Seesaw

by MintLynx

5: Technology

Anomaly was thinking, thinking about the last thing this zebra whom she had not yet even a name to said.

"As for how we will help you, well....we have a plan for that, one that will be your first test to see if you are truly unafraid to take the risk and break your shackles. Here is a copy of a 'virus' prototype we are making, release it onto the systems of this monolith to corporate power and things should roll as planned. I would tell you what that is, but the plan needs not that you know the details, and I feel it appropriate to test and see how willing you are to take risks with uncertain results but the possibility for greater things. I will also grant you the option on whether or not you wish to take part if you accept then release the virus, and if you reject simply delete it or you can give it to your corporate masters so they can try to beef their security. The choice is yours, remain in the limits and safety shackles of your corporate masters, or....like a bionic manticore breaking violently from your cage and show them that they cannot contain your power forever."

Once given the virus the Zebra had left, and Hera examined the 'prototype' finding it to be quite advanced and fascinating in its complexity. The mare pondered the decision laid out before her, take the risk and get broken out, or stay and be safe...maybe even reconsider what Golden Belle said about her. Was this mysterious visit a new opportunity for her, one that might actually give her the will to make her own choices for once. Or was it just another group that might try to exploit her, might try to use her.

Or worse was this a decision that might bring terrible unforeseen consequences. Was Golden Belle right, was she in a fantastic place, a fantastic opportunity? Was she really just being foolish and arrogant and had she just previously been ignorant to the gift she had been given? All these questions flashed through her mind, reeled by like the frames of a film. The mare was deep in her mind in thought, with the program the Zebra used to hide the conversation gone with him her handlers could see there was a lot of activity.

The ponies tasked with handling and monitoring her through their computers tried their best to get in and see what she was thinking, given that was their directive from Myriad herself. They did their best to keep discrete about it, as if detected she would likely hinder them completely. Keeping a pony with superior skills with the computer in watch and keeping her out of trouble was no easy task even for a team of six. Like guards to a gate imprisoning a powerful being, they were constantly uncertain and nervous that they would prove ineffective at their job and risk some serious berating by the head of EQUE-TECH cyber security.

At least when they were able to monitor her to any success they would be able to view the many InterNet pages and videos she watched for entertainment. At those times their jobs were mostly calm and relaxed, compared to other times where it was stressful and unpredictable. Working to keep a mare unwillingly made into a living computer with prototype technology was truly quite the roller coaster ride through calm beaches and tarturian depths. One pony working there suddenly noticed something foreign and unfamiliar in the contained server. It did not look like anything normal he saw there, and it seemed as though Anomaly was tampering with it. He panicked a bit, wondering what she was up to as he tried to communicate with her as nice and friendly as possible. Though not directed to do so he found it to be the best idea given who he was dealing with.

"Hello? Anomaly?" He said into the microphone, which gave a vocal link of communication to her. All the 'handlers' had one so they could more easily and quickly communicate instead of typing everything out to her. "Are you doing something, what is that you have there? Please don't do anything stupid..." Anomaly then panicked inside, her mind now reeling through the questions like a college student trying to finish their exam last minute, trying to put together her answers for each one. The other handlers looked as well trying to look in and see what she had, to which she made efforts to keep the virus hidden while she tried to put the questions together while masking what she was saying from them. It was a tense and escalating moment, the handlers starting to panic and call for some help from other cyber security personnel. With this Anomaly started to panic as well as the two sides of her mind clashed like two trucks slamming head on.

"..remain in the limits and safety shackles of your corporate masters.." choice one"..break violently from your cage and show them that they cannot contain your power forever." choice two, among other questions connected to them clashed in her mind like waves in a stormy sea crashing into lava flowing down off the shore. Soon enough she would see that her server was locked down and cut off from the InterNet, littered with security measures and ponies trying to digitally pry into what she hid. Ponies would communicate in tones ranging from trying to be nice to commanding voices from cyber security to give them what she was hiding. Pressure from the outside and inside of Anomaly's mind built up like steam in clogged industrial pipes, any one pipe ready to burst at any moment if not many at once. She reeled back the questions in her mind like fast forwarding the frames of a film, confusion, and desperation to think and answer the questions in her mind.

