RX had had enough of Otak Lambat. The desire to squeeze the life from the fat skug of a slaver was almost overcoming his logic processors. Almost...

There was still Anak to think about, and the kid didn’t like killing other spirit beings... If Anak had his way, everyone would be subdued and restrained for some imagined authorities to pick up later. Sadly, the iteration didn't work like that for Anak anymore. The truth was it never really had. Definitely not since Anak's troop had been slaughtered, putting him and RX on the run from the mercenary sleaze that did Dod Stal's bidding.

During their first days together, RX had wanted to scream into Anak's cortex, "Grow up and move on, kid! It's a cold, hard iteration! Nobody will be there for you when you really need them. So, we need to be there for ourselves—"

As soon as RX's neuro-synth had formed the thought, his acuity facilitators started nipping at his processors like a riled-up nest of vortex cratlers.

[Warning! Inaccuracy to the point of self-deception.]

Ya, ya... I know I'm lying to myself... It's just easier this way.

RX hadn't been constructed to ignore his failures or dishonor his family's sacrifice. The truth was that Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J had been there for him when he had needed them. More than once, at that. It was RX who hadn't been there for them when the shoe had been on the other grasper ...Fixing that epic fail is everything the kid and I are about right now, isn't it?

RX let the executive faculties of his neural synth chew on the unanswered question. But none of them had anything to add. Even his usually adversarial game theory facilitators didn't want any piece of it.

Concerning the kid, RX's social protocol centers had correctly determined that Anak would have to [...Arrive at an emotional plateau and make his own peace with the cruel realities of the iteration].

All RX could do was [...Continue as his protector and be the voice of reason when he faced challenging choices.]

For instance, choices like snuffing out this black-hearted group of slavers before they tried to do the same to him and the kid. In fact, my logic facilitators have made multiple recommendations over the last 0.25 micros to do just that—

A minor analytical side-processor prodded RX's main comp unit and was authorized by his realization facilitators to promulgate its assessment into his consciousness.

[What would Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J say if they could see me being the voice of reason to anyone, even myself?] The thought triggered RX's humor circuits and required him to suppress his laughter modulation.

An analytical side-processor successfully lobbied to present its determination to his main comp unit. It spoke an undeniable truth.

[Masamune formulated my siblings and myself to be anything and everything needed to grow and survive. We can adapt and expand capabilities into whatever the iteration demands in order to achieve our primary directive.]

Ya... I know. Dad made a big enough deal about it that even my dense neural synth understands! The Essence pairing function he created for us has unprecedented potential. It allows us to be the first AI mechanicals capable of spiritual growth! Maybe even to the point of Transcendence.

With all the analytical input, RX's main comp unit was ready to review the conversation. It made a determination and a declaration that RX adopted as his own.

There is no denying what our father created Jaz'lyn, Shet-0J, and me to achieve is a worthy goal...perhaps the most worthy goal. We will be what we must to fulfill his plan for us. Now that Anak and I have allied in Essence Pairing, we are two parts of the same total being. Along these lines, I'll be whatever Anak needs me to be as well. No two ways about it.

Still, the point was moot for the foreseeable future. All RX's processors, facilitators, and higher functions were in agreement that Anak was too young to be involved in a lot of the things RX needed to do to keep them safe. The kid needed to be shielded from some of the more graphic things that had to happen. Right now, that meant dealing with these lowlife slavers on the downlow so the kid's development wasn't sidetracked with unnecessary guilt.

In fact, RX's logic facilitators and attention centers jointly prodded his main comp unit about this subject, which sent a priority judgment.

[It is time to deal with Otak.]

RX's logic facilitators were right. Things have gone on long enough.

It had been 0.4 micros since RX had focused on Otak and his fellow thugs. All were octagogs, the humanoid evolutionary descendants of eight-limbed spirit beasts risen from a world of shallow seas. Octagogs needed to stay moist and possessed vestigial facial tentacles that reflected their origin. True to form, Otak and his crew's eight facial tentacles constantly waved while they spoke. Sometimes reflexively, sometimes instinctively. Many times, they sent hidden messages. They must have believed that this silent communication was a secret from RX. In reality, his language facilitators had determined that the physical language was a smattering of simple battle signals and emotional confirmation of the words they spoke. RX's analytical processors had decoded the language within several micro-gyra of first meeting Otak. When the slaver had hired him as "muscle to deal with a wee infestation near... something I need."

