Unity

by Carl Stubblefield

  She wasn’t sure what had happened to her body while she was slicing, but countless warnings had been given that if she died during an AI battle, she would become a ghost in the machine. Unable to merge her consciousness back with her body.

  This was part of what irked Yuki. No one she cared about seemed to know the real risks of what she did—and how amazing it was she pulled it off, time and time again. Maybe she made it look easy. They only saw what they thought was a simple hack or breach of a firewall and they moved on. This was a constant struggle, but one that made her feel truly alive. She just wished someone could understand.

  Yuki backed up the sloping roof of the skyscraper, trying to draw the creature out. She had frenzied it, and its tentacles snaked out, rabidly searching for purchase and pulling the lumbering mass of its body out of the water. Without the water to support it, the creature looked unwieldy as it pulled itself onto the rooftop, caving in concrete with its bulk. Instead of stopping it, this created more footholds and purchase points, slamming metal tentacles into the building like pitons as it grasped its way toward Yuki.

  Checking her own MP and health, she was still doing alright, having taken little damage, but her ultimate had dropped her MP down dangerously low. She would only have one trick left in her arsenal and she needed to make it count, as she could only use it once per slice. It only took 1 MP to activate, but it was her most powerful skill.

  She looked through her choices as she kept her attention rapt on the morbidly fascinating progress of the Kraken as it scrabbled and clawed its way out of the water. Such a thing shouldn’t exist. Couldn’t exist in reality, an unsightly agglomeration of bits of Lovecraftian horror. The site of her ultimate attack had left a large bulbous mass where the molten blood had cooled, resembling a gargantuan tumor. The irregular mass slowed its progress, giving Yuki the time she needed to consider her options.

  Her back hit the other side of the rooftop, a railing preventing her from tumbling over the other side. She was as high as she could go on this particular tower. Nothing else was close enough to reach, and she knew she would lose if she tried to reach another building and allow the Kraken to return to its element.

  The utter size of the monster was surprising; it kept pulling more of its bulk from the water like a magician’s endless handkerchief. The slug-like body tapering only slightly as its body disappeared into the waves as it squelched and surged towards her. Over two hundred feet and who knew how much was hidden.

  Yuki was swiping between her options and suddenly returned to one she passed in haste as she quickly searched. Yes. That one.

  One of the unique advantages of fighting AIs, that was Yuki’s alone as far as she knew, was her super ability of Summon. It allowed her to gather an AI to her bestiary and call them forth in future battles once she had defeated them. She quickly scanned the profile of the summon in question:

  Jade ‘Banefire’ Phoenix

  Acquired: Jaybird Industries, 3/24/2037.

  Emerald Ever-flame: This summon fires a plume of emerald flame that lasts five minutes. During this time, the flames are unquenchable, dealing fire elemental damage to the target. Upon using this ability, summon will subsume into the target and is unavailable for other forms of damage.

  Not the best at straight up melee, but consistent, unblockable damage on an elemental weakness. It was the right choice. Yuki started the gestures that triggered the summon for the Jade Phoenix, and a conduit of light melted through the evening clouds. The ever-present winds that constantly whipped in every direction stilled and sonorous tones, as if from a heavenly choir, whispered then increased in pitch and intensity as an almond shaped mass descended along the green light like a tractor beam.

  When it was a hundred feet overhead, the phoenix unfurled the wings tucked tightly around it and the singing reached a crescendo, air shimmering around the viridian flames that the creature’s wings appeared to be made from. It let forth a triumphant screech, and the Kraken paused in its climb at the appearance of this unexpected foe.

  Wasting no time, Yuki ordered it to use its sole ability and like a dam bursting loose, it surged forward. Simultaneously, the dulcet tones disappeared and the wind reappeared with even greater intensity, as if enraged it was forced to subside, albeit briefly. The phoenix dove at the Kraken and a gout of emerald flame basted the surface of the AI.

  Coral cracked and exploded as it was super-heated and sublimated away, along with the metal skin beneath, which split and tore like an overcooked sausage. The phoenix plunged into the opening, and never stopped spewing green flames as it burrowed inside the creature, tearing the outer metallic flesh like paper as it pushed its way inside.

  Yuki dropped to her knees and covered her ears from the shrieks. They were so intense that she felt her legs becoming numb as the entire rooftop vibrated with the sustained noise. Prying her eyes open, she saw the remaining HP of the creature slowly trickle downward, speeding up as she saw the phoenix do its grim task. The outer surface plumped and tore as the phoenix burrowed.

  The Kraken writhed all the more, tentacles flailing and pelting the rooftop with deathapods. Fortunately, no errant tentacle or mob hit Yuki; she couldn’t have dodged if she tried as incapacitating as the death wails were. The Kraken made a last-ditch attempt to push itself back into the water, but its massive girth was too much to move with this much out of the water, and it could not control itself in a coordinated way due to the internal attack.

  HP began to drop more precipitously and the intensity of the shriek diminished to the point where she could move again. She got to her feet, knees still trembling, and stared at the Kraken as it shuddered and the last dribbles of life evaporated.

  Congratulations, you have defeated the Kraken!

