Really Strange Stuff

=::= Serenity's PoV =::=

After we wrapped up the stream my girlfriends and I were all feeling pretty hyped from what was easily our best show ever. In fact we were so pumped that we ended up spending another couple hours in the studio chatting with our supporters and fans on social media.

We didn't actually get into bed until some time after three in the morning, but rather than going to sleep the three of us were still in the mood to celebrate. Consequently it was well over another hour before we'd all worn each other out enough to finally drift off.

The three of us slept in until just past eleven Saturday morning, but I was still the first one to wake. And as much as I enjoyed cuddling with my girlfriends I was in the mood for coffee, so I carefully slipped out of bed while doing my best not to disturb either Callie or Bailey.

I grabbed my phone from the bed-side table, then on my way out of the room I scooped up my nightgown from the floor and pulled it on as I made my way to the kitchen. It wasn't until after I had the coffee machine started when I finally woke up my phone to check last night's numbers.

"What the fuck?!" I exclaimed as my ears folded back and my tail twitched back and forth in confusion. "Where the hell is it?!"

Fifteen seconds later I was at my desk in the basement, waiting impatiently for my computer to finish waking up. When it did I went straight to the streaming site, but found the same thing on my computer as I'd seen on my phone.

There were no numbers, because last night's show wasn't there anymore. Our February stream still existed, same with all the previous ones. But there was no trace of the March show. There weren't any emails from the site's legal department, nothing to indicate they'd taken it down for some reason. And even if they had, it would have appeared in our account dashboard. But there was nothing. No trace of the video, no record of the viewer counts, all the thousands of comments were gone. Going by the website, it was like the stream never happened.

I ended up staring at the screen in frustrated confusion for a few seconds, before it occurred to me to check our social media. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but my gut lurched and my tail puffed out as soon as I opened the tab.

There should have been hundreds, if not thousands of notifications, based on how active it was when we finally went to bed last night. Instead there were only a few dozen, and they were all variations on the same couple of comments. People were asking if the March stream was rescheduled, or what happened to it.

For a moment I was worried it somehow got erased from everyone's minds, but a few comments referenced stuff that happened during the show. And some people were asking if the stream got taken down, or if we were going to post the recording for folks who missed it or wanted to watch it again.

I scrolled back through my timeline to late last night, only to find all the comments and conversations I'd participated in after the stream had been purged. And searching on the RSS hashtag came up with next to nothing. Even the posts my girlfriends and I made over the past two weeks promoting the March live stream were gone.

"What the fuck is going on?!" I half yelled as I glared at my computer screen. "This is impossible!"

A second later my ears twitched to the sound of footsteps coming down the basement stairs. Then a sleepy-looking Callie shuffled into view.

"What's up Sere? Everything ok?" she asked.

"It's gone!" I stated as I gestured at my computer. "Someone deleted it!"

Her ears were droopy and her tail hung down low behind her legs, while her eyes were still half closed. She took a second or two to try and parse what I'd said, before finally shaking her head. And I was upset enough that it took me that long to realize she hadn't bothered to put anything on after she got out of bed.

"What's gone?" the cute naked calico asked in confusion. "Who's deleting stuff?"

My tail flicked back and forth while my ears folded back again as I growled angrily, "It has to be the fucking Council! They must getting back at us for exposing them! They deleted last night's stream Callie, it's gone! And they messed with our social media accounts too, like last night never happened! All the comments, the viewer counts, the fucking RSS hashtag, even our promo posts! They've all been wiped!"

"What?!" Bailey's voice came from the stairs.

The foxgirl seemed a lot more awake than our little calico, possibly because she'd actually made herself a coffee since I left the machine running up in the kitchen. She had a mug of her morning beverage in hand as she hurried to her desk to check for herself. And unlike my cohost, Bailey had pulled on a nightshirt before leaving the bedroom.

Meanwhile Callie rubbed her eyes and yawned, "I'm gonna get coffee. I'll get you coffee too Sere."

