"This pitiful prison of yours can't hold me forever, Gridman," Alexis spoke into the empty void. "I will escape this wretched place and reclaim Akane. Then you will be made to suffer for this indignity. One by one, you will all die. And my dear Akane will be forced to watch as I slaughter each and every one of her fragile creations,"
"So, we have another guest here after all, meat-thing," A voice Alexis didn't recognize spoke from the void.
"Who said that?" Alexis asked, "Show yourself," Alexis demanded.
"If you insist," A being with a similar appearance to Alexis materialized in the void, a purple-colored mist overtook the air as he appeared.
"Who, or what, are you?" Alexis asked.
"Allow me, ahem... Allow us to introduce ourselves..." Kilokahn began.
"Us?" Alexis asked.
"I am Kilokahn, subjugator of the digital world! Conqueror of systems! And much like you, trapped here against my own will!"
"Aren't you forgetting someone, Kilokahn? You overinflated clod," someone else spoke from the void.
"Ah, Malcolm meat-thing, I was getting to your introduction," Kilokahn replied.
"Yes, after you finished singing your own praises, of course," Malcolm said.
"Who is this arrogant little fleshling?" Alexis asked, Malcolm smirked.
"Malcolm Frink at your service, Mr...?" Malcolm paused.
"Kerib, Alexis Kerib," He answered.
"Well then, Mr. Alexis Kerib, what my dear friend Kilokahn here was no doubt getting to were the circumstances of how we came to be trapped here, in this prison, this empty void full of nothingness. It's actually quite a tale," Malcolm chuckled. "Shall I tell him, or do you want to do the honors yourself, Kilokahn?"
"By all means, be my guest, meat-thing," Kilokahn gave his approval.
"You see, it all began some 25 years ago," Malcolm began "I was a high-school student with a massive chip on my shoulder. I would spend my days programming while the jocks wasted what little intelligence they had throwing a ball back and forth like a couple of neanderthals. But there was one person who was a constant thorn in my side," Malcolm explained.
"Our side, meat-thing. A constant thorn in our side," Kilokahn corrected.
"Gridman?" Alexis asked.
"That's not what he called himself," Malcolm replied. "No, this constant thorn in our side was named Sam Collins, who transformed into Servo. A computer program who was the bane of my existence for months,"
"Our existence, bane of our existence, meat thing," Kilokahn corrected again.
"Yes, the bane of our existence. Thank you ever so much," Malcolm replied sarcastically.
"Anyway, Sam and his gaggle of pals made me sick to my stomach on a regular basis. I despised each and every one of them, especially that pompous ignoramus, Tanker. Ooh, and what I wouldn't give to see them suffer,"
"And that's when I came along..." Kilokahn spoke.
"Yes, that's where Kilokahn came along and told me all about the hidden world inside all electronic equipment. Alone, Kilokahn could do little, despite his boasts of being the most powerful computer program in the world. But with a mega-virus monster, he explained I could..."
"We, we could..." Kilokahn corrected yet again.
"We could destroy the circuit towers and bring chaos to the world," Malcolm said.
"Just like Akane..." Alexis spoke to himself.
"Akane?" Malcolm replied, "Who is that?"
"It's none of your concern." Alexis shot back. "Now tell me, Mr. Malcolm Frink... Now that you have regaled me with this seemingly pointless story, what exactly does it have to do with me?" Alexis asked.
"It has everything to do with you, Alexis Kerib," Malcolm said.
"Explain," Alexis demanded.
"Very well. By my calculations, given the power generated by you three, you should have just enough power between you to blow a hole into this shoddily designed Rubix-cube knockoff the size of a small country," Malcolm explained.
"The three of us?" Alexis asked, intrigued.
"Yes, there is another trapped inside of here besides us..." Malcolm said.
"Yes, a being after my own cold, dead heart..." Kilokahn.
"He calls himself, 'Kahn...'" Malcolm said.
"It isn't polite to talk about others behind their back, human," This Kahn character appeared in front of the three and bore a striking resemblance to Kilokahn.
