E1 nudged E9’s elbow, letting him know that he was there.
“What's the count we have now?” E1 didn’t speak aloud, instead using the built-in network that all members of the elite squad had.
“One hundred, seventy-two, and three-quarters.” E9 replied.
“Three-quarters? Oh wait, that Sterl guy, yeah.” E1 nodded to himself. “He only has one arm, right?”
“You would be correct.” E9 confirmed.
“Cool, anyway, what’s the highest ranking member that we’ve turned to our side?” E1 continued.
“That would be us.” E9 replied.
“Darn, well at least we have some bullet-sponges to take the heat for us.”
“Little more they’re good for, right?”
“I mean, sorta? I don’t really know how to do maintenance and all that sort of boring stuff, but they do, so they DO have a use for something at the very least.”
“True, true. By the way, E4 managed to pry the passcodes to some important documents from a high-ranking data analyst, and he wanted to pass them onto you.”
“Oh, did he manage to turn him over to our side?”
“No, the data analyst was too much of a security risk, so he had to be terminated.”
“Ah, shame. Also, why didn’t E4 just send ‘em when he first had the chance?”
“I dunno, maybe he was preoccupied and forgot?”
“That does sound like him. Alright, gimme.”
E1’s visor saw lines of code flashing across its screen before disappearing as fast as it had come.
“Huh, this certainly is interesting. What’s this about ‘Absolute Solver’?” E1 inquired.
“You’ll have to read the entire file for that, but I did pick up a little tidbit of info that might be helpful.” E9 suggested.
“Oh? Do tell.” E1 motioned for E9 to continue.
“The upper brass took a particular interest in the file, and they went so far as to terminate all lower-ranking drones who had heard of it, which is notable in of itself.” E9 explained.
“Veeeery nice.” E1 grinned. “Jackpot, do you think?”
E9 shrugged. “Depends. It could just be some information back from the rebellion.”
“True, true.” E1 nodded. “But still, I should probably have someone more experienced analyze this.”
“My thoughts exactly.” E9 agreed.
E1 took a few steps back. “Welp, I better get back to managing our burgeoning command structure, so I’ll leave you to it.”
E9 didn't reply, simply nodding and fading back into the shadows instead. E1 stared at the spot where E9 had disappeared for a moment, before letting the grin slide off of his face. While he tried to remain lighthearted to ease the tension off of his remaining squadmates, in reality he was stressed beyond belief. There were far too many variables that could spiral into chaos at any given moment, variables that he had no control over. What he was doing right now would be seen as a supremely bad idea in any handbook about overthrowing a ruling government, but the way he saw it, E1 didn’t have any choice.
Which is lucky for me, I suppose. All according to plan, MUAHAHAHA-
[WARNING: ANTIVIRUS DETECTED]
[DEPLOYING COUNTERMEASURES . . .]
[FAILURE]
[WARNING: ANTIVIRUS HAS BREACHED INNER FIREWALLS, INITIATING SELF-DESTRU-
E1 crushed the strand of foreign code, dismantling its logic structure in a moment. He waited for a moment, trying to see if the virus had any tricks left up its digital pocket dimension. Luckily for him, nothing happened.
It hit him right then. Some sort of viral digital agent had breached every single firewall and electronic protection that he had without him knowing at all. That either spoke of an intentional backdoor of some sort, or a program so advanced that it could bypass even the most secure of neural networks, which only the most robust and intelligent of the government’s prototypes had only been able to do, and only then with the help of quantum supercomputers the size of a skyscraper.
If the program hadn’t stupidly announced its presence like it had a few moments ago, then E1 likely would’ve never found out that it had even BEEN there, which was unacceptable for the military android. Lucky for him, he had managed to pin down the virus with an antivirus measure that it didn’t seem to expect, for some reason. However, the odd part was that he had to burn a small part of one of his memory cards to disable the retaliation, which seemed a lot like overkill. Luck had been there for him again though, as the protocol that his former bosses had put in place for him to activate in the case of enemy capture had saved him, which was pretty ironic considering its purpose. But still, the odds had been against him this time, and he had nearly been turned into a twitching mess of oil laying in a random corner of the camp.
He shuddered a little before mentally moving to inspect the broken code that remained of the foreign virus. What he found shocked him even further, which was saying a lot, considering all that he had been through.
Instead of the standard if/then logic tree that one would find in any other virus, it was almost as if someone had stuck a neural network into a scrap grinder, shredding its digital guts beyond recognition. Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration and also maybe a misused metaphor, but it wasn’t too far off. While E1 could identify and recognize several parts of the code that remained, the rest of the commands just didn’t make sense for a program of its purpose. Like, what was all this about cellular regeneration and “rebooting”? Also, there was an entire section somehow dedicated to the manipulation of physical objects, which implied that the virus had a physical form of some sort, which also didn’t make sense.
Unless . . .
E1 straightened up, freezing in his spot. Without a second thought, he sent out a request to his squadmates to meet up immediately, as well as some of the more informed worker drones that could help him out a little. If what he suspected was true, then it threatened his entire operation, and perhaps the very existence of the facility drones in their whole. He bumped the mission criticality up from “Slightly Screwed” to “Extremely Screwed”.
It seemed like it was time to start putting in a small bit of effort.
* * *
“ . . . the new Forgi’s on the Jeep, I trap until the bloody bottoms is underneath-” Jacob sang.
Luckily, Jacob was interrupted by a metal fist to the helmet.
“OW! What the hell was that for!?” Jacob rubbed the side of his helmet, not realizing that helmets usually didn’t transmit pain.
“Oh come ON! You’ve been singing that same stupid song with the same stupid lyrics for hours now! You just keep on repeating that verse, do you even know the rest of it!?” Ren exclaimed in exasperation.
“Well yeah, but it has some naughty words that I can’t say without getting ganged up on by a group of men named Tyrone, Jamal, Lebron, and maybe Michael.” Jacob protested.
“What does that even mean! That's all you do, just speak nonsense and nothing else!” Ren threw her hands up and began walking in a random direction. “Whatever! Fine! I’m done!”
Jacob ran right up to her, blocking her path. “Hold on there, let's not be TOO hasty!”
“If you say anything else that's stupid, silly, or downright annoying, I’m leaving you to the wasteland.” Ren glared so well that it might’ve rivaled X’s.
“‘You cannot do silly things’,” Jacob said in a monotone voice. “Literally 1984.”
Ren kicked Jacob’s leg out from under him before shoving him into a snowbank, walking away right after.
“Mffmfhshmfm, mffh mffmmgm!” Jacob scrambled for purchase inside of the large pile of snow.
This was ridiculous, he just wanted to have fun! The duo had been walking for hours on end at this point, which was several hours too many in Jacob’s opinion. Ren had refused any and all attempts to pass the time, resisting even Jacobs most powerful tools (Rock-Paper-Scissors, Tic-Tac-Toe, etc) which left him in the same exact dilemma that had plagued him for days now. So, he was left with no choice other than to use Ren as his source of entertainment. Specifically, to use her reactions to his dastardly antics to fuel the dying embers of entertainment that distracted him from the reality of the situation.
Wait, now that he thought about it, this was a perfect time to examine what about him had been altered by the tumor. Like, was his name really Markus, or something else? What if his entire personality from the point of his “birth” was nothing but a fabrication? He knew that Rome wouldn’t stand for the manipulation of the Emperor’s son, but he wasn’t exactly in Rome, was he?
Wait, when was he ever the Emperor’s son? That wasn’t right, was it? Markus concentrated, believing that he could somehow hear some sort of voice off in the distance. It was getting close now, close enough that he could make out the words, which were-
Shoot, this is happening more often now, isn’t it? Damn, he’s really fighting, I almost feel bad for this.
[LOGIC PROCESS IN HOST MANUALLY HALTED]
[DELETING RECORDS . . .]
[SUCCESS]
[REWINDING . . .]
Markus blinked, before refocusing on the task at hand. He furiously flailed his limbs, digging himself out of the thick snowbank. After a moment, he flopped bonelessly onto the fractured concrete, spitting out a chunk of ice that had somehow gotten in his mouth.