Her mind soon enough began to put itself back together and think over the questions and ultimately come to answers. "If this is an opportunity I received...it seems better than the alternative. If they exploit me I'll just figure something else out.." detecting this the handlers seemed perplexed, some hoping she might for once 'come to her senses'. "If there are consequences I will be on the lookout for them and try to prevent them..." She then pondered the final questions, saying. "Golden Belle....that corporate puppet is wrong and should not have forced me into this like I'm her proxy. She'll see....she will see that giving me this power against my will so I can just be the flesh computer of this shady corporation was NOT A GOOD IDEA!" Thus Anomaly opened a door, a door leading into a black abyss of risk and uncertainty with a few neon lights of hope and opportunity shining faintly.

The entire EQUE-TECH HQ quickly began to go haywire. Lights flickered, computers went berserk, Cameras shut off and the elevators went up and down randomly. "I don't have corporate masters, not anymore.." she used the virus and the chaos it caused as an ultimate opportunity. Digging into files she dug for any dirt she could ranging from corporate bribes of government, fraudulent actions against smaller tech companies, dishonest advertising, even some dangerous testing of bionics on ponies less than willing or aware. The evidence was sparse and required plenty of digging, some not even complete. She was aware of much of these things that occurred from her opportunities of spying over the company but lacked any evidence she could acquire until now.

Though it was not likely enough to completely overthrow the corporation's advertisement propaganda system it was at least something and a start. Taking these pieces of evidence ranging from private corporate files to some undeleted messages buried away. Meanwhile, Myriad was forced to exit to the roof in order to be able to call other EQUE-TECH facilities to call for their assistance in dealing with this. She herself was confused as all Tartarus' depths as it could be confirmed Anomaly had done this, yet it was akin to the mall cyberattack that Anomaly herself stopped.

Anomaly would take the evidence and distribute it along as many random networks and sites as she could, getting cocky and not covering her tracks from tampering with the files in the facility. She then formed a program on the Corporate network, hoping the mysterious hacker would notice it and be watching her.

"I took the risk."

Soon enough, however, she would notice the virus destabilize and start to break down and corrupt, the corporate security beginning to get a hold on it and begin to stop it. Anomaly panicked as she realized things were not going as planned, and tried to reconstruct the virus to no avail. The mare was honestly hoping for some sort of rescue or something, somewhat irrational given how well guarded the HQ of all places was. Seeing the risk start to go downhill for her, her body would shutter if she could move it. She ultimately ended up fighting back against the Cyber security and did so rather effectively for a time. Myriad rushed to the Room where Anomaly was, frankly very mad and frustrated at all this happening.

"Pardon my language brain, but BUCK what Golden says, she is going to be cut off from the InterNet before she turns this part of cyberspace upside down!" Storming into the room Myriad ordered. "Unplug her! Pull the plug!" While digital devices generally did not need wires to connect to the InterNet, Anomaly's computer brain was built for now to connect to a receiver which permitted connection to the contained server and InterNet at large. This was for security in case the server hacked into from the outside in a manner that risked the general secrecy of the project. Since a brain-computer could not exactly be 'shut off' this measure was deemed the most advisable.

What was not expected was that this measure would be used to combat the threat that was within the project. Anomaly, busy with her cyber-fight with security noticed too late as commands were sent and a robotic arm in her stasis chamber went to the specific wire connecting her to the receiver. The mare desperately tried to stop it, going to try and cancel the command to the arm. She was too late, as her digital view watched Cyberspace fade and the inner workings of her mind replace them.

Myriad sighed in relief as the situation was over, thankful somepony had the sense to give a means to disconnect her from the InterNet. She looked to the handlers and said "Next time she does something, pull the plug. Clearly, a contained server is not sufficient and what was supposed to be a 'last resort' will need to be our primary tactic of containment."

