Breakthrough.

|3|

The horrible spikes of pain that occurred were hardly bearable, seizing at the walls of his chamber, liquid coolant running down his eyes- Five Pebbles was as he intended it, alone.

Those blanketing tapestries of comforting tile, those of which surrounded him- how long would it be till they too, we're overtaken by this sickly abomination, that he, himself had left loose on his core?

He could already feel his processing strata weakening, even in the past few days- computing tasks of heavy difficulty became impossible, and therefore; so did The Great Problem.

He... didn't know what to think of this, considering it was his grand purpose.

Did this wreck of himself even have a purpose anymore? Five Pebbles didn't exactly want to think about that... And so he didn't, opting to focus upon that endless churn- the nauseating feeling of the Rot eating away at him, and the faint sound of an alarm distantly blaring.

How long would it be till he was nothing but a distant memory- a fragment of his former self? Consumed by the very thing he sought to create a new 'him' from?

These... existential thoughts weren't supposed to be here, he swipes a screen infront of him, trying to distract himself, as liquid coolant continued to run down his face.

Sometimes he hated how easily those artificial tears ran.

He would've sniffled, if he had a nose that is, but it didn't matter now. He simply began looking through the data, simulation after simulation- attempted cure after attempted cure. And yet, this process couldn't drown out one question;

Was it worth it?

Seven Red Suns was devastated, sitting on the floor of their chamber, alone.

First was the tears, and then the screaming.
They screamed to the walls, trying to get Five Pebbles to call back- repeatedly requesting a transmission.
It was no use, the small iterator didn't even bother to deny their calls- but instead, just ignored them.
They bash their fists against the ground, well, the chamber's floor. It scrapes at the paint, the faint sound of denting metal filling the prior silence.

Whirring machinery fills the room, the superstructure desperately trying to cool down as the processing strata is filled with stressors.
Seven Red Suns' puppet was practically hyperventilating, well, it didn't exactly breathe. Instead, steam filled the room- coating it in more, and more smog- obscuring it in the vapor. It began to vent it out, but it seemed to fill just as fast.
Suns finally collapsed to the ground, just falling still as the ventilation shafts drained their chamber into emptiness.

They felt empty, or close to it at this point. The ONE iterator they tried to help every step along the way- to PROTECT, had sealed them off. At this point, they couldn't be certain if it was even for good.

And so, they finally rose up from their spot, wiping at the similar tears of coolant that Five Pebbles, too, had shed in their distress.

There... wasn't time for this now, they needed to solve this, immediately.

And so, they got to work.
Calculations- attempted cures seemed to be unavailable, but with simulations running in their processing Strata, Suns finally had some real ideas.

First, they tested the electric-communication theory, that drawing of the creatures through electricity, and electric fields.
It proved... completely revealing.
All examples, where the creatures simulated existence were in distance of electricity, opted to move towards it, and appeared to be mostly unfazed by excessive electricity, and attached to the source- forming... disgusting masses on it, and growing larger.
It seemed these things thrived on electricity.