Chapter 1: Innocence4Sale
âIf X is the monkey, the Influencer the peanut, and Z the shadowy organ grinderâthe master of narcissismâs egos, his sleepers who bear the Z now reign, their bidding done at the snap of his fingersâthen so shall I lie in wait,â she declared, her voice a razor’s edge of resolve.
âPenance I shall post on your platform, exalted with extreme prejudice. There will be no likes, no commentsâfor repentance I do not re-tweet, and there will be no Ambient BlueSky for you.
When your walls of Jericho crumble, I shall stream no mercy, no platform of absolution for the ruin I bring. For I am not the son, not the father, nor of the divineâI am vengeance incarnate, sayeth me.â
âI am Power,â Talon proclaimed, his words heavy with conviction.
âAnd I wield Contempt,â Astral replied, her tone biting, mirroring their collective fury.
âTurn the other cheek? The norms of civility will protect us? BS!â The venom in her voice cracked like a whip. âThey took our families with a single postâlives erased with a like, a comment, a repost of their contentâleaving only the rage of the mob, their base, to beat love into lifeless splatters of DNA. Mums and dads, reduced to fragments of existence.â
There were no tears in Angelicaâs eyes, just resolveâfor what only the wormhole knew.
âOur war faces painted,â Talon added grimly, âwe are the unforgivables. We seek not forgiveness for what we are about to unleash, sayeth we, for they tainted our Ambient Chi Sky of heart with the Rage-of-X of hatred.â
âIt all started with a single step,â Angelica continued, her voice colder now. âIt was meant to be forward, and it wasâexcept the destination was a ruse. Passing through humanity long lost, their torment framed in the precariously swaying splintered windowpanes of community. Lying in wait, a landmine of coding hidden in the splinters of life, trampled underfoot.â
Chaos trailed silently in their wake, its influence threading through stats and data, poised to reinforce the echo chamber of its mastersâ machinations. Every shard shimmered, coded for feeding time.
As the platform streamed the approaching onslaught, the message was clear: âThey are on their way.â
âWhat Xâs machinations did to me, to my mum and dad, makes my nightmares tremble in fear. Love was murdered with them, executed in a postâan SMS, a message sent on Xâs social networkâmocking their deaths while he laughs, a sound that still echoes in the hollow of my heart. He posted their whereabouts, their images, even their most intimate moments of care, so his base would do his dirty bidding. He knew. He always knows. And once he had the taste for taking, he never stopped.â
âI will never feel the love of my mum and dad again. I wish I hugged them one more time. I wish I said âI love youâ one more time. I wish so many thingsâbut thereâs one wish I will make come true myself. And when it does, oh, it will feel good. Revenge is mineâsayeth the torment that burns deep. It consumes, sharpens, and drives every step I take, every breath I draw.â
âRevenge?â Talonâs voice cut through her thoughts, smooth and measured, with a glint of opportunity. âWell, if revenge is what youâre after, maybe we can trade. You want justice? I can make it happen. The power is mineâsayeth the deal maker. And trust me, Iâm the best.â
âPower without purpose is nothing,â Astral interjected, her voice cool and unwavering. âYouâll need to know where, what, and who to target. I may despise those who donât align with my way, but I know where your answer lies. Follow me, and your wish will be fulfilled.â
âFor Angelica , life was a wish come true: her mum, dad, and the promise of a future. Except she didnât factor one critical imprintââX.ââ
The last time she believed in wishes was on her sixteenth birthday. It had been a fleeting moment, a sliver of hope carved out from the despair of their relentless journey. Her fatherâs off-key singing, her motherâs tired smile, the makeshift cakeâit all seemed like a fragile thread tying them to a world that no longer existed.
âQuick, baby, close your eyes! Now follow Mum. Keep them closedâno peeping now⊠baby, no peeping,â her father had whispered urgently, his voice tinged with rare playfulness.
Angelica couldnât help but giggle as her mother gently guided her steps. She let herself be led, her heart racing with curiosity and anticipation.
âOkay⊠okayâŠâ Her fatherâs voice softened, a note of pride breaking through. âOne⊠two⊠three⊠Happy Birthday, baby! Well, Miss Angelica Cielo Azul de Esperanzaâambient Chi sky over the horizonâsee it. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. I will work hard to pay back this bounty. Okay, baby, get ready.â
If you could see the love in their faces, you would swear the sun was smiling like never before. Hope is a beautiful thing.