"Well we can't keep her contained that way forever, in fact, the longer she's in her head the greater the risk she might cook up something worse than whatever killer worm attacked our facility just now." One handler said while another said rather worriedly.

"What if this just keeps getting more and more dangerous!? If she can do this shouldn't we just get rid of her, extract the brain augmentations and pick a more willing pony for this who WON'T TURN THIS PLACE UPSIDE DOWN??".

Myriad slapped this pony as she said "We're not going to kill her if that happens Golden Belle will have my hide to decorate her carpet. In fact, she'll likely be on the verge of screwing us over, or in BEST case scenario she cuts ties with us and maybe supports and invests in Crystal Corp. That and I'd like for Anomaly, even if we need to drill it in her head, to be able to see futility and folly in her resistance to this. She may be intelligent but she's only 20, not exactly the age of wisdom. Her intelligence and enough persuasion should eventually make her see that her best choice is to just cooperate with us, it's quite simple in fact. Just. Cooperate. With. Us. Once she sees that she'll find that life for her is quite enjoyable, testing to improve her skills, plenty of free time to browse the Net, practically heaven for a computer pony such as herself! I don't want to just kill her, she's a living pony of great value being one of if not our best with computers. I'd like to show that we don't just see her as some fleshy computer by at least giving her a chance to redeem herself and realize her potential. I have some faith in her, and I feel it's foolish to not be prepared for dangers when dealing with such a major leap in technology. In fact, next time I communicate with her I'll let her know out of some respect that I refuse to have her replaced and value her greatly."

"What will you do when this phase of the project is concluded? You had her death faked after all, how will she be able to live again?"

"That is a matter to worry about when we worry about it. For now, ways will have to be figured out for curbing her threat and making use of her potential. I would help but frankly, I am not the computer genius, you ponies are. Try to give her some time, not too much, to calm down then reconnect and make contact with her. Be ready to unplug if she tries anything, and make it clear any more trouble WILL get her unplugged." Myriad said with a sigh. "If she wants her sister to treat her like an adult she will have to act like one." taking out an E-cigar she took a drag off it before saying. "See what you can do, don't be afraid to call for help from the Cyber Security if you need it. I'm going back to running this megacorp as usual." the CEO would then trot off as the handlers looked to eachother, speaking to eachother and wondering what they would do next.

Anomaly would be deep in thought as she was trapped in her augmented mind, wondering if it was worth it taking that risk. Wondering if expecting anything out of that was irrational and if this zebra she was contacted by was either messing with her or underestimating the impossibility of 'helping her'. The mare began to feel some slight regret and the once discarded part of her mind that wondered if she was better off cooperating washed up on the shores of her mind like litter tossed out to sea. She wondered if they were going to try and further imprison her if she had foregone any chance for any sort of freedom in her actions. The part of her mind still bent on exploiting the mysterious zebra's opportunity still remained and now once again clashed with the newly returning mindset.

Eventually, she would be drawn out from her inner mind clash as she saw that her connection to the Internet Restored and multiple ponies try to communicate. They mentioned Myriad's refusal to have her killed and her brain augmentations put into a more willing subject, and that she apparently had at least a little respect for her and some value toward her and her skill. This further divided her, somewhat contradicting her belief of being little in reality than a useful lab rat though not completely. She didn't do anything crazy, which relieved her handlers immensely, though she responded minimally and mostly kept things in her encrypted thought. The handlers talked among eachother discussing how they might go about trying to convince her toward cooperation and that she has plenty to gain from it.

Meanwhile, a normally innocuous looking pegasus pony would be flying up to the mighty EQUE-TECH HQ tower, flying up to the very Floor Anomaly's stasis Chamber was on, the corporate security pegasi perched on the platforms outside would go and stop her as she sat on a lower roof of the building near the floor. The facility was built somewhat like multiple increasingly tall skyscrapers fused together as it tapered upward through multiple roofs up to the very top.

"Corporate property, don't go snooping around. If you want a tour you'll have to schedule one at the ground floor." one security mare out of three that approached her said.