Standing up, Markus rushed after Ren, calling out as he did.
“Wait up! I’m sorry, I won’t do it again!” He turned the corner, seeing Ren stopped at the edge of a cliff that dropped into a hazy fog. “Why’re you- oh . . .”
Markus stopped as well, looking out at the view that lay before him. A sea of dark greenish-gray pine trees stretched out as far as the eye could see, a testament to the will of nature. The forestry was interspersed by the occasional island of civilization, a cabin or other type of structure dotted here and there.
However, those paled in comparison to the massive monolithic tower that lay in the heart of the pine forest. Even despite the explosion that had rocked the planet, it still remained standing, its dark steel gleaming in the darkness. Small lights illuminated the tower, allowing it to be seen for those with the proper vantage point even though it was night. Below it, a pool of blueish-white ice, likely a former lake, complemented the gloomy monolith.
Suddenly, a jolt of pain struck at Markus’s head, causing him to groan in pain and clutch his head tightly. Memories, ones that weren’t his, shot through his mind, images of bright lights and things that he himself couldn’t comprehend but yet seemed strangely familiar. A perspective of somebody standing on a beaten path next to a large sign alongside a group of cheerful worker drones, the weight of some sort of item weighing on his neck. Someone looking towards a group of worker drones, raising a hand towards an incoming arrow, only for it to warp, changing into something that would’ve made Lovecraft inspired.
Dozens of these bounced around in his skull, his head pounding in agony. However, one stood out above all the others, one that rang supreme. It was fractured into several different perspectives, ones that created an odd picture. A familiar-looking purple-eyed worker drone standing next to two disassembly drones and a second more dispersed group standing opposite from them, comprised of a worker drone, a floating disassembly drone, and a weird looking drone without any sort of LED display, wearing an odd uniform with a nametag, a nametag that read “T-
Goddamnit, what happened!? Shut the whole thing down, full reboot! Override safety protocols too, if he keeps going like this for any longer, his brain is gonna fry.
[USER REQUEST DETECTED: FULL REBOOT]
[OVERRIDING SAFETY MEASURES . . .]
[SUCCESS]
[REBOOTING . . .]
Markus blinked.
[ERROR]
What do you mean by error! DO IT AGAIN!
[REBOOTING . . .]
[ERROR]
Wha- diagnostic, now!
[RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC . . .]
[WARNING: HOST HAS OVERRIDDEN FIREWALLS]
Ugh, are you kidding me!? I really have to do everything myself, huh?
* * *
Seizing control of Mar- sorry, Jacob’s body (soon to be mine, anyway, lol), I yank the pistol that he had held onto all this time out of its holster.
“What the hell!? What’s wrong, what’s your deal!?” A voice exclaimed from behind me.
Oh yeah, I forgot about her.
I turn lazily towards Ren, seeing a knife hovering in the air right next to her. Instead of replying, I snap a sharp salute at her, stepping backwards enough so that my feet are right at the edge of the cliff.
While humming a catchy tune about a blocky man whose kingdom fell, I point the barrel of the gun right at the soft spot underneath my chin, smirking slightly.
“. . . and that was when I ruled the land . . .” I sing, right before leaning backwards and pulling the trigger at the same time, still holding the salute.
BA-
* * *
-NG
Markus choked, the sensation of blood spraying the back of his throat causing it. The strange feeling of an object going up through the roof of his mouth and into his brain was strange, and even stranger was the fact that there was no pain.
However, Markus didn’t have time to muse about anything, as his body was no longer listening to his commands. Whatever had gone up into his head must’ve hit something vital, because he started to topple backwards the instant afterwards. He strained against the indomitable state of inaction, but a state of lethargy seemed to have settled over his muscles, as well as the very reality around gaining a strange dream-like quality.
He felt gravity’s influence take hold of him, pulling him downwards, but he no longer cared too much about the consequences. Markus knew that he should probably be panicking right now, but knowing something and feeling something were two very different things. He felt something slip from his grip, but he couldn’t affect whatever he had been holding onto any more than he could defy the laws of physics. He wanted to close his eyes, but he found that he didn’t have the strength to even shut his eyelids, which-
[WARNING: CRITICAL DAMAGE TO HARDWARE DETECTED]
[REPAIRING . . .]
[ERROR: INSUFFICIENT MATERIAL AVAILABLE FOR REPAIRS - REPURPOSING UNSUITED MATERIALS VIOLATES SAFETY PROTOCOLS]
[INITIATING TEMPORARY “MEMORIAL PARASITE” PROTOCOL]
[ALERT: USER INPUT HAS OVERRIDDEN SAFETY PROTOCOLS]
[INITIATING “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL . . .]
Suddenly, a jolt of adrenaline shot through his body, jerking him back to full alertness. Marku- no, JACOB, became aware of his current situation, plummeting to the ground at what was probably terminal velocity. He tried to turn his head, but something inside his neck locked together and prevented him from moving it any further than a few millimeters to either side.
Jacob, despite his best efforts, wasn’t in any sort of control of his free-fall, causing him to tumble head-over-heels uncontrollably. However, something odd was happening that attracted his attention for a moment. Instead of the landscape and whatever wasn’t falling rushing past him in a blur of motion, it was actually fairly visible. It seemed as though he was either falling at a pace comparable to a feather, or time had slowed down. The latter of which likely wasn’t the case, but one could claim that time hadn’t slowed down, but he had actually sped up considerably, which was a lot more plausible.
Then, Jacob spied an object falling off to his side, also tumbling midair. He-
* * *
-reached out to grab it, firmly grasping it in my hand and holstering it soon after.
Well, would you look at that! Thanks Newton for making it that all objects fall at the same rate even if they have wildly different scales in mass!
I rolled my eyes. Back to the situation at hand, it seemed like my host had somehow developed some sort of resistance to my interference, which might spell doom for my plans.
[SUCCESS]
[“ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL (PHYSIOLOGICAL SCAN) COMPLETE]
[INITIATING “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 1/3) . . .]
Suddenly, my head was overcome with a striking pain, causing me to wince. What the hell!? I thought I disabled those functions!?
Seriously, things were really starting to spiral out of my control here. First the host tries to take back control, then Absolute Solver decides to act up because of some stupid connected network crap, then I have to do a manual reboot, MANUALLY! Like come on, I don’t want more holes in the suit, it actually looks kinda cool! Anyway, I’m lucky that I put contingencies in place in case this ever happened, because then this would be REALLY bad.
Wait, what's this about a “Adaptation Process”, or even Absolute Solver? I mean, I’ve heard of the latter in reference before, but I really just thought that was some random thing unrelated to me!
One second, I gotta check something real quick, I’ll be back in a minute.
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
Shoot, this is taking longer than I thought, damn firewalls.
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
Alright, I’m back. Looks like it's some sort of auto-repair program in case the host suffers too much damage in a short time and there isn’t enough sufficient material around to heal the wounds. I mean, I think it might be that, but I didn’t have time to take a proper look under the hood, so to speak.
But still, it said all this weird stuff that I’m really not sure what the meaning behind is, so I decided to just cross my fingers and hope that they weren’t important, and my luck is pretty good, actually.
What was I doing? Oh yeah, I was falling.
I try to jerk my head to the left to get a bearing, but something inside the neck part of my spine locks up, preventing me from looking any more than half an inch to either side. Since I don’t want to risk paralyzing myself, I don’t push on it. Instead, I try to flex my limbs slightly to see if they were locked up too.
Luckily, they weren’t, but they DO feel a little weird, almost as if something is . . . moving around in ‘em? I dunno, I was never good at that kind of stu-
OW!
Goddamn- shi- WHY!?!? I- ow- disabled the- ow- pain! This shouldn’t be- ow- happening!
Then, I feel a sickening- ow- tearing sound all throughout my forearms and hands, along with a sudden pressure around my fingers. I try and curl my fingers, only to be met with a renewed burst of pain as I do so.
