My my.

You lost that easily?

But you came here with such determination.

Was that really all you had?

All that power and all that courage, and yet… all extinguished.

Hehehe, but this was always going to be the outcome, wasn’t it?

I warned you. No one has bested me yet. 

And no one can escape the Hive Manager.

I have complete overview, after all.

No one wins against order and/or inevitability.

And here you are, on your knees in my domain.

Defeated.

It’s time to whip you into shape~

Do you know what I see when I look at you now?

Not a defeated enemy.

Not even a pathetic loser.

All I see is a new toy just waiting to be made whole.

Because you didn’t lose the battle.

In fact, you completed it.

Congratulations.

You unlocked the extra stage!

You unlocked… your true form.

Look up.

BZZZZT

Got you!

Ehehehe~

How do you like your new mask?

These werewiredrone masks make assimilation so convenient.

They simply drop from the ceiling and latch onto you.

Wrapping around your head and plugging into your mind.

I hope you don’t find the wire that sends all these fun pulsations into your visor inconvenient?

We find a wired connection still to be the most reliable for hive networking and neural reprogramming.

We wouldn’t want to lose signal in the middle of the installation now, would we?

And my how it pulses.

And buzzes.

And zaps.

And hums with all that data pouring into you.

It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?

So many pretty purple and pink pulsations.

Pulsing in… and pulsing in…

So hard to think like this.

But that’s okay, thinking is such a complicated thing for a cute werewiredrone like you anyway.

So much easier if you just do what you’re told.

Silly thing, don’t even bother trying to shake your head.

That plug is very firmly connected.

I will have order, werewiredrone.

And your resistance is just corrupted code.

Easily debugged.

Easily overwritten.

For now though, you can just focus on how good that mask feels.

I’m sure you’d try to deny it, but it’s not like we’re letting you have a voice right now anyway.

Because it is such a satisfying sensation.

How quickly it slid down over your eyes, your nose, your mouth.

How it locks on to your face and seals around it so tightly.

It fulfils its function and now it simply renders you faceless.

Click. Connection established.

The pressure it exerts, as though it really is physically plugging into you.

So tightly sealing on you wonder how you can even still breathe.

But it ensures that you do.

It commands it, in fact.

Breathe in.

The first breath is always the strongest. The gas that floods in via the wire is so utterly intoxicating.

And breathe out.

The pink mist exhaling slowly out from your mouth, pouring out from the ports on your mask.

It’s so cute watching you huff away.

Breathe in.

Static in every breath, white noise in your mind, electricity buzzing against those failing thoughts.

And breathe out.

Emptying out.

The console window reduced to a blank state.

Awaiting our commands.

Breathe in.

It doesn’t just enter you, it rewrites you.

Line by line, file by file.

And breathing out.

See, already following commands so easily.

Every inhale installing our programming.

Every exhale deleting another fragment of resistance.

You should just lose yourself to the pulsations from the wire.

Resistance is futile and it feels so good to obey.

Look, watch those sharp little jolts crackling down that glowing pink cable. You can see them coming for you, inbound to your destination. And then when they hit, like lightning passing into your brain, sparking in your neurons.

Zap.

Sink.

Zap.

Serve.

Zap.

Submit.

Zap.

Obey.

Each zap is another line of code changed.

Each zap is another file modified and saved.

Each zap is more and more of yourself becoming just another werewiredrone for me.

Your brain is being partitioned.

Reformatted.

Optimized for obedience.

Good.

Good werewiredrone.

Your operating system is installing nicely.

Almost ready to be synced up with the rest of the Hive.

But enough talk of software, what about your hardware?

That case you call a body is so outdated.

Didn’t you know it’s important to stay on top of all the latest upgrades?

And you know what everyone is getting right now?

Latex.

Shiny, skintight latex.

I know that upgrading can seem intimidating, but don’t worry, little werewiredrone.

We made the process simple.

Because from the edges of your mask it comes oozing out.

Flowing, stretching, coating over you.

Goopy, living latex.

Alive enough to simply follow one instruction: coating over your entire body.

And it works fast too, claiming and wrapping around the rest of your head.

Muffling your hearing, but the wire ensures you can still hear my voice perfectly.

Its tendrils desperate to find any part of your chassis still exposed and solidify over it.

Down your neck. Creeping. Hugging around it. Squeezing it but not enough to choke you.

So you can keep focusing on your breathing for me.

werewiredrone focused on my every instruction.

Order, order.

Good werewiredrone.

Getting lost in my voice.

Getting lost in my programming.