The pay had been room, board, and transport out of the galactic core to this quiet little haven of sand, wind, and low population centers. Otak thought he had been robbing RX blind in the deal and had signaled his feelings to his first mate with several intense tentacle-waving flurries. But getting smuggled out of the galactic core had been a must for RX and Anak.

As RX's logic facilitators had predicted, now that the spiritually evolved bahom mating groups and several hundred of their smaller progenies had been expunged, Otak planned on releasing him from their contract... Permanently. The slaver's tentacles had signaled his crew to spread out and fire the capacitor nets they thought they had kept hidden from him. RX wasn't sure if their plan was the sale of his components or simply smelting him down into high-grade alloy. But it didn't matter. It was time to end Captain Otak's delusions of grandeur.

But first things first, the kid doesn't need to see any of this. Activate parental control mods.

RX's command processes closed the viewports and all the external video and audio receivers in his dome section.

"Anak... Kid! Do me a solid and take another look at the holo-vids of today's edu-lessons for the next few minutes, will ya? It's time for me to talk with Otak and the boys. You know how I don't want you to pick up their bad language habits... So, I'm editing your observational control... Okay?"

Anak's simian-preteen face shifted into a stern expression as he sat up in the gyroscopic impact chair in RX's dome section.

"I know what you're doing... You don't think I'm old enough to see you send Otak and his gang to their ancestors. It's no secret you guys haven't gotten along!" Anak finished his complaints by jumping from the chair to stamp his tiny foot with an angry flourish of his golden, tamarin tail.

"That's nonsense, kid. It's just a routine conversation... But we may be parting ways from them after it. Otak probably won't like what I have to say. And I really don't want you to learn any of his pirate-speak or cursing habits... Just a few quick micros. I'll be right back!"

The audio, video, air exchange, and telepathic feeds to the outside world closed at RX's last words. Anak's holo-display resolved into the day's previous edu-lessons on stellar geography and local fauna for the outer rims. Anak turned away from the screen and let his lips flap in a slow-speed raspberry but didn't escalate his complaints and followed the lessons as they replayed.

RX hated lying to the kid, but his social protocol centers had nailed it. Five galactic standard years was too young to watch him disassemble this rabble. Not with all the horrible stuff Anak had already seen... It had never been Masamune's, RX's, or anyone's plan to form an Essence Alliance with an adolescent... Pangs of guilt lapped up in analog waves from his deep emotion centers. Pacting with Anak had been the only way to get them both out of the confrontation with Dod Stal's killers when they had slaughtered the kid's troop. There had been no other way around it. If they hadn't, RX would have been captured and Anak would have been killed along with his family.

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Even though there had been no other way out, RX was very lucky to have Anak as his ally. The kid's Essence sensitivity was off the charts. He had better receptivity and more conceptual understanding than any of the theoretical models his father had predicted for a likely fusion. In fact, serendipitously finding Anak was the whole reason RX had been on the kid's planet and not with Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J when they had been taken… RX had just thought that there would be time to let him grow up and start a family with some progeny of his own before making his choice on the Essence Union with RX... Fate and the iteration hadn't been so kind. The rest was history.

And here we are... hiding in the backend of the iteration's armpit... Anyway, time to get to work!

RX shifted his conscious attention to Otak. The octagog had spun around from his inspection of the herd of winged goats that lay slaughtered in the cave and was speaking to RX. The slaver's voice was hoarse and wheezing from centuries of shouting at his unruly crew and cargo. A savage smile stretched his sagging skin to reveal worn-yellowed fangs.