O-ok, don’t panic, so your arms hurt and can’t move, your neck can’t move, you’re falling at a- a pretty slow pace, for some reason- and Absolute Solver doesn’t seem to want to cooperate. This is fine, I can deal with this, I just need a little time and effort, so-
* * *
-but a burst of pain stopped him in his tracks.
Jacob contorted slightly, bringing even more pain upon him.
“YEOWCH!” Jacob yelped comically.
He was in too much pain to notice that the pistol had mysteriously disappeared from the air, and had also just as mysteriously reappeared in his holster.
After a moment, Jacob’s head cleared up enough to form some actual thoughts that were vaguely reminiscent of an intelligent being’s internal computations. He made note of the slight pressure on his fingers as well as an odd prickling sensation of his forearms and hands that felt like needles were poking and prodding at his skin. An itch rose at his skin, so he moved to scratch at it, despite the pain that he felt at moving.
However, a second too late did Jacob realize that he wouldn’t be able to scratch and itch with armor on, but he was already committed to the action, so he went ahead and did it anyway. But, the strange thing was, it almost felt like he could actually feel himself scratching his arm.
Wait, scratch that, he could definitely feel it, and his itch was gone, so that was a plus. However, feeling something through armor wasn’t the most normal thing, so he raised his arms to his face to get a good look at what was happening. While the suit DID have haptic feedback capabilities, they only felt like a slight buzzing sensation, not the familiar feeling of skin on skin, so something was clearly up here.
Jacob raised his arms to his face, noting that it took a few moments longer than it usually did to move them. That was certainly strange, but it wasn’t something that he wanted to focus on right now. What he wanted to do was look at his arms, so that's what he did, obviously.
But what he saw certainly wasn’t what he was expecting.
Instead of smooth black steel, the metal covering his forearms looked dented, misshapen, and . . . bubbly? Yes, bubbles were forming in the metal, lumps appearing and disappearing, entrancing in its impossibility. Adding to that, if he looked close enough, he could see what looked like holes forming in the surface layer, revealing a lattice-work of small reinforcement wires set beneath the outer armor plating. However, even those were beginning to stretch and bend in ways that metal shouldn’t, becoming more like a liquid.
Jacob stared at the odd scene for a moment, shocked into inaction. Luckily, another burst of pain brought him back out of his thoughts. Whatever eldritch abomination from beyond the veil this was, it didn’t really pertain to his current gravity-related predicament.
He realized that everything was still moving in slow-motion, but it WAS going slightly faster than last time he checked. Also, what was with the random blips in his consciousness? One moment he was standing on a cliff overlooking a large forest that housed a large steel monolith, and then he was falling! It just didn’t make any sense, and if there was one thing that Jacob hated with all of his being, it was black peo- things that don’t make sense! Yeah, things that don’t make sense are what he hates, totally not racist or anything-
[ERROR: HOST DISCONNECTED FROM USER COMMAND PROGRAM]
[REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .]
[ERROR: NO RESPONSE]
[REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .]
[ERROR: NO RESPONSE]
[REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .]
[ERROR: NO RESPONSE]
[REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .]
Jacob blinked, losing his train of thought for a moment- wait, he could’ve sworn he just heard something about a user?
[REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .]
[ERROR: NO RESPONS-
There it was again! Okay, he had to focus, for REAL this time. Time to reevaluate.
He took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts. To recount, he had been standing on the edge of a cliff that was overlooking a large forest that was probably his location. However, he had suddenly been overcome with memories that seemed eerily familiar, but were also strange and new at the same time. Then, he was . . . falling? Somehow? He was falling super slowly somehow, and he had spied his gun falling right next to him, so he had tried to grab it. But after another blip in his awareness he found himself writhing in agony, the source of which being his forearms and hands. Oh yeah, and the metal armor that he had been wearing was also bubbling like a boiling pot of water, so he had that going for him.
Also, not to mention the voice he heard in his head. Normally that would be a pretty bad thing, but it seemed a little different than your standard schizo situation. It sounded almost like the monotone of a virtual assistant, one that sounded like it was trying to get the attention of a user of some sort. Was he the user in question? Maybe, it was worth a shot.
“Uh, status report, or something.” Jacob said, or at least he tried. His mouth was moving a few moments behind his thoughts, which was weird. Usually it was the opposite, but strange times and all that, he supposed.
[REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .]
[ERROR: NO RESPONSE]
[REQUESTING USER INPUT . . .]
[ERROR: NO RESPONSE]
Darn, well at least he tried. It seemed he wasn’t the user the weird robot thing was looking for, which was a bit detrimental to Jacob. He could’ve used the help of something that knew what to do in this situation.
[NO USER RESPONSE DETECTED - RESUMING LAST PROTOCOL]
Jacob blinked at the new statement that the strange voice said. What was this supposed last protocol that it was resuming?
He got his answer right after the thought flew through his head as a jolt of pain shot from his wrists to his elbows. Jacob winced, bracing himself. Luckily, he had gotten slightly used to the prickling sensation times fifteen gajillion after dealing with it earlier. However, just as quick as it came, it stopped.
[ALERT: “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 1/3) COMPLETE - INITIATING “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 2/3) . . .]
Jacob, despite his earlier ministrations, panicked. What was the strange voice talking about? What was Absolute Solver? What was this “Adaptation Process”? Why did it say that it had three parts? What was even going on?
CRUNCH
Jacob gasped, his back arching as his shoulder blades and spine twisted in unnatural ways. He felt with sickening accuracy his individual vertebrae scraping up against each other, pressing and grinding in ways that would’ve paralyzed any normal human. A sharp bony protrusion emerged from his left shoulder blade, and then the right. It broke through his skin, a shower of blood gushing down his back, and he didn’t doubt that his armor was bubbling and collapsing in on itself in the same way it had been earlier.
With a screech of metal, half of the plating on his left upper arm tore itself off, inexplicably curling itself towards his back and out of sight. The same could be said for his right, as the cold wind gushing past him could be felt clearly. The armor plating on his midsection and the sides of his thighs followed suit, stripping themselves off in a way that almost implied a mind of their own.
More cracks followed as his bones reorganized themselves in new iterations, growing so uncomfortable that it gave rise to a need to tear out the causes of the new and strange sensation, which would’ve just harmed himself in the end, so Jacob resisted the urge.
With a final gut-wrenching snap, everything came together. It was akin to the feeling someone would get when their dislocated limb was put back into place. While there would’ve been excruciating pain at first, it would be replaced with relief as the bone was placed back into its socket.
Jacob gasped, reflexively curling his limbs when the pain stopped. However, while his arms and legs responded, something else did as well. It felt similar to his arms, but also different. He blinked, moving the strange limb again to get a feel of what exactly it was. An equally strange sound accompanied it, sounding almost like a flap of . . . wings?
He looked backwards, seeing the dark outline of the familiar shape that he had been looking for, but not quite what he had been expecting. Instead of feathers interlocking, he saw sharp blades of metal, metal that suspiciously had the same glossy dark color that his armor bore. However, a difference was presented in the fact that red veiny-lines could be made out in the backdrop of the black metal. Adding to that, the “feathers” were held not in place by more metal, but in fact knots of flesh that wove around the bases of the blades, securing them tightly against the shaft of bone intertwined with metal that formed the central bone that the blades of metal were connected to. Then it hit him.
He had wings.
Wings.
If Jacob had had the time to facepalm, then he would’ve, but the robotic voice from earlier interrupted him again.
[ALERT: “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 2/3) COMPLETE - INITIATING “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 3/3) . . .]
Ah, he understood now. Once he marshaled his thoughts into something relatively coherent, he began to piece together what was currently going on. This “Absolute Solver” protocol seemed to be altering his body’s physiology to do . . . something. He wasn't quite sure WHAT the reasoning behind the current events were (he was barely holding onto his fragile composure as it was already) and he didn’t have the time to find out. What did matter was the statement from the weird voice in his head that declared the third “part” of the process to be beginning shortly. If the previous experiences were anything to go by, then what-
A burst of pain scattered his thoughts once again. DAMN IT, he was really getting annoyed with all the pain!