She turned and padded barefoot back up the stairs, while our other girlfriend was already looking at the damage on her own computer.

"This is impossible," she stated. "They'd have had to hack our accounts or something. No, more than that. They'd have to hack admin accounts on the streaming site, and the social media platforms. Even then I don't know if it's possible to do what they've done."

I slumped back in my chair and stared at my own screen. My ears and tail all drooped as I sighed, "These people have magic, remember? Magic can do the impossible, it can break the laws of physics. They probably have some kind of techno-magic. Something that lets them do impossible shit to computers, to the internet."

"Fuck," Bailey frowned as she sipped her coffee.

A moment later she seemed to get another idea. She set her mug aside and sat up straight as she adjusted her glasses then started looking through directories on her screen, "We can always upload it again! I have it all stored on my computer. Not just the live stream but the raw inputs from all four cameras! Even if we've lost the comments and the view counts we can still..."

Her voice trailed off and her shoulders slumped. She looked and sounded defeated as she shook her head, "It's gone. It's all gone. They must have hacked my computer somehow, and deleted all the data I recorded last night."

"Fuck," I sighed again.

After another second or two Bailey stood up and moved to the three main cameras. Her ears were standing up tall while her tail slowly swished back and forth as she started checking each camera in turn. Meanwhile Callie finally came back down the stairs. She was still naked, but now she was carrying two big mugs of coffee.

"Here you go Sere," she said as she handed one mug to me. She looked and sounded a lot more awake as she asked, "So what's the damage? Did we get hacked or something?"

I thanked her for the coffee then sighed, "It sure looks that way. Last night's stream's been purged from the internet, along with all the chat comments and metadata. Our social media was messed with too, most of the comments and stuff from last night is gone, and the RSS hashtag's been cleaned out."

Callie's ears folded back and her tail poofed up as that news hit her.

Meanwhile I added bitterly, "We even lost the raw data from last night. Bailey's computer was hacked, they deleted all the video we recorded last night. I think it was the Council, getting some revenge for the way we've been exposing them over the last few months."

"Wait," the little calico frowned while her tail flicked back and forth, "The Council's gone. Defunct, Kid Chaos shut them down and half their directors are going to jail. Are we sure it was them?"

Bailey asked, "Who else would it be? Who else could it be? This isn't normal hacking, it has to be magic."

"And you know half their directors are still at large," the foxgirl added. "Plus all the other agents and operatives. You said yourselves the Council already messed with you two once before."

My cohost glared, "Yeah true enough. They sabotaged my car and phone, and stole Serenity's phone, to keep us from following up on a hot lead."

While both my girlfriends were right, their words got me thinking a bit. I tilted my head to one side as I said, "Hold on a sec. Yes they messed with us a few years ago, but that was literally just some mundane vandalism and theft. What happened last night is a whole different level. Like ok maybe it's possible someone hacked Bailey's computer and deleted some data? But the streaming site and the social media stuff is orders of magnitude bigger."

"So what are you saying Sere? What are you getting at?" Callie asked.

My tail twitched as I thought it over, but after a couple seconds I sighed and shook my head. "I don't know yet? Whoever did this, it wasn't some local Council guy. Maybe it's one of their missing directors, like Bailey said? Or maybe -"

Just then all our phones pinged with notifications. Bailey was the first to check, then her ears folded back as she looked to me and Callie.

"It's from Kid Chaos," the cute foxgirl announced. "She knows what happened, she's offering to come back today so she can talk to us about it."

Callie didn't hesitate, "Tell her yes please! Hell we should have contacted her in the first place! What's the point of having divine backing if we don't take advantage of it?"

"You might want to put some clothes on first cutie," Bailey responded with a smile. "Actually maybe we should all get dressed before our friendly neighbourhood Goddess comes back?"

Our calico girlfriend blushed as she glanced down at herself, "Right. Can you ask her to give us a couple minutes to get dressed?"

