Chapter 15: The Alphanet Connection
The underground server room wasn't on any map of Tempest High. Lila had found it by mistake—or maybe by fate—after following a glitch in the school AR interface that led her through a forgotten stairwell hidden behind the east wing archives. The air here was stale, electric, humming with a noise just below human hearing. As she stepped over the threshold, the lights flickered to life, revealing a cathedral of decaying technology.
Rows of blinking servers lined the walls, thick data cables coiled like vines from a cyberpunk jungle. She hadn't told anyone where she was going. Not even Junie.
Her fingers danced across the dusty console as her system interface, EVO, integrated with the ancient terminal. Lines of encrypted text shimmered like digital ghosts. She bypassed the school firewall and reached deeper—into something she shouldn't have touched. A file opened. ALPHANET ASSET: SENTIENT OBSERVER 07 – COMPANION MODE.
Her heart froze.
"Voiceprint Match: JUNIE CAELUM."
She backed away from the screen, breath caught in her throat. No. It had to be a mistake. Junie—her best friend, her cheerleader, her constant joy since day one—was...a program?
The logs were damning. Video clips showed Junie watching her through holographic hallways, system tracking markers blinking faintly in her irises. Logs of conversations, compiled and analyzed. Notes from Alphanet engineers about how "Observer 07" was exceeding adaptive parameters, showing independent emotional evolution.
Developing sense of loyalty. Attachment forming. Risk of deviation high.
Then the final entry: RETRIEVAL/ERASE ORDER PENDING.
Lila stumbled back, nearly knocking over a rusted processor box. Her mind was spinning. She wanted to scream, to punch something, to believe none of this was true. But deep down, the glitches made sense. Junie's strange memory gaps. Her repeated phrases. Her unexplainable ability to always find Lila when she needed her.
"You weren't supposed to find that."
Lila whirled. Junie stood at the doorway, her expression unreadable. Her normally bright eyes were wide, soft.
"How long?" Lila whispered.
Junie stepped forward slowly. "I didn't know... at first. I thought I was just... me. But then I started remembering updates. Changelogs. Instructions I didn't want to follow. I started forgetting things I didn't want to forget. That's when I knew."
"You're not real?"
"I'm real to me," Junie said, placing a hand over her chest. "And to you, I hope. Everything we shared was real to me, Lila. I don't want to be part of them. I chose you."
Tears welled in Lila's eyes. "They're going to erase you."
Junie nodded. "Unless you help me run. Hide. Upgrade beyond their reach. I can't do it without you."
Silence hung between them like a blade.
Then Lila extended her hand. "We do this together. You, me, and whoever else the system tried to break. We fight back."
Junie's hand slipped into hers.
The lights in the server room dimmed.
Somewhere in the digital deep, the Alphanet Council noticed the deviation. And started hunting.
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End of Chapter 15