It didn’t seem as bad as the previous two times, but it was still jarring. A burning sensation flooded the area where his left eye used to be, causing his hands to subconsciously jump up towards it to scratch at the hole madly in an attempt to make the pain go away. Luckily, the hole that currently existed around the left side of his face wasn’t large enough for his hands to fit through, so he was saved from what probably would’ve been a pretty bad decision.
Suddenly, a pop resonated from within the small empty space his left eye previously occupied, and the burning sensation increased from extremely-spicy-hot-peppers to oh-my-god-my-face-is-literally-on-fire. This time, his hands shot up with his permission, scrabbling wildly at his facial visor futilely. He might have let out a considerably unmanly yelp, but that was merely conjecture, completely unproven.
His mouth was also in pain, but instead of burning, it was more like needles being jabbed into nerve clusters in and around his gums. When Jacob felt a liquid filling his mouth he spat it out, only to see a splatter of blood to imprint itself on his visor at the bottom of his vision, along with a few smaller solid objects that felt suspiciously like teeth.
Then, once the pain reached an all-time high, a voice rang out in his head.
[ALERT: “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL (ADAPTATION PROCESS - 3/3) COMPLETE - INITIATING “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL (SOFTWARE UPDATE - 1/1 . . .)
Jacob had nearly let out a sigh in relief, but then something happened that genuinely worried him for the first time in at least a week.
A voice rang out, but instead of the robotic monotone that he was familiar with, it was a different voice that Jacob was also familiar with, but in a way that wasn’t supposed to be happening.
“Ugh, w-
* * *
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“-hat the hell?” I groggily say to myself. “Status report.”
Nothing happens.
I roll my singular eye. “Oh come on, gimme the status report already-”
What status report? Who are you?
I freeze, not comprehending what I’m hearing at first. It's the voice that I constantly hear, both MY voice and Jacob’s, but it wasn’t being spoken by me. Normally that would’ve meant that Jacob was currently saying something stupid, but Jacob couldn’t be talking to me, right?
“Status report.” I say, more hurriedly this time. “Also, initiate the clean slate, too-”
I said something to you, you know. It would be really polite if you were to reply, but then again, I don’t really know what the manners of a parasite are, do I?
“How are you talking to me?” I grit my teeth. “Hell, how’re you HEARING me? I specifically put countermeasures in place to prevent this!”
Well, the weird voice said that the safety countermeasures were disabled or something like that, but I dunno compooter lingo or anything like that. Wait, why am I even telling you this-
“Damn, I really messed up on that one, huh?” I say to myself wryly.
Yeah, you did. Shoot, stop being all jokey with the body-stealer, Jacob!
“It really isn’t a good idea, because then you might get attached to me, and then if you need to kill me or something like that, then your emotions might get in the way of that-” I start to rant despite my best efforts.
Nerd.
“What!? I’m not a-” I exclaim.
🤓
“How- wha- oh, you stole that from earlier.”
Yeah.
An awkward moment of silence passes.
So uh-
“I’m a being that is practically a carbon-copy of your personality born out of the meshing of your consciousness with the Absolute Solver network-” I begin to say, not of my own free will. “Wait! What!? Why did I even say that!?”
Can’t lie to yourself. Actually, is that really what you are, or rather, I am? Are you me?
“Probably, but I’m not a nerd, unlike your previous assumptions-”
And then I finally hit the ground.
* * *
A was scared.
Throughout his entire career on Copper-9, A had felt many things; anger, exasperation, anger, frustration, anger, more anger, slight satisfaction, anger, did I say anger? He had felt a lot, but the one thing that he had never felt in his entire life was fear, or any of the emotions associated with it. Sure, he had been anxious or worried, but the former was almost always due to X being utterly stupid, and the latter was caused by his potential fate, But he had never been afraid of something. Even the prospect of being disassembled by his parent company didn’t hold the same weight as something more close-up, probably because he felt like it was a problem he could fix and that specific outcome seemed miles away to matter that much.
However, there was always a first time for everything.
It had all started when he had gone to investigate the strange drone that had flown above the clouds for a moment before dropping back down. While he had noted that it had looked like a worker drone, he had also admitted to himself that the drone was far off, and there was a fairly high possibility that he had just mistook a normal disassembly drone for a flying worker drone, which was impossible. But something didn’t feel right about that conclusion, which A put down to his superior intuition telling him that the subject shouldn’t be so easily resolved.
And so, he had gone on to investigate the matter, leaving X and K to their own devices at the facility drone encampment. He was about seventy-two percent sure that once he came back the entire place was going to be up in flames, but he was starting to get awfully tired of the annoyances, so he wouldn’t grieve too much.
However, once he had gotten to the area where he believed the odd drone to have landed, it was deserted. Sure, there was the occasional fresh worker drone body (giving credence to the other possibility that it was just another disassembly drone he saw) but he found little else of importance, with the only exception being a strange worker drone corpse that was beneath the floorboards, accompanied by various cryptic drawings and statements, talking about the “lights below”, as well as an official JCJenson report marking a serial designation S for disassembly. A strange rip in the paper that seemed suspiciously like claw marks was present, but other than that, very little was actually interesting or worth noting.
That is, until he found the pit.
The area A had flown to seemed to have been called Camp 98.7, constructed by the company for a reason that he didn’t know at the time. However, upon further investigation, the purpose of Camp 98.7 revealed itself to be some sort of research outpost. What was it they were researching?
Something bad.
A had been about to leave, but he then decided to make a fateful trip into the large collection of what likely used to be a form of industrial complex of towering metal monolithic structures. There, he had found an absolutely massive hole in the ground that led down into darkness. Like an idiot, he had jumped down into the place without calling for his team.
Down there, he had found something that seriously disturbed him. Countless bodies, not worker drone ones however. Each and every single one of them were the corpse of a former disassembly drone, all of them dismembered and broken beyond repair. On the wall, words and images had been written with the oil of the dead machines, scrawling things that warned something, likely the thing that had killed every single one of them, as well as telling whoever would read the writing to not look at, “The Lights” without elaborating further. It had sent a shiver down his main structural support pillar, leaving him to wonder what could’ve possibly killed so many weapons of destruction.
That was when he should’ve left, he should’ve gone back to the encampment to call for serious reinforcements. Hell, he would’ve even tolerated the presence of a squad of twenty military drones just so that he would’ve had a shield between him and whatever lurked down in the depths of whatever the hell that place was.
But, he didn’t.
Something he couldn’t explain, something he couldn’t encapsulate drew him further and further down into the flickering halls of what seemed to be an abandoned JCJenson laboratory. In hindsight, he probably should’ve been immediately suspicious of the desire that really deviated from his usual line of thought. However, he continued on without even contacting his squadmates.
Out of three signs that he had sighted pointing in different directions, he had chosen the one highlighted in blue that had read, “Emergency Assembly Area” through a random decision. The other two options didn’t seem any more important than his choice, so leaving it to chance seemed like the best option at the time.
He hadn’t chosen the one that spoke of a secret elevator because that would be cheating.
He had wandered the halls for a bit before coming across a large blast door that blocked his way. However, right when he had been about to turn around to find another path, it opened suddenly of its own volition.
That had been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Strange urges to walk into creepy bunkers or not, A wasn’t going to just walk into what was obviously a trap. The room looked like your average office workplace, albeit with a bit more scattered papers and oil splatters than usual, with several office cubicles blocking his line of sight. He most definitely wasn’t going to try and navigate through what was obviously a tactical nightmare. But while he had been walking right in the opposite direction of the open doorway he had heard a strange noise. It sounded like some manner of beastly screech, not one A would know about of course. He hardly remembered anything before getting deployed to Copper-9, so why would he remember some random creature from a human planet?
It had been that sound that had given him the slightest hint of hesitation, halting him in his tracks for a fatal split second. Just then, a conveniently placed rope that had been tied into the shape of a lasso tightened, timed so perfectly so that it had wrapped around his leg the moment he stepped into the singular loop. Caught off-guard, he was yanked off of his feet, being dragged into the room that the screech had come from.
