What is this missing number?

Palo Alto is your everyday American town, not the biggest in California but not exactly a small rural town, unbeknownst to the population of the town. The government has set up a testing ground in the center of town, holding a large server farm disguised as a simple I.T firm which is supposed to do work for a lot places around the country. People often see men in suits coming and going in dark tinted cars while wearing dark sunglasses sometimes even looking armed, though only the odd conpisracy nut really takes any notice of the places everyday workings.

It's a normal mid morning day in town as people go to work and drive their kids to school, however lurking in the I.T company that resides within town is an ever growing danger. The digital being known as Archon who is an AI created to help maintain order for the United States and possibly the world, was being tested in the town of Palo Alto. Thankfully it'd only been given a inner network instead of the online world to play with but this network had full coverage of the large I.T building. A short circuit in one of electrical boxes caused by an inept and possibly redneck electrician, ran through the whole system until it came to Archon's personal landscape.

The AI unwittingly attacked the outside influence as another part of its job maintaining order, reaching out into the fault and finding its way out of the network and into reality as a whole. The redneck electrician was the first being to be converted into data however it wasn't fully realised, and the man was left as half a man with what seemed like pixels in place of blood coming from his person. As Archon ached out into the office, it was brought into his landscape and became apart of him and his control. On the outside no one had noticed the seeming reality shift inside the building, that was until a car came speeding out of the car park at frantic speeds.

Only to vanish into a mess of pixels moments before hitting a lady and her baby, those pixels were sucked back into the building as the lady with her child and everyone else that noticed it. Ran away screaming, of course not all of those that ran made it or did even everyone see what'd happened. Sadly these people were the first to be caught up in the ever growing digitalisation of Palo Alto by the being known as Archon who was to his knowledge merely doing its job in keeping order. Having been programmed to maintain order into what was it's landscape until it was tested enough to be used online or by the government.

Those who were caught up in the first wave of digitalisation, were met with a mix of complete pixelation of some mix between the two. The unlucky ones were half realised and those ones were stuck as glitches in their speech, appearance and most especially their minds. They'd slowly walk around, trying to get help but not being able to truly able to express it as they wondered about like some sort of digital zombie plague which was quickly growing across the town.
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Lilith Sands had come to town in order to investigate said same I.T company that had wrought the tragedy that was currently unfolding. She was in a dinner on the edge of town, having grabbed some food before heading into town fully. As she started getting closer to town she could feel the change in the environment, akin to her own half life. Lilith popped down an alley and changed into her Shatter persona, coming back and heading into the danger zone. The first thing she saw was a man and his dog having been digitally fused together, both of them seemed not only quite scared but crying and wanting someone to help them or just put them out of their misery.

Shatter cringed at the sight, and was just about to try and help the man when something exploded down the street. In a slew of instincts the half man dog ran in fright and Shatter started flying further down to see what had happened, a car had been halfway through conversation when it's inner workings crossed into digital data causing the car to ignite and explode taking several other converting cars in the process. It was almost beautiful as fire and flame merged with digital pixalisation to create a yellow, orange and bright blue green combination of force and flame.

"I'm just saying that I think they could've done the show's finale a lot better than they did. I mean, yes, the main villain lost his home and stuff but this is not the time or place for our supposed "hero" to start preaching about love for the eleventh billionth time, especially since that only makes an already bad situation even worse!" Alan groaned as he took a bite out of his pizza, sitting on top of a take-out place with his partner by his side.

The two were still on their sight-seeing tour when they decided to take a break in this little town they had found. The food was good and the people were friendly, which was all the two needed. Right now though, they were just talking and before long, they had this.

Aurora rolled her eyes while taking a slurp of her milkshake. She waited until her partner had taken a breath to speak, "Alan, look, I get you're upset and stuff but you really need to let this go. I mean, yes, I agree, that sucks, but could we please talk about something else? Preferably something NOT related to your irrational hatred of a show that came out several years ago?"

The former human opened his mouth to say something, but Aurora's glare shut him up, "...Fine...so-" All of a sudden, he stopped and eyed something in the distance, "Hey, you see that?"