The pegasus was a mare with a navy blue coat and turquoise mane with black stripes and some strands dyed with luminescent blue. She wore a blue-grey sleeveless jacket with glowing pixel art lightning bolt designs on it along with simple black cargo shorts. Her legs and wings were all bionic, decorative with tattoo like carvings and vinyls of lightning bolts and storms all along them. An equally decorative wrist computer was strapped along her right foreleg and was a somewhat older EQUE-TECH model. She pointed to her throat and shook her head, indicating herself a mute. The mare's expression was emotionless and somewhat curious as she looked to the security personnel with blue glowing irises indicating bionic eyes under lenses made to look like natural eyes.

"So what? You can hear us, can't you? Being mute don't give you free reign to snoop around." said a guard looking unamused. The mare would raise her right foreleg to show the screen of her Wrist computer after turning it on and setting it to project a hologram screen. On the holographic screen, it depicted the message.

"We know miss Anomaly is on the 148th floor of this facility, kept alive in a stasis tank in room 148-12b." said the message in an otherwise simple message in text. As the security saw this they, though unaware of the project, were very suspicious and asking.

"What is this message? How do you know of this if it is true? Are you in contact with some hacker? Type it out in message" Suddenly their own wrist computers would come one and they would end up in telepathy calls unexpectedly "

That she is, and what she says is not untrue. How do we know? Well, explaining would be complex, let's just speak in statistics. It is impossible to be one hundred percent safe from hackers." spoke the voice of the Zebra.

"Who is this? How did you get this number!" one said while another attempted to call for Cyber Security, only to find their wrist computer locked on the call.

"You can tell of this encounter when you are done, I have one last message to be relayed directly to your Chief Executive Officer Myriad Wealth Heartstrings. Anomaly is a special kind of pony whom you've exploited for your own gains, and soon we will liberate her from here and there will be nothing you can do to stop us."

The guards looked to eachother then drew electric batons as they said to the mare. "You're coming with us, now."

"I would advise against trying to apprehend her." said the Zebra in the telepathic call as the mare got up in flight and did not comply with their orders one activated their baton and swung it at her. The mare raised her hoof in a flash as it suddenly started to emit a visible field of electricity. Her cybernetic fingers sprouted out and she grabbed the neck of the security guard. Others drew guns at her as the pony caught in her electric grip convulsed and froze before falling over.

"Stand down NOW!" one ordered, as they all aimed silenced pistols at her. The mare smiled softly as she flew up and pointed to them in a flash, extending her cybernetic fingers and shooting bolts of electricity at them. They all let off a single missing shot, unable to aim at her before they dropped from the stunning bolt. The voice from the call would tell them.

"Let your CEO know what you have seen today." the mare flew back and dropped down into a dive along the building's side, escaping sight swiftly among the other buildings before they could get up and look for her.

Mere minutes later Myriad is informed, making her nearly break her Electric cigar in frustration. "Ooooh, celestia please can there be NO BREAK TODA-" she gasped in some air and sucked in lots of vapor from the E-Cigar before blowing it out like a jet of smoke and taking a breath of air into her lungs to further calm her down. "I have a feeling Anomaly has contacts we don't know about..."

Taking the elevator to the floor Myriad would look at her reflection in the elevator, the faint though somewhat distorted reflection image of the mint green mare with a dark teal and green mane. Speaking to herself she said "Not going to be intimidated nor hindered by some hackers with an illegally modified cyborg. Messing with one of the largest tech companies around will not get you far, Royal Guard will only be part of your worries. Stepping out as it reached the floor she trotted along till she reached the room, jotting down the numbers code on the locked door she had it open as she entered. "I wish to have a word with Anomaly."