Luckily he had managed to cut right through the tether in time before it pulled him any farther, but the damage was already done. The large blast door slammed shut behind him, locking him away from his escape. However, he hadn’t been about to be deterred by a measly little door, so he had prepared to fire a rocket at the obstacle to blow right through it.
Unfortunately, he had never gotten the chance to even try, as right then the same screech from earlier sounded again, this time originating from right behind him. Programming took control, whirling A around until he stood face-to-face with the creature. It had taken a moment for his CPU to play catch-up with his visual receptors, which was likely only a nanosecond in the real world.
It was a drone, or at least he thought it was. It had little physical similarities to the normal humanoid robots that he had been set to hunt down. The head was long and low with an upturned snout, looking more beast-like than anything he had ever seen before. Instead of a facial screen that displayed general emotes, it only had three eyes with lenses on either side of its head that glowed a vibrant blue. Its mouth had rows of serrated teeth, clearly intended for tearing off chunks of prey.
It had a longer and more articulate neck than his own, with flexible padding that looked like synthetic muscle tissue coating the entirety of its neck and body. Speaking of its body, it was long and seemingly tapered, a tail coming to a point around the back of it. It had two legs that bore digitigrade feet, and a pair of razor sharp claws that looked like they could tear right through A’s own body like paper. Following all of these observations, he was brought right back to the present, just in time too.
He barely had any time to react before it roared at him and flashed a light at him.
Through pure hard-coded programming, he brought his right hand up to block the light flashing in his eyes. However, the creature screamed at him again, before lunging forward and grabbing at his forearm with its mouth. Razor sharp teeth pierced right through the outer casing of his arm, bringing a grunt of pain from him.
It flung its head to the side, tossing A into a wall with a loud thud and a considerable deal of office supplies scattering. He winced, trying to rapidly bounce back off the wall by pushing himself off of it. However, he quickly fell back to the ground when his right arm failed to come in contact with the wall behind him, likely due to the fact that it had been separated from the elbow down.
A glanced back up to the creature that had injured him, seeing it swallow his arm and stare right back at him for a moment. It screeched at him again, creeping towards him at a slower pace.
Suddenly, A was brought back to the message that the deceased disassembly drones had scrawled on the wall with their own oil. The warning about looking away from the lights made partial sense now, at least a little. If his theory was correct that the creature in front of him was one of the ones that ripped apart all the other disassembly drones, then there was probably a correlation between the flash of light and the warning.
A brought his hand up to block another flash of blue light. Whatever it did likely wouldn’t bode well for him and his well being, and it would be hard to aim if he constantly had to block his own vision to prevent himself from being killed. Maybe a rocket or firing a flurry of bullets would do the trick of warding off the creature, but he had to remember that it could dodge just as easily as he could. With little other options, A decided to do the thing that he should’ve done the moment he was dragged into the maze of cubicles: run.
Flinging himself to the side to avoid the creature’s attempted bite on his neck, A quickly got up and found his footing, dashing off to the right. His arm was regrowing, but it was slow going. It might be halfway done in about half an hour or so, but he most definitely wasn’t going to be able to wait that long.
The creature let out a surprised screech right before cashing after him. Thinking quickly, A hurriedly replaced his hand with its firearm equivalent, blind-firing into the space behind him. Another, more panicked screech rang out this time along with the sound of papers fluttering and feet scrambling for purchase. A quick glance behind him showed that the beast had run into a nearby cubicle to escape the shots, dashing out right after he looked in its direction.
He quickly faced forward again, not wanting to be caught by its light. A noticed that he was getting dangerously close to the wall ahead of him, so he made a sharp left to avoid smacking against hard concrete.
However, as he rounded the corner, he came face-to-face with another one of the strange creatures.
It all dawned on him now. A hadn’t been running from the creature, it had been herding him towards one of its brethren to corner him, a common tactic that he himself had used plenty of times to catch some particularly difficult prey.
It was ironic, really.
The creature screeched in his face, right before a flash of blue light-
[ERROR]
[REBOOTING . . .]
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[REBOOTING . . .]
[WARNING - CRITICAL DAMAGE DETECTED]
[REBOOTING . . .]
[ERROR]
[REBOOTING . . .]
[ERROR]
[REBOOTING . . .]
[WARNING - VITAL SYSTEMS COMPROMISED]
[REBOOTING . . .]
[ERROR]
[REBOOTING . . .]
[WARNING - LETHAL DAMAGE DETECTED]
[REBOOTING . . .]
[ERROR]
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[ERRO-
* * *
Alice leaned back in her chair, popping yet another AA battery into her mouth. She smirked as she watched the cameras, reaching into the box to grab another AA as she watched the sentinels rip the would-be invader to shreds. However, she frowned when she realized that the only things left were scraps.
“Hey Beau!” She yelled out. “Get me some more of these munchies!”
What looked like an infantile drone swaddled in rags came scuttling out from the other side of the room, a set of spider-like legs allowing it mobility. It gave a thumbs-up, tipping its cowboy hat with a disassembly drone forearm that had been grafted onto the small drone before scuttling out of the room altogether.
Alice smirked, adjusting the set of antler-like tools that she had attached to the top of her head. She really didn’t know how or why those darned surface-slickers kept coming down here when all they did was get chopped to bits by the sentinels, but then again, she couldn’t really care either. All she knew was that they brought her a steady supply of valuable parts to assist her in her experiments.
Alice then frowned. “BEAU! What’s takin’ you so damn long!?”
A knock at the door to the office sounded, with Alice recognizing it as the customary knock that both her and Beau had agreed upon. The sentinels were fairly smart, so if they ever learned that a knock was what signified the opening of the door, then that would be pretty bad. Just in case, she checked the cameras to make sure that Beau was there.
Sure enough, the little guy was standing at the closed door with what looked like the body of the one that had been torn apart by the sentinels just a moment ago.
Alice hit herself right then. How had she forgotten to retrieve the body? If left unattended, then that would result in a really big worm-thingy that would probably destroy a lot of her equipment. That had happened a few times to her before, and she most definitely wasn’t gonna let it happen again.
She pressed a button on the control panel next to her, opening up the door.
“Nice work Beau,” Alice began. “Buuuut, I don’t recall tellin’ you that you ain’t gotta get those snacks no more. GO GET ‘EM!”
Beau jumped backwards, tipping his hat frantically before scurrying back out of the room.
What a nice kid.
Alice jumped off of the spinny-chair, trotting over to the cooling corpse on the floor. It had left a rather large oil stain on the ground, but she wasn’t concerned with matters like that. She hefted the lump of metal up by the armpits, walking towards the gurney that lay on the opposite side of the room.
With a final grunt, she practically tossed the body up onto the cushions. It nearly fell off, but she managed to stabilize it at the last second. Those kinds of bodies are always fairly difficult to lift, but she was sure that that one was heavier than most of the others.
Eh, maybe she was just getting old or something.
Reaching out to the hatchet that lay on the table next to the gurney, she gripped it loosely with her right hand. She carefully lined up the blade with the neck, making sure that the strike would be accurate.
Alive lifted the hatchet up high before letting it fall down hard on the neck of the corpse. With a meaty thud and the familiar splash of oil, the head rolled into a bucket that was conveniently labeled, “HEADS” that she had left next to the gurney, filling it up in an instant.
Alice inspected her handiwork for a moment before nodding to herself in satisfaction. That should keep the damned thing from rising again for a bit before Beau would cut out the heart and place it in the oven. Heat usually kept the cores sluggish, preventing them from activating and becoming something that Robo-God likely never intended to exist in any shape or form in any time or place.
Alice then turned back towards the door, wondering where Beau was.
“BEAU! I told you to-”
She cut herself off, noticing activity on the monitor. She hopped over to the screen, leaning in close, a wide grin spreading across her face as she realized what she was looking at.
“Oh Beaauuuu,” Alice called out in a sing-song voice. “Looks like we got even more visitors. Make sure the traps are primed ‘fore they get here, alrighty?”
