The Facility - 3/6/22 - 1100
39 Hour(s) of Continuous Simulation (DANGEROUS LEVELS OF SELF-AWARENESS)
1 Hour(s) Until Permanent Brain Damage to TC-01
2 Hours Until the arrival of The Custodian

Darcy stared at the screens with dark circles under her eyes, sleepless after several nights fiddling with just about every protocol and suggested remedy to a anomaly of this strength and severity. She tiredly scanned her eyes over the operations manual for the simulation chamber, having the document pulled up on a small tablet next to the many displays of varying quality she had piled up on her desk, all of them incapable of presenting the simulation in its current state. The chamber whirred constantly over the past day plus, hard at work continuing its unsustainable state, all for an audience of one. It had been difficult to focus in general, let alone with an increasingly scarce amount of shut-eye. However, knowing The Chameleon was trapped in there was one thing that never failed to boost her for at least a passing moment. The worsening situation almost guaranteed that the moment would no long be passing at this stage.

An hour remaining until they could undergo serious brain damage due the various neurological side effects to undergoing these levels of simulated stimulus for this amount of time. 60 minutes until an incredibly high valued project was about to go up in smoke and, with it, all hopes of helping her sister pay for her cancer treatments. 59 minutes now. That was the time between her and potentially killing someone. Her breath turned shaky, something not helped in the slightest by a loud interjection by her coworker, Dougie.

"I seem to remember telling you to avoid cramming a bunch of stuff right at the last minute."

"Can it, Doug. I'm not in the mood."

He tilted his head, taking her word for it as his demeanor shifted slightly, leaning on the table aside her. With a glance at the countdown timer, it was very apparent why she needed a little less of his sarcastic attitude. Still, he had been waiting to tell her "told ya so," and it wasn't about to wait for a second longer.

"What all have you tried?"

"Everything!" she shouted, "I've rerouted so many different power inputs to try and force it into a low power mode, but it's just able to stay at running capacity regardless! I tried introducing more personality matrices to overwork it and cause it to glitch out, but after the out-of-bounds error in the Jay Omega program, everything's been optimized further! I looked to check just about every way to shut it down without breaking protocol and there's nothing! And I... I just...!"

Darcy's head fell into her hands as she teared up slightly, doing her best to swallow a sob that tried to force itself out of her. This whole experience was like watching herself fire a gun in slow motion, knowing it would tear through the skull of the person it was aimed at. A frown on his face, Doug patted her back, attempting to think of something to comfort her or assist her with.

"I noticed you even turned on the radio to use up some of the power," Doug commented, "although I never took you as an Extreme fan."

"God, don't even get me started on that stupid song! I didn't even turn it on, it just started playing over the radios and if I have to hear Hole Hearted after today, I think I am going to fucking scream. Jesus Christ, I can't even fix the radios..."

"Well... let's try to think a little positively; have you tried any of the non-protocol solutions offered?"

"There's only one, Doug, and it really isn't feasible..." Darcy stammered a tad, clearly attempting to not discuss the matter too much further, even as it appeared to be the only remaining approach.

"Out with it. How do fix this mess before the boss gets here?"

"There's a manual override function, but there's only one person authorized to use it and he's about to see the mess I left this place in. Plus, it requires being inside the chamber to begin with. Worst of all, it's voice activated."

Doug thought for a moment before an idea stretched a smirk across his chin.

"If only we had somebody inside the chamber who could synthesize a convincing impression of any person we have data on."

Darcy shook her head, having calmed somewhat, the sensation of this failure twisting in her stomach like a warm blade.

"It's not that easy. I've lost all comms with TC, there's no telling them the plan."

"Unless you hop on in there."

Darcy shot upward, a nervousness overcoming her.

"Oh hell no! Have you seen that thing? It's basically a brainwashing deathtrap at the best of times! I am not going in there!"

Crossing his arms, Doug peered down at her as she sat uncomfortably in her seat, a disgusted, frightful overtone to her words.

"Well, it's not my mess or anybody else's. If you want to salvage that thing, you're gonna have to go in there."

"It'll be a cold day in Hell when you-"

In Front of the Simulation Chamber - 3/6/22 - 1126
34 MINUTES REMAIN UNTIL CATASTROPHIC FAILURE

"This is the stupidest thing I've ever done in my whole entire life."

"So far, at least."

Darcy adjusted the gloves on her protective suit for entering the chamber, knowing it wouldn't have much of an effect, but vastly preferring it to the alternative. She had never even stepped foot inside this thing when it was off, let alone now. Sure, she could list just about every mechanism that brought it to operation and perhaps even quote a few of the pages from the manual verbatim, but that did little to assuage her fears.

"Shut up, Dougie. Just make sure the suit's on tight and get ready to dig my grave if The Custodian comes back in time to see all this in motion."

