They said the system would never fail. They said it was flawless—perfect code written by the Founders to protect our digital world. I believed them. We all did. Until this morning.

I was brushing my teeth when the lights flickered blue. Not the usual data pulse. This was... colder. Like a warning. I tapped my badge, but instead of the daily sync-up, a single line of text flashed on the mirror:

Remember who you are.

It disappeared before I could blink.

I ran to the grid deck where the city spread out like a living circuit board, glowing beneath our tower. My boots echoed through the launch bay. Kid Circuit was already there, scrolling through a dozen holo-screens at once. Typical.

"Did your badge glitch?" I asked.

He didn’t look up. "Mine ran a double update. Weird subcode wrapped in encryption I’ve never seen."

"Mine spoke. Sort of."

He paused. "Spoke?"

I nodded. "Not out loud. But... it felt like it came from inside me."

He finally turned to me. His eyes weren’t mocking like usual. They were searching. Curious. Maybe even scared.

A soft beep pulsed from the tower’s top node.

"Disturbance detected," the system AI said. "Unregistered presence in Sector Theta-9."

We looked at each other. We knew every inch of that sector. Nothing lived there but old server roots and abandoned code farms.

"I’ll suit up," Kid Circuit said. "We’re going."

I clipped on my badge. It shimmered for a second—more than usual. Like it recognized something.

Like it was waking up, too.

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©2005 SugarBubblesllc Awaken.exe