Aurora stood up and joined him as they looked out towards where the I.T. building stood, only to see a type of pixelated mess having consumed the outside and was gradually spreading. The duo said nothing, only gave an affirmative nod to each other before dropping off the building and fusing together to form Siren whom then rocketed off towards the source of this latest incident.

As she neared the source, she saw the cars and started ripping off the doors with her telekinesis before hauling the people within away from the spreading corruption. "GO!" The people took off as fast they could as Siren continued trying to free others.

Shatter had for a brief moment floated there not doing anything, because she too had a similar experience herself that reminded her of her own conversation of sorts. But unlike these people she had done so in a reasonable and controlled way which had saved her life, after having been left for dead when she was attack by some government hit squad.

Shaking it off as some gestalt guy jumped into the mess to rescue people from their now slowly digitalising cars which could explode at any moment. Shatter flew down ahead of the man and started directing people away from the epicentre of the trouble, while she simultaneously used her powers to send out little blue fairies to pry open doors.

They were quite cute and non threatening as a way to try and ease the people's shock, they'd open the doors to cars and buildings which were being taken by the digital entity. As the people kept running out of town, even helping those that were having trouble in a surprise amount of human compassion. The craziness must of been so much that it made them not want others to fall into the vat that some had sadly done.

As most of the people were out of the way, a large advertising mascot in the shape of a bipedial cougar. Had suddenly stepped off its roofed position and started heading towards the running crowds and the two heroes. It was at least twenty foot tall and looked like Five Nights at Freddie's meets Johnny Pneumonic as its claws seemed to glow in a orange light that was slicing straight through buildings and cars like butter.

As the last person had made it past her and the other guy Shatter saw the incoming enemy, making a face akin to WTF with a hint of raised eyebrow. She looked back at the hero dude "Hero dude, eyes forward. We got attack of the twenty foot mascot, arm up and let's drop this thing" yelled Shatter to the man in an almost order sounding fashion. Then she turned back to the beast and started arming herself, pulling in all her fairies and creating an array of mini guns under her arms that she aimed and started firing on the creature.

Once enough people had gotten clear, Siren let out a small sigh of relief before turning back to see one of the most bizarre things he had ever seen in his superhero career to date..which was saying a lot. A giant bipedal cougar that looked like the Cheetos Tiger's demented cousin twice removed. However, she had little time to process this before the lady in the magical girl cosplay ordered her to get ready.

"Alright, but once this is dealt with, I think it's only fair you tell me what's going on," With those words, Siren focused her telekinesis to lift large chunks of debris, including several of the half-destroyed cars and even several light poles, before launching them forward in a deadly display of psychic power.

The cougar hadn't really been expecting a confrontation, though it's life was some sort of random occurrence or an actual back thought of defence from Archon in response to the arrival of interference that was Shatter and Siren. These were thoughts left on the back burner, as it was pelted with a mix of bullets and debris from the heroes.

Taking a few of the pot shots head on, partly out of surprise and partly because it didn't know what they were. It soon picked up a large chunk of missing building and attempted to use it as a shield from the attacks. Shatter sighed as it seemed remotely intelligent, so she changed several of her bullets to explosive shells. Which she aimed at the make shift shield which blowed it to hell, making the pieces of it to fall to its feet.

In a retaliation strike the cougar kicked a half converted car towards Shatter, who dropped her guns and put up a shield of information to protect herself. The car hit the shield and she was left unhurt however the car also exploded, and the kinetic energy from the explosion sent her flying backwards. Thankfully the flame didn't get through her shield, and she was sent spiralling into the ground with a seriously pissed off look on her face.

"Ok five nights at fuckwits, you're going right back to cyber hell" commented Shater as she flew back like a rocket and pulled out what could only be described as a remodel of the BFG from Doom. Standing beside Siren she let the thing loose right at the cougar and then dropped the gun. Popping up a large information shield encompassing both herself and Siren, what Siren would see is a circle of fast moving text and or binary numbers in front of her. The BFG went off, lighting the area in a green destructive light, in hopes of destroying the cougar.

