Chapter 57.1 - Bit by Byte

Bit by Byte
"Don't knock what you haven't tried," smiled Haruhi.

The Loop was suddenly filled with hot water, Zyling was dragged downwards by the falling torrent. With The Loop essentially bottomless, he fell faster and faster. There was an unexpected low boom of a nearby explosion. Unlike air, water could not be compressed. Hence an explosion in the water would send all the force the only way it could, into Zyling. Zyling's armour immediately shattered as the water crushed inwards with incredible force. Rulia, now completely revealed again, coughed with the sudden exposure to the hot water but held on, bearing the heat. At this point, she had no need to breathe.

Opening an eye, her vision slightly blurry from the rushing water, Rulia thought to Zyling in an rather unimpressed tone, "Great job." Being thoughts, the communication between Rulia and Zyling was almost instant.

"I've scratched your back," replied Zyling, ignoring Rulia's sarcasm, "Now you scratch mine."

"I didn't think that was how parasites worked."

"They do now," noted Zyling, again ignoring Rulia's quip. Black chains shot out of the scattered armour pieces, wrapping round Rulia's waist. Rulia launched herself through the water at Haruhi and aimed a punch. Haruhi saw this, which was Rulia's intention. Rulia quickly sent all the water she could to her Hammerspace, creating a vacuum. As Rulia could not affect the water round Haruhi, there was a brief moment where Haruhi thought the water was still there, activating an explosion in front of her to prevent Rulia's punch.

With no water, the explosion did not crush Rulia, instead sending her flying downwards. Thanks to Sasaki's Super Driver, the pain the explosion caused was easily shrugged off. With the sharp edged armour pieces chained loosely to Rulia, the explosion had sent them flailing in all directions, The Loop struggling to dodge them all. The red lines of the cuboid rotated around erratically, putting the lines within Frostmourne's short attack range. Rulia knew Haruhi would not attempt to cut Frostmourne as she swung the sword, as the weapon was one of Yggdrasil attempts to control her.

As Frostmourne cut through a red line, Rulia shot out The Loop's fading cuboid and dived towards the clouds below. Without warning, White teleported underneath, raising her riot shield above her. Rulia landed on the shield feet first, landing on one knee, the chains pulling back Zyling's armour to cover Rulia. White chains shot out from the shield and wrapped round Rulia, attempting to tie her down. However, black chains fired out the back of the shield, tying the physically tired White to the shield instead. With no chains reinforced by Haruhi, Rulia stood up with little effort, the white chains breaking with her enhanced strength. Jumping off and ignoring White, Rulia continued diving at high speed as Zyling quickly sealed the cracks in his armour, accelerated by Rulia's power. She entered the clouds when-

"Chaos Control!" Rulia was suddenly slammed into from below, launching her back up above the clouds and breaking the front of Zyling's armour.

"Don't close your eyes!" shouted Zyling, "I can't regenerate if I don't get my armour pieces back!" Rulia struggled to open an eye to see a bright yellow Super Shadow pushing her from below with White's riot shield. Zyling's broken armour pieces were nowhere to be seen, lost beneath the clouds. Temper flaring, Rulia absorbed the riot shield into Hammerspace and drew her armoured right hand back for a punch.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow suddenly vanished, appearing to the side with a kick pulled back. Rulia was not ready to dodge the kick when Shadow was hit by a thin white beam from below, knocking him upwards. Yuki rocketed up from the clouds to Rulia's side, took her wrist and dived downwards with Rulia in tow, faster than Rulia could dive herself.

"Keep negating Haruhi's powers, Rulia," spoke Yuki, who had Zyling's armour pieces floating around her, having picked them up on the way upwards. Zyling absorbed the pieces and reformed the armour, except the helmet, presumably to allow Rulia to speak. "She's shrouding her presence so I cannot see her-" Right on cue, as they were almost about to reenter the clouds, Yuki was struck by an invisible upwards force. As the force passed Rulia, it flickered into view to be Haruhi. Rulia frowned as Haruhi pushed Yuki further up into the sky.

