Akari.OS

Ria went rigid as she looked into the middle distance probably reading her HUD, and at a feverish pace it looked like. She then sighed and looked at Xeriko and myself with a reserved expression.

“Ok you two, you need to head to a shopping center where the AI there has made appliance androids…” She explained.

“I’d make a joke about that, but this is a serious matter.” I commented with a sigh. “Xeriko, I hope you’re a good shot with your new toy because we’ll need it to fight against these androids.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m a good shot, no thanks to you malware.” He griped.

“You should be thanking me.” I clapped back.

"Enough children, this is serious especially if civilians are going to get involved as there are reports of the androids getting loose outside the shopping center." Ria admonished.

"Right, let's go!" I exclaimed while hyping myself up in the suit.

We then left the room and I got to look at the sterile white chrome and plasteel hallways of the base I have been living in for the past few hours. I strangely didn't feel tired at all, but I still couldn't shake the trepidation about going into this unknown outside world that I got transported to.

"Be honest Xeriko, do you think this will be rough?" I asked while turning around and looking at him on the inside of his visor.

"Honestly? I don't know Malware, but we have to help the people here." He said resolutely.

I nodded at him while letting go of the fact he called me Malware.

"If it helps our mission I'll catalog the Androids we come across to help with patterns." I commented while pulling out a notepad I conjured.

"That would help."

We then arrived at the outer blast door and I took a deep breath before Xeriko pushed the holo-button to open the door to the outside. The outside was very neon…why is it always neon and holo-projectors, but I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised.

We walked towards the shopping center, apparently there isn’t a mapping unit in his suit, we definitely need that fixed.

“Hey, if we find an android with a mapping array, we’re stealing it.” I pointed out, matter of factly.

“Like I’d trust some android tech in my suit Malware.” He griped while he was running.

“Of course I’d vet it to make sure its safe Xeriko, geez what do you take me for?” I asked, looking at him flatly.

“You really don’t want me answering that question.” He chuckled as he kept running.

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“You’re lucky I don’t want to compromise the mission or I’d scramble your suit again.” I said while I glared at him.

“Don’t you start that Malware.” Xeri snapped back.

After our verbal shouting match we crossed an intersection where other people were running around trying to get to their places of dwelling most likely. Some were taking manned taxis so I guess that industry is going to see a boom after the AI fubar. Trucking was probably gonna hit a similar boom for this. I sat on a bench swinging my feet till we reached the mall. After some more time had passed we reached the mall on the other side of the metropolis that was…wherever the hell the Goddess sent me. I checked the datanet on that fact on my phone…ok I know half of the things I do are superfluous given my new state of being, but if you can’t have fun with it then why bother? Anyway, according to the datanet, we’re in the Lylat Quadrant of the Serio System…so we’re back to wherever the hell she sent me. I’ll have to research the coordinates in relation to the milky way later.

“Hey Malware, you going to get us in?” Xeriko subvocalized to get my attention.

“Ah, sorry, was lost in thought, let me get that door for you.” I commented, shaking myself out of my daze. He then popped out the flat reader module that was added to his suit and placed it against the holo-lock on the door. I then poofed on some ninja attire and threw a smoke bomb before zipping into the lock through the cable. Inside the lock was…well it was a corridor made up of cubes, whether this was an extension of my influence or the world at large, I didn’t know. I walked against the wall before peeking down a corridor seeing a security subroutine float down a different way. Even with that routine not looking at me I still felt like I was being watched so I decided to keep moving until I found a huge ass lock guarded by 2 security subroutines. One was a SWAT geared eyeball, definitely an IPS and the other is a shadowy figure in a trenchcoat. A genuine spook and most likely a firewall proxy, I have to work fast.

Taking a deep breath I pull out a jar with a Wyrm in it, and this will most likely be one of my more subtle tools. I hurl the jar at a block of innocuous code and watch it shatter into pixels before the Wyrm digs in and the Spook gets an alert on its device thingy. The SWAT gets more alert as the spook goes away so I throw a paradox file shuriken at it so it burns itself out trying to cycle through the dummy loop I put in there and I sneak past the distracted security features and draw my keytana to unlock the door. The lock goes green and I smoke bomb out of there before my distractions self destruct.

Poofing back into the suit I smile as I look at Xeriko who looked shocked at my sudden reappearance.

“What?” I asked, looking confused.

“That was only five seconds and you already had that door unlocked, even the most advanced cracking programs take at least thirty seconds to take down a locked door.” He explained.

“Really? It felt longer on my end, guess there’s a time dilation and that’s because I work outside of conventional paradigms.” I shrugged.

He just shook his head as I took my perch on his visor out of the way. He tapped open the door and went inside before locking it behind him. And I finally saw what the rogue AI’s were doing first hand. Metal being stripped from the walls, destroyed art pieces, bodies, so many bodies, and machine parts all scattered the ground.

“This is…horrible…” I said getting sick to my stomach without actually being able to.

“Yeah, and you wondered why I was reticent to allow your continued existence.” Xeriko commented grimly.

“That’s fair…” I replied just as grimly.

We started checking for survivors but I think that was more of us being blindly hopeful than expecting any miracles. Reality proved to be less than agreeable, but we couldn’t exactly cure death. I sighed as we went further into the mall looking around bleakly.

“That’s not something I’d wish on anyone…how could you be so callous as to kill someone with a sharpened egg beater.” I bemoaned while we walked past the entrance.

“This is just what the AI’s became, no helping it now beyond getting rid of the AI, and finding out what’s causing the rampage.” He said, looking away from me.

I nodded to myself as I kept my eyes open looking for Androids and it didn’t take too long looking for one as we walked up to one dragging what looked like a murder friendly electric drill. The drill was jagged and looked like it would definitely be used for lobotomies instead of carpentry. It also had blades for hands on the other arm.

“We gotta take out that back alley doctor.” I commented, getting ready to fight however I could.

“Back…OH! I get it, fitting name.” He replied before I added the BAD to my bestiary.

He then ran sideways to the BAD trying to stay out of its range as I collected data on its habits and specs, which eyeballing those isn’t exactly a good idea but hey it should serve until I could put together a scanning array for Xeri’s suit. We’ll have to review the footage later to make accurate statistics for the bots but that’s not important right now.

He then aimed the Ravager at the bot and with a mighty bang the Android’s head was sheared clean off.

“Well then…that was…more useful than I ever thought it would be.” He commented looking at the gun I so lovingly crafted in shock.

“Told you.” I commented smugly.

As we said this the Android fell over and its drill powered down. I looked at the parts and noticed something.

“We can most likely use these parts as raw material at the very least for upgrading our capabilities at the bunker or more weapons, I could probably make something pretty nasty out of that drill with some tweaks of my own.” I commented, already getting a ton of ideas.

“We’ll pick it up on the way out.” Xeriko said, kicking the robot. “We have a long way to go before we’re finished.”