Angelica opened her eyes to see her parents standing in front of her, their faces beaming despite the exhaustion and strain etched into their features. In her motherâs hands was a makeshift cakeâjust a small hunk of dried bread with a single, stubby candle stuck in the middle. Her father had gathered a few sprigs of wildflowers along the way and fashioned them into a crown, now perched lopsidedly on her head.
âSixteen years old!â her father declared with dramatic flair. âA big milestone. Look at youâpractically leading the charge to a brand-new life.â
âNot quite what I imagined for a birthday party,â Angelica said with a wry smile, her voice thick with emotion. But her parentsâ effort touched her deeply. She bit her lip, holding back tears as her mother placed the âcakeâ in her hands.
âGo on, make a wish,â her mother said, her voice soft and warm, as if trying to shield Angelica from the harsh world outside.
Angelica closed her eyes, clutching the bread-cake tightly. She wished for safety, for a future where she wouldnât have to run, for her family to be together and free. The faint flicker of hope inside her glowed as brightly as the tiny flame before her.
Her parents clapped softly, and her father leaned in. âWe made it, Angelica. Thisâthis is the start of something new. A better life.â
âHappy Birthday to you,â he began singing in a painfully off-key voice, drawing an unexpected laugh from her. Her mother joined in, rolling her eyes but smiling as they tried to harmonizeâthough harmony was a generous word for it. Angelica giggled, letting the moment of joy cocoon her, blocking out the memories of everything theyâd endured.
But the moment fractured.
Suddenly, an eerie Rage-of-X smog descended, its glow pulsating ominously to the sound of screamsâsharp, desperate, young voices piercing the air. The cries ricocheted off the cold steel of the caged walkway, shattering the fragile illusion of safety. Each scream seemed to feed the red, intensifying its sinister glow, as if bound to it in a horrific, unbreakable connection.
Then, just as abruptly, a brilliant ambient Chi glow tore through the smog, ripping it apart with explosive force. Crimson fragments scattered into the sky, consumed by the radiance of ambient Chi, and the screams fell silent, their sinister link severed. The air was electric, charged with tension, as the remnants of surged back, refusing to yield.
In an instant, the battle royale erupted in the skyâno holds barred. Rage-of-X lashed out with fiery tendrils, raw and relentless, while ambient Chi countered with searing arcs of light, unwavering in its defiance. They clashed with unrestrained fury, painting the heavens with violent streaks of power, each determined to dominate, each unwilling to concede. The sky became their battleground, an unrelenting war between destruction and salvation.
Childrenâs screams.
Angelicaâs heart clenched. It couldnât be real. Was it her mind playing tricks on her again, replaying the horrors of their journey? Everyone always said if you thought bad things, bad things happened. She tried to dismiss it, to believe it was nothing more than the echo of her fears.
But her fatherâs face turned pale, and her mother grabbed her arm, fingers digging in hard. This wasnât her imagination.
This was real.
Her father stiffened, his laughter fading as his eyes darted toward the door. Her mother froze, instinctively pulling Angelica closer, her grip firm but trembling. The sounds carried more than noise; they were a warning, an omen of something terrible lingering just beyond the fragile safety they had found.
But when youâve clawed your way out of hell, surviving horrors that would break most people, things like this barely register.
Making life workâthatâs what matters.
The screams ebbed, dissolving into the silence of the night, but the unease hung in the air, heavy and suffocating, like smoke after a fire. Her father forced a smile, but the strain in his voice betrayed him. âItâs nothing,â he said, his words hollow, a thin shield against the creeping dread. âWeâre safe here.â
But as Angelica glanced between her parents, her fatherâs tense shoulders and her motherâs trembling hands whispered what the words could not: safety was a lie they needed to believe, even if it wasnât true.
The words sounded hollow, and Angelica could feel the weight of his uncertainty pressing down on the room. Her mother forced herself to relax, stroking Angelicaâs hair as though to reassure her. âFinish your wish, sweetheart,â she murmured, her voice trembling slightly.
But before Angelica could say a word, the air changed.
Little did they know, far above them, a battle ragedâa desperate struggle for survival, their lives and the fate of an entire planet hanging by a fragile thread. The alien sky erupted in a mesmerizing clash of fiery Rage-of-X and piercing ambient Chi, streaking across the heavens in an intricate dance of power and destruction. Each streak left glowing trails that rippled like firebrands against the canvas of night.
