<strong>Oni’s Reunion with BB: Bringing the band back together</strong><br/><br/>In the world of meat, Oni’s fear of sudden execution had disappeared with the sudden dispatch of his competition, and though the Major’s words were hurtful in their own regard, it far outweighed the alternative. The meeting, however, became dulled as his long-buried system and net privileges were restored. He couldn’t count how long he’d been without them, and the flood of information felt like a splash of cold water across his face. A rude awakening, but an awakening nonetheless.<br/><br/>He’d arrived at edge of a large river, and looked to see what appeared to be the Brooklyn Bridge spanning out to some expanse of forever. He was back in the net…he was home and once again witness to the impossible made reality in their digital plane. He looked to Iffy, the goddess almost too brilliant to view with the naked eye. Sensing this, she seemed to dull herself before pointing towards the bridge “"Hello Oni. Welcome back. She's over there, sulking..." she said, with what could only be called a smug look on her face.<br/><br/>Oni lacked the words…he also lacked the power in those words to deliver the outrage over keeping BB alive in his state…deactivation…release into the datastream…anything but the desolation he saw before him. Thrust into the company of forgotten programs and hermits who were once like him. Though it taxed his mind, the steps he took seemed to bring him to BB’s side in mere moments, and though he felt the presence of Iffy behind him, he spoke freely to the bundle of rags as she stared into weak fire.<br/><br/>“I heard you’re good in a pinch…I have a job, and not many people are interested” he told the haggard woman in rags. Their connection was severed. Harshly. The job finished, he was sure, with the news that he was dead. How long had she been there in her time? The time processes for their kind so much more tightly packed than a humans…She must have spent whole lifetimes under, under a bridge because she’d lost the…what? Will?<em>’Is it really so hard to imagine, Oni?’</em>he thought in sadness. She’d lost the will to be. The will to continue breathing in information. It was a truly sad state of affairs.<br/><br/>“To hell with your job. Get some half-dead meatsack to run your errand. I only did it once…” she replied with bitterness without taking her eyes from the fire. “Yeah…” he replied sadly “I heard that didn’t go so well”. The old hag that was now BB slowly stood and turned around, and the change she’d taken was enough to weaken Oni’s knees. Though she now looked used and decrepit, the crackling ball of malicious code she conjured in one hand was a sight to behold. Maybe she hadn’t completely left herself to pot, but it would be a painful exercise to find out for sure.<br/><br/>“Charlie, Whiskey, Eight, One, Niner requesting authentication” He said as she advanced. It was the last card he had to play. A back door, that required he leave himself completely open to her to confirm his identity. Simply saying he was Oni would more than likely get him killed. To Iffy’s credit, she remained impassive, much  more interested in the weakness Oni had to share about BB. The authenticate, she realized, didn’t just give him control…it only allowed him to put himself in the position to prove himself. It was The Sword in the Stone, but reversed. Very interesting, indeed.<br/><br/>BB stopped, her wrinkled face frowning some as the request to authenticate stopped her from advancing. “Authenticate…” she replied. Oni licked his lips and stepped forward as BB laid an old, withered hand first on, and then in his chest. Their eyes both glowed as the direct access link was established, deeper than they’ve ever had to go due to the authentication process. She homed in on him across the vast seas of information, to meet a piece of her dormant within his implant. The hag was then escorted by that piece, which was funny enough still a male armored ninja, past the implant’s robust security protocols.<br/><br/>BB found the information she needed there. A message in a bottle that she broke, and then read. By the time she’d finished reading the note, the message was gone from her hands and back in the bottle made whole again. The journey back was like ripping a band-aid, and BB was sure to leave a memento for the occasion. An updated skin of the ninja was in order. The impossible had occurred, and tasks had to be performed to accommodate the sudden change.<br/><br/>Iffy had other plans.<br/><br/>The moment after BB welcomed him back, they were both hit with a searing blast of continued heat and light. Iffy, in her form of kindness, had allowed them to perform what she could have very well strong-armed herself. She correctly calculated that the strong arm tactic would leave errors as “scar tissue” that could affect their pairing in the future. She required them both to be optimal, as the Major needed. She ignored their screams of pain as the blinding light continued to press upon them. It was the pain of rebirth, and the cascade of firmware and software upgrades moved into him at a near-suicidal rate.<br/><br/>They were both left in a heap, and still smoking. Oni and BB had held hands through the whole event. The hag had been burned away, the last wrinkled skin floated off into nothing and what was left was the BB he remembered, though a little different. The only word he could think of as he stood up slowly was ‘mature’. She looked the same, but the time away had did something to her…more than Iffy’s upgrade had. The code was in knots in some places. Baggage. glitches that caused the personality of the machine. She’d awoken and slowly stood with him, both naked yet no longer smoldering. She was about to speak, but Iffy had cut in “I understand this reunion has stirred some feelings, but we really need you back at the meeting Oni. You’ll both have time later.” And with that, she’d flown off. Oni looked to BB, who was already in uniform. Her usual “fuck me” ninja costume was replaced with something form fitting, yet battle ready. She adjusted a glove and looked to him “It’s okay. I’ll be around”<br/><br/>“You better be. “ he said before he looked to the sky and phased out.<br/>