"Hey, incoming from below," warned Zyling, retracting one of the armour strips on Rulia's back. Yuuka's elbow collided into Rulia's back, in the exact place Zyling had revealed. While the force was spread across Rulia's body, this did send Rulia spinning upwards.

"Did you just let me get hit on purpose?" growled Rulia, stabilising herself to face Yuuka.

"Hey, you've got The Super Driver," commented Zyling, "You've already seen how brittle I am." Fully repaired, Zyling repatched the rear of the armour and extracted the back of the helmet but left the front uncovered. "I'll take on the wide blasts, you take on the pinpoint attacks. Think of me like a concrete block, I can stand against a sledgehammer but not the pickaxe, understand?" Rulia did not have time to argue when-

"Master Spark!" cried Yuuka, opening her umbrella at Rulia, firing a large yellow beam. Rulia rolled to the side and began to dive, trying to get past Yuuka, when an exact duplicate of Yuuka with messier hair and a wider grin, appeared behind the youkai.

She opened up her own umbrella at the now closer Rulia, "Dual Spark," she smirked. An identical but slightly smaller beam fired, Rulia unable to dodge the close proximity. Zyling immediately formed the helmet and took the brunt of the attack, his armour holding well enough. Rulia could only feel slight burning via her left arm. Summoning an energy ball capable of breaking The Hakurei Barrier with his right hand, Zyling hit the second Yuuka's umbrella and slammed the energy ball down on it, causing a one-sided explosion. Despite the Dual Spark stopping, the umbrella was unscratched.

"Convenience Theory," pointed out Rulia, "Yuuka's umbrella is the only flower in Gensokyo that never withers."

"Great," sighed Zyling, "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"Don't engage with anyone from Touhou," she warned, "Some of them are more powerful than Haruhi is at the moment."

"Hmph, I guess it's your turn again then," Zyling retracted the front of the helmet, reassigning control back to Rulia. The first Yuuka was in the process of turning round, her half of the Dual Spark still firing. Being below the first Yuuka, Rulia was in a prime position to dodge when Yuuka was hit by a blob of shiny liquid metal, which covered her upper body, forcing her to drop the umbrella. The second Yuuka immediately flew upwards, seemingly to get away from the metal, briefly taking up Rulia, who just rolled off.

The metal, which now covered the struggling Yuuka's head, formed Luka's upper body. "Rulia!" she called out, "There's no time-!" Luka stopped talking and gritted her teeth. She began to struggle against something, Yuuka's facial features becoming visible under the metal. Suddenly, the metal over Yuuka's mouth split open, Yuuka gasping for air. Up through the clouds, Remilia and Flandre hovered, Remilia's sight fixed on Luka. "Manipulation of fate," croaked Luka. She looked at Remilia, her right eye glowing red, but before it could fire a laser, the right side of her head exploded, revealing more reflective metal. The polyalloy quickly peeled off Yuuka before Luka lost her grip entirely, flung through the rainclouds below. With her reality bending ability, Remilia was a goddess in her own right.

Rulia noticed Flandre was looking up at her, with a big fang-revealing grin and her right hand raised.

"Dive!" cried Zyling, "Dive, Rulia! That's the power to destroy anything!" Rulia really didn't need to be told twice and took a plunge towards the clouds. As she passed Flandre, Flandre shut her hand tightly with crushing force. Rulia heard a loud metallic snap as she entered the dark clouds, something round her torso falling apart. "... That wasn't what I thought it was... was it?"

Rulia instinctively put her hand to her chest even though Zyling's armour was covering it, "She broke the Super Driver!" she realised with shock.

"Awesome. Now you're a little less invincible... Though that does mean Yggdrasil doesn't want to kill you. Or me."

"That's a big relief."

"I see you're improving your use of sarcasm."

Rulia shot through the clouds back into the pouring rain to be met by several Monkey Kings. "This should be easy," noted Rulia.

"Don't bother," interrupted Zyling, lowering the helmet and regaining control. He turned invisible and rolled to the side, bypassing the monkeys completely. He retracted the visor again. "You pick your own targets, don't let Yggdrasil pick them for you. I can turn invisible which should mislead him for a short moment but with the Ring and sword superglued to your hand, he'll pick up the trail again quickly-" The Monkey Kings teleported below them, charging upwards. "Gah, where is that Haruhi? Her teleporting is grinding my nerves."