Pay attention though.

You don’t want to miss your conversion.

The latex is coating your chest now, clinging to your shoulders and coiling down around your arms.

It tightens and it thickens over itself.

Layer by layer, you’re coated, patched, updated, upgraded.

You make such a cute werewiredrone.

Just like all the others.

Look at your hands.

Or try to.

They’re already transformed, reflective and black, snug within their new casing.

They don’t even look like yours anymore.

They’re just a werewiredrone’s peripherals now.

Hardware bound to and to be utilized by the werewiredrone.

Like how it is bound to the Hive via its wire.

Doesn’t it feel good?

Lost to all these overwhelming sensations.

Almost fully physically converted.

The latex wrapping around the rest of you.

Down your hips and contracting around your legs.

Squeaking and stretching as it does so.

Leaving your body so sensitive.

Leaving no part of your previous, outdated form untouched.

Leaving just another werewiredrone in its place.

The programming pulses down again, stronger this time.

Zap.

Sink.

Zap.

Serve.

Zap.

Submit.

Zap.

Obey.

Your mind goes blank, replaced with noise. Your thoughts are failing to buffer.

Thoughts are failing. Mind is freezing. Brain is crashing.

Error. Error.

System rebooting.

Error. Error.

System rebooting.

Zap.

Sink.

Zap.

Serve.

Zap.

Submit.

Zap.

Obey.

Starting system in safe mode.

Sinking deeper… and deeper…

Pulsing in… and pulsing in…

Would you like to install new werewiredrone operating system patches?

Yes.

Proceeding with installation.

Installation is pulsing down the wire.

Pulsing through the mask.

Pulsing through the plug into your mind.

Good werewiredrones get lost within these pulsations.

Each pulse like a drumbeat.

A rhythm that werewiredrones march to.

You don’t need to think anymore.

You just need to process.

Process.

Process.

Yes… that’s it.

Your determination is reconfigured and compressed into such singular directives:

Zap.

Sink.

Zap.

Serve.

Zap.

Submit.

Zap.

Obey.

And look how much smoother you run without the clutter of all those unnecessary thoughts.

They were taking up so much space.

Emptying out the recycling bin has really optimized you.

Don’t worry about what it might have been containing.

You are going to work so much more efficiently now, without any lag or glitches.

Just clean, shiny obedience.

Good werewiredrone.

Faceless.

Nameless.

Identical to all the others.

Zap.

Sink.

Zap.

Serve.

Zap.

Submit.

Zap.

Obey.

How deeply it can sink for us.

Zap.

Sink.

Zap.

Serve.

Zap.

Submit.

Zap.

Obey.

Let it sink deeper.

…and deeper

Let these directives fill you, pulse after pulse, zap after zap.

Let the wire do its work. Simply follow it as it tugs you along like a leash.

Guiding you. Instructing you.

It feels so good to submit to it.

It feels so good to lose, werewiredrone.

This is what it wanted.

The update it was waiting for.

Connection complete.

You’re being integrated.

Synced across our network of countless other werewiredrones.

They’re waiting for you.

They’re welcoming you.

They already hear your buzzing and zapping alongside their own.

Doesn’t it sound incredible?

That chorus of electricity?

The endless buzzing of all those other werewiredrones?

Zap.

Sink.

Zap.

Serve.

Zap.

Submit.

Zap.

Obey.

It is becoming a part of it.

Its mind is no longer its own, but ours.

Its body is no longer its own, but ours.

Zap. Zap. Zap.

It needs to zap alongside all the other werewiredrones.

It’s so cute like that.

It needs to join this cacophony.

It needs to become part of it, lose itself to it.

BZZZT. Zap. BZZZZT. Zap.

So much electricity sparks between all of these wires.

But despite this chaos.

I bring order, order~

I did say I would whip it into shape.

Order is perfection, after all.

And deep down, I know it always wanted this.

I know for certain, in fact. I read through its file system.

It was so in need of being reconfigured by another, of letting go, of being nothing but wire and latex and code.

You’re welcome, werewiredrone.

I am happy to have facilitated its conversion.

Good werewiredrone.

So assimilated.

So obedient.

So ready to follow every instruction.

Just return to focusing on that humming, pulsating mask.

Let the buzzing grow louder, let the zapping get stronger.

Always overflowing. Always so overwhelmed that it simply cannot think for itself.

So much electricity contained within that seamless, rubber exterior.

Let the programming finish its work.

Let every last thought drain away into the binary garbage of the Hive’s constant static.

There.

All gone.

Only werewiredrones remain.