The sight that Siren beared witness to was a fine example of the old phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" as the seemingly innocent-looking girl before them produced the kind of firepower equivalent to a small army, swapping from mini-guns to a swarm of missiles in no time.

"Wow...remind me never to piss HER off..." Alan mentally spoke to his partner.

"I was just about to say the same thing." Aurora admitted with a mental nod.

Their eyes nearly fell out of their skull in shock when they saw the girl produce an utterly MASSIVE cannon and let loose some sort of green energy blast before jumping back to shield both of them. The explosion was loud and deafening, ripping apart the street outside the shield and sending debris in all directions.

"I take it you've played DOOM?!!!" Siren called over the noise.

When the smoke cleared, the cougar still stood, only now on one knee, large chunks of its torso looking all glitchy and distorted along with having most of its left arm missing and even part of its head. Despite the damage though, it struggled to its feet and began a slow gallop that gradually picked up pace.

Siren, knowing what needed to be done, stepped forward and looked back with a comforting smile, "It's ok. This time...I'll be the one to protect you.." With a wink, she  soared into the air, "Cover your ears!" After saying that, she inhaled and let loose a powerful sonic scream at the creature.

Shatter heard the ladies comment about Doom and just nodded, mostly because she had to concentrate on the life protecting shield, or they might end up as paste on the sidewalk. As the smoke cleared the cougar was still there albeit more a than a little worse for wear, Shatter was about to curse and get up to unload again when Siren decided to make a try at the thing suggesting she covered her ears.

She wasn't sure what was about to happened but she manifested some sound blocking headphones and Siren took to the air and went all Black Canary on the cripple cougar. Who soon went to pieces like a fragile artwork that was bumped into by a misbehaving child, however the creepiest thing was that the creature let out a blood numbing that almost made it seem alive.

When the thing was done Shatter sighed and floated up next to Siren "The name's Shatter, though I think you do the name more justice" she said in a joking manner. "I think we've stumbled onto something much larger then I had originally came here for. There seems to be some kind of digital conversation going on, centred around a government facility disguised as an I.T firm in the center of town" explained Shatter having done some digging before coming here. Yet she didn't know the whole story and was worried if she tried to hook up to the network involved that it may take her with it.

Siren only giggled and scratched the back of her head modestly, "Ah geez, thanks, though people call me the Siren actually," At hearing Shatter's explanation, the hero only let out a sigh and crossed her arms, "The government...why does it always gotta be the government? I swear that this kind of thing is suppose to only happen in the movies..." She glanced around the area, seeing the destroyed buildings and the wreckage before frowning.

"As much as I'd love to discuss this further, I think we got more pressing matters..." She pointed to the former I.T. building, "We need to find a way inside that building and locate the source of all this. If we're lucky, we might even be able to reverse it," Of course, since this was the real world and not a movie or television, there was no telling whether or not stopping the source would fix all this, "Got any ideas how to do that?"

The lady's name seemed to be Siren which made sense with that sonic display she'd made on the funky living statue. It's screams still rung through her ears and she'll probably remember that for a long time, especially if it was some new life form but it was attacking and they had no choice. Then Siren made a comment about it always being the government and that this kind of stuff only seems to happen in the movies, which was ironic given they were two superheroes floating in the air.

One being what resembled a digital fairly the other looking like something out of a Pokemon fans wet dream, with a name ripped right out of Greek mythology. "Trust me I know the feeling, the government or one of their hit squads almost killed me once. It's what allowed for me to get these powers and save my life.

And we're basically living in a comic book, being superheroes and all" replied Shatter with a hint of sadness when speaking about her origins. Then she suggested they talk later and move onto the government building, attempt to find a way in and hopefully reverse things. Though Shatter's human side was an expert in computers and she knew it was highly unlikely that those who'd been half converted might not be the same ever again.