"Can't we just do it ag-?" began Rulia when the Kings split outwards, forming a circle of them. Further downwards was Marisa, Hakkero raised, her green eye shining brightly. "Screw it." Rulia performed a rapid barrel roll manoeuvre to the side.

"Final Spark!" cried Marisa, a gigantic green tinted power beam ripped up through the sky, far larger than her Master Spark by fourfold. Rulia only just dodged out the way as the beam crackled past. She immediately felt sick, the Spark irradiating strong nuclear radiation. The closest Monkey King attempted to charge at her but as she was coming out of a fast roll, Rulia had a punch powered up, slamming the King across the face.

But Rulia realised this was a terrible mistake. Having just delivered a heavy punch, she was in no position to dodge any incoming fire. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she realised with horror the situation she had put herself in, one of Yukari's gaps opening in front of her. Rulia did not have to, nor did have have the time to, turn around to know the other end of the gap was opening above Marisa. She saw the blinding light of the Spark coming from the purple innards of the gap as Zyling tried to form his armour. However, Rulia resisted his attempt, retracting his armour instead.

"You can't take that hit!" argued Zyling.

"You certainly can't either. Don't waste your energy. You were meant for much greater things." Rulia was just coming out of the roll but not soon enough as the Spark approached, vaporising the Monkey King Rulia had punched.

"... Please don't die..."

Rulia did not reply, instead cracking a smile, accepting her inevitable fate. The Final Spark hit her like a bullet train, knocking the breath out of Rulia, preventing her from screaming. The burning was unbearable, the radiation was wrenching, the roaring was deafening and the light was glaring through her closed eyelids. But then, Rulia could feel her body go numb, the heat fading away. The noise stabilised to a low humming, before disappearing. Rulia slowly opened her eyes to find herself floating in complete whiteness. She looked around in confusion when she noticed a female figure approaching her.

"... Sasaki?"

Sasaki smiled at Rulia as she floated towards her before drawing a fist and punching Rulia in the face with immense power, knocking her straight out the Final Spark. Rulia almost passed out from the force as Zyling formed his armour.

"What?!" exclaimed Zyling out loud, "If you're a goddess, there's far more effective ways to save someone!" Dazed, Rulia could not find the energy to comment. Sasaki charged into Zyling, kicking him in the torso. The power shattered his breastplate, it was enough to prevent too much force hitting Rulia and the armour broke inwards, meaning Zyling could easily repair himself without having to chase after the pieces.

Marisa immediately stopped the Final Spark with a look of confusion, "... Why? Why's the Director getting involved? He's meant to be neutral."

"It's because Rulia's cheating," answered a female voice above her. Marisa looked up to see a familiar pair of white and teal striped underwear.

"Hatsune Miku," growled Haruhi, hovering behind the rocket-boot using Miku, who was completely intact, "Aren't you cheating by duplicating a player?" The Vocaloid did not turn round, observing the fight. It appeared that Zyling's invisibility ability was far more effective against The Director than both Skynet, who could see him clearly, and Yggdrasil, who could after a short moment. The fighting had stopped between Skynet's and Yggdrasil's forces.

"Yggdrasil," ignored Miku, "Your attempts to turn Rulia into a goddess go against The Director's ideology."

"What ideology would that be, Skynet?" frowned Haruhi.

"Rulia is doing something she is not meant to be doing," Miku turned to face Haruhi, "She is modifying her own data and the data of her surroundings to make herself more powerful. However, this ability of hers is not covered by The Convenience Theory. In a non-digital world, she would not be able to do that. To The Director, that qualifies as cheating. That's in contrast to someone who is allowed to do that via The Convenience Theory." Miku pointed a finger upwards. Haruhi did not look, Yuuka doing this on Yggdrasil's behalf. Nakamura Yuri was flapping her angel wings to stay hovering in the air, watching Sasaki below. She appeared to be using her own gained methods of digital detection to keep tabs on Zyling's most likely position.

"But then, you're modifying data to recreate Miku. Miku was canonned out. Why isn't The Director attacking you?"