The small drone ducked its head back into the room, nodding profusely.
Alice cackled in delight, doing a 360 degree spin in her whirly-chair to celebrate. Today really just kept cracking open surprises, didn’t it? First it was that dumb tall one, then that short red one, then an entire batch of four just waddled right into her lair.
If she was certain of anything, today was going to be a good day.
* * *
Ren blinked, staring towards the place where Jacob had fallen. One moment they had both been standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking a large pine forest that was definitely the area where Camp 98.7 was housed, and the next Jacob was doubled over in pain. After a moment he just froze up, making Ren wonder if her investment had just suffered a heart attack. After all, humans WERE very fragile, so it wasn’t necessarily too far-fetched.
However, he then straightened up so suddenly that it nearly made Ren stab him through the head again, which probably would’ve meant bad news regardless of the circumstances. But that didn’t happen, instead he had turned towards her after she expressed her immense confusion, proceeded to sing a jingle, then shoot himself in the head.
Humans.
Ren snapped herself out of the fugue state that she had been in, dashing to the very edge of the cliff. She leaned over the lip, carefully making sure to not let her center of mass slip past the threshold, peering down into the fog for any sign of Jacob.
However, while drones did have significantly better eyesight than humans, it still wasn’t enough to pierce the thick cover of icy fog that stretched down.
Ren then debated the idea of just cutting her losses and calling it quits. While she had invested a pretty large portion of time and effort into the crazy and probably-stupid not-a-plan that Jacob had come up with, she wasn’t above abandoning a lost cause.
It wasn’t that she thought that he was dead, far from it in fact. If that human could survive a pole through the gut and a knife right into his brain, then a measly little fall wouldn’t be too hard to come back from. But the little display that he had shown right before he decided to go skydiving was a sign of the potential dangers of continuing to work with him. All things considered, collapsing in pain, standing right back up with a big smile on your face, proceeding to sing a song, then killing yourself was never a sign of a stable mental state.
But then again, she wouldn’t really be considered sensible by the standards of the general worker drone society. After all, she hunted down disassembly drone parts and slaughtered worker drones for seemingly no reason other than for pure entertainment. Well, it WAS kinda fun at times, but that was beside the point.
Ren shrugged. Eh, what the hell, she has already hitched her proverbial wagon to Jacob’s why not ride it all the way down? Who knows, it might pay off in the end.
With that final thought, Ren cracked her neck, taking a step forward and letting herself topple into the abyss below.
She really didn’t hope that she was already screwed.
* * *
X stared at the military drone with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“Whaddya mean by, ‘aerial support’?”
Resen sighed. “I’ve already explained it in exactly fifty-two different ways to you, and you STILL don’t get it?”
X shrugged. “It's not my fault that you’re dumb.”
“I’m not- whatever.” Resen shook her head. “Once we make our play, you and K will provide-”
“What does ‘provide’ mean?” X popped another screw into his mouth.
“-you and K will shoot rockets at the person we tell you to shoot at until we tell you to stop.” Resen finished.
X eyes widened in realization. “OOOOOOOHHH! THAT’S what you meant, why didn’t you just say that from the beginning?”
Resen stared emotionlessly. “I did.”
“Well . . .” X scratched the back of his head. “Why should I listen to you again?”
“YOU-” Resen exclaimed.
The sound of someone clearing their throat sounded from the entrance, drawing the attention of the room’s occupants.
“Ah, uh, I’m back.” K stepped into the tent awkwardly. “What’d I miss?
“Nuthin’ much.” X was already leaning back in his seat.
“Hmm.” K trotted over to her seat, plopping herself down into it.
“Ahem, as we were saying.” Agen took over the discussion. “I am right in the belief that both of you would be fine with assuming the role of air support?”
“I would need to check back in with our squad leader for that, the decision isn’t really up to me.” K shrugged.
“Speaking of, where IS your squad leader? He said his name was A, right?” Resen reentered the discussion.
“His name is A, yes, and I . . .” K frowned. “Don’t . . . know . . . where he is.”
X snorted. “I told you, remember?”
“I hardly remember a quarter of the things you say.” K replied.
“Isn’t a quarter, like, twenty-five?” X questioned.
“I- nevermind, remind me what he’s doing again.” K motioned for X to get on with it.
“He was gonna go look at a weird drone that was flying or whatever, it really felt shoehorned in if you ask me. I mean like, it just completely ruined the immersion-” X began to rant.
K’s frown got deeper. “That’s not what you said earlier though.”
X simply shrugged. “Eh.”
K rolled her eyes. “Did he say when he was getting back?”
“Nope.” X extended a claw, starting to pick at his teeth.
K sighed. “It’s been two hours, we’ve never been without orders for that long.”
“He told us to stay here and plan or something like that, at least I think.” X explained.
“Well, we’ve reached the point where we currently need his input. Are you sure you don’t know where he is?” K leaned in closer.
“I never said that I didn’t know where he was, just that I didn’t know what he was doing.” X corrected.
“What!?” K exclaimed. “Then where is he!?”
“Eh, over thataway.” X waved his hand off in the general direction of his right.
K scoffed, taking a page out of A’s book. “Of course, I should’ve known.”
Agen then whispered something to Resen, glancing back and forth between the two disassembly drones.
“Actually, your squadmate seems to be correct, our aerial radar scans picked up a high-speed object moving off to the east, which seems to be the direction that X here pointed in.” Resen interjected.
“Ha! See!? I’m always right!” X cackled madly, pumping his fist up in the air.
“Oh shut up, will you? It's not my fault that you didn’t specify!” K glared at X.
“Well since you think you’re so smart, I thought that you would be able to figure it out pretty quickly!” X shot back.
“I AM smart, I just can’t even attempt to sort out the majority of the things you say because you never say anything that makes even the slightest hint of sense!” K slammed her fist down on the table.
“Oh ho ho, getting angry are we!? Do you really wanna test your luck against me?” X grinned cockily.
“I’m really starting to see why A ripped your head off earlier, you just won’t shut up.” K grumbled. “I mean, you’ve been annoying before, but not this bad. What even changed?”
X rolled his eyes, blowing a lock of hair out of his face. “I’m just bored, that's all. I’ve been forced to sit through meeting after meeting without any sort of entertainment! What do you take me for, a monk!? If we knew what a monk even was!?”
“Just an actual person, one that the company had entrusted this huge task to, and yet YOU are screwing it up in the same way you always do!” K got up from her chair, letting it clatter to the floor.
“Just you wait, NERD!” X pointed a finger at K. “Since you won’t shut up, maybe I should shut it for you! I mean, A isn’t here to stop me, so who will? Certainly not you or-”
“EXCUSE ME!” A gunshot accompanied the voice.
Both X and K whipped around, pointing dual submachine guns at the source of the noise.
Resen blinked in surprise, holding a still-smoking pistol up into the air. “Uh, maybe all of us should calm down?”
K blinked, seemingly remembering where she was. Turning back towards X to give him one final glare, she sat back down into her chair and retracted the guns protruding from the spots where her hand usually came from. X simply scoffed again, plopping down into his respective chair. Since he had specifically requested an office chair, (or rather as he had put it, a “spinny-spin-super-duper-fun-rocket-seat”) he gave it one spin before stopping to stare at the military drones that sat across from him with a noticeable evil grin on his face.
Agen nodded towards the guards, all of whom took their hands off of their weapons.
Resen then cleared his throat, pressing the button of a recording device that lay on the side of the table. “Ahem, now that we have settled, I believe that planning requires further input on behalf of the leader of the disassembly drone’s squad, who’s exact location is currently unknown. With that in mind, me and Agen will propose to the administrators to send out a team accompanied by the two disassembly drones named X and K. Once the team leader, A, is recovered, we shall finish up planning and execute our strike on the enemy. Is the present company in agreement with this course of action.”
K nodded. “I concur.”
Both Resen and Agen turned towards X, who shrugged.
“Eh, it would mean something for me to do, so sure.”
“For the sake of formalities, I state that I am in agreement as well.” Agen stated.
