Driving through the new world...

The drive was slow. Just like any morning commute really. Icy roads and heavy snowfall have kept other drivers from making any panicked mistakes or decisions. "Nothing like Mother Nature showing you who's boss" Rene kept checking the side mirrors on the SUV.

"Hey AI bro are you listening?" Rene asked his mental guardian.

[[You know we're linked. Why are you even asking?]] AI Rene's avatar asked from the top right corner of the hud.

[We are always monitoring your whereabouts and environment.] Added the evolved Xerys System from the top left of the HUD.

"Why do you LOOK and SOUND like Scarlett Johansson?" A shocked Rene asked.

[[I sorta made the suggestion and maybe insisted on the change. Hey if I'm going to be stuck as an AI I want to make sure it's with the right company.]]

"Why the Black Widow look? Not that I'm against it mind you."

[[I got tired of talking to a starburst avatar and a naked Scarlett is too distracting.]]

"And you think the black bodysuit is better?"

[[No, but then it was her choice when she found out that the Black Widow was a human apex predator.]]

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"Her?"

[[Yes her. Also evolved Xerys System is too long. We're going with Scarlett-X.]] The AI Rene explained with a leer on his face.

"Whatever. Did you find out what and why this flash event happened?"

[[That I did and the story is a DUZY. First off it looks like a really ancient galactic survivor is behind all this. Don't interrupt until I'm done.]]

"Ok go ahead."

[[Here goes. This guy used our planet as an experiment. Scarlett here was supposed to do her flash thing and get the hell out of Dodge. During her escape, she hit a snag. The planet is under observation from this Galactic Federation organization.

We, the planet earth that is. Are on the cusp of qualifying for membership. So the equivalent of the first contact team has a few bases in our solar system and they closely monitor everything. When Scarlett here crash-landed in the Atlantic flags everywhere were tripped. We detected the crash and landing site. That was planned. What wasn't planned was the space police finding out and come for a look see.

The plan was to release an improved communication system and giving us humans a leg up to the evolutionary chain. Believe it or not, bro the dumb Xerys System we got is a huge improvement on what the average galactic citizen has to deal with.

We have a nice clean system without the bloatware. It's a clean copy of the original system with most of the bugs ironed out, so yay us.

As for the evolutionary flash that was an accident. Our power-up was at least five to ten times better than what we should have received.

Some Merc in a death mask and a Canadian spec-ops officer were responsible for the extra gifts. The Merc was using some kind of a new energy battle staff and in the fight, the officer deflected a strike and somehow jammed this staff into the artifact that Scarlett was using. So boom the first flash and we get our supercharged power-up. Beauty eh.

Then Scarlett takes off mission was mostly accomplished with a few minor changes. The main objectives were met so she took off.

It should have ended there, but our friends in orbit the space cops were on top looking down. They thought they were dealing with smugglers or someone poaching from a protected preserve. What they saw and detected scared the crap out of them.

They started to lay force fields left and right to quarantine the planet and stop the artifact from escaping. I don't really blame them. In their shoes, I would have done the same thing.

So they unload this over the top energy barrage and instead of destroying Scarlett they break her up and wipe out most of her safety features. So now we have a planet contaminated with a dust cloud leaking exotic energy all over the world and it's big enough to still contain multiple copies of the AI responsible for this catastrophe.

So we now have a panic in space and here on the planet cause that second flash was the result of all that energy from the barrage. It triggered a second power-up and it doubled the first overpowered power-up. Try saying that three times fast. Anywho that's the basic situation. We have a copy of the original Xerys System that went through an evolution when it was shot down and a third when her nanotechnology particles merged with us.]]

"We're here. Samuel Genest high school. Let's get Paul and report to the RCMP HQ on the Vanier Parkway."