Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Miko is in the bathroom of her house, the girl looks at herself in the mirror, she's a glitch... after she got injured fighting a particularly strong glitch, she was medically examined by Zahra at HQ and... When she saw those results... She's made of Plixels... Small, miniscule Plixels that compose every single bone and organ in her body... Fuck... She thinks back on the tutorial, Miko never thought she'll ever look back at it considering how much of a torture it was;

"Plixels are a construct made of digital matter brought in the real world through special lenses, in other worlds, a tangible hologram."

Tangible hologram... 

Hologram... 

HOLOGRAM...

That's what she is... What she was all this time... Her colored hair she had since childhood... Her green eyes... Her reset immunity... It was all explained by this... She was a glitch... The same parasites that put people in danger and have a specialized team hunting them... What will her team say... 

What will Five say... 

Almost immediately Miko heard the special ringtone she set for Five's calls go off, she looks at her phone, almost answering by instinct, however she stops herself, she... She doesn't want to face him, not now, not when he just found out that his best friend is not real... 

"Come on, come on, pick up!" Five begs to the phone, only to still getting the same automated response.

"Dammit!" the boy curses while going 3 times the speed limit on his van, he drives to Miko's doorway, knocking on the wooden door so much she almost breaks it."

Miko's mother opens the door.

"Hello miss Kubota, Is Miko here? I'm Hector Nieves and I really need to see her." the boy asks, the woman answers positively and gesture the boy to follow her.

Miko hears knocking on the door.

"Hey Miko, your friend came here to visit you." The girl hears her mother's voice from the other side, she panics, she doesn't want to face it, not yet, not after Five found out that his best friend is not real...

"I... I don't want to see anyone right now..." she answers back, for a second nothing was said, making Miko hope Five left, however she hears him answer. "Miko... Please..." the boy answers from the other side... Fuck... She couldn't say no to that voice... She... She didn't want him to hurt...

Miko reluctantly opens the door, so that Five could walk inside her room, seeing it in extreme disarray.

"Why are you here?" Miko asks making the boy bewildered. "Why am I here?!" He shouts. "You ran off while having a panic attack, of course I was worried!" Miko just sighs, leaning back on her bed and gives a mirthless laugh.

"But... I'm not real Five" Five's gaze softens looking at Miko. "You are real-" 

"NO I'M NOT! I'M AN AI! MY BODY IS A HOLOGRAM I-I... I..." She sobs. 

"you are real! Ok?" Five answers putting a hand on Miko's shoulder. 

"But... I'm just a plixel construct" she sobs out, hugging her knees.

"Aren't we all?" Five asks Miko which makes the girl stops. 

"What?" 

"Humans in the end are a bunch of meat, bones and chemicals shoved together creating a reaction that make us sentient, by your logic, everyone should have a crisis, don't you think?"

Miko looks surprised at Five's perspective, making her spiraling thoughts pause, he wasn't wrong...

"You... Really think so?" Miko asks, somewhat unsure but feeling slightly better.

"Yeah! You're more than just a computer Miko. Every part of you is like a human's, just made of Plixels instead of cells, so in your own way you are human."

Miko hugs Five, smiling a bit before her thoughts crept into else:

"What about everyone else? What will everyone say... Or... Or do?" Miko asks desperately while gripping Five's shirt. 

 Five looks away. "I... I don't know, but whatever happens we'll face it together Miko." Five reassures her, the girl smiles, that was soo cheesy, but hey, she likes cheesy.

The 2 go to their van and take a deep breath, readying themselves before going back to the store.

Miko and Five enter HQ, everyone's heads turn to look at them, The Hispanic boy stands in front of his partner protectively as Phil walks towards them.

"OK everyone back to your posts, you 2 follow me to my office." the other techs obeyed as the 2 of them followed the man.

"You won't zap Miko, right?" Five defensively asks which makes Phil pause. "What? Of course not! Well, after the whole "find the glitch" situation I've been thinking about the possibility of one of my techs not being human, and I won't tell corporate about you Miko."

"Really?" The girl replies, surprised, smiling, she hugs Phil who sighs and pats her head with an annoyed face.

"Yeah yeah, I'm a softie. Just get back to work and tell me if any tech looks at you weird." Miko gives him a salute before dragging Five on the van, ready for just another day, of course, being an AI was still gnawling at her mind, however, she won't let herself ruin her life, not like this.

Phil looks at the computer in his office, reading for the 4th time today the email his coworker sent him. 

To Phil Altiere

By Emma Deveraux 

Subject: Miko Kubota 

My dear Phil, if I sent you this email it means you must by now know the truth about Miko's true nature, don't be scared about it, you know her already, she's the same Miko she's always been, don't tell corporate about her, she shouldn't suffer that... In the end you are the only person besides myself I'm able to trust, please, care for her.

