"Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here."
- The Architect, The Matrix Reloaded
"I gave it a cold."
- Jeff Goldblum, Independence Day
Gai looked into Inori's frightened and saddened eyes as the violet crystals spread over her face. The Apocalypse Virus surged through her veins, covering her in a shimmering cocoon of purple meteorite shards. The war for control of her body was over, and all she could do now was peacefully regenerate into her true form.
"That takes care of our butterfly," Gai chuckled to himself. "Now to punish the rat."
He turned away from Inori's massive jewel shell and pointed his right palm downward. A circle made of tiny green pixels appeared on the floor, opening a flat doorway to a virtual dimension. A single figure rose out of the void on his feet. Standing in the dim violet light of Apocalypse crystals with long emerald tresses completely hiding his eyes, the figure was strongly built and vaguely clothed. It was as if Gai had summoned a digital copy of himself.
"The other one is being held in Lab C," Gai said to his mysterious counterpart. "She's the best host we could find for the Data Infection. She's a wild one compared to Mana's vessel, but I trust you'll be able to perform the honors."
The figure nodded in determined silence.
"Do be quick about her," Gai said ominously. "You know how the queens get the longer they have to wait."
The figure walked out of the chamber like a stream of electrons gliding through a quartz circuit.
Soldiers rushed through the basement of the complex with rifles in their arms. They secretly infiltrated the building on orders to stop the madmen controlling GHQ from unleashing the Apocalypse Virus at any cost. Their maps said the basement should have been completely empty, but they found something unexpected just under the complex's science wing. Two things, to be exact.
The first was some sort of viral crystal garden forming a large cocoon. Beside it was a large deposit of silicon roughly shaped like sphere. The soldiers advanced cautiously, having no idea what they were about to unleash.
The fragile amethyst cocoon began to crumble from the heat of their flashlights. The structure broke into thousands of purple glass shards, revealing the radiant outline of Inori crouched in its center. As she slowly rose to feet, the yolk glued to her naked form dried into clothing. She wore an outfit resembling a purple ballet gown with a crystal arrangement decorating her pale pink hair. Mana had returned.
The silicon cocoon slowly melted, revealing Tsugumi's body preserved in a nest of power cables underneath. She rose off of her knees as she stirred out of her idle slumber. She wore a revealing LED-studded black dress that hugged her body like a one-piece swimsuit and dangled down her arms and legs like mermaid fins. The outfit had virtually no front, covering only the outer halves of her chest and leaving everything down the middle exposed. She had a glowing mark shaped like a power symbol around her navel. The tips of her long, straight black hair were highlighted with metallic green streaks, and she wore small square microchip decorations tucked above her ears. Tiny streams of electricity shimmered through the veins in her skin as she breathed, cooled by the light beads of sweat trickling from her pores. A dozen holographic grids encircled her wherever she moved, casting her in a constant digital glow.
"Ah. This clone vessel feels great on me. GHQ really knows what to get a girl for her birthday," Mana cheerfully said as she glanced herself over. "How's that ghetto mink they fixed up for you fit, Venera?"
"Optimally," the dark-haired woman next to her said with a relaxed purr, analyzing her own vital signs and biometrics on her dim floating screens.
The soldiers quickly formed a defensive line in front of the two alien beauties. Mana and Venera narrowed their eyes at each other, then toward the intruders.
Mana hopped down from her crystal prison with the weight of a feather. Tiny purple stalagmites rose up in each footprint left by her slippers.
Venera fearlessly walked out of the molten silicon pool and toward the battalion. Her skirts and her sleeves whisked across the floor like the trail of a fiber optic wedding gown as she moved.
"Hey, isn't that my old concert dress?" Mana gave Venera an accusing glare.
"Just the basic pattern, but I enhanced this version for myself. The material I used is closer to the mission suit my host body was wearing when she was captured. It keeps my core temperature down while amplifying my signal," the alien being who used to be Tsugumi answered calmly. She crossed her hands over her navel, letting her sleeves dangle in front of her legs. "It's rather nice."
The soldiers in front of them raised their rifles and locked their sights.
"Ready to show off for these boys, you recycled bucket of bolts?" Mana sneered playfully.
"More than you are, you test tube-grown meat socket," Venera answered back with a green tinge of jealousy.
The soldiers fired their rifles, and died horrifically for their mistake. Mana waved her fingers, protecting herself from the bullets with a honeycomb shield of purple crystals. She unleashed a wave of energy spores that infected half of the troops in the battalion, instantly transforming them into purple petrified corpses.
Venera disintegrated the bullets aimed at her with the radiation from her holographic grids. The fibers of her skirt and sleeves stretched across the ground like an infestation of black weeds and viciously stabbed into the back of each soldier's helmet. She instantly hotwired their minds with a mass RegEdit and set them into an Auto-Destroy mode. When she yanked her wires back out of their heads, the remaining soldiers turned their weapons on each other and fought to the death for their queen's amusement.
"Cute trick," Mana said while she watched Venera's worshippers systematically delete themselves. "Okay, Brainy. So how do you think we should split up this planet?"
Venera smiled back at her, happy to provide her rival with tactical advice.
"I suggest you spread through the active ecological sites first. I'll infect the major technology centers."
"Sounds fun," Mana snickered. "We'll be two Apocalypses in one."
Author's note: Do you like my cyber sorceress?
Author's note 2: If the timeline continues on its current course, I predict all of humanity will be driven to extinction in six months and two distinct strains of intelligent life will evolve in its place. The Earth will be ruled by dual hive queens in relative harmony for roughly a decade before one gets greedy and starts creeping her viral pattern into the other's territory. The planet will fall into an endless dystopian civil war over territory and natural resources fought between the Inoribros and the Tsugumiloids