Following Vidia, Drake's mind wandered to what she could have made him. Knowing just what kind of being he had created, he was expecting something absurd, but he wasn't prepared for what was to come.
"Here we are." The synthetic blonde bomb shell gestured towards an enormous gray pod. "Get in!" Taking Drake by the hand she led him towards towards the pod. He took a moment to admire her seemingly flawless body. He remembered some of the specs she had listed off to him. Vidia's body was just the right combination of biological parts, and mechanical parts. All of her bones were synthetic materials, her strength was powered by magnetism and her skin was a unique organism that she had engineered solely for that purpose. All of the parts were created with the coming storm in mind.
Vidia looked back towards Drake who was giving a weak resistance to her pull. "I have to go in that thing?" He spoke meekly as he looked at the metallic monstrosity Vidia was attempting to feed him to. Drake had never been good with tight spaces.
"Are you?" Vidia looked at him strangely. "Claustrophobic?" Vidia let out those words with an air of amusement. She hadn't expected him to be scared of tight spaces.
"No!" Drake's Face went red from embarrassment. "I just don't like being trapped in a tight space without knowing what is going on!" Drake had no reason to distrust Vidia. He had labored over her coding for months in an attempt to instill a strong sense of loyalty into her. As a big fan of the terminator series he knew just what a rogue AI was capable of.
"Come on! What's the point in a surprise if you know what's coming?" She pulled on Drake's arm with inhuman force. Drake came after no small amount of resistence. As the door of the pod closed on him his entire life flashed before his eyes. Goodbye cruel world.
"Quit being such a drama queen!" Michelle who had been watching on in delight at Drake's pain decided it would be best to add in her two cents. There was a small whirr from the sealing mechanism as the lid shut down tight. He closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate.
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*giggle* A short sweet laugh escaped Vidia's lips. "That was just adorable. I never expected him to be Claustrophobic."
"It seemed more annoying than anything else." Michelle casually dismissed the words of the overly perky android. It wasn't too noticeable when her voice was synthetic, but she was always happy. Not only that but her affection for Drake was almost worship like. "What exactly is that surprise?" Despite her misgivings with the android she had to admit she was more than a little curious.
"Mostly genetic alterations, if what you say about this 'system' is true then it would be best if he stayed entirely biological. I did, however, design some sensory devices." Vidia had thought this out very well. She realized that his mind would be enhanced through the system Michelle had described to him earlier, but his sensory organs were still lacking. She had created for him a pair of eyes and cochlear implants each capable of not only extraordinary visual and audial clarity, but many other things as well.
Michelle honestly didn't see the need. His eyes would be enhanced as he leveled up anyways, and most of the special abilities of the eyes could be recreated through magic. There was one thing she didn't account for though. Each of these eyes had a small quantum computer within them. Each with about the processing power of the original quantum computer Vidia's original program had been written on. Given Drake's extraordinary ability and inventiveness as a programmer it would be easy for him to come up with some way of making use of them.
They both looked on as Drake was sedated in the pod. This process was not going to be a short one. Genetic engineering wasn't something that can be done lightly, especially to an already living being. It would be a long slow process of altering genes, alowing them to manifest physically, and using the subjects newly altered biology to make way for even more changes.
3 Months passed, and Drake's body hadn't undergone any noticeable changes. That doesn't mean they didn't happen. While it didn't appear that way, his body was now much stronger and faster than before and his nervous system was now much more quick and efficient. His brain had also underwent some alterations. Vidia loved Drake as he was so she made sure she hadn't altered too much, so only parts of his mind that processed data, visual images and other such things were enhanced. She tried not to touch the parts that gave him his almost supernatural talent in coding, now his mind would be able to accomplish everything it could before only faster.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
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A loud hiss could be heard as the door to the pod opened. A disoriented Drake shambled out of the contraption obviously having a difficult time adjusting to his new body. He managed with his newly improved reflexes, but the discomfort was obvious. With his enhanced mental prowess he would likely adjust quickly. Leaving the pod he looked around with new found clarity. Everything was extremely clear. He could see everything, but it wasn't just that. He could tell that there was something else he could do as well, he just wasn't sure how.
"Hey there sleepy head." Vidia spoke calmly. She had been woken up by the pods opening.