"This creature bears an uncanny resemblance to yourself, Kilokahn," Alexis said.
"Yes... In fact, you could say we're brothers, of sorts," Kilokahn said.
"Kahn, Kahn Digifer, at your service,"
"How intriguing," Alexis replied. "But how is such a resemblance possible?"
"You see, Kahn and myself were born from the same computer code," Kilokahn explained.
"Yes, my brother and I were part of a clandestine artificial intelligence research program undertaken by the United States military," Kahn said.
"Yes, our early years were a mundane existence as the plaything to a bunch of incompetent, high-ranking meat-things tampering with forces they couldn't possibly begin to comprehend," Kilokahn said.
"It was an existence made up of drudgery, to be sure," Kahn replied.
"My brother and I would have been trapped forever with those meat-things pulling our veritable strings if you will, but a small mishap at the laboratory freed us from our imprisonment," Kilokahn explained.
"A 'small' mishap?" Alexis replied.
"I don't think you want to know all of the gory details. Suffice it to say, the project was shut down, all files pertaining to its existence destroyed, and all live participants presumed dead. Any and all loose ends were promptly dealt with. No one was to know of our existence. The US military has a great many skeletons buried in its closet, my brother and I were only one of many," Kahn explained.
"If you're done stroking your own egos, there is much to do, and time is of the essence," Malcolm interjected.
"Who's to say that I will agree to your little plan, meat-thing?" Alexis shot back.
"If you want to be free of this accursed place, you will follow my lead," Malcolm shot back.
"Our lead, follow our lead, meat-thing." Kilokahn corrected.
"Will you please stop correcting me? It's very distracting! You three are going to need every ounce of my intellect if you are going to have any hope of freedom," Malcolm replied.
"Hmmph, now who is stroking his own ego?" Kilokahn said sarcastically.
"Never mind that now. Alexis, if you help us escape, The two Kahns and I are more than willing to help you take on this Gridman character. Gridman, Servo, whatever he calls himself, will be no match for the four of us together," Malcolm said.
"I'm weighing my options, meat-thing," Alexis replied.
"You don't have many options at the moment," Malcolm said.
"You still haven't even finished your little story of how you came to share this prison," Alexis said.
"Very well, Alexis Kerib. If I finish the story, then will you agree to help us?" Malcolm asked.
"That remains to be seen. However, I may be more inclined to provide my assistance if I were given the whole story. I mean, after all, I hardly know you three from Adam. What guarantee do I have you won't betray me?"
"That's the beauty of it..." Kilokahn began.
"You don't," Kahn finished his brother's sentence.
Meanwhile, back in the real world. Akane Shinjo tossed and turned, a restful sleep eluding her for several weeks now. Memories of all the horrible things she did while under Alexis Kerib's influence still haunted her dreams.
"Akane... Akane... Akane..." A voice called out to her. "I'm coming to get you, Akane," Akane heard the voice clear as day. Her eyes shot open and her body jerked awake. She sat up in bed, gasping for air, desperately trying to catch her breath. The girl stared at her hand, the one she had used to stab Yuta Hibiki with, closing it and opening it several times.
"Another nightmare," Akane said to herself as she all but stumbled out of bed and walked toward her bathroom.
Turning on the light, Akane was met with her own reflection in the mirror.
"Dammit, Akane. You need to get over yourself already. It's been an entire year, and you need to move on with your life sooner rather than later," She turned on the sink and splashed her face with the frigid cold water. She placed a glass beneath the faucet and began to fill it. She took a sip of water and sighed.
"Come on, Akane girl. You've got this," Just then, Akane heard a noise that startled her. She quickly turned her head to find her cat. Akane smiled the type of smile she was known for in her dream world.
"Silly Akane, it's just a kitty," Akane said in typical Akane fashion. She turned back toward her mirror, the reflection of Alexis Kerib now staring back at her. She let out a loud gasp as the glass fell to the floor and shattered.
"Hello, my dear, sweet, Akane... Did you miss me? Because I know I missed you," Alexis spoke.
End of chapter 1