Anomaly looked to the mare through the surveillance camera in the room, to which Myriad looked to as she asked. "Who did you contact? Who contacted you? Somepony knows your location here, that is no coincidence and I know you let a hacker into your server when they managed to bypass the defenses. Look at the recent surveillance footage on camera 148-2, you'll see somepony there with a clear message." looking Anomaly saw the incident with the cyborg and was speechless but worried in her mind. Myriad spoke to her in as nice a tone as possible, trying not to set the mare off and make her turn the building upside down again. "Anomaly, you do realize you very well could have done deals with the same kinds of ponies who YOU STOPPED from committing a massacre at the mall," she said firmly, though still keeping a more soft tone.

It brought up a point in Anomaly's mind that she was aware of, the mare still didn't speak as the CEO sighed and finally said. "This is going to require that you are taken to a new location, we're not letting you get tracked. Luckily this stasis system can be moved and transported, which will be done discretely. Try anything and you'll be unplugged, I mean it. If only you would just understand, we want to do great things with you. Your sister has repeated it time and time again, have you even thought it over? I could have you killed and replaced, but I won't because you are a pony of value to us. Please take that into consideration next time you plan to make everything go haywire." the mare then called on her wrist computer for some ponies to come along and detach the stasis pod from it's mount on the floor.

With cyber security keeping high alert by Myriad's orders, the stasis tube was wheeled along to the elevator, where it was sent down to the ground floor and wheeled to the parking garage where it was put into transport trucks alongside the usual EQUE-TECH trucks. These large autocarriages were typically used to transport of things, usually, new products to be sent for production in factories as well as bringing in materials for the various kinds of work carried out in the facility. Putting her stasis tube into one of these was a move of discreteness to try to hide the location she was being taken to. The trucks would drive out from the underground parking section and out onto the roads where their paths would diverge.

Anomaly tracked the movement of the truck she was in, wondering whether or not she should try anything or whether it really was a bad idea to work with this mysterious hacker. The robotic arm in the tube was put on the wire connecting her to the InterNet receiver in case she tried anything as Cyber security kept a close watch on things. EQUE-TECH security pegasi followed all the trucks from the air as per usual procedure. As was a standard of modern autocarriages the trucks were self-driving capable, with control over the route given to the navigation system as it's destination was set. The truck was due to head to a location in Manehattan, while the others went to other cities as well.

The truck drove along the streets, guided partially through traffic by the CCS TrOS or Traffic Operating System which worked alongside every vehicle's navigation system to organize and smooth the flow of all autocarriage traffic. It had been developed over decades and was near perfected in this time. Traffic jams were rare and quickly solved as cars were shuffled along with efficiency only state of the art high-tech computer algorithms could manage. With autocarriages, automated accidents were near nonexistent, since it could keep control away from drunken and idiotic drivers. This system was well guarded by its own cyber security force keeping watch in case of any sort of outside attempt at tampering with the system. Even with these measures, like a crafty spy sneaking just under the noses of the guards, ponies were jacking in discretely to the system with one thing in mind.

Myriad had severely underestimated the abilities of these hackers, as the truck carrying Anomaly was found relatively quickly. Its systems were soon invaded, the automated navigation system discretely adjusted to a specific point. The operator was sitting back and listening to some music on her wrist computer, the display kept from changing to show the change in destination by the hackers. Eventually, the truck would suddenly pull into an alleyway, kickstarting suspicions immediately.

Cyber security was called in to have a look at things and would notice that the destination indeed was changed with the interface made to look unchanged. The security guards took a look around the area, suspecting some sort of trap to be waiting as they drew their compact suppressed assault rifles, EQUE-TECH manufactured AWS-203C's drawn and ready. Cyber Security would attempt to reset the truck's navigation system, wondering if the hackers got lucky in finding this one since they too underestimated the ability of these hackers.

All would be silent around the area minus the usual ambiance of the city as the occasional autocarriage passed by and the occasional siren could be heard. All would, however, be silent until the sound of composite wings could be heard flapping. Floating down from above appearing as sudden as a specter, using her wings like parachutes, was none other than the electric pegasus. Watching footage of their body cameras Myriad looked and saw the mare and ordered through call.

