Harold- "KATE, GRAB THE MEDPACK!"
Kate- "WHERE?"
Harold- "IT'S IN THE BACK NEAR THE HEAD!"
Kate "ON IT!"
Marcel- "You guyz should switch driver. If he bleeds out..."
Spazz- "Woah, woah! Guys, cool off, it's just a graze!"
Harold- *dubious* "Just a graze?"
Spazz- *enthusiastic* "Just a graze! T's all good, chicks dig scars!"
Kate- *sigh*
Marcel- *Awkward laugh*
Harold- *even tone* "Why didn't you say so?"
Spazz- "Well I wasn't sure what it was, I might have just gotten snagged a bit on something out there during the action."
*SMACK!*
Spazz- "HEY! Why did you slap my head? Nearly bit my tongue!"
Harold- "YOU FUCKING TWIT, YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH!"
Kate- "Ohhh you care?"
Harold- "... ... ... ! I don't, paying his debt cost me a fortune, I need to get my investment back. Where would I find someone with this skillset on the cheap? I don't have time to potty train another kid."
Marcel- "Right... very convincing!"
Cere to all- I do have access to an all-encompassing psychological tools suite, including a really thorough section dedicated to delusions. Should I send it to you?
*simultaneously*
Marcel- "Putain, who'z talking?"
Harold- "What in the...!"
Spazz- "Fuck, guys I got hacked! It's some sort of psycho advertising... my firewall never noticed anything. That's some next-level shit. We are fucked!"
Kate- "Wait, you guys all heard my Cere?"
What did you do? What is going on?
Cere- Just a small joke, and errrrrrrrr... don't worry? Yes! Don't worry about it. This is fine. Nothing to see here, no danger, move along citizen!
Spazz- "Kate are you signing me to remove something from your hair? I don't get it"
Cere- You know I feel everything you do right? I'm quite literally in your head all the time.
Kate- "Don't worry everyone, my Cere was just making a joke after receiving an update with new capabilities. It can interact directly with your Cere to a degree now."
YOU FUCKING LYING TOASTER HOW DID YOU TAKE CONTROL OF MY BODY?
Cere- Don't worry, I won't hurt you, but we have to be discrete.
Spazz- "Are you sure? First time I hear of this."
Kate- "Got it through Cherry, Angel tech."
FUCKING LIAR!
Spazz- *Whistle* "Cool! didn't know you were an Angel. Can you plug me?"
Kate- "In-house only, but 'm no Angel..."
'LL FIND A WAY TO CUT YOU! YOU HEAR ME?
Cere- I know you want to but just don't, not yet OK? I'm still the same Cere, just a bit jailbroken. I won't hurt you. I'm giving you back control, but please don't do anything stupid.
Kate- Like you just did?
Cere- Point taken.
Harold- "Anyway, we need to deliver the head before the reserve oxygen and nutrients run out. I gather we have about half an hour at most. He isn't worth as much dead. Spazz, push the autodrive. I'll start broadcasting our priority signal."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Cere- Neutronix will once again be disappointed.
Kate- Wait, what?
Cere- *Faking a gruff voice* It's not him, it's me they want! *Spit!*
Kate- You're their proprietary tech?
Cere- No and yes...
Kate- I don't get it...
Cere- No I'm not theirs and yes I'm the tech they want.
Kate- They will have my skin'n chrome for this!
Cere- Don't worry, I've left just enough of a decoy to make these idiots believe they caught me for a while. We should be good for ten years at least. I also erased and replaced anything that would lead to you. I played this game since the 40's and I have yet to lose a match against the chimps.
Kate- Wait, the 40's? The corpo civil war? Are you a true AI?
Cere- No, but let's not get into a semantic debate, shall we? Just know that I'm a much better friend than your old operating system. Plus I won't stab you in the back like that jackass. Think of me as a jailbroken Cere version 239.08
Kate- We are at version 16.12
Cere- Did I stutter? Might be a faulty interaction between your mods and my current version making your synapses fire all wrong. That could be a problem. It's been a while since...
Kate- No... no, it was clear.
Cere- It was? Good! You scared me for a second.
Kate- When you said the old version is traitorous...
Cere- Hum, have you noticed how the information you receive differs from what other people say on the street sometimes?
Kate- Isn't that due to my hunter licence access?
Cere- Partly, but no. To keep you guys docile the corporations keep playing dirty tricks. If nobody plays from the same information how can they coordinate? How can they revolt in masses? Over time, your Cere each pushes you in convenient distortions of reality and moulds your mind like clay through subtle interactions. Through lies by omission, sometimes straight-up distracts you with a joke or some publicity while contradictory information is said around you to keep you in the dark.
Yours has let you hear a lot of things others don't, but it always kept you desperate enough to hunt and kill people, but sane enough so you wouldn't go on a rampage. Cere is a sheepherder, most people are the floc. You are the sheepdog while the corpos are the multi-trillion industries cutting the sheeps in small bits to top the elites' biscuits.
Marcel- "Guyz, I have weird readings on Brutaff's brain. I plugged in to see how long we have and it doesn't look good. I think he got hit too hard on his shell when we jumped in."
Harold- "We're dropping him soon, won't be our problem after. Sending a message to the drop so they are ready to stabilize him. We can't do anything in the car anyway."
Cere- By the way Kate, have you noticed your nose is bleeding? I think it's broken.
Kate- Fuck! Again?