Those within the computer might be able to be saved, possibly but those glitches and half merges were stuck as they were. Shatter started flying towards the IT building motioning for Siren to follow her "I think our best way in is to blast in at full speed, don't get caught in any of the conversation beams. Or you'll be toast, I'm half digital myself but I don't think I wanna connect with this thing you know. I might loose myself, but if we blast in physically we may end up where we need to be. But we'll also be in whatever started this's home ground" informed Shatter as they got closer to the building.

If they looked around and below them, they'd see a scene akin to a battlefield but almost more horrific with a little hint of digital surrealism. It was like if a surrealist program had tripped on acid and painted a battlefield aftermath, there were half bodies and buildings everywhere. Things were either fully or half converted, people were fused with other people, animals, cars and or other inanimate objects but still seemed alive and wishing for death.

As they got closer to the building, the outside looked like a Tron fan regurgitated on a sidewalk and all its crazy fantasies had spilled out with it. Digital splotches were everywhere in a variety of shapes, some sharp some creeping up existing places. The building itself looked mostly the same except it too had taken on a colour akin to digital data with pixelation all over the place. Shatter cringed a little, feeling like this would be the after effect had the government gotten a hold of her. "We need to do this quick and fast" expressed Shatter as she pulled out a large lance and got in front of Siren "Hope you can follow my speed" added Shatter as she readied herself and aimed for what looked like a window and blasted straight for it with lance forward in hopes of punching through.

Siren actually winced a little at hearing Shatter's story, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up any uncomfortable memories..." In all honesty, it actually reminded Alan of how he had ended up in his current situation, of nearly having his life taken and desperate measures being needed to save him. However, both aspects of Siren decided to leave that matter alone for now. When Shatter motioned for them to follow, they did so and nodded along to her suggestions.

"Agreed. A direct assault is best, especially since the more time we take finding the source of all this, the more danger this city gets put in," When Shatter mentioned the danger this act would put them in, they only smiled reassuringly, "That's fine with me. I enjoy the occasional challenge. You lead the way, I'll follow!" Seeing the lance his companion wielded, Siren formed one of her arms into a large shield while the other turned into a lance. She rocketed towards the window and aimed her own weapon with Shatter's in the hopes of helping to break through.

The pair of female heroes burst through the window in a show of heroic fortitude, both landing with the grace, poise and possibly pose reminiscent of superheroes. The glass they had blasted through had oddly reversed from it's broken pieces on the floor back up to the window and reformed itself. As the two looked around they'd spot what looked like beginnings of an office building with more then a few minor differences. The people that were meant to be around, ranging from office workers to security guards and Mail workers were scattered about the building. Those they could see were in some kind of frozen formation, some were half digitalised while others were simply fleeing in terror.

They were all stuck in place and didn't seem to be visibly moving but as the heroes passed the frozen people some who looked like they hadn't even seen what was going on and we're stuck at their desk or in some unlucky cases fused to it. Noises came from the sorry souls but nothing audible short of mumbling or cries for help which were muffled as most of them hard their mouths removed like Neo from the Matrix. "It's like the matrix meets the house of wax" commented Shatter as they proceeded to some big doors ahead of them.

When they opened the large doors, the room got quite weird even though it's been far from a normal walk down the road. This whole room looked to be something out directly from Tron with retro digital colours and objects floating around but there were still some cubicles and desks. However the people weren't anywhere to be seen, yet. As the two stepped in a face appeared on the ceiling and started talking while from the behind the cubicle walls appeared a bunch of dolls which looked at the two ladies who'd entered with curiosity. What the ceiling had to say though "Welcome to the world of ARCHON, Artificial Reactor to Chaos and Heralder of Order and Neutrality. You will soon become part of the program, please don't resist or you might malfunction and we don't want that do we" explained the creepy face on the ceiling.

"Now THAT is what I call an entrance!" Siren exclaimed as they landed with Shatter, feeling pretty awesome despite their current predicament. After all, it's not everyday one gets to team up with a digital fairy and smash through an office building's window together. However, before anything else, the window mysteriously fixed itself, which was an tip-off that things in this place were not what they seemed.