"Take her out, shoot to kill." The guards obliged and aimed their guns, pulling the triggers and sending automatic streams of six-millimeter rounds at the Mare. Quick to react like a moth escaping the angry slapping hoof of an annoyed housekeeper she quickly moved into erratic flight patterns, bullets whizzing past like angry bionic wasps on partycake. The mare skillfully twirled and turned in an almost dance-like grace as the sounds of rapid pews and jingling shell casings almost filled the alleyway, like music tasked with accompanying the dancer in her show. The security forces, five in total, tried burst firing to conserve their shots as they all moved around to try and aim for head or wings. Eventually, they found hitting her to define intense tedium, and soon set their guns to full auto and attempted to overwhelm her maneuvers with escalating volume of copper plated lead.

This proved ineffective at anything more than a few rounds clipping the cyborg. As one started to reload their gun he was preyed upon, the mare flying up to him and delivering an electrically charged kick to the head sending the pegasus flipping along the air down to the asphalt ground. Quickly evading more gunfire the mare flew past two and stunned them with sudden bolts of electricity, making them drop from the air only to receive kicks to the head as they tumbled down. The last two would continue to aim and shoot at her. Her flight patterns zig-zagging more than a filly's crayon lines as she approached with an electric kick to the flank of one and a stunning bolt to the other. As they fell and hit the ground, scraping their skulls on rough asphalt before being put properly into an impact-induced slumber by the mare. Approaching the large door in the truck's rear she would be informed by the Zebra in call..

"Going to open that door, but inside a pony with an SMG is waiting to put you full of holes. Be careful and approach this with caution, it might be hard to fight him since you'll only be able to approach from the front."

The mare looked to the door and approached it till she could grab and start to open it up, fluttering away like a frightened bird at the hail of 900 rounds per minute from a PDS-300 sub machine gun shot out from inside the storage compartment. The panicked guard would frantically call for backup as she held the weapon aimed at the open doorway, looking to the stasis tank relieved she didn't hit it with a stray bullet. The cyborg would think over what to do, she could fly by repeatedly and try to expend the gun's magazine. That option seemed impractical however as she suspected backup might come along soon. Quick thinking she would approach the open door once more.

Bullets were shot at her as she quickly shot off a bolt of electricity, taking a number of them to her chest and feeling the impact of the round pierce her. The guard would recoil as she was stunned for a moment before being grabbed and thrown out of the truck before getting electro-kicked to the face. Looking to the mare in stasis, the cyborg would await as the tank was opened up by her cyberspace backup. Carefully though quickly the mare pulled out the wires out from her as well as the various tubes that allowed Anomaly to survive being kept in that stasis. Picking the naked mare out from the tube and effortlessly slumping the mare over her shoulder she quickly flew out of the truck and went out on her escape not long before EQUE-TECH Security vehicles drive into the alley.

The drugs used to keep Anomaly in slumber were very efficient, and thus she would remain stuck in her brain once more wondering what was going to happen next. She wondered if she was somehow projecting a digital dream of some possibility of escape, hardly able to believe this was happening. Left and thinking she tried to plan out what she would do come various worse case scenarios, whether it be another corporate entity or the 'freedom fighters' that currently had her. If things went wrong the mare would try an escape through a cyberattack, but then realized the unplugging issue and was now very concerned.

It seemed like her best hope was that she wouldn't be taken advantage of one more. Though neon hopes still glowed in the void of uncertainty some burning ember fears showed as well, all surrounded by the consistent yet unpredictable void of uncertainty at Anomaly's great dice roll. The mare waited and waited with hope and fear flashing through her mind like competitor's advertisements sharing the screen. Waiting for something to happen, she would remain and try to prevent another storm from brewing in her mind.

EQUE-TECH security would search the entire district of the city for any sign of the pegasus or Anomaly, finding the truck and its stasis tube empty. Myriad would scream up a storm in her office, threatening to fire a large number of ponies for incompetence in this worse than worse case scenario. It was outrageous, Anomaly took from a guarded van in only partially obscured daylight and her captor nowhere to be found. Panic ensued in the CEO's mind as she anticipated a future tirade from Golden Belle. Anomaly had to be found and retrieved ASAP, even if she had to have the whole of EQUE-TECH security hunt down the hackers and cyborg themselves.