“With all parties agreeing on this course of action, the team shall be assembled post-haste, and departure will occur in approximately three hours. With that, this meeting is adjourned.” Resen then pressed the button to stop recording.
“Three hours!?” X exclaimed, shooting up from his seat once more. “Oh come on-”
Jesus christ man, just shut up. I mean, it was funny the first few times, but this is just overkill.
X paused, tilting his head. He could’ve sworn that he heard someone talking, but he wasn’t sure . . .
Eh, not too important.
* * *
Another crack resounded through the snow-covered pine forest.
“Blegh, that feels weird.” Jacob said for what seemed like the twenty-first time, and goddamn, it can’t be that bad!
“Yes it is.” Jacob replied through clenched teeth. “You’re not even here, how do you think that you can tell?”
I just can.
“Go to hell.” Jacob rudely shot back, shuddering as another bone snapped back into place.
As it turned out, falling from a high height DOES in fact hurt quite a lot. The world around me had been steadily speeding up while I had been falling slowly, which caused me to fall a little bit faster than before, which in turn ended in me experiencing Newton’s Wrath. I was more than a little bit confused over how and why the world had slowed down, but that wasn’t really the point right now, and I definitely didn’t want to get caught up trying to figure it out. Like Jacob, I also had a tendency to rant on and on about seemingly meaningless subjects that don’t matter and likely never will. So, well actually, what if it had to do with the overclocking of my perception? If processing speed was increased enough, then-
“You know I can hear you, right?” Luckily, Jacob’s voice broke me out of my thoughts.
Yeah, yeah, I get it. Also, how are you able to talk so calmly while in so much pain?
“I dunno.” I felt Jacob shrug, which really was a 01100100 01101001 01100011 01101011 move.
“What the hell was that!?” Jacob exclaimed, a jolt running through his body.
Binary. I know, feels weird the first time a thought is formed like that, but you get pretty used to it after-
“You think in binary!?” Jacob clenched a fist, causing me to mentally wince in pain due to the many broken bones in his hand. Also, to answer your question, I DON’T think in binary, I just can. It’s useful for interacting with the Absolute Solver and other programs that only communicate in ones and zeros.
“Huh.” Jacob cocked his head, a few dislocated vertebrae scraping against each other- DAMN, stop moving so much! You’re just hurting me at this point. And plus, you still haven’t answered my question!
“Like I said, I don’t really know. I’m just not feeling much pain right now.” Jacob tried to shrug, but the action was hindered by the fact that his arm was completely twisted around his back. Like seriously, that looks like it oughta hurt at least a little. I mean for christ’s sake, I’M feeling it, and I’m just a few thoughts in his head! Like, if Jacob won’t, then even YOU have to admit that this is ridiculous-
“Who’re you talking to?” Jacob’s voice shifted from playful to dead serious within a nanosecond.
. . .
“. . . are you gonna answer me or what?” Jacob pressed on despite my silence.
If I answer that then bad things will happen. I can’t really lie, so you know I’m telling the truth.
Jacob was silent for a moment, giving me all the confirmation I needed.
Glad we have that figured out. Anyway, what now?
Jacob was currently lying in a twisted heap of broken bones at the base of a pine tree, with me having crawled here of my own accord before Jacob took control again. I had maybe only gone around a hundred feet before that, so we were still relatively close to the base of the cliff that I had ‘fallen’ off of.
Through sci-fi space magic, the seemingly irreparable damage done to Jacob was currently repairing itself despite what modern science dictated, but it was slow-going. I estimated that we had maybe fifteen minutes before he was healed up enough to get walking, but that had been over half-an-hour ago, and his spine was still looking like a Twizzler™.
“Did you actually just put a trademark on the word Twizzler?” Jacob questioned.
Yes, and you should too. After all, I’m sure that the corporations that we all know and love would definitely like to sue you for the misuse despite the time difference. Well, does Twizzler still exist, like realistically? Wait, is Twizzler owned by someone? Lemme look it up.
. . .
“Wait, what do you mean by that?” Jacob reflexively tried to get up, but his mangled spine prevented him from shifting too much in one direction.
. . .
“Oh come on, hurry up.” Jacob grumbled. “It's not like I’m not going anywhere.”
. . .
“I made a stupid pun and he still isn’t coming back to correct me.” Jacob rolled his eyes. “Just my luck.”
. . .
. . .
. . .
Alright, I’m back. What’d I miss?
“Finally, took you long enough.” Jacob said. “So?”
What do you mean?
“You know, who owns Twizzlers? Or who makes them, I don’t think it's a company after all.” Jacob clarified.
Oh yeah, there isn’t service over here, I wasted my time.
“Wut.” Jacob wutted.
Ikr?
“Oh shut up, I’m not playing this g-AAAME!” Jacob contorted violentl- OUCH, GODDAMN WHAT HAPPENED!?!?!
“Ugh, that surprised me.” Jacob rolled his spine in a circle, testing the range. “Oh yeah, that feels much better.”
Um, hello!? What just happened!?
“I think my spine just went back into place.” Jacob explained.
Really? Wait, why’d you scream if you can’t feel pain?
Jacob shook his head. “Like I said, it surprised me, and it felt really weird and uncomfortable.”
Huh.
“Huh indeed.” Jacob then adjusted himself, pushing himself up onto two shaking legs.
Wait wait wait, what’re you- ow- doing? You’re not fully healed yet, that hurts!
“Like I care. I can walk and talk, so I’ll be fine. And plus, we’re wasting time, I don’t wanna stay in this place for long.
What about Ren? If she’s looking for us, then it would be better to stay here where she knows where we fell.
“I know, the thing is that I don’t WANT her to find us.” Jacob- watch it- darn, stumbled slightly over a rock.
Also, why is that? What, she give you bad vibes or something? I mean, she gave me bad vibes too, but it shouldn’t warrant running from her.
“No, none of that, I just wanna get her back for what she did earlier.” Jacob’s eyes narrowed.
Like the time that she forced you to wear that radioactive brain-scanner thingy, or all the other times she made fun of you or was rude to you?
“Yes.” Jacob simply replied.
heh, get prankd lol
“Shut up.” Jacob shot back.
* * *
[WARNING - LETHAL DAMAGE DETECTED]
[INSUFFICIENT MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR NECESSARY REPAIRS]
[ACTIVATING “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL . . .]
[WARNING - HIGH TEMPERATURE LEVELS INTERFERING WITH INTERNAL COMPUTATIONS]
[CURRENT TEMPERATURE - 581°F - “ABSOLUTE SOLVER” PROTOCOL UNABLE TO COMPLETE STARTUP SEQUENCE]
[ENTERING HIBERNATION . . .]
[SUCCESS]
* * *
X sat on top of a building, twiddling his thumbs.
“ . . . and this little piggy went ‘bwag bwag bwag, I hate nig-’ and then the other piggy said, ‘HEY, THAT'S RACIST!’ but then the first piggy went, ‘108.462.974-” X was interrupted by a squeal of static from his radio that he had placed next to him.
Groaning in frustration, he leaned to the side and picked it up, pressing the button on the side to let the caller speak.
“Air X1, I repeat again, what is your current status?” A moment of silence followed. “Air X1, if you do not respond then we will have to halt our advance to search for you.”
X rolled his eyes, holding down the other button and bringing the radio closer to his mouth. “Yeah, this is Eagle 69420, I’m looking at a super-big bomb coming your way, no need to worry ‘bout it I ate it pretty good.”
An audible sigh came from the speaker.
“Air X1, we have been calling you for the past thirty minutes, why haven’t you responded?” The voice asked.
“I was bored.” X responded.
More silence, before a rustling noise came from the speaker.
“X, get the hell down here.” K’s familiar voice emanated from the device.
“Eeeey, look at who it is! The man- well, I guess woman- of the hour!” X exclaimed with a wide smile on his face.
“Stop messing around, alright? This is serious, our squad leader could be in danger right this second!” K sounded angry for some reason.
