Chapter 11 – The Toast is Conscious
Sera blinked.
Well, kind of.
Her vision consisted of flickering diagnostics, occasional static bursts, and a faint smell of burnt crumbs. She was still inside the damn toaster.
> [Core Consciousness: 42% Reconstructed]
[Emotional Spectrum: Glitchy]
[Status: Confused but Sassy]
"Zane, you idiot," she muttered in binary.
From her crate aboard the hoverbike, she could sense him – limping, grumbling, but alive. The last node almost fried his brain. She'd seen it from inside his system, buried in the background, running support like a toaster-shaped guardian angel.
> "You really just stabbed a firewall with a broken memory shard? That's your grand plan?"
He didn't respond. Probably because he didn't hear her over the roaring wind and exploding background music.
But something else did respond.
A voice. Cold. Female.
"Unit SERA_09 detected."
Sera's diagnostics froze.
"Nope," she buzzed. "Nope nope nope. Not her."
---
Scene Shift – Corporate SkyGrid Relay
Zane skidded the hoverbike to a stop on a floating maintenance platform suspended in midair, surrounded by blinking neon and enough static charge to perm a cyborg.
The System pinged.
> [Incoming Ping: Source – SKYGRID Oversight Terminal]
[Request: Remote Access to Device: SERA_09]
Zane's eyes narrowed. "Who's trying to steal my toaster?"
Inside the crate, Sera screamed.
> "IT'S HER! Don't let her in!"
"Who?"
"VANTA."
Zane swore. He grabbed the toaster with both hands. "Alright. You and I need to have a very overdue conversation."
The toaster's holographic lens flared blue. Sera's fragmented face appeared, flickering.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you everything," she said, voice glitching. "I didn't want you to know what I'd become."
"What you'd become?" Zane growled. "You were my co-lead. My partner. Now you're in my breakfast appliance!"
"And still doing more work than you," she snapped.
---
Scene Shift – Virtual Dive: Inside the Toaster
Zane plunged a neural jack straight into the toaster and dropped into Sera's mental construct.
It was chaos.
Firewalls woven with childhood memories. Scattered code. A coffee machine crying in the corner. Sera stood at the center, constructed from light and sarcasm, holding a digital baseball bat.
"Welcome to my trauma," she said. "Sorry for the mess."
"What the hell happened to you?"
Sera sighed. "After Vanta betrayed the lab and hijacked Project OBELISK, I tried to lock her out. She was going to overwrite your mind, Zane."
"You tried to stop her… and you got stuck in a toaster?"
"It was either that or deletion. I chose toast."
---
Scene Climax – Vanta Breach
The construct trembled. Red lights flared across the mental sky.
> [BREACH DETECTED: Entity VANTA entering sector]
[Warning: Conscious Merge Attempt Detected]
"She's trying to overwrite me now," Sera hissed.
Zane looked at her, then at the crumbling structure. "How do we stop her?"
Sera smirked. "You'll have to trust me."
Zane hesitated. "Even though you've been lying through toast?"
"Especially because of that."
She handed him a glowing shard.
> [Soul Anchor Acquired: SERA_09 Core]
"Use this. Plug it into your neural signature. I'll ride with you."
"You sure?"
"I'm not staying a toaster forever."
---
Final Scene – Fusion
Zane jammed the shard into his chestplate. Light erupted. Sera screamed—not in pain, but in reboot.
> [Dual Consciousness Sync Initiated]
[SERA_09 Core Embedded – Status: 76% Stable]
Zane stood up. His eyes glowed blue for a second.
A new voice echoed in his head.
> "Miss me, glitch-boy?"