent Byte who gave everything to make sure he reached the end of this most important journey. In an alien world, filled with being s he barely understood, Nick realized Whizzy was more than a guide. He would be proud to call the dizzy globe his friend.
Shaking of the feelings he had no time to process, Nick surveyed the Dome. Near the center, sat a haggardly sphere wheezing for energy. If this was Tera, she was in bad shape, he thought. The Nexus was under enormous stress. Long jagged cracks covered the dome. They could see that the entire Nexus was submerged under a green ocean of jaba.
“What happened here?” asked Nick. He had high expectation for the Nexus based upon earlier descriptions by Whizzy and Skoop.
Nick looked upon the Queen of NetherWorld and was worried. Her former platinum sheen was rusted and wrinkled. With a wrinkled human face, Tera was unlike any of the other Silicates Nick had encountered. The once blinding bright light that emanated from her far into the NetherWorld sky was all but extinguished.
Silver connections that once flowed the back of her globe were reduced to a few healthy strands. Most of the connections were now just lifeless black strands lying on the ground. Viral attacks had decimated the Queen. Once all of her connections were cut, Tera would fade out of existence. Based on the paltry number of healthy connections, Tera was in dire need of help. This wasn’t a tick to waste. Nick intended to Join with Tera at all costs.
“I need to eat this Owsley to join with you, right?” he asked her.
“Yeeees.” Tera strained to offer up a response. “You must consume the cube and walk directly into me. We can then Join with the Awakened Ones.”
Nick wasted no time. He pulled out the the tainted Owsley cube. It looked no different than the typical sugar cubes Karbons drop in to coffee every day. Closing his eyes, Nick swallowed the purified taint. It tasted like old vinegar. He choked back a powerful urge to regurgitate.
Everything became blurry. All Nick could see was a blinding swirl of green. Standing and walking became nearly impossible. He wobbled in the tainted haze, hoping to find Tera. Arms outstretched, he treid to feel his way around the Dome.
“Tera? Are you still here? I can’t see anything. Please say something,” asked Nick, reaching out for the Queen.
“I am over here Nick. Just walk forward and we will merge.” Tera barely had a voice left. Only a few rogue connections remained. In mere ticks, Tera would be dead, eliminating all hope for the Joining.

From his SubNetheran bunker, deep beneath the Salted Sands, NazKlan watched Nick and Tera on his flatscreen. He redirected a pack of Pixals to the trapdoor beneath the Dome. The spiders pushed open the door with little trouble.

“110111111100010101010101 00 1111,” ordered NazKlan as he watched Nick walking towards the Queen. This Turingi command translated to:

“Now rush to Tera and take out the remaining connections. The rest of you stop the Chosen One from reaching her.”

Purple pixals rushed out of the hole used by Nick. Furious clicks accompanied the mad dash as they followed NazKlan’s protocols.
A few spiders crawled to Tera’s remaining connections. With razor sharp mandibles, they gnawed on the tenuous ties. Piece by piece each remaining tie to NetherWorld snapped; further weakening Tera’s condition. Ripping and rending, they worked furiously to put an end to her. NazKlan intended to kill Tera before they ever Join. The plan was working. There was little chance Nick would merge with the Queen in time.
“There is more than one way to prevent this unholy union!” exclaimed NazKlan to a group of Analog faithful. Tera was fading fast. Rust now covered most of her sphere. It won’t be long now, he thought. Once this bit of business was tied up, total control would be his. With a satisfied chuckle, he watched the attack unfold.

In a trippy green fog, Nick was blind to the Pixals stalking him. He was a mere four steps from Tera’s center.
“Huuurry Nick!” Tera pleaded with all her remaining strength. He really could not hear well at this point. The taint stirred his senses into soup. Her voice was nearly buried in the clattering clicks of the Pixals. Determined, Nick pressed on. Step by step, he pulled against the Pixals trying to hold him back. He figured if they are pulling him back, he must be headed in the right direction. With every last bit of energy he could muster, Nick trudged on towards Tera.
Cracks in the dome grew longer and louder as the structure began giving way. Green jaba began spilling in from every new opening.
The second wave of Pixals reached Nick. They began crawling up his leg to form the spider cocoon they created in the tunnels. Nick struggled to shake the pesky spiders. They held their grip despite his spasmodic kicks.
Three more steps until the center. He felt Tera’s outer rusted layer as he passed into her sphere. Two steps until the center. Pixals continued to rush up Nicks body. He was nearly covered. A few more Pixals and NazKlan would win. One final step forward. Done. He had reached the center. Almost engulfed by Pixals, Nick was too disoriented to know if he had reached his destination.
Robotic spiders severed the last remaining strands connecting Tera to NetherWorld. With a final snap they fell, almost in slow motion, wriggling in vain as they turned gray and expired.