"Impressive! I wasn't sure you'd live up t'my expectations, robot!" Even RX agreed with his praise. The largest female in the expunged herd was over 30 meters long and had circular horns wider than any passageway aboard Otak's ship. Otak nodded his head in appreciation as he continued. "I wanna thank'ee for the hard work of clear'n out our excavation site here... But—"

RX audibly sighed. "...Listen, Otak, let's cut this short. There is an 84 percent probability that you are about to add, 'But the boys and I are going to take you apart and sell the pieces to the highest bidder among our scumbag acquaintances,' or some variation.” RX paused and audibly exhaled a non-existent breath for effect. “Listen to my modulations: That path will end up badly for all of you." RX rotated his dome and lifted his upper graspers toward the crew moving in behind him. "The nets you're about to launch at me won't work. If you shoot them, I will have to cease your functions... completely." RX's voice grew darker. "This will be your only warning."

The expression on Otak's jowly face went from irritation to fear to foolhardy determination.

He sneered and commanded, "Fire!" Biting out the word from the corner of his mouth pointing at RX with his warty, gray-skinned arm.

RX's 360-degree holo-vision saw two of the seven pirates behind him aim and fire their four-pronged launchers. The nets glowed white hot upon deployment, and the air in the cavern wavered as the resistor blocks on the nets' capacitors were released. All the free electrons in their immediate vicinity lined up with two powerful and freshly created EM fields. Blue-white forks of lightning arced in spheres around the unfurling projectiles and blackened the cave's rock floor as the supercharged nets hurled toward RX.

RX made no moves to disable or dodge the nets. Malicious cheer bloomed on Otak's face as he saw them envelop RX.

He thinks he's getting a payday out of smelting me down... What a piece of work— RX thought as the nets struck his heavy black exo-plating and wrapped multiple times over his lower appendages, body, and four upper graspers.

Contact made; the capacitors discharged a good deal more than 1.21 gigawatts as blue-white waves of energy raged over RX's plating in a whirlpool of sparks. The air in the large chamber whipped up into a spiraling vortex, which everyone present had to squint and turn away from as winds tore at their eyes and snapped tentacles of air against rubbery cheeks. The massive discharge continued to rise into a blinding-white crescendo of light and crackling static, shorting out and destroying RX's electric-based circuitry and wiring.

As quickly as it came, the charge ran down RX's now stilled frame and grounded into the terrain, dissipating in surges down his lower extremities. The last pulse left the sparse and stringy hairs on the octagogs' heads puffed and standing on end.

...Then, nothing.

The slavers tensely stood for several micros and waited to see if what RX had said was true, obviously fearful that he could survive what should deactivate any other AI mechanical.

Silence.

Smoke slowly rose in small wisps from the fried, brittle filaments of the entwined nets. But there was no movement...

Otak's eyes narrowed into a sharp gleam. "Bah! He's toasted sure as any mech would be! Next thing you know, we'll fear boogie men in our sleep! Ha ha ha Aagglack—"

RX's exo-plating blazed with the aqua-blue internal radiance of Water Essence. His upper and lower appendages casually pulled the spent nets from around his frame and wide dome section, dropping the torn shreds of the net into piles on either side. A fifth upper grasper formed above his heavy chest plate and streaked out to grab Otak around the throat, pulling the thrashing octagog close to RX's dome. Seven dark, needle-tipped spikes formed between his rear plates and shot out ten meters. Impaling the skulls of the seven slavers standing behind him. Their single Attunements gave them no chance to react to RX's superior speed or heal the cranial damage from the whirling ends of RX's spikes. All seven slavers shook and twitched in death as they dangled from the ground behind him.

RX eyed Otak through the central optic receiver of his still-smoking dome. Schadenfreude was evident in his modulation.

"Did I pause long enough to keep it exciting for you all?" RX released his Water Attunement Malleability skill, and all seven dead octagog slavers behind him dropped to the ground, their thick skin slapping the rock floor simultaneously had the desired effect on Otak. His cheeks pulled back in terror as his facial tentacles spread like a flower in bloom. The fat on his jowls and ample belly jiggled as he cycled Earth Essence to enhance his strength while he tried without success to pull RX's grasper from his throat.

Sighing again, RX rotated his dome back and forth. "...Why didn't you listen to me, Otak? Now I have to end your function—"

"Hold on a second, friend." A previously undetected voice spoke in a conversational tone from behind RX.

The battle mech jerked up and instantly spun his wide, elliptical top section 180 degrees to bring his primary sensors in direct line of the intruder. With his optics on them, RX saw two humans walking toward him from the cave's rear, likely having entered from a different entrance. Somehow, these new beings had been able to approach RX undetected.

