The jig is up

You step back into the condo with Molly after your first successful album recording. Aurora is first to welcome you back. "Hey, welcome back. How'd your recording go?

"Went well, bzzt! You wouldn't believe it, but the audio tech is Wendyz zponsor! What's more, she can sing! We can have a full band once this iz all over! Bzzzzt!" Molly explains excitedly, her wings aflutter.

"That's awesome news, Molly. And a great segue as we got access to our target. I did some poking around, you might want to look at this." Aurora says as her azure plumage shimmers against the glow of her cyberdeck.

You nod at Aurora. "Excuse me, Molly." You say, before giving Molly a kiss and moving over to Aurora's side. As your eyes come to rest on her display, the files that are open need no further introduction.

AWIO Director's confidential files. Monster girl containment protocols. Past hunt: Manticore target—Mazl.

"Fuck." You say, letting the damning evidence ruminate in your mind. The name of the Director responsible for all this madness plain to see. And what made it worse .. "I can't believe a monster girl would do this to her own kind."

Aurora nodded, her face grim. "This goes deeper than we thought. They weren’t just looking to capture her; they wanted to erase her existence. And not just her—there’s a whole network of unfriendly policies on monster girls. Monster girl containment, behavioral manipulation... Lack of consent for the birth control implant before entering the portal... it's sickening."

A palpable silence fills the room as you and Aurora discuss your findings. Only the sound of an alert coming from your own computer pierces the deafening silence. You head over to your own computer and get logged in.

Familiar lines of code dance across your screen. Your own detection program, nothing like it in the world. As your fingers dance across the keyboard and eyes scan the screen, you call over to Aurora. "We've triggered a response."

Aurora’s feathers flared slightly, the edges of her blue plumage glowing as her anger sparked. "Did they detect our malware?"

"Not exactly..." Your voice trailed off as you dig deeper. "It’s worse. They have an adaptive defense system—it’s learning. It's cleaning up our traces and trying to lock onto our location. This isn’t just a detection. They’re actively countering us."