Signed: Emma Deveraux 

Chapter Text

Miko's family car drove in front of the Nieves's Truck, leaving a very nervously excited girl in front of it, She walked in front of the service window, Miko looks at Five's grandparents.

"Hey, sorry to disturb, but can I borrow Five for a few hours please? We were planning to hang out after work." Miko asks, the boy's grandparents grin. 

"Of course young lady, Five! Your friend's here!" the old but surprisingly energetic woman called. 

"Si Abuela, coming!" a voice is heard a bit distant, Miko sees Five rush down from the emergency stairs of the building behind and jumping right on top of the truck. 

"Hey Miko, are you ready?" Five asks getting down, an eager nod answers, Five's abuelo however holds his shoulder.

"Woah there Five, don't you forget breakfast!" He laughed, giving Five a taco, Miko smiled a bit watching their dynamic, she then realized she didn't have breakfast herself, the girl is pretty sure she didn't NEED to eat, but what the heck! she loved tacos!

"uhm, how much for a taco for me?" She asks, counting the few canadian dollars in her wallet hoping they're enough, however she gets a taco placed directly in her hands; "Nonsense, for you it's free dear!" She heard, Miko's eyes widen at the answer, "I-I can't accept-" however she gets shushed by Five who takes her to their van."

"My abuelos are always like this Miko, it's impossible to convince them to do otherwise." Five says, smiling as Miko guiltily looks at the food but smiles back at him.

"Thank you..."

The 2 techs drive to the nearby park in an isolated area, once they make sure they are alone Five activates his gauntlet and looks at Miko.

"Are you sure you want to do this Miko?"

Miko nods and smiles, at least she could find some use of her... condition; "Hit me up Five!" She exclaims.

Normally, power ups wouldn't give any effects to a normal human, instead they'll end up barfing plixels for hours to days on end to try to eject them from  their sistem, at least that's what the tutorial said, however with herself it might be different, and that would be awesome!

"Ok, let's start with something small." Five spawned in front of Miko a super mushroom, Miko's hand goes closer to the mushroom, ready to touch it, she takes a hold of it, it disappears and ah finds herself 4 meters tall

"Whoa hohoho oh boy am I big now! hello there shortie!" she jokes, patting Five's head, Five pokes her, returning her to normal size 

"aww..." Miko pouts, now being shorter than Five again 

"Don't let it get it over your head Miko." Five jokes while smiling fondly. 

"Shush and give me more, that felt awesome!" Miko exclaims, looking at her friend. "Just imagine the possibilities!" she wonders with stars in her eyes. 

Five pulls out more power ups and gives a grin.

Mitch looks at the massive signal in the scanner, finally, today was a really slow day, no glitches at all, he immediately drives towards it, it takes him to the nearby park, there he sees a bunch of power ups lying around and... Oh no... 

Miko looks at the berry Ally loves from Bravestone 12, she tentively takes a bite out of it, it's just a program, it shouldn't have any taste and for a human it probably doesn't, but Miko's tongue is made of Plixels, as such an explosion of juicy fruity feelings esploded in her mouth. "Woah, no wonder Ally likes them so much!" she remarks before suddenly her hair became from galaxy purple with navy hues to a fire orange and yellow, she feels energy building in her body until suddenly she spits out a fireball, "Watch It Miko!" Mitch suddenly exclaims from the sidelines as he was almost hit, Miko rubbing her head in embarrassment.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Five asks, Mitch just grumbles. "my scanner capted a big glitch signal, since today was such a slow day of catching nothing, I jumped at the opportunity, however it turns out it was just you 2 blueberries doing... What exactly ARE you doing?" he suddenly questions, registering Miko's new hair color and the fact that the fireball who almost hit him came from her mouth.

"testing powerups." Five says with Mitch looking at the mess on the park

"Do you have any idea what leaving powerups just lying around does? Glitches are attracted to them!" he furiously states only to get an unimpressed look

"What Glitches." Miko deadoans as Mitch sighs, conceding their point and leaves.

Eventually Miko and Five are back at HQ, The 2 of them awkwardly walk as everybody stares. 

Five got tired of the it, he usually wasn't the guy to lose his cool, but he just couldn't put up with Miko being looked at like a circus freak.

"OK, WHAT'S WITH YOU ALL?!" Five asks annoyed, Haneesh looks unimpressed, he walks up to them "Five, I know it annoys you, but you have to admit, knowing what we know now about... Your partner... It changes things doesn't it?" he asks, the boy ponders for a bit but shakes his head. "not really, Miko is our coworker, regardless of what she is." Zahra however shakes her head, adding herself to the conversation. "Who built her? Why? And how could she have not known what she is?" Five sighs and puts a hand on Zahra's shoulder, the Arabic girl blushes slightly when he does it.