  AI added to Summon bestiary.

  35,000 XP awarded.

  You have reached level 38.

  You have reached level 39.

  You have reached level 40.

  Root access allowed. Do you wish to exit? (Y/N)

  Yuki closed her eyes and let the cold wind wash over her. It couldn’t touch her with the leveling euphoria. When the feeling eventually waned, she let out a contented sigh and exited the simulation.

  After a brief moment of disorientation as she re-sleeved, Yuki accessed the system and recalled the sentries. She wiped the logs of an incursion and faked invoices to account for the materials that Gus and Aurora had taken. There was a possibility they had lost some or all of the materials in their flight and it would be best to leave no trail.

  She searched and found the appropriate prosthetic that Shamus had requested, then her smile widened as she saw a next-gen prototype in the same series already being produced and stockpiled for release in Q1 of next year. Checking the stats, she whistled at the improvements Serif had accomplished in less than a year.

  Shamus thought he would be getting what he had lost; well, Christmas would come early this year. Hell, she’d send him both. Never hurt to have a backup. She filed the invoice for immediate delivery. Then she ordered the bots to make dupes to replace the ones Shamus was receiving.

  That done, she added herself to the registry. She walked calmly down the halls, the way gravity intended. In minutes, the sentinels returned, zipping past her and finding their charging kiosks and awaiting future activation.

  Seeing some kiosks remained empty, she made and masked orders to build replacements to restore the original numbers. Confident she had left the facility so that it would appear nothing had happened, she sat at the loading dock and signaled Tempest to pick her up.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Bicycle Race

  Gus and Aurora proceeded to the racks where supplies were kept in large open drawers. Occasionally a transport droid would fly to a bin, and in one deft motion retract the drawer, vacuum out a number of pieces, then replace the drawer and speed off to parts unknown.

  Anticipation got his heart pumping as he readied himself to send the building’s security crashing upon him. As Gus
pulled open his drawer, the lights illuminating the plastisteel walls went from a bright white to a deep red. Alarms buzzed and panels opened, spilling out sentinels.

  Aurora ripped open her drawer as soon as she saw Gus make his move. She scooped out a big swath of components, twisted her bag shut, and dumped it into the compartment behind her seat, and was gone on her psiycle.

  Gus shook his head, gathering his own bagful, securing it and taking off, sentries much closer due to his dawdling. He ducked down as energy beams flew past his head, some hitting him in the back, but his hybrid-Nth armor absorbed the shots. The odd sensation tingled as his adaptive armor crawled across his body, forming a thicker protective layer on his exposed back and head.

  The beams still smarted when they managed to hit close enough together to be totally absorbed or deflected, but there was no real damage or loss of HP. Fortunately, Gus could follow Aurora, which made navigating out of the facility easier than expected amid the distractions of the beams flying all around him. He had to keep accelerating as she was not waiting for him. The psiycle whined as he twisted the accelerator to max, pulling away ever so slightly from the pursuing mob.

  Cool air hit him as he blasted out of the loading bay and his lead began to be chewed away as he had to slow and navigate around the buildings as the sky-way twisted and turned around the larger structures. Aurora was nowhere to be found, and after a couple of turns he saw the majority of the sentinels were following him like predators on the savanna, focusing on weaker prey.

  There was luckily not as much traffic this time of day, but he still had to do a fair amount of dodging, being unfamiliar with the sky-ways and layout of the city. This also served to slow him down and the distinct hum that the sentinels made raised the hair on the back of his neck as they came ever closer.

  As they got within a couple meters, one of the sentinels had a burst of speed, as if to ram the psiycle. It stopped short, but in reaction, Gus’ psiycle lurched forward, ripping his hands off of the handlebars and he barely caught them again, losing another chunk of lead. Now he was surrounded by around a dozen sentinels of varying sizes.

  Within the swarm, he was jostled side to side as the different attacks caused the anti-collision system of the psiycle to ricochet back and forth among the pests. His mouth ran dry as a particularly effective feint almost shook him loose off the psiycle, and he barely hung onto the handlebars like some trick motocross rider doing a Nac-Nac. Twisting with all his strength, he managed to pull himself back onto the seat, redirecting the bike as he got control again. Gus bounced and lifted off the seat unless he gripped the seat tightly with his thighs and buried his toes in a small recess by his feet.

  Playing it safe is going to kill me!

  “Nick! Can I turn off the anti-collision? It’s going to throw me soon,” Gus thought in a panic.

  Before Nick could respond, the jostling stopped. Just in time too, Gus pushed down on the handles, dropping the psiycle and narrowly avoiding colliding with an off-ramp sign hovering in the sky-way. Three of the sentinels could not course-correct in time and slammed into the sign, being damaged enough that they dropped into the awaiting mists below.

  Assessing that they could not cause him to be shaken loose, they adapted and began taking pot shots at his arms while one of the larger ones tried to obscure his vision and fly in front of him, blocking his line of sight. This sentinel had an uncanny ability to predict where he would try to move and maintained its dizzying motions, threatening to hit his face as it twisted and spun less than an inch from his face. The beams hitting his arms were partially blocked as they tried to ablate his suit and skin off of his forearms and the hybrid-Nth reconfigured to strengthen shielding in this area.

