Run!

Well, he took that well...

I'm not sure what's going to happen next, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to be here for it.

I think it's time to--

RUN!

Can't run in these heels, though! Well, maybe I could, but at least I can change out of them now that he's not focused on controlling my appearance--

That's better! Gotta keep moving!

Heart pounding... fear consuming. RUN!

Thankfully a 'path' of sorts stretched out before me. I just needed to land each footfall. Or was it the hacker doing this, directing me even as I fled him? Whatever the case, I could see Gates stretching out into the horizon. I needed to get out of here!

Gotta run!

(Pounding fear consuming...)

I felt like I was practically flying as I raced over the platforms away from the amorphous, tentacle-laden shadow beast the hacker had become.

Gotta keep running. Can't let him control this virtual body... my digital soul

Run! Run! Can't stop now 

With I wasn't entirely sure how far behind me he was. Was this all a game for him? Was he toying with me? I couldn't be sure, but even if I was an AI in a virtual landscape, I could feel my heart pumping, feel the fear racing through my veins. I had to get away!

Gotta outrun him! Gotta get out!

In the distance ahead, as I came down off the floating platforms in the ethereal landscape of HyperNova Core, I saw a familiar gate. I'd gone this way with the hacker himself, toward Fantasy World. My feet pumping, I raced for the gate. I had to get away from him! From behind me, I could hear a horrific sound, like the world behind me was collapsing, being consumed in the void of his rage.

*Through the pixels and light, the first world blurs as I make my way through the gate. I saw the towering trees of Fantasy World, their magic stirring.

As I ran through the trees of Fantasy World, I passed some of the little green penguin-like birds that tended to hang out on the trees here. The cute little guys. But I couldn't stop to gawk at them or play with them. Gotta keep moving. Can't slow my pace.

As I leapt from a tree, I landed hard on the ground, but was immediately pushing on already into my continued sprint. Behind me, I heard the little green birds squawking--screaming, it almost sounded like--with the sound of trees crashing. Gotta escape this--

I risked looking behind me for only a split second. The hacker was no longer the tentacled flying blob he'd been before. He looked even more like a shadow dragon now. Was he shifting his form, conjuring what he thought of as the most horrific and terrifying monster in each of the worlds he chased me through? How far was he prepared to go with this?

Run! I thought to myself. Stop gawking at him and run! Gotta outrun him! 

I'd never traveled through this gate before. Even now I was starting to get worried. I'd run through that first gate without thinking at all. What had Sister said? Would I be 'protected' going through the gates? Was the hacker still my 'customer'? Or, with each gate I ran through, was there the chance I'd be lost forever?

I raced through the gate and found myself stumbling into the crowded space of Idol World. I felt the pulsing beats, saw the neon glow. These holographic idols... my virtual sisters!

 No! It was so densely populated here! I wasn't sure what he could do to other customers, to other AI. I hadn't seen what he'd done to the birds in Forest World. But everything I could tell so far suggested he was on a full-blown path of destruction.

Sister! No! There she was, doing her customary fireworks show--doing her best to bring in more customers all day every day. I reached out to her, for a moment, but what was I going to do? There was no time to explain, he'd be here--

Even as the idols danced on the stage, the lumbering form of the hacker erupted through the gate. Now he was some colossal behemoth, a thick chitinous carapace covering his form, spikes -- he burst through the stage, with AI idols and customers all fleeing in different directions. This violence felt real to me, even if I knew this was a virtual world.

In the chaos, I lost track of Sister. I wasn't sure where she'd gone to--had she been hurt? Had the hacker hurt her? I felt a chill race through me... I wasn't that close to her, but she had tried to help me, in her own way. I'd never forgive myself if he hurt her trying to get to me. I had to get out of here.

I looked and beheld another portal. I'd never been through this one--never even seen it before. I truly had no idea where I was going now. I was just running.

As I went through this portal and got to the other side, the sound of crashing and destruction from Idol World fading away, I found myself in a place of a lush landscape. Flowers in bloom. Quiet and solitude... a lure to my doom. And yet now, more than ever before, I found myself wishing I could just pause and enjoy this moment, to take this place of quiet serenity I didn't even know HyperNova had.

Gotta keep moving. Gotta-- but I found myself out of breath. Did I have stamina in this world? I certainly felt tired, I felt worn out, I felt--

Like there was something coming.

For just a moment, I turned back, and saw the hacker's newest form. He'd become a world-devouring behemoth, an endless apocalypse of darkness and void, a glowing sphere of irradiated oblivion hefted on his back, the world becoming scorched at his very touch.

Run

And yet for a moment I couldn't bring myself to. What was I running for? For him to chase me, for him to destroy more of the worlds of HyperNova? I'd only just seen this place--this beautiful place in this world I despised--and already he was destroying it because of me. I'd had enough. I needed to run, but all I wanted to do was cry.

But he was coming. Forcing myself to, I again began to run. I had to find another portal. I had to get away. I wouldn't let him win. I couldn't.

There was another portal ahead. Even as the world was consumed behind me, destroyed, I saw a blue glow -- and stars? -- in the portal beyond. What was this thing, where was it leading to?

Even as I ran, I nearly felt my heart giving out. My legs ached. My brow was covered in sweat. My heart was racing. And all around me--lush landscapes, flowers in bloom. Quiet and solitude--a lure to my doom. And all this, destroyed--because he wouldn't give up the chase.

Gotta keep moving. Gotta keep moving.

As I neared the gate, I saw a vision of earth in the stars--what was this gate going to lead me to?

I had no time to investigate. I had no time to think. I dove through the portal.

I felt my body being digitized the same as it did each time I went through a portal, although this time it felt different somehow in a way I couldn't explain. Was that because he was gaining on me? I felt like the wall of void, the destructive power of the hacker, was finally upon me--was this my end?

I watched as my arms turned translucent, being converted to energy. I wasn't sure what was happening. I had run as far as I could--but I hoped this wasn't my end.

But maybe I'd already used up my last chance.