"The Director's had his sights on Rulia for a while," continued Miku, once again dodging Yggdrasil's question, "Becoming Infected but not under The Director's control was not cheating, no doubt you're aware I control some Infected. But it was once she was knocked out by Rokiahi that The Director started behaving erratically. Her mind went haywire, and she began cheating. Remember, we did not want anyone who could not regenerate shot at. And yet, The Director shot at Rulia. Rulia was also the first being The Director knocked out. She could have suffered from brain damage. I don't want to imagine what would have happened if we hadn't stepped in to have her moved to the Arctic. It seems like he's ramping up the punishment to match the 'offence' she carried out."

"Why are you explaining this to me? To laugh at me?"

"No," answered Miku, with a serious look on her face, "You see, having another goddess also benefits me. So, I have a proposition. How about we have a true alliance against The Director? How about we unlock Rulia's full potential? Together." Miku held a hand out to Haruhi to shake.

Haruhi did not take her hand, "Skynet. We are all aware of your top priority. Your own survival, right? What would stop you from stabbing me in the back?"

"Why would I do-?"

"Our ideals are mutually exclusive. You want everyone to go back home. I want everyone to stay in the real world. How could we ever work together?"

"I am open to discussion on why you think it would be better for us to stay in this world than to go back home."

"Sadly, that is not something I can tell you."

"And this is why we can't work together," glared Miku, "I offer you my cooperation and aid but you just throw it to the ground and stamp on it for good measure." There was a loud cracking noise as Sasaki managed to plant a solid punch on Zyling's cheek, shattering half of his helmet. "You need to be more trus-" Haruhi suddenly disappeared. Miku frowned and looked down at the invisible Zyling, who was attempting to gather his pieces.

Haruhi teleported between Zyling and Sasaki, before kicking him away from her. He spun round in the air before hitting a solid surface. Looking around, he could see he was encased in a cubic Hakurei Barrier with Haruhi.

"You idiot!" Zyling cursed out loud, "I can break the Barrier!" he called, summoning an energy ball in his right hand.

"Sorry, Zyling," apologised Haruhi, "But I need you out of the picture." The cube suddenly filled with water, quickly followed by an underwater explosion. Zyling's entire suit of armour shattering once more, his energy ball faded away, his broken pieces and loose parts of Sasaki's Super Driver sinking to the bottom. Before Rulia could react, Haruhi grabbed her arm and a familiar feeling wrapped round her body.

She gasped, water filling her lungs as Haruhi's Super Driver began to take hold. Her mind began to blank out, unable to concentrate to send the Super Driver to her own Hammerspace. But then her remaining energy rapidly faded away as a liquid Hakurei Barrier covered her, also courtesy of Haruhi, cancelling some of her passive abilities. With no energy to keep herself flying, Rulia fell through the bottom of the cube back into open air, falling into one of Yukari's gaps.

Haruhi shut down the cube, the water and armour inside dropping towards the ocean below. She looked at Sasaki, who still had her fists clenched. This would not be enough to appease The Director.

"You are a fool, Yggdrasil," claimed Miku, hovering down to Haruhi's level, "Rulia is not your toy to play with." Haruhi did not reply. Growling, Miku set her rocket boots to full power and charged at Haruhi, fist raised. Yggdrasil was not in the mood and punched her straight through the torso so fast that Miku did not have time to swing her own arm.

But pieces of solid metal flew off Miku, the shards tumbling down towards the Atlantic. No liquid metal, no mimetic polyalloy. Genuine traditional steel and aluminium, cables and gears, cloth and plastic. No Append.

Horror set on Haruhi's face, "You're not Hatsune Miku." Clicking and grinding noises began to ring out as the machine's motors and drives malfunctioned, the head tilting backwards. Haruhi had already crushed the robot's main hard drive by accident so it was already technically dead. She noticed Sasaki glare at her, realising what Skynet had done. Skynet had not created a copy of Miku, instead disguising someone else who did not have an Append form, most likely Zatsune Miku, and jacked out just before her death. This made Miku a Carrier. And since Yggdrasil was a Carrier himself, this meant-

"Friendly fire," declared Sasaki.