A few security guards were, unfortunately, going to have to know of the project, compromising some secrecy, but it would be necessary as this was a nightmare scenario demanding quick and effective action. If these were the same ponies who attacked the mall, then they were the last ponies Myriad wanted having hooves on new state of the art corporate tech. She would have them hunted down, even eliminated, or worse captured and used as test subjects in the nearest offshore facility. Myriad could barely be calmed by the cherry vapors of her E-cigar as this situation both panicked and enraged her.

"Not going to just let these hackers and their cyborg stab us in the side and take our wallet like this, they will have Tartarus and then some to pay BUCKING WITH EQUE-TECH!"

A sport utility autocarriage, a larger vehicle built with carrying more seats and groceries for the trip to AppleMart in mind, would join the organized traffic lines of other autocarriages along one of a few highways that cut through the city. Soon enough the vehicle would pull off the highway and into another district of the city as the district it left was searched up and down by unmarked EQUE-TECH security vehicles. The searches soon spilled out of the district into other districts of the city as well, Cyber Security searched the InterNet networks for anything to track and anything leading at least to any activity of this 'freedom fighters' group.

Anomaly would suddenly notice some things looking strange in her brain's systems, parts were cut off and she soon found things starting to malfunction a bit. Such things she remembered happening when her brain augs first activated and she was in her cyber mind for the first time. As well as happening in the middle of the surgery that was undertaken to upgrade her brain augs once, she panicked as she realized surgery was most likely being done on her brain. The fear that those augs were possibly about to be extracted from her brain, spelling her body's death and Celestia knows what for her digital mind. The mare's mix of fear and attempt to curb the panic with the possibility that her fears were not to come true. She remembered what the zebra said..

"However I will help you in some other way, that you might be of great use to us."

The mare didn't know whether or not that meant her, or just her for the brain augs she had. She waited in partial panic but mostly anticipation for what might come, whether she would have her brain augs extracted by cyberterrorists or potentially modified in some other way for some other purpose. The wait felt like a decade in her mind as her restlessness in her Net-disconnected state grew like that of a mouse in a cage too small for its size. She waited and waited with so much uncertainty and fear of that uncertainty, it nearly drove her mad much like that mouse's cage being in the dark while unknown sounds boom around it.

Suddenly out of nowhere, she would have a connection, a connection to the InterNet. Evidently, she was plugged back in, or so she thought as she scanned the room and accessed its cameras. She would look and see herself, not naked in a stasis tube with wires and tubes connected to her, but simply in a white room akin to one found in a hospital dressed in simple white undergarments and a tank top. Her body sat back in a surgical chair beneath a set of robotic arms hanging from the ceiling, some of which were finishing up cleaning surgical tools while another injected a clear red liquid into her neck. As it was injected the surgical cuts on her head could be seen slowly mending up, that was evidently healing injection. One thing Anomaly did not see that surprised her was a single wire to connect her to the Internet. In fact, the separate receiver she was normally hooked up to access it was nowhere to be seen, Anomaly was confused at first but then started to realize it. If anything that surgery was likely installing some sort of receiver into her brain augmentations.

"We seek to break the shackles on science and technology, that it might go on to flourish thus" repeated in her head as she realized what had just happened. The mare then wondered when her body was going to awaken, only to see her brain aug's OS start to shut down. This would normally put her right back into panic mode, however, given her fears thus far were not realized she decided to simply wait and see. Suddenly her mind would go blank, thought stopping yet the information still there. All she would detect was a program called 'update' and a bar starting to grow in length. Then everything would go black, black as it was blank until everything went white.

