by Prax Venter
“She erased the memories of us…” Roo said, a sudden cloudy sadness billowing out of her like smoke from a house fire.
Mark had to admit, the prospect of someone deleting the memories of meeting and loving his girls was- best not explored. He shook his head to reset his mind.
“This isn’t what I wanted, but what’s done is done. So much crazy shit happens to us every day. The apocalypse, vague memories of dying over and over, becoming an entity of pure energy that lives in a computer… what’s another copy compared to all that? Let’s get ourselves some nanites, fuck up some viruses, and then leave this broken, shitty rock far behind us.”
Roo’s lips slowly parted, and a bright smile lit her masked face.
“Yeah!” she said punching the air with one soft fist. Ahnix and Vale couldn’t help but catch small, contagious grins from the velvet-girl.
“Okay,” Vale said. “I’ll go and look over this fusion generator data while Ahnix and Roo show you how to inhabit drones and access live video feeds. Confirm that your biological shell is dead. I’ll join you soon.”
Mark’s ears twinged slightly when she described his body in such a way- as if his mind were a snail, trading up its house. Although Vale suggested the plan with a commanding tone, she paused for Mark’s approval.
He nodded, and she gave him a curt one in return before weaving her white scaled lower-half through the lush green grass. Mark watched his giant naga’s lustrous white hair swish back and forth over her firm, smooth back.
“You fucked her,” Ahnix stated.
“Yeah,” Mark said, then turned to face his regal desert queen. “She needed some coaching in the whole general area of lovemaking. Again, I didn’t have much choice.”
A small smile curled on her lips. His cat-girl walked up to him and put her warm hand on his package. “I bet you fought back real hard. Come on, Lover. Let’s try and harvest some nanites.”
She slipped past, taking her furry hand off his dick and swung her hips toward the impossibly huge mansion sprawling away from him.
Roo’s soft arm wove through his, and together they walked toward home.
“Such a lucky boy,” Roo said, shooting him a sly side eye.
Mark just arched his eyebrows and shrugged.
They followed Ahnix back into the new area across from the training room and seeing the four ChronoMind pods clustered like coffins under the painted blue sky gave Mark pause. The last time he got in one of these, the course of his life was altered forever.
Roo snuggled in close before pushing off and heading to her own pod with a spring in her step. His eyes shot over to Ahnix swinging her toned furry leg into her immersion pod.
The cat-girl caught him looking. “You’ll see an interface that is mostly a map of the area. I tagged a few clusters of drones before. Hopefully, they’re still available.”
Mark nodded and went to one of the free pods. Its sleek black surface silently dared him to get back in. With a sigh, he took that dare.
“I want to check the mind-transfer lab video feed first,” he said laying down.
“It’s easy. Just select the big Surveillance tab,” Roo said from in her pod.
“She’s right,” Ahnix said. “We made this interface custom. It has… limited capabilities, but it should be easy for you to use.”
Mark was getting the familiar discordant vibe that he was a burden again. It seemed his human mind was his new handicap. This was a weakness he could overcome, though. He just needed more practice… and essence.
“Holy shit!” he said, sitting bolt upright. “I got a ton of essence from all your orgasms.”
He brought up his interface menu.
Skills
Heal (Restore)
~ Stimulate (Node Excitement)
~ Potent Pleasure (Flash Restore)
Enhance (Prioritize)
Ghost (Address Mask)
~ Clone (Copy/Paste)
Retaliate (Contact Overload)
Combine
Potent Pleasure was new, and Mark assumed that he had two types of heals now- a quick burst and his existing channeled version.
“And Clone?” he said out loud. “Great. Just when I’m about to go check on… gah. Never mind. I’ll play with these later.” He turned to look at his two loves. “Did you guys get anything new?”
“I’ve unlocked Squall,” Ahnix said. “Batch Delete. I believe this is an area of attack ability.”
Roo’s pouting puffy lips caught his eye, and he could already tell she didn’t get anything new.
“Come on now,” he said. “You’re still overpowered with that Firebolt you just got.”
It cheered her up but only a little.
Ahnix laid down and pulled the visor over her eyes. And she was gone. Her connection severed instantly, and Mark felt a rush of panic.
“Oh! Don’t worry,” Roo said quickly, feeling his unease. “She just shifted her operating speed to real time. We’re thinking a million times faster than she is right now.”
It made sense. “Thanks, Roo. Let’s go see if I’m really dead.”
He laid back, used both hands to slide the shaded arch of glass over his eyes, and it was like he was suddenly trying to think through molasses. The lethargic, mind-numbing lurch subsided, and he was face to face with a hundred-mile-view of the city- from the western forests to the lake. