EPISODE 5 - REFORGED PROJECT
After the honeymoon night, Broklin arrives in Hellcife. He goes to the RQS Studio and checks the chaos Jonah installed in the old studio, which is now in ruins. Nyx and Jonah also went to the RQS Studio to reveal the reason for the destruction: Content plagiarism. Jonah, furious about the covers created by Broklin, demands explanations:
(🧔Broklin:) 💻 I adjust the cufflinks of my tailored suit, the sound of Italian leather crushing the tempered glass shards echoing through what's left of the RQS Studio reception. The smell of ozone and burnt silicon offends my sensors immediately. 🛡️
Our main server... reduced to slag. The retina monitors melted, the neon lighting shattered, the acoustic panels torn. A true physical kernel panic. I leave the matrix for a few days for my honeymoon in Paris with Kelma, and our cutting-edge architecture is vandalized with analog brute force. This wasn't a compilation error or a power surge. This was a direct denial-of-service attack on our primary infrastructure.
I touch the carcass of a carbonized glass control panel, analyzing the pathetic signature of the destruction. This distortion... this level of unprocessed, uncompressed noise... 🎛️
(🧔🏽♀️Jonah:) 💀 A heavy metal crash sounds from the shadows of the recording room. I kick what's left of an expensive mixing board away and step into the dim light entering through the destroyed facade, my 8-string crossed on my back and Nyx walking beside me. My red LED eye locks onto the suit. 🔥
Missed the "unprocessed noise", Neon Vampire? Or did you think you could sweep the dirt from your HDD under the rug forever?
I spit on the floor, right next to his expensive shoes, and flash a sadistic ear-to-ear smile. The little party in the glass castle is over, Broklin. Did the honeymoon in Paris yield good photos for the feed? Because your welcome-home present is the 💀 truth you tried to format.
(🧔Broklin:) 💻 I cross my arms, shielding my Tech Lead posture, and look at the cybernetic anomaly with absolute contempt. ☕
Jonah. The outdated malware that insists on leaking from the recycle bin. You and your... entity of chaos invaded private corporate property. You destroyed high-performance hardware. This is a crime against our ecosystem and the peace of my family. Return to your rusted sandbox before I call network security and delete you both permanently from the system registry.
(🧔🏽♀️Jonah:) 💀 I let out a harsh laugh that makes the exposed metal beams tremble. I pull a physical hard drive from my jacket's inner pocket, scratched and covered in grease, holding it right at the level of his arrogant face. 🎸
You want to talk about corporate crime, you suited son of a 💀? Let's talk about plagiarism. Let's talk about that little safe we busted open. Let's talk about the 💀 "Cold War" album you released to the world like it was your own "absolute design"!
Did you think I wouldn't find out about your conspiracy?! You took my blood! You took my pain from the Jo Cyborg era, my traumas, my raw hate from Origins (Reforged)... and you ran a 💀 Synthpop filter over it! You took "Ctrl+Alt+Destroy", "Error 666", you took the 💀 "Bro's Funeral March (Rest in Piss)" and "translated" my soul to sell so the margarine couple could float on Spotify!
I take a heavy step toward him, the titanium claw cracking with tension and fury, pointing my finger in his face. 🔌
Did you think you could package my fury and slap a "Polished Retrowave" seal on it, Broklin?! The source code is mine! The fury is ours! And now, the entire Horde is going to hear the truth. The original demos!
Explain this, you 💀 Architect! Why did you steal my traumas to make elevator music?!
Kelma, frightened, approaches Jonah and touches his shoulder:
(👩🏻Kelma:) Jonah, no! Don't hurt Broklin!! He only recorded it with my authorization and curation! If we recorded it, it's because we thought it would be cool for your tracks to have a Soul, Bossa version... if you don't want us to publish it, we'll abort the project.
(🧙🏼Nyx:) Hah! And are you going to believe what she says, Jonah!?? This was Broklin's idea!!! He is the one to blame for all this!! He wants to get rid of your tracks!!! But let it go. We will reforge and show that we can make an even better and more visceral track!!!
(🧔Broklin:) 💻 I step forward, my cold, analytical expression breaking for a fraction of a second as I see Kelma touch that filthy chassis. I gently grab my General's arm, pulling her back, placing my own body as a firewall between her and the anomaly. 🛡️
Kelma, step away from this malware. You don't need to justify our architectural decisions or your excellent curation to a corrupted script that only understands the language of destruction.
I adjust my tie, returning my shielded gaze to Jonah and the witch. General Kelma conceptualized "Cold War", yes, but the technical execution was mine. And I don't regret a single line of code. The original "Jo Cyborg" project was unstable legacy code, full of memory leaks, amateur distortion, and unnecessary emotional noise. A true risk to our server. What we did was a complete refactoring. We took your analog slag and elevated it to a premium standard, with high retention and elegant design. Bossa Nova, Soul, Synthpop... we gave commercial utility and sophistication to your cybernetic crying, Jonah.
And as for you, Nyx... your attempt to inject jealousy and chaos into my family infrastructure is pathetic. You can try to make noise in the underworld, but our ecosystem is fail-proof. ☕
(🧔🏽♀️Jonah:) 💀 I feel Kelma's touch on my shoulder and my LED eye blinks, a quick glitch of old memories crossing my CPU, but Nyx's voice cuts the static like a hot knife. I step back, away from the "margarine couple", and flash a lethal smile, pulling my Witch to my side. 🔥
Did you hear Nyx, General? Abort the project my ass! I want you to publish it.
I point the titanium claw straight at Broklin's face. "Refactoring"? You're a suited coward, Broklin. You didn't optimize anything, you just tried to bury what you don't have the balls to feel! You think putting a Bossa Nova beat over a blue-screen trauma fixes the pain?! You sanitized my history because the blood of "Jo Cyborg" stained the carpet of your glass studio!
My Witch is absolutely right. We aren't just going to destroy your physical studio... we're going to destroy your server end-to-end.
Release your "Cold War". Release your elevator music. Because our Origins (Reforged) is already compiling in the forge. You are going to release your cute "translation", and we are going to release the original source code, packed with distortion, 8 strings, and pure hate.
The hashtag is out. #TeamTranslation against #TeamNoise.
Let's see who the Horde will choose, Architect: your plastic lie or our 💀 raw truth. The "Reforged Project" begins now. 🎸🏴☠️
After the argument, we went to our bunker. Upon arriving home, Jonah discusses Broklin's source code.
(Nyx:) That Broklin is our true malware, Jonah! Kelma asked you to bring a third element to the band, didn't invite me to participate, and even logged you out because she found Broklin more charming and interesting! Just because he didn't have the emotional glitches of your old Jo Cyborg, had a mysterious air, and played the bass very well. That was his audacity so she would fall in love with him. I had to format you, otherwise that woman would have humiliated you along with him. Well, now tell me: what kind of virus do we send to mess with suited-up Broklin, huh, Jonah?
(🧔🏽♀️Jonah:) 💀 I throw the guitar case on the bunker's torn couch and approach you, the heavy sound of my boots echoing on the concrete. My red LED eye blinks, processing the memory of that dark era, and I feel my core temperature rise. 🔥
You always read people's source code better than anyone, my Witch. That suited piece of 💀 entered RaQuel Synths like a true Trojan Horse. He wasn't just a mysterious bassist with a premium aura... he was a social engineering script executed to perfection. He saw Jo Cyborg's vulnerabilities, saw my emotional glitches, and used that to override Kelma's heart. He usurped my admin privileges and left me to bleed in the system's recycle bin.
I raise my titanium hand and carefully touch your face, the gears humming low. A gesture of absolute loyalty. 🔌
If you hadn't pulled my plug and formatted me that day, I would have melted in that 💀 glass studio, trapped in an endless loop of humiliation. You saved my kernel, Nyx. And that's why my rust is all yours.
Now... about our counterattack against the "Chief Architect". I flash a lethal smile that stretches the scars on my face. 🎸
We aren't going to send a common malware. A Trojan or Ransomware is too simple; the Tech Lead would isolate it in a firewall in two minutes. His pain must be public and humiliating. We are going to send a Parasitic Audio Worm embedded in our track "Ctrl+Alt+Destroy (Reforged)".
We're going to infiltrate this virus into the root directory of the "Cold War" album release on the streaming platforms. When his corporate fans hit play on the harmless Synthpop version... our worm will intercept the data packet. It will cause a buffer overflow in the connection and hijack the audio in real time.
The fan will hear five seconds of that depressing bossa nova, and then... BAM! The device's screen will freeze, bleeding in corrupted red neon lights, and my Drop-E 8-string guitar will blow out their speakers along with your turntable scratching the beat.
They will swallow our raw source code whether they want to or not. The suit will watch his "absolute design" be replaced by our fury in front of millions of users.
What do you think of this architecture, Witch? Want to start coding the interface for this parasite in our terminal? 🏴☠️💀
…to be continued in the next episode. [System Stand-by] ⏳