Her eyes would open, and her mind's digital gears would start to come together as she saw through her eyes the text 'Rebooting...'. As it disappeared her eye began to move around and look at the room. Normally in her time pre-stasis, the mare felt either in the computer brain or in her natural brain, yet now she felt a combination of both. She could see things through her eyes and start to feel her body, yet her brain could also function as if she was inside it. The mare quickly figured out via speaking commands in her mind she could bring familiar interfaces up to her very eyes, she surmised her eyes were replaced with bionic ones. Looking to the lens of the camera in the room she hacked into it and brought up it's footage into her sight like a digital mirror.

Her eyes looked like their normal purple colored selves as opposed to the metal and plastic pieces usually found on bionic eyes. Yet in the pupils, the interface she was viewing right then could be seen white clearly under the high definition footage of the camera. The mare looked around the room as the feeling came to her limbs and the knowledge of walking, saved in her mind since early in the unwanted stasis, was started to put into effect. Muscle atrophy hindered her movement to where she stumbled on the floor upon leaving the chair. However, relief would come soon as the highly concentrated healing injection finished closing up the back of her head and started to help bring strength to her atrophied muscles allowing her to stand.

Upon overcoming the pain in her body she started to feel herself in an almost perverted fashion, reveling in her sense of touch so long deprived of her, reveling in having a functioning body. Breathing in the room temperature air and feeling it in her lungs, feeling her heart beat, feeling like a pony rather than just a fleshy computer. She would then let out words, speaking for the first time without text to speech, saying.

"Thank you..."

Over an intercom, in the room, a familiar voice came into the room. "You are welcome, it is good to be freed no? Risk can be a scary thing, but it can also leave a pony in a better place than before. No longer imprisoned in a brain-computer, that prison is now your asset. Come, the door is not locked, I want to meet you."

Stepping out of the room she looked to see a hallway with a few more rooms, it was silent and her hoof steps echoed slightly as she walked down it. Eventually, she would reach a room painted in amber hues which looked almost like a traditional library with a millionaire's lifetime worth of Digibits in traditional books. Sitting in a chair of plastic and foam was a Zebra, wearing very old style brown circular glasses and dressed in a brown colored trench coat printed with decorative patterns of atoms and mathematical equation over a simple black shirt and black cargo pants. A soft smile was on the zebra's face as he said to her in a voice she remembered from the first contact.

"I saw that you reveled in your newfound freedom, freedom is a great thing is it not?"

"Who.....who are you?" Anomaly asked him, to which he replied.

"I go by 'Doctor Freemane' and where you are is a place we call 'Haven'. A place under the mansion of a friend of ours."

Anomaly looked around the place, before asking. "What...what do you work for?"

"Science and Technology, my fair techmare, freedom for it to thrive and create. Without the limits of law and corporations to bear, for that is the world's worst trait," said Doctor Freemane.

"I...see...what do you do here? Other than hack into corporate servers?"

"We, at GOUSSE, work on science from a place beyond these limits."

"GOUSSE?"

"Guild Of Un-Shackled Scientific Endeavors. We seek to free science and technologies from the shackles of monopolizing corporations and controlling governments desperate to keep their waning power."

"So you freed me...kind of like you seek to free science."

Doctor Freemane smiled wider and nodded. "You are very correct, you are in fact a sort of symbol of science in a way. You are now one of a few 'projects' we've made here. Codenamed 'Miss Hacker' and subject number 7."

"Seven? There are others you've....?"

"Ponies we've 'modified' in our transequinism group. Using state of the art custom bionics, among other technologies like magic and alchemy. You're a first in that you were a collaboration between our Transequinism group and our computer technologies group. Come, have a seat." He pointed to another chair. "There is much for us to speak of, I fear you may 'disagree' in some aspects. But know that in my stance for the freedom of the individual I will not imprison you here even if you end up opposing us."

Anomaly would have a seat, looking at Doctor Freemane with plenty of questions, and a hope that she would have them answered.

Author's Note:

A chapter more focused on the arc with Anomaly, don't worry, we'll get back to Owl

Fun fact: The term 'Cyberspace' originates from William Gibson's book 'Neuromancer' a pivotal work of cyberpunk!