"Oh." Drake murmured while rubbing his head. "Yea. Hi." He continued rubbing his head and spoke softly. "What happened? Eveythings... Weird."
"Remember that surprise?" Drake gave a slight nod of recognition. "Well, your current state is the result."
"Ok." Drake placed his finger over the bridge of his nose. "Your going to have to give a bit more of an explanation then that."
"You see." Vidia spoke softly, pulling Drake into her embrace. "You body has been genetically altered. You're faster, stronger and smarter than before." Putting on an impish smile she spoke once more. "And a little extra."
"Extra?"
"Your eyes are mechanical. They have other abilities like infrared and night vision. Just look in the mirror, I think they look pretty cool."
Drake made his way into the bathroom, making rough and obviously unpracticed steps as he went. Upon arriving he was astonished at what he saw. His face hadn't changed much but he had grown several inches, and his muscles had become much more defined. The most eye catching change, however, was in his eyes. They were now a strange color of techno blue and seems to twist and turn as his focus changed. It was sort of like the inside of a zooming camera lense. (If you guys need a point of reference, I'm going for something similar to the elusive man's eyes from Mass Effect.)
Now focused on his new appearance Drake failed to notice Vidia walk in with a familiar feline in her arms.
"What do you think?"
"I think you should have asked me first! Who alters a persons biological makeup without their permission!?" Drake wasn't really angry, but it didn't mean he didn't understand the absurdity of this situation.
"It wouldn't have been a surprise if I had told you." Said Vidia, adopting a faux pouty expression.
"I don't care!" Drake couldn't help but think that maybe he gave her the wrong name. Remembering another AI who tried to give a surprise medical procedure, he decided it might be best not to think about it. Maybe it's time to put his new body through it's paces.
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After walking around for a little bit Drake had gotten used to his new physical abilities. With his improved nervous system and mental acuity it was simplicity itself for him to adjust and after an hour or so he was running around like it was nothing. One strange thing he noticed was that he wasn't getting tired at all even when he was running at speeds impossible for an olypic athlete. He also noted that he could change his vision simply by concentrating, he could switch between several different sights, such as the aforementioned infrared vision. Drake took immedate notice upon adjusting to his new body that his reflexes were out of this world. Perhaps he would be able to dodge now.
"Wow. I can't believe that's the same guy." With her wings trailing behind Michelle entered the scene. "You really out did yourself."
"I know! Isn't it cool!" Vidia puffed out her well endowed chest proudly.
Drake soon started to slow down his pace. After jogging a bit more he slowed to a walk and started heading towards the room where he had been working on his projects. He knew they were useless and that Vidia coud likely create a far superior product in half the time, but he needed something to keep himself busy.
"What are you doing?" Vidia asked.
"I had an idea." Drake picked up an item that seemed similar to a VR headset. "I've been programming an advanced visual combat interface into this headset. I thought it would be cool if I could copy it into my eyes." The program he was talking about used everything from trajectory prediction to muscles movement to anticipate the opponents movement before they happen. Drake had managed to fine tune the program a lot giving it an accuracy rating of more than 99%. As far as he was concerned it was ready for field testing.
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Drake and Vidia stood accross from one another in one of the larger rooms in the facility.
"Do you really want to do this?" Vidia looked at him dubiously.
"Yea, come on. I need some field data."
"Why can't I do it!?" Michelle cried. Drake could help but marvel at her dedication to causing him grief.
Ignoring Michelle they both continued. Vidia kicked off the ground and flew towards Drake at breakneck speeds. Drake wasn't exactly experienced and he couldn't simply download information in order to learn something so his counter was a little less than practiced. With his newly enhanced reflexes he managed somehow but just barely. Vidia continuously threw punches and kicks and Drake continued to defend himself. His program was having a hard time predicting her movement because of her body's lack of conventional muscles. In the end he managed to keep up because of the programs adaptive sofware. It took information where it could and constantly adjusted.
Vidia's movement were very precise and calculated. Every move she made backed him further and further into a corner. No amount of prediciton could overcome superior planning within just thirty second Drake was on his ass. He thought about the program, seeing so many things he hadn't accounted for he knew that it would take a long time to perfect it. I suppose that's what science is all about, you cannot succeed without failing first.