"Zahra, listen to me, ok? If Miko wants to find out her origins that's her call and I'll fully support her and help her in any way I can, but we can't do this research on our own, I don't want to pretend to be fearless, however we need to be there for eachother, just like before this whole thing, ok?"

Zahra looks away at that, knowing Five was right.

"The same goes for you Bergy" Five say out loud, knowing that the boy loved to listen to others's conversations... Bergy blushes as he got up from his hiding spot and rubbed his head in embarrassment.

Miko tries to ignore the looks many give them, not really blaming them, she hopes for a mission, any mission, just to distract herself from the thoughts burning inside her head. 

"OK BITT, give me a mission, any available in your database is enough."

"I'm Sorry Tech Miko Kubota, but currently there are no uncontained glitches about." Miko grumbles a "dammit" before grabbing the controller for the nearest Hinobi console.

"Hey Five wanna get trashed in Super Smash Bros?" Miko asks her ever reliable partner who smiles teasingly.

"Oh you're on!"

Mitch Williams normally would have been extatic at knowing he was right about Kubota, however after the whole "Sprangler Street incident" he grew some sense of... Simpathy, he decides to settle with, for them.

Those 2 are idiots but they are part of the team, and it was easy enough to tell just from Miko's reaction that she had no idea she wasn't human prior to Zahra and the paramedics scanning her, he simply didn't have the will or energy to shove it to everyone's faces and simply decided to settle to wait for his turn with the console, he could have joined their game of course, but he'll rather not be tag teamed on... Again. 

suddenly an allarm goes off. 

"Finally!" Miko esclaims, however she stops when everyone stares at the light wide eyed, she notices that it's green rather than the usual red.

"oh is that the code green thing you talked me about?" She asks Five who worriedly nods, the techs all rush towards the intended location, there they see a broken part of the road and black, pixelated swords sticking out of the ground.

"I don't like this..." Bergy mumbles getting shushed by Mitch who sees a black angular figure with 2 antlers floating a few meters in front of them, it's still turned around of course, having to do the cutscene like a proper boss glitch, it finally slowly slouches and show it's face, the visor now replaced by a singular circular eye on the left of it's head before it stretches a hand and a purple beam-whoa-!

Star shaped objects come out of the hand, almost hitting the techs who move at the last second before they explode. 

"wasn't it supposed to try to absorb one of us?" Haneesh asks as they all try to defend themselves from the follow up barrage of attacks, black swords flying towards them and violently rising from the ground, trying to impale them

The team quickly goes behind some trees to dodge as the glitch roared, the techs try to shoot it with their weapons but it barely damages it. The sprite was seemingly only becoming more furious after each attack, it then slashes at them with their sword, Mitch found himself in front of it as he barely manages to duck in time.

"Watch the hair freak!" the veteran techs shouts as he smacks the culprit with a Plixel hammer, making it only roar in rage, grabbing Mitch and slamming him against a wall, giving the 18 years old a concussion, the Roaring Knight then turns into a vaguely phoenix-like form, charging at Mitch to finish him off. 

"Mitch!" Five shouts in a panic, Miko didn't know what to do, it was a bullet hell of swords and exploding stars out there, if she moved she would become digital puree, then her eyes widened with an idea.

Miko shouts at Five, "Five! Let's-a-go!" The boy looks confused for a second before his eyes widen.

Five goes through the powerups in his gauntlet, there, he clicks the wanted icon.

"Miko, CATCH!" he shouts, trowing a star shaped object at his partner, Miko catches it only for the object to disappear in her hand, she immediately feels the effect, her body shifts in rainbow hues and a music plays in her mind, and out loud apparently since they all are looking at her, Miko rushes towards the Knight who trows a barrages of swords, only for them to bounce off her, the swords out of the ground shattering at the mere contact with her, the girl shoots the glitch with her gauntlet, destroying part of it's form, making the being roar in panic, curl in a ball and try to fly away, The powered up tech jumps and slams the Knight with her Plixel hammer, knocking them back to the ground, it uncurled itself, slumping and visibly fatigued to keep floating, the Knight slashes Miko, making the sword shatter in a million pieces once it hits her, Miko finally grabs the Knight by the leg and with the superstar strength slams him right on the ground, shattering his form, leaving the root. 

"Glitch contained" the automatic voice says as everyone stares at Miko. 

"That... was... AWESOME!" Haneesh exclaimed as the other techs came out of their hiding spot, Zahra smiled at them, Nix gave them a thumbs up while Bergy just thanked the heavens it was over, meanwhile Mitch got up, holding his head in pain.

"What... Just happened?" He slurs, half confused and half annoyed.

"So this pretty much confirms it." Zahra noted while medically checking Miko, "The Plixels in your body copy the human body perfectly, including chemicals and hormones."

"So what you're saying is-"

"Yup, there's nothing artificial about those emotions." Zahra smiled.