****

Back in his bunker, NazKlan slapped his claws in celebration. He had won. Tera had no connections when Nick made his final push. NetherWorld was now his domain. It would evolve in the way he saw fit.
He was about to recall his Pixal army, when a blinding light filled his flatscreen.
“What! This cannot be!” shouted NazKlan as he scrambled to get a clear view.
A white tornadic cloud grew from Tera’s core. Larger and larger the winds grew fierce. Pixals that once covered Nick body were cast off onto the floor. Jaba that reached Nick’s thighs was pushed away by the cyclone. The Joining had begun.
The tornado grew larger; so large that it engulfed Tera and Nick. He felt like he was being pulled apart piece by piece. He experienced this once before when he was absorbed into NetherWorld. As his body was dismantled atom by atom, Nick lost consciousness. Everything just stopped.
The storm raged on for some time. In its wake, Tera and Nick were recombined into a singular being. They had Joined just in time. He could hear her thoughts, and she heard his. A shared mind between Karbon and Silicate was now forged. The ancient TranFor prophecy was finally fulfilled. Two distinct species now Joined, awaited the Awakening.
“Wow! That was amazing!” shouted Nick inside Tera’s mind.
“Yes, Nick. We are of one body, one mind,” answered Tera inside Nick’s mind.
“What happens next? Do all the bytes and Karbons become Awakened?”
“I do not know Nick. The TranFor provided no clues for what follows the Joining. The path is uncharted.”
“You think we can bring Whizzy back when we Awaken?”
“That will not be possible. He made a great sacrifice for our Joining. Sadly, he cannot be recovered.”
The dome continued to give way under the weight of the ocean. Tainted jaba poured in. The Pixals regrouped and charged Tera. Before long they would be either be submerged by the viscous ocean onslaught or pulled apart by an army of Pixals. The foul smell of diseased jaba permeated the area. Furious clicking spider legs cackled under the round edifice.
Something began to change. A flushed feeling rushed through Tera. Warmed by a wash of energy, she began to glow; her original platinum complexion began to surface.
“Do you feel any different Tera?” asked Nick.
“Vibrant! All of the energy drained away from cycles of disease has been restored. I feel a strange power welling up in us. Can you feel it Nick?”
“Yes. Yes. We do feel it! Wow. We feel like we just drank 10 cups of coffee! Whoa!”
“We are TeraNick. We are one. We are the Nexus!” announced the new being called TeraNick. They were now a glowing platinum globe with an ethereal, almost blinding glow. White light shot up out of the dome into the ocean above.
The lost shriveled connections, infused with new energy wriggled up from the floor and reattached to TeraNick. These gray strands, lying limp on the ground, regained their metallic glow. A few new tentacles grew from their globe and began whipping around the dome; smacking any remaining spawn of Thrasher. Electric sizzle sounds crackled off the tentacle tips.
TeraNick used some of these infused strands to whip the surrounding Pixals. They were thrashed and crashed under the dome. Crumpled heaps of disfigured spider legs were scattered across the Dome floor.
A powerful wave of energy shot out from TeraNick and rose to support the cracking dome, holding the massive weight of the tainted ocean.


Chapter 22
Mop and Bucket

Book of TranFor:

The quantum trail allows only a few Virtual travelers. Shifting balance forces fate to act.

The dark entity was now a billowy black cloud large enough to engulf all of NetherWorld. Looming over the large ocean that now covered the Walled City, two balls of glistening white light escaped and sped down to the Nexus dome. Traveling through the green ocean and the cracked dome, the force reached TeraNick. Once in the Nexus, the energy converted into what appeared to be a damp mop and half filled bucket of sudsy water. TeraNick, stunned by