"I'll dig two."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, The Chameleon's gonna be dead too, won't they?"

Darcy scowled slightly through the glass of her protective suit, her "appreciation" of his comedy contrasting his smug smile by a wide margin.

"Shut up and zip the suit, suit-zipper."

Doug did as was demanded of him before stepping up to the door of the chamber and using the latches to open it up without the need of any additional power.

"Here ya go, Darce. Hopefully it doesn't destabilize further while you're in there."

"Thanks. I'll... we'll see you on the outside."

Doug nodded as she began to step in, closing her eyes as hard as she possibly could before she was totally within the simulation chamber, Doug pressing the door shut behind her, locking any escaping light once more. With an anxious breath, she opened her eyes.

---

SIMULATED EARTH XWF99
In a maelstrom of memories combined with existing simulations
6/3/22, ???? Local time

~A deep inhale blew past the lips of Darcy Ellis. Even contained within her suit, the wonderous qualities of the Myriad Chromatic Display Matrix could be seen clearly. The digital approximation of these environments still required a moment to properly configure, giving Darcy only a few moments of respite prior to experiencing the simulation in full. Viewing the entirety of these events from her desk in The Facility was fair easier. Comfortable even. She suspected that this was her true intention for donning the suit: the illusion of another piece of glass seperating her from the source of her current terror.

With everything completely loaded in, Darcy's eyes adjusted, taking in the sights as best she could for a person so inexperienced with the technology. Around her was a vast cityscape, more akin to a Chicago or New York than anything she had ever seen commissioned for the chamber. A realization rushed to her head. The calibration of the chamber's main emulation functions must have begun to collect information out of The Chameleon's cerebellum, leading to the effects of the recursive self-awareness becoming exponential in nature. Still, there was a brightness and optimism to the city that had manifested around her that couldn't be found in reality. An aura that required one's own eyes to truly intake. A nearby poster on the side of a private gymnaseum caught her attention.


Her eyes scanned over the document carefully, pulling it free from its taped position upon the auburn stone of the building, bits of brick sticking to the adhesive of the tape as her neck twisted slightly to see a man in his 50s or so, placing another poster up near where the first had been. She leaned towards the man, noticing the exquisite detail to his model, appearing as vivid as if he were straight out of a dream. She pointed down at the poster she had torn off the wall.

"Um... excuse me? Do you know where I can find this ceremony?" Darcy questioned with an uncertain quality to her speech, not truly sure how to talk to a computer so casually.

"Oh? You want to see my boy get married, too?" The man spoke proudly, his other hand wrapped around more copies of the same poster, preparing a spot to put another up.

"Wait... you're The Chameleon's father?" She tilted her head, unable to process the information immediately as she inspected the model closer, realizing how lifelike it truly was.

"In the flesh!" He responded as Darcy attempted to hold back the discomfort from a computer saying something of that sort.

"Why... why are they The Chameleon? What happened to them to make them this way?" She asked aloud for the first time to "someone" besides The Chameleon themself.

"Through hard work, determination, and overcoming the odds time and time again! I'm so happy to finally see him be the Universal Champion like he always wanted to be! Was a goal since he was little, y'know?"

Darcy didn't quite understand what he meant, but she nodded as if she did. She glanced down at her watch, gulping as she saw the time.

23 MINUTES REMAINING

"Well, where can I find this ceremony? It's kind of important." She asked, gulping as the discomfort of the whole situation began to set in, feeling her body shrink.

"Oh, it's at the center of the city! Just follow the parade and you can't miss it!" He pointed down the street that seemed to manifest as Darcy stepped further, choosing not to thank the computer program for its help, regardless of its lifelike nature.

---

Each step further didn't comfort Darcy in the ways she might have liked. A wave overcame her as she proceeded deeper, realizing that the various protocols and programs they had put into place to teach The Chameleon about their adversaries had been merging and going out of control as long as this incident had been ongoing. A strange wind blew past her. A disturbance in having more than one inhabitant to the chamber at this level of malfunction? She wasn't certain, but she was able to catch up with the leader of the parade, conducting it with a joyous grin as various Chameleon balloons flew overhead. The entire thing was freaky, but it's how some people chose to adjust their brains, she guessed.

The conductor was a younger kid, no older than 20, with a clean face and a hopeful look in his eyes as he marched forward, seemingly oblivious of Darcy as she neared him.

Darcy: "This parade is leading to the ceremony, right?"

Conductor: "Of course, man! You know I'm not about to miss the wedding of my best friend!"

Darcy: "Huh... so you're important to The Chameleon, too."

She adjusted her eyes, realizing that this person seemed familiar to her, but unsure from where.

Conductor: "You know it! Chameleon's not about to invite anyone here who isn't incredibly close. Come to think of it, I don't recognize you... Are you sure you're on the list?"