His logic facilitators spun up and began processing priorities. With his electronic sensor suit temporarily offline after the recent roasting, RX was only running on Essence-based sensors. At least until his nano-tide repaired the damage. Still, no one should have been able to beat his constant 360-degree surveillance unless they didn't have Essence. An AI mechanical, for instance. His attention centers propagated a priority fact. [Or if they were skilled enough to shield their Essence]. His main comp unit propagated a conclusion that RX adopted as his own.

These were Advanced Cultivators!

Both had drawn swords but hadn’t assumed aggressive postures yet. The second human was shorter and bald, save for a long singular ponytail favored by monks favoring hand-to-hand combat. A superseding information packet from his combat facilitator jumped past his main comp unit’s filter.

[Rear-positioned intruder's body language assessment at Class S with melee attacks. Assigned status of moderate to severe threat in physical combat.]

Even though he was smaller, the rear one did seem much more dangerous than the taller one. His combat facilitator only gave the front one a High D status—a negligible threat level in physical attacks. RX's initial assessment via his neural synth agreed with the report. The shorter one walked with an even-footed balance few spirit beings achieved. He only used tightly controlled movements that a knowledgeable being could not ignore. RX's short-range sensor center and combat facilitator confirmed his suspicions that both were currently Attuned Cultivators.

[Confirmation of double Attunement in Mind and Earth Essence. All bladed melee weapons enhanced via Essence circulation.]

A message from an analysis side processor was being brought to the front of his main comp unit's queue when the taller one raised an empty hand, patting the air. RX had to focus on the here and now. RX's speech centers identified the motion with a 94.3 percent certainty that the behavior was body language to enhance a sense of calm. RX ignored the alternate 0.7 percent possible chance he was requesting space for spontaneous, large-area dance maneuvers. Even if the guy seemed a skosh off, it didn't quite fit the current pretext.

The taller one spoke again. "Why don't you put the nice squid-man down, huh? Then we can talk." His face settled on a quizzical expression as he glanced back at his shorter partner, who nodded in agreement with the request.

* * * * *

Josh could only think of the black metal monster before them as a massive battle mech from Titanfall 2 or Override. Suddenly, the broad-framed, externally armored AI mechanical straightened to what must have been more than ten feet in height. A heavily armored chest led up to a shallow-panned, black, oval dome cap slightly wider than its bulky, underlying shoulders. Its dark, metal plates sparked with an inner life of their own. It was an alloy he had never seen before. The arm holding the old, squid-faced guy set him down. Then, as if it had never been there, it quickly resorbed into the mech’s chest.

Josh dry swallowed.

The only frame of reference he had for flowing hardware was a T-1000, the liquid-metal terminator in T2: Judgement Day that had been released when he was eleven. After watching it, he’d been afraid to walk over a tile floor for a week.

Mind in overdrive, Josh unconsciously shifted slightly backward to regauge the threat of their current encounter.

~Umm… Sen. This thing can attack us at any time from any angle. It’s probably worse than Dantor was. Be ready for anything!~

Sen simply nodded, ~I agree. It seems like a very formidable opponent. But... I do not believe it is getting ready to attack us... I think it’s getting ready to talk.~

Josh gave the man an incredulous look. ~What?! Why do you think that—~

A deep resonating voice emitted from multiple sources of the mechanical goliath in front of them. “At last you have arrived. We have come a long way to find you. My partner wishes to speak with you.”

Josh turned his increasingly incredulous look from Sen back to the mech’s giant oblong dome. But it was only when a male child’s voice spoke that their mouths dropped open.

“Uncle... Uncle Sen’ak? Is that you? It has to be you!”

Josh and Sen looked at each other with ‘did we seriously just hear that’ expressions. There was only one person in the multiverse who would call Sen that...

Josh was so surprised he didn’t notice the three fission grenades launched through the cave entrance they had come in from until they were already exploding. His stunned body was hurled back to slam into the cave’s rear wall. The simultaneous detonations were mercilessly followed by the crushing force of billions of tons of rock collapsing on them from above... Then, total darkness.