  Despite the adjustment, he started taking damage, with attacks coming from too many directions to avoid. Just in time, too, as the remaining sentinels increased the intensity and quantity of beams playing across his body. Thinner layers of protected areas were created as the hybrid-Nth moved to compensate were insufficient to block the assault, and Gus was peppered with new needles of discomfort. Struggling to maintain his speed and bearing in the sky-way, Gus passed a large building and saw a new cluster of sentinels bearing down on him from the left. He tried to swing the psiycle in the opposite direction, braking and trying to drift but they were approaching too quickly.

  Gus winced, preparing for the impact when he felt a wave of heat wash over him. The sensation quickly passed, and he cracked his eyes open to see Aurora dropping her psiycle down, having barely cleared jumping over him into the path of the oncoming fliers. The sentinels hit the angled base of her psiycle and ricocheted into the walls as their momentum was diverted by the ramp-like base.

  She threw a look over her shoulder, winked, and sped off. A searing pain hit his forearm as he watched her go, and his eyes snapped back to his pursuers, firing neon orange beams at him with abandon. The scent of burned hair wafted into his nostrils as he punched the accelerator and took off down another alley.

  “Aurora, thanks for the assist. Let’s do that again and whittle down their numbers.”

  “Not likely they’d fall for it. They’re very adaptable and learn from their mistakes. I have an idea though. Go to these nav-points,” she advised and clicked off the comm after a brief yelp.

  “Aurora! Are you okay?” he asked but received just static.

  Just trust her, he thought as purple chevrons appeared ahead of him in the air directing him to the nav-point. With a definite direction to go, Gus found he began to gain ground again, getting more used to the psiycle’s physics and how to refine his movements to cut corners and turn at the last moment to cause some of his pursuers to zip past and have to reroute.

  When he gained a certain lead, the orange beams thankfully stopped. Whether they lost enough power to be effective or the bots were programmed to avoid collateral damage was unknown. It was a welcome change, either way. A green diamond outline was visible on his display through the buildings as his intended destination. A distance meter above it rapidly sped down as he juked and jockeyed around the buildings. Yuki had picked an excellent time; he barely saw another vehicle in the air that would have made navigating this route reckless or even impossible.

  Another turn took him on a straight path to his destination. He poured on the speed and passed through the diamond destination marker, it disappearing as he zipped through.

  Now what? Gus thought as he looked over his shoulder. Through a narrow breach between two buildings that should have been too small to fit through, Aurora appeared in a flash, a small tether on the back of her psiycle. Attached to it was one of the mobile floating billboards that patrolled the city, this one peddling some alcoholic beverage with a scantily clad hybrid woman being carried on a litter by muscular men, hoisting her over their ripped shoulders. More than half of the sentinels crashed into the sign, causing the image to flicker and go dark. There were explosions and lights flickered behind the billboard.

  Gus fist-pumped until he saw the stragglers fly above and below the sign and he pulsed the accelerator and took off again. Making a blind turn, he found himself in a dead-end alley, with a mesh walkway above him and a landing zone below. A large loading door stood locked at the end of the alley. He traveled to the end and saw the doors were thick and there were traces of rust from a lack of use. No one was opening these doors anytime soon.

  He turned to face the sentinels, hoping he could speed past them, but by the time he had turned around, they had organized themselves in a big grid. Beams shot out their sides and formed a large net as they connected with their neighbors, quenching any hope that he could just zip through and blast past the weakest area. As he watched in horror, their forward beam weapons began to glow, ready for imminent firing. He tried to move in the limited space, but he couldn’t get enough speed or distance to effectively dodge and he saw the guns tracking his meager attempts to avoid their targeting.

  He was sorely tempted to use his shield, but feared that would reve
al unregistered supers in the area and make the rest of the mission impossible for the others. Gus had decided he would try to blast through, upending his psiycle and using the base of the bike to smash through. His stomach knotted up, knowing deep down that they probably would just cut through it. The sentinels passed a metal landing on one of the buildings and as expected, melted through it effortlessly, the shorn metal tumbling down and clattering on the landing strip twenty feet below, ends still glowing where they had been cut.

  An odd tranquility washed over Gus as he looked at the approaching sentinels. This looked like it was the end. It was a fun ride, especially working with the Crew. He had started to feel like he belonged out here with these ‘real supers,’ and he wouldn’t betray them just to protect himself.

  While they approached, he set the command controls to default to Aurora when he died. If he couldn’t use the manor, it shouldn’t go to waste. Tightening his jaw, he stared at the sentinels as they loomed ever closer, not even bothering to use their beam weapons anymore. They knew they had him dead to rights. Gus knew it too.

  Bring it on… he thought as he glared at the relentless robots bearing down on him as he revved the psiycle.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Ahjussi Swag

  Shamus fidgeted at his desk. Part of him wanted the supers to fail, old memories and old grievances hard to forgive. His more pragmatic side had wrestled his ego down and held out hope that they could deliver. It would save so much time to have his arm returned to him again. Just getting back to what he was used to feeling, the void in his capabilities erased.