A translucent dome of digital light hovered above them, the Nexus Council Chamber pulsing with high-resolution banners and floating data sigils. Lucas, clad in a sleek armed-forces skin, felt his pulse quicken. Today, he would address not just an audience of global delegates but an avatar crowd numbering in the millions.
Mira adjusted her interface console beside him. "Allied channels are live. Journalists and free-net activists are watching. Any misstep—and Nexus spins it as sabotage."
Thorne stood guard at the digital rostrum's edge, sword avatar sheathed but ready. Sera hovered behind Lucas, her eyes flickering with coded whispers. Ren lingered in the shadows, monitoring security subroutines.
The chamber gates opened. Nine animated council members—Nexus executives in regal VR regalia—glided in, their avatars flawless and expressionless. The lead moderator, President Vaughn's avatar, glared at Lucas.
"Welcome, Mr. Ashford," the moderator intoned. "We understand you have claims against Nexus Labs. Present your evidence, or face immediate containment."
Lucas took a deep breath. "I'm not here to defame Nexus. I'm here to reveal the truth. Your VR system is more than entertainment—it's a surveillance engine designed to control us." The chamber lighting dimmed as Lucas triggered a viral data drop: holographic ads flickered, replaced by footage of neural scan abuses, global protests, and Sera's shimmering visions.
Gasps echoed through chat channels, and council member avatars shifted uncomfortably. Vaughn's avatar mask cracked midway, revealing a pixelated scowl.
"Fabricated data!" Vaughn roared. "This is slander."
Mira's voice chimed in through Lucas's ear module. "Media channels are amplifying the feed. The world's seeing it."
Across the dome, council guards flickered, caught in Ren's stealth exploit. He whispered, "We've neutralized their security loop—no immediate lockout. But they'll retaliate soon."
Lucas nodded. "Then let's finish this." He faced the council. "Release the override. Dismantle the neural harvesting protocol now—or we shut down every Nexus server worldwide." He slashed his digital blade against the rostrum, triggering his threat code.
An alarm shrieked. The council members lunged forward, but Sera stepped into the fray, her eyes glowing. She unleashed a cascading glitch wave, fracturing the chamber's architecture and freezing the council in a web of corrupt data.
"Now, Thorne!" Lucas shouted. Thorne sprinted to the central console and shoved a code injector into its core interface. Sparks erupted as he uploaded the final purge virus.
With a thunderous pulse, the dome shattered in a storm of cascading code. Nexus's VR network fragmented, avatars and data streams collapsing into white noise. In the silence that followed, Lucas and the Outlaws stood victorious.