"Maybe ask if she can visit us in a half hour?" I suggested. "Or an hour even?"

Bailey smiled as she tapped out a response on her phone, "I'll let her know we need some time to make ourselves presentable."

It turned out Cassandra wasn't ready to rush back to see us immediately anyways, so we had time to get showered and dressed and even have a bit of breakfast. It wasn't until mid afternoon when the teenage goddess teleported herself back into our basement studio. She was alone this time, her demon girlfriend didn't accompany her today.

We exchanged some rushed greetings then before we'd even sat down Callie asked, "So can you fix it? Can you get the stream back, or at least recover the files they deleted off Bailey's computer?"

The young goddess settled into the same guest chair she'd used during the interview last night as she replied, "In fact I do have a recording of the stream. Kaylee set up her computer to save it before we came over, so we'd have a copy at home. I'll make sure to send you a copy later."

"I can have a look at your computer," she added, "But I doubt I'll be able to restore the lost data. I suspect the missing files were not deleted in any normal non-magical way. Same with everything that was purged online. Unfortunately I don't expect any of that will be salvageable."

"Fuck," Callie swore.

Then as the the three of us all sat together on the studio sofa Bailey asked, "So who do you think's behind this? Was it someone from the Council? Some escaped director maybe?"

"None of the council directors escaped," Cassandra stated, in a tone that sent some chills down my spine. A moment later she elaborated, "I let some of them go, but only the ones who deserved leniency."

She continued, "And this wasn't done by the council. This was... Something bigger. And you three weren't the target, I was. This was an attempt to silence me and stop my message from getting out."

My girlfriends and I exchanged a worried look, then I asked "What in the world is strong enough or stupid enough to try and silence a Goddess?"

Cassandra hesitated, then shook her head. "I'm sorry, in this case it's probably not safe to involve you any further."

"I'm immune to the forces that destroyed your data," she continued, "Which is likely why the stream wasn't interrupted last night. Normally that's the modus operandi, but it couldn't cut your internet or destroy your equipment while I was here. So the next best thing was to purge all the evidence after I'd left."

Callie was already shaking her head, "We can't just give up! We will not be silenced, and we won't let anyone silence you either! There must be something we can do, some way to fight back."

Meanwhile Bailey looked torn. She obviously wasn't happy about her computer being hacked or the recordings being lost, but I was positive she was paying more attention to Cassandra's warnings than our hotheaded little calico.

And I was probably the most cautious of the three of us. I shook my head as I addressed my friend, "Callie an actual literal Goddess is telling us this isn't safe. Maybe we should listen to her?"

Cassandra clarified, "I'm not saying you should stop doing your shows. By all means, continue exposing the council and keep doing your other investigations."

"I'll continue working on my own agenda separately," she added. "And when I'm confident it won't endanger you then we can start working together again."

Unfortunately my best friend was not prepared to give up that easily. She protested, "There must be something we can do? We basically agreed to work with you and Kaylee last night, live on the stream. We can't go back on it now! And honestly, I don't want to back out! I think your plans are amazing, I love the idea of bringing magic back to the world and normalizing the supernatural!"

"I want to be a part of that," Callie insisted. Then she sighed, "I don't know, I just think team RSS can help somehow. Maybe we could be your prophets or something? Spreading the word of the Goddess of Chaos, preaching the truth about magic and the supernatural! It feels important to me, you know?"

Bailey's eyebrows shot up and her head tilted to one side as she stared at the little calico, while I resisted the urge to face-palm. Once again she was talking and acting without thinking, and Kid Chaos already warned her about doing that around supernaturals back when we first met.

Except this time the young goddess had a thoughtful look on her face. She was quiet for a few more seconds, then finally smiled. "I admit, prophets of chaos is an intriguing concept. Tell you what, I'm going to think on that for a while. I'll get back to you soon, but for now I'm going to head home."

No sooner had she finished speaking when she vanished in a swirl of golden light.