Darcy gulped hard as the prospect of getting attacked by a digital construct frightened her almost as much as just being in here in the first place. But that's when a connection clicked in her head. She knew where she had seen this kid's face.

Darcy: "I know you... The Chameleon plunged a shovel into your head..."

The image returned to her brain as she got somewhat queasy, remembering the realistic gore associated with that moment. She suspected a reaction from the kid, but he just shook it off with a laugh.

Conductor: "You must be thinking of the wrong person! The Chameleon would never hurt their friends! Sure, some people might think he's a little boring, but she stands up for what's right no matter what! That's just who The Chameleon is!"

Darcy: "No, no. He did it. I saw it. And there was a scar on your face."

The scar began to manifest upon his face as she spoke before he eerily stopped all at once, the entire simulation seeming to pause around her, refusing to load any more than was necessary. She looked off and saw a void of white leading to a single, indeterminant endpoint. With a deep breath, she began to sprint.

---

And a tingly sensation through her body let her know that the program shifts were cumming even faster now. Whoa. Pretty hawt.

---

Darcy sprints harder, trying to keep herself all together as the world attempts to tear her mind apart.

---

EVERY SENSATION MADDENING AS SHE APPROACHES THE CORE OF INSANITY

---

The final few steps taking her where she was meant to be with only a few fleeting minutes remaining. Five to be exact.

---

She stepped inside of the dressing room, panting from the exhaustion of such a thorough bending of her senses before she could speak. The Chameleon wore a blue suit with a red tie that they adjusted, a large gold belt around their waist. Turning back, they were visibly surprised by Darcy's presence.

"Chameleon, I get it! These other experiences you have merged with the Vaughn program! That's why it got this bad! Her vanity caused you to make a world that revolved entirely around you combined with some bad memories you have, but we can get you out of here. All you have to do is-!"

"Imitate The Custodian's voice and shut the sim off, correct?"

Darcy's eyes widened.

"I knew. I don't want to."

"Wha.. what?"

"You heard me."

"You'll die, Cham! And if you don't your brain is gonna get fried, doesn't that bother you?"

The Chameleon responded coldly, their eyes fixated solely on their repeating reflection.

"No, it doesn't."

Darcy threw up her hands, having difficulty believing what she was being subjected to.

"Maybe I'm wrong! Maybe you are as vain and self-centered as she is! Maybe this is what you really want, your last moments to be some surface deep bullshit where everyone pretends to tolerate you!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" The Chameleon yelled, their real voice breaking through the synthesis module in their mask, "You think it's all some big nothing so I can feed my ego, but you don't know a damn thing about me! What I've lost... what I did to people Ii love! I had to watch the love of my life die in some accident that should have taken me and just pretend like it wasn't my fault! It should have been me, Darcy! It always should have and that's all I'm doing is righting a wrong."

Darcy walked up to The Chameleon and slapped them across the face, a deep anger in her eyes.

"I hope you know that my sister is gonna die without the funding for this project all because you're desperate for a world where you don't have to feel like a failure. I want you to go get eloped with that knowledge."

The Chameleon tried to respond, but couldn't, instead slamming their fist into the mirror, shattering it with a profound thud of their fist.

"...It was the vanity of Vaughn's program at first... but I just... I saw my opportunity to remove myself from everyone's lives like they wanted. Out there, everyone who loved me is disappointed. All of them hate me to my core. I can't fix it with a nice speech or a wrestling match and that's all I've ever been good for."

"Chameleon... you told me your father once taught you piano, right."

The Chameleon laughed, holding back a sob barely.

"Darcy... my father taught me everything, just about."

"Well, would he want this for you? To die out of obligation?"

Bells began to ring. Only a minute remaining.

"She's waiting... I've waited to see her again for years and she's right outside that door. I even prepared our couples song for the occasion."

Their voice strained.

"Wait, it's your fault that I've been listening to Hole Hearted?"

The Chameleon laughed as they turned their head towards her.



"Yeah... pretty pathetic, huh?"

"I... I don't think you're pathetic," Darcy walked up to The Chameleon and embraced her arms around them, hugging them carefully as The Chameleon wept into her shoulder.

"I miss her so much, Darcy. You have no idea..."

"You're right. I don't. But you need to move on. You can't hole yourself up in the past like this. It'll kill you. Literally."

TEN SECONDS REMAINING

The Chameleon sighed as they prepared to speak.

"Shut down all simulation protocols immediately."

The chamber began to wind down and the world around them faded away, dissipating into polygons and code.

"Good job. I'm proud of you."

"That wasn't me."

"Oh?"

She turned her head to see The Custodian standing in front of her, a deep anger in his eyes. The kind that made him look capable of murder on the spot.

"Ms. Ellis, I believe it's time to renegotiate your terms of employment."

TO BE CONTINUED