Glitched

36 - Erased

No one knew how long they'd been stood, frozen, staring at those pods. The eerie voice had faded away, leaving them stood in complete silence.

Pixel just wanted to get away. The audio recording kept playing back in her mind, coupled with the graphic image of the poor kangaskhan joey frantically trying to get back to its dying mother.

Things still didn't make sense, but the Fracture had something to do with both worlds. Something that linked them both together. Two explosions, both the result of terrible experiments that should never have been done in the first place.

Her spine stiffened as soft rustling reached her ears and she braced herself to flee. The rustling was coming from the shattered pod, growing more static with each burst. Then something leapt out of it, a ball that appeared to be made out of the same substance that surrounded the Fracture. White and grey static filled with a distorted code that moved and changed. As the sphere floated up into the air it shifted shape to an hourglass, then a cone, then a sphere again as it bobbed away.

"What is that?" Switch asked. "A pokemon?"

"My guess would be the first virus victim," said Vector.

He moved over to it slowly and the static blob froze, its form becoming square.

"You're the kangaskhan joey aren't you?" said Vector. "They called you Missing Number?"

Mama!

The child-like voice crackled and popped unlike the previous frantic cry.

"I thought so. That explosion trapped you like this." He gestured to the static form.

The square's base leaked out to the side forming a backwards L.

"Look, I can help you," Vector explained.

No! Mama! You killed her!

The L span into the air and rushed overhead, doubling back to charge at Vector.

Just leave us alone!

Violet cracks shot from its body like lightning and Vector was forced to duck as Missing Number shot over his head like a dart, vanishing beyond the crumbling wall.

Vector pushed himself up onto his knees and stared after the retreating anomaly, aghast.

"Well," said Switch. "Looks like we found the source. A tormented child, or whatever the joey is, stuck in... this... I don't think it can even be explained!"

Vector shot over to the debris and vaulted over the mound.

"Wait! Vector!" Switch took off after him.

"Sorry, I can't lose it!" Vector called back. "I need to erase it, and not just for our benefit but the kangaskhan's as well!"

Switch tutted loudly and shrank down into his talonflame form.

"I don't want to lose him in here," he told Pixel. "Climb on. We'll chase after him."

She scrambled onto his back and clutched his feathers tightly as he rose into the air. Her heart was pounding in her chest. It was all too much to process, and now, as Vector chased after Missing Number – an entity that could generate those horrible cracks – she was really beginning to wish this was nothing more than a bad dream.

More questions were forming in her mind now. Was Missing Number the source of the Fracture or simply just a part of it? A living part, sucked into its mess like Raw and Sprocket? Was it really worth fighting this thing if the source was elsewhere?

Switch flailed his wings and doubled backwards as he met an invisible wall and Pixel screamed as she almost slipped from his back. Once he regained his balance he threw her a quick apology and turned his sights back on the meowstic.