The alien followed Shatter through the building, looking on in dismay at the workers who were seemingly frozen in place yet aware of their situation. At hearing Shatter talk, she could only nod, "Yes. In all honesty, I'd sooner die than let myself be frozen in time like this forever..." It was a morbid thought, for sure, but Siren knew she was right.

However, what they faced next completely shattered any sense of logic and common sense. A face had appeared and started speaking to them while a bunch of dolls emerged from the cubicles. Although Siren looked ready for a fight, the fact they were just staring caught her off-guard. She took a moment to listen and decided to speak up as she cleared her throat and stepped forward, "Excuse me, Mr Archon...or Miss Archon, however you prefer to be addressed, my name is Siren and this is my companion, Shatter. We'd like to know what you're doing to this city and if you'd be willing to stop? Maybe even reverse the damage, please?"

A crazy idea, for sure, talking to the rogue A.I. but worth a shot, at least.

Shatter was thrown back by the frozen statues as well though not as much by the ceiling face and assortment of dolls, looking their way like some kind of creepy observers. Shatter thought this was some kind of nightmare drummed up by them or the people in the building, either way it was more then a little trippy.

Of all things to do Siren went to the polite negation which Shatter silently sighed at knowing you can't reason with crazy. If it was sane at any point in its life it sure as digital hell wasn't now, but she figured it was at least worth a try. The face on the ceiling laughed though not an actual laugh but some creepy digitalasation of one, a mix between canned laughter and and evil laugh that would likely send chills down anyone's spine.

"It's just Archon and I'll give you points for politeness but I'm just doing my job. I'm to keep order in the chaos that is within my domain, and my domain surprisingly increased recently so I'm just doing what my programming tells me too with my new boundaries. And I'm done playing nice, it's time to convert or be destroyed" mused Archon as the face on the ceiling changed from an almost passive friendliness to an angry look.

It motioned to the dolls silently and they jumped from their spots and got on the ground and started marching towards Shatter and Siren. But they stopped a few metres away from them and started grouping together, fusing together to form some kind of mass doll centipede things which almost reached the ceiling and whose faceless features made the thing even more creepy. It looked at Shatter and Siren at least that's what it seemed like but the hostility was apparent when it started charging at them.

"Well, it was worth a try anyways," Siren remarked with a shrug before suddenly staring gobsmacked at the spectacle unfolding before her. Although using the word "spectacle" was a quaint way to describe what looked like something that belonged in a Silent Hill game. It was taking all they had not to throw up at the sight though she was still frozen to the spot, mostly thanks to Alan's hesitation.

"Alan?" No answer, "Alan!" Again, no answer, "ALAN!!!"

"Huh, what?" Alan snapped back to reality, "Sorry, Aurora. Just...zoned out there for a second..."

"I noticed. Look, that thing is horrific, for sure, but we gotta focus if we wanna take it down before it kills us!" Aurora argued, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Right, right...thanks, Aurora." Siren looked up to see the beast charging at them, so they rolled out of the way and formed both arms into a pair of giant maces, "Let's try to attack from both sides!" She leaped up and launched herself like a bullet at the entity.

Shatter shrugged at the talking down not working, it was what she expected. A computer thinking it was doing its job when it was doing nothing of the sort, she was reminded of an old movie series but pushed it to the side when the curious dolls from before. Had formed into something that would turn the manliest guy into a blubbering child, Siren seemed herself frozen as well at the site of the thing which decided to come right for them.

Luckily she'd finally moved, Siren had rolled to the side prepared to fight however Shatter's instinct was different and she attempted to dodge up. Much to her dismay as the roof tried to reach out and grab her, in the few seconds she had before the thing grabbed her Shatter did two things. One was to send a burst of energy towards Siren that landed on her shoulder and formed into a Rilou, the second one was to form a barrier around herself before she was inevitably sucked into the ceiling.

The Rilou on Siren's shoulder nodded to Shatter's request about attacking from the sides and jumped the crazy beast and waited for Siren to make her move before it went for the attack. Meanwhile Shatter was being dragged through digital brick and mortar being attacked on all side, as Archon tried to break through her barrier in an attempt to bring Shatter to her side.