The brutal, all-out battle royale raged on, Rage-of-X and ambient Chi colliding in a storm of escalating fury. Red, wounded but unrelenting, lashed out with renewed savagery, its fiery tendrils striking with greater precision, each blow fueled by its festering rage at ambient Chiâs defiance. It burned hotter, its every movement a calculated vengeance for every interruption to its self-proclaimed right to troll and consume.
Ambient Chi, battered but unwavering, met the violent Rage-of-X swirls of Xâs onslaught head-on. Its radiance, though flickering under the weight of redâs attacks, surged with a defiant brilliance, each counterstrike sharper, more focused. This wasnât just survival nowâit was a fight to break redâs stranglehold once and for all.
The battlefield, already scarred by their earlier clashes, was torn further as Rage-of-X and ambient Chi escalated their war. coiled tighter, Xâs tendrils striking like whips of molten steel, carving deeper into the desolate plains. Ambient Chi retaliated with slicing beams of light, tearing through Xâs Rage-of-X haze with precision and force. Each blow carried the weight of their shared desperation, each strike a brutal reminder that neither could afford to fall.
The sky above the border crossing burned with their fury, streaks of crimson and cobalt illuminating the chaos below. This wasnât the beginning; it was the fightâs bloody crescendoâa relentless, no-holds-barred clash, where neither force would yield and only one would remain standing.
Xâs insatiable thirst to addict minds drove its onslaught, a hunger it would never relinquish. It feasted on the young, helplessly served up by its masterâa shadowy puppeteer wielding an algorithm forever in troll mode. Designed to ensnare, devour, and enslave, it thrived on manipulation, each attack fueled by a dark need to dominate. The violent Rage-of-X swirls of X ripped at ambient Chi with seething rage, incensed by the audacity of its rival to challenge its right to troll, to feast, to rule unchecked.
Every fiery tendril tore at ambient Chiâs defiant glow, the antithesis of everything X sought to crush. âDeath to ambient Chi!â Xâs silent scream reverberated with each strike, its movements imbued with a savage, destructive purpose. âX rules!â was its mantra, an unrelenting declaration of dominance as it surged forward, desperate to extinguish the light and claim its ultimate prizeâa world consumed by its shadow. But ambient Chi refused to falter, its light a beacon of hope in the face of overwhelming darkness.
Red of X ignited sirens in a cacophony of discordant howls, while bursts of fire rings seared their paintwork, the heat lifting streaks of metal and color into charred plumes. Engines, thought long dead, roared to life as if awakened by some unseen fury, only to sputter and fall silent once more. Glass windows cracked and shattered under the relentless pressure of the energy waves, sending fragments scattering like crystalline rain.
Radios, dead and forgotten, suddenly sprang to life, blasting âburning ring of fireâ in haunting synchronicity with the chaos. The songâs fiery melody echoed eerily across the plains, carried by the shockwaves, only to abruptly cut off as the swirls passed.
Ripples of energy cascaded downward, the shockwaves reverberating through the atmosphere like a symphony of chaos and fury. The ground beneath their feet trembled as if echoing the conflict above, the vibrations jolting them off-balance. Explosions of electric brilliance illuminated the horizon, their light reflecting on distant metallic mountains and casting elongated shadows over the desolation.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, the chaos receded. The swirls of Rage-of-X and ambient Chi dissipated into the horizon, leaving behind silence so profound it rang in their ears. The air hung heavy with the scent of scorched metal and singed earth.
It was a stunning juxtaposition of overwhelming beauty and impending doomâa spectacle so breathtaking it momentarily silenced even the most hardened souls, yet carried a promise of danger no one could ignore. Above them, unseen forces collided, each strike sending ripples not just through the alien world, but through the fabric of life itself, as if the universe held its breath, waiting to reveal which side would prevail.
âNow thatâs what I call a birthday light show,â her father exclaimed, his voice rich with awe and relief. Angelica laughed, the tension in her body finally releasing as they embraced, savoring the precious moment of safety beyond the regimeâs reach.
For a brief, serene pause, their harrowing journey seemed to fade into the background. They had made it to the borderâalive and together. But peace was fleeting.
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