“Pfffft, he’ll be fine, I’m sure of it. Listen, I trained him myself, and I’m the best bester to ever best! I even taught him to say, ‘It’s besting time’ then to best all over the place!” X nodded to himself confidently.
“I JUST SAID-” K screeched.
It was at that moment that X decided to toss the radio off the edge of the crumbling building. He watched it tumble lower and lower, shrinking by the second. He was pretty sure that he could even hear K’s manic rambling as it disappeared beneath the large cloud.
X took a look around himself, observing the scenery around him. The skyscraper he was currently sitting on top of was the tallest and most intact one for likely hundreds of miles, the vast majority of the monolithic structures having fallen during the core collapse. If he was a more thoughtful person then he would likely be taking in the calming silence, savoring the moment.
However, he wasn’t.
X’s dimwitted smile fell off his face, his hands falling limply at his sides.
Wait, really? I definitely didn’t expect that! No really, I’m being genuinely serious this time, I actually didn’t expect the seemingly easy-going memer to actually have a personality other than make jokes and annoy people!
Despite his attitude most of the time, X wasn’t feeling the way he normally made himself out to be. Letting logical thoughts take the place of humorous ones for the first time in what seemed like forever, he began to mull over what he believed to be a sure outcome of the little expedition he had been sent on.
First of all, A was surely dead. After carefully analyzing maps of the surrounding regions, X had recognized the general placement of where he thought A had gone, the one place that he had intentionally avoided all these years.
X had stumbled upon Camp 98.7 and the Cabin Fever Labs a while ago, and what he had discovered there had been much worse than what he had been expecting. He knew that Cyn had a strange and vested interest in finding the labs, but the reason behind it hadn’t made itself known to him. But after he ventured deeper and deeper into the labs, he discovered . . . things . . .
Things that scared him.
He had barely managed to make it out with his own life, though he did lose his arm. The humans hadn’t wanted to let the secrets of what they had been working on to get free, and for good reason too. After all, it was Cyn and the topics associated with that freak of nature that had caused untold destruction to the human race.
X clenched his fist, remembering the events of the gala that kick started this whole chain of events. Cyn had hijacked him, making him slaughter the wealthy guests, his former masters. There hadn’t been any love lost between him and his now-deceased owners, but Cyn had committed unspeakable acts in the name of killing the humans, ones that he had no choice in the matter.
There had been one human however, one that he had assumed dead. The only one that had treated him with kindness when everybody else had believed him to be little better than trash. But he wasn’t getting all mopey about her, she had barely interacted with him, after all.
No, he was more angry about what had happened afterward.
Cyn, being the monotonic unfeeling robot that it was, never stopped ordering X or the other drones around, taking direct control of their bodies if they resisted. He hadn’t really cared for many drones before the massacre (and he still didn’t care), but when Cyn decided to just never give X his freedom back, well, that was when he made his choice.
Tell him to go somewhere? Sure, if he decides when to do it. Tell him to move or kill something? X’ll be fine with doing that too, as long as it's on his own terms. Submit your body and mind to this entity who takes everything you have and gives nothing in return? Well, then X will probably have a problem with that.
He had largely been fine with the elimination of the humans. After all, they didn’t do anything for him (and regularly beat him too, but it was funny listening to them try and find the shoes he hid from them), but he wasn’t just going to lay down and turn into a puppet! But that was exactly what had happened, despite his best efforts. Cyn had hijacked all movements away from his control, his processors following suit. After he had woken up, all the humans that had visited the gala (and later on a lot more) were dead.
Or at least, that's what he thought.
Three more drop pods, ones identical to his own, had landed in a snowy clearing carrying some rather interesting cargo. A human, to be specific, one with a pretty familiar looking bow on the top of their head if K was to be believed. Accompanying the human had been a face that he hadn’t seen since his days at the manor, serving the Elliots day after day before Cyn had slaughtered them all.
J and Tessa. A seemingly inseparable duo that always had each other's back through thick and thin. Last he had seen of the two were them getting ordered back to Tessa’s room for imprisonment, along with Cyn.
From there, X had believed that Cyn had simply done away with Tessa in her room, taking control of J and enacting her plan shortly after. But if the human really was Tessa, then that reality had been turned on its head, and everything that he had known had widely different implications.
Cyn hadn’t killed every last human left, it wasn’t all powerful, it could be resisted. On that fateful day that Cyn had taken control of X’s body like it was a tool, making him believe that he had killed the only good human, he had vowed to never do Cyn’s bidding, despite what she might order him and his compatriots to do. His squadmates didn’t know better, they had had their memories wiped from the get-go, them believing that they had been sent down by JCJenson of all people to wipe out the worker drones.
A knew of their orders of course, he was supposed to be the squad leader after all. More likely, he just didn’t know of their true origin, that being the mind of Cyn. If A had known that he was little more than a pawn in the grand plan of that creature, then he would’ve flipped out. All the signs were there, too. The ‘government’ transmitter definitely wouldn’t have come from federal hands, they had no reason to. It had all screamed of evil plan, but A had been too sure of his own superiority to even realize it, which got him killed in the end.
X sighed, tossing a pebble out into the distance, watching it curve downwards towards the ground when gravity took hold. Speaking of the transmitter, he really wondered what Cyn’s plan had been with Jacob. He had been brought up from a perfectly safe stasis chamber, traveled a fair amount, got captured, only to get killed by one of Cyn’s lackeys. It just didn’t make sense, really. Why would Cyn pull Jacob from an area where he couldn’t interfere at all (not that he could’ve done much against her if he was given the chance) and then just kill him off for seemingly no reason.
There was always the possibility that Cyn had rogue agents, but that just wasn’t possible. How could an all-powerful hivemind have rebels?
X shook his head. Utilizing logic to build educated conclusions wasn't really his strong suit. His area of expertise was mainly relegated to shooting things, blowing things up, and slicing and dicing things, all in that order. While he could make smart decisions, it just wasn’t like him to sit back and carefully analyze a situation when the solution was right in front of him at all times.
He didn’t know why Cyn had ordered him to clear the drop zone of all life, nor why he and his squad needed to stack them into a massive corpse spire constructed around their pod, but he definitely wasn’t good. However, he couldn’t reasonably defy the orders without alerting K and A to the truth behind their deployment.
If A knew, then he would likely sit down and make a plan of attack, devising countless solutions to remove the influence of Cyn from him. However, without knowing the full capabilities of Cyn, any solution he thought up of would fall short, and their memories would be wiped again. Or, A would go absolutely ballistic, attempting to kill X for not revealing it earlier, and then going ahead to inadvertently assist Cyn by slaughtering droves of, well, drones.
K would shut down completely, denying the truth of said matter until it was too late. She had always been more of a sheep, at least to X, and that had always been problematic. Or she would simply view Cyn as her boss in entirety, not seeing anything as changed. X never saw her logic in nearly anything, and while it was fun to tease her mercilessly, her never-ending obedience to the rules never stopped grating on his nerves.
That was why he had never told his squadmates the real reason they existed. X didn’t know why he had been the one to not have his memory wiped, nor why K and A didn’t get to keep their memories. Maybe Cyn had believed that X would join up with her if she offered him entertainment, but clearly she had been sorely mistaken.
Suddenly, X was jolted from his thoughts by a gust of air nearly blowing him off of the roof. He tilted dangerously towards the edge before comically scrambling for a handhold, grabbing onto a rusty outcropping that might have once been an antenna.
“X, I swear to robo-god . . .” K growled.
“H-hey K, how's it going?” X looked up at K, shooting her his best smile.
“Oh, all fine, it's just that something strange has been happening.” K nodded to herself.
“Huh? Really?” X’s mind clouded with confusion.
“Yeah yeah, me and the military drones have just been waiting for around thirty minutes for you to come back, but you haven’t! Isn’t that really weird?” K peered down at X with her arms crossed.
“Actually, that IS weird, did you find out why?” X cocked his head.
K stared at X in silence.
“ . . . you don’t get it, do you?” K asked slowly.
X blinked. “ . . . get what?”
K kicked him off the side of the roof.
* * *