Memory Shard 1.09

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**Memory Shard 1.09 Glitch in the Machine** contains the first memory ninth shard piece of lore on Prisma Dimensions, Neo Arcadia and the Hyper Scape.

## Story

Simon Romeé stared at the multitude of screens floating around Lab-X, each showing a different part of Neo Arcadia.

One on screen: two contenders – Javi and Ace – raced through the city in glowing blue spheres. They bounced off walls, over fences, up stairs and down alleyways. At first Simon thought they were fleeing someone, but then he realized the muffled squeals emanating from the neon balls were peals of laughter.

On another: a pair of casulinks – a slight woman and a burly man – chasing after a contender the system identified as Paladin. Paladin leapt off a rooftop and smashed through a second-floor window with the casulinks hot on his heels. Immediately inside was a Magnet hack that immobilized the big man – Burns, said the system – as he came barreling after, allowing Paladin’s hidden partner, Basilisk, to take him out with a spray of automatic fire. Burns’ partner, Myrto, turned tail to run, but Paladin had circled around and was waiting for her outside. A plasma blast lit the screen up.

“What are all these weird hacks, Grace?” Simon asked the AI companion next to him.

Ultimate Grace turned from where she was monitoring Project: TOWER.

“Those are a number of Mathieu’s personal tools. They allowed his to traverse Neo Arcadia quickly, and access restricted areas, effectively bending the rules of the city.”

“Why... do the players have them?” Simon asked, transfixed.

“When you activated Project: TOWER, it caused a memory buffer overrun that allowed the dev tools to spawn in the world where any of the contenders could access them.”

“Zut alors. I never intended that.”
Ultimate Grace regarded him coolly for a moment, then turned back to the central monitor, where the display indicated the process was 82.5% completed. As Simon looked over her shoulder, he couldn’t help notice the swirling data patterns almost looked like the face of his dead mentor.

“Do you think this is going to work, Grace?” Simon asked.

“I’m sorry, Simon. I don’t understand your query. Please rephrase.” Grace titled her head.

Simon stared at the vortex of moving data, trying to see the face again. “I mean, do you think these memory files will be able to show me how Mathieu died?”

“No.”

“No!?” Simon sputtered. Was this all for nothing? “What... what do you mean?”

“There were no cameras in the immediate vicinity of Mathieu’s aircar crash, unfortunately. And Mathieu was not linked to the black box of his vehicle. So that data, if it exists, will not be present. However, it should have a recording of his memories right up until his last moments, so perhaps that will give you the context and clarity that you seek.”

Simon realized, with a gasp, he’d been holding his breath. “Hopefully that will be enough.”

Suddenly, a red "Alert!” icon flashed over one of the consoles, and a System voice blared through the lab. “Attention: Insufficient power. Rerouting power from districts 36-47.”

Simon looked past Grace in horror.

There was no mistaking it. The swirling data was building some sort of simulacrum, taking the form of Mathieu Eiffel!