Rijohe
He was in a coma and the Legion command actually helped bring him out of it? Rijohe was using his symbiote to communicate with his AI Bot.
They were right outside of Tom’s main base, a giant outdoor mall called the Avenues. They were still in the descent ship as Rijohe didn't wish to risk anything just yet. Tom's legion was close to 600 strong now and they were swarming the food courts below them.
Yes but there seems to be more to it. Not getting the whole picture, something is wrong with the kid’s AI, the AI Bot replied.
I’m not supposed to interfere in this part of the challenge but how am I supposed to verify his genetic code without doing just that? I asked the AI Bot.
They had been arguing back and forth the entire trip on the best solution. The commander simply expected it to be done while the intergalatic third party lawyers for the challengers insisted Rijohe not harm his people at this stage.
“Calapo,” Rijohe cursed at his luck.
The last thing he wanted to do was spy work, but he had his orders and couldn’t complain. He would rather not be dealing with these apes at all. On Ultir he was a military engineer, and was sent to terraform earth using the Legion command. Their job was to get it ready for the rest of the Kwitle to come. Either way, their planet was already lost, and to make matters worse a virus that destroyed symbiotes was tearing through his people. They needed to make earth breathable without their symbiotes in case the worst comes to pass with the virus.
He shook his head, these were problems for the future. For now he needed to make sure this challenger was truly who he claimed to be.
He’s still physically recovering from his coma. He hasn’t figured out any of the minion draining programs it seems. Let’s just wait for him to sleep, use the symbiote's camouflage, and then run the scans, the AI thought. It was the only plan they could agree on.
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This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Watching the two symbiotes battle would have been entertaining if it was just a friendly competition. Instead, I was only half paying attention as my gorilla formed a giant shield to protect against a flurry of angry chimp punches and slaps. The other man’s symbiote was consumed in rage while splitting itself into smaller forms to try and attack the gorilla from any possible angle or opening.
While the battle raged I couldn’t move, the system had locked both myself and Takis man in some kind of paralysis while we went under our own personal hells. At first it was a slight physical pressure, as if someone had thrown a few weighted blankets on me and gave me a headache. A few minutes in and it felt like I was carrying a drunk frat guy back to his room and my headache became a migraine. Then the memory flashes started.
Takis Man face was contorted as he faced his own demons. My memory flashes were of my parents but the memories were wrong. I burned my hand on the stove as a kid but this time they had to amputate for some reason. Another flash of my parents fighting that led to domestic violence instead of a peaceful resolution. It was all horribly fucked up, but still I rolled with it.
It’s all just….horrible alien implanted memories, I kept telling myself as I tried to focus on the symbiote fight instead of the mental warfare. My beast had finally figured out how to split himself in two and went for a counter offense. He shaped one hand into a spear and the other into a shield, like a hoplite from my civilization games.
Before I could see that battle continue mine got worse. The pressure now felt like a heavy dumbbell pressing down on my neck and the mental flashes became more vivid. I started to drift away.
No, I’m not going to smell like rat piss and Takis forever I told myself. But then I heard my moms voice vividly.
“Jon? Where are you? Why haven’t you come to us?” I couldn’t tell where the voice had come from. It was getting harder to keep my eyes open, and now my brain felt like it was about to split from the pressure. I tried to focus on the happier memories like Cindybot told me earlier. The first time I took Cindy to our hidden beach. My cousin and I sneaking away on thanksgiving to smoke and joke around. Our old family dog Sally that was still with my parents. But the voices kept coming.
“Jon? Your mother and I have been made into…mind puppets by some horrible man Jon. He’s making us build something. It’s nothing but horrific unending manual labor all day at the mall. And you could be helping us? What are you doing?!” my fathers voice yelled at me. It was getting to be too much. The system was using my worst fears against me, and that was the best I could hope for. To think that my parents were really going through something horrific would be devastating. The pressure continued both mentally and physically until I feared it would overwhelm me, seconds seemed to stretch into hours of struggle until rage filled my heart. Pushing past the insurmountable pain, I willed my lips to move with the last of my strength.
“No,” I said finally finding my voice. “I’ll stop this. I’ll find all of you. They won’t beat me with their bullshit. You think you can win with this? You think you can come here and enslave us and we’ll just accept it? Nah. You freaky bird men came to the wrong fucking planet. We'll win.”
For some reason, Takis man smiled at me as I finished speaking. Then he promptly fell over at the same time as his symbiote. I heard an envelope sound as the hold on me was released.
Exiting time dilation in 30 seconds
Mind Games: 002
Completed
Winner: Jon M.
Prizes: The Legion of Dennis J., The AI of Dennis J., and unlocked skill Minion Heal.
Additional reward for time survived: AI Upgrade 1