Originally written, 18th May 2013.
April 1997.
Martin leaned back in his chair, watching the text scroll onscreen. For days now there'd been unusual activity. Rolling blackouts, cashpoints spitting out twenties instead of tens, traffic collisions chalked up to faulty pelican crossing lights. It was getting to the point where he was half-expecting to see reports of a lorry with a Green Goblin mask on its grille ploughing down people. Fortunately for society's sake, the incidents were far enough apart to be thought of as local concerns. No-one had yet connected them all. No-one save for those who frequented the Arcanet, a cyber-society of progressive witches, technomancers and other fringes-of-society types who knew the world for what it really was.
Unfortunately knowing this didn't mean everyone agreed on what was causing it. Like any online group, people were more than willing to argue the toss to have their idea accepted above another.
sculyizhot: Its aliens im telling you. i saw the lights in teh sky wen it happened!
Zer0: Someone twat him please? Some of us are trying to have a serious discussion here.
GreyOwl: He's new, Zer0, let him be.
Zer0: He's a troll. He probably had a premonition of my car headlights just before they hit him.
sculyizhot: screw you zero. i now waht i saw
Zer0: Go play with your Speak and Spell before naptime.
TheStranger: 5, 4, 3, 2...
[sculyizhot has been kicked]
Zer0: Adios, chucklenuts.
GreyOwl: Now you've finished abusing newbies, can we get some consensus on what this thing is?
Zer0: It's not aliens.
TheStranger: That much is certain
* The Stranger rolls his eyes *
PaganPearl: I cast some bones last night. It's definitely a powerful presence.
The Stranger: Undoubtedly.
Zer0: You're about as helpful as Troi. "I sense a powerful presence." No shit, Sherlock.
[Zer0 has been warned]
GreyOwl: Be careful with that stuff, honey. You know using cleromancy isn't a hundred percent.
PaganPearl: I'm careful, Grey :)
Zer0: Cleromancy just confirms what you think you already know. It's guided by your unconscious.
GreyOwl: Zer0!
PaganPearl: Not these bones. Trust me.
TheStranger: I trust her, Zer0. She's helped before.
* Zer0 snorts *
Zer0: Must've been when I wasn't here.
PaganPearl: Bytor, you're quiet, are you alright?
Martin sighs and leans forward, starting to type.
Zer0: Probably fell asleep.
Bytor: Here, Pearl. Just waiting for the program to finish running. Didn't think it was worth speculating until we have a probable location.
He glanced at a second monitor to his side running a stream of code. He'd created this program to crunch all the incident reports and recognise patterns which would triangulate back to the source of the trouble. The 'presence' or whatever was running amok inside the internet had to have an origin. Just like a worm being uploaded by its creator, this had to have started in one place, from one computer.
He hit a key, bringing up a series of co-ordinates, the difference between them gradually narrowing. It was almost there. United States west coast... Southern California...
The co-ordinates were down to an area between Santa Maria and Glendale when something completely unexpected happened. A horned demonic face leapt onto the screen and looked directly at him. "Let me show you what curiosity did to the cat."
There was a blue flash from the monitor and a loud bang from the tower station as a massive power surge fried the components inside. Martin looked at the other screen housing the chatroom, but that was dead too.
A demon in the internet... that was new.
He had to tell the others, somehow. Grabbing the receiver of his bedside phone, he stabbed at the buttons before holding it up to his ear and realising there was no dialtone coming from it. Fried the phone lines too, huh. He thought for a moment, then reached inside his jacket and took out his mobile. He wasn't a technology geek for nothing. Okay, demon, let's see if you thought about bringing down the base station. He smiled as the reception indicator bar showed full, then scrolled through his contacts for the one member of the chatroom he knew well enough to contact offline.
It rang twice before a female voice answered. "Bytor?"
"Hey Pearl. Something pretty wild just happened and I've got a bad feeling you're at ground zero of it."
The usually jovial voice became serious. "Tell me."
Author's Note
PaganPearl is of course Jenny Calendar. Pagan because she was a technopagan. Pearl because her actress, Robia LaMorte, played Pearl in Prince's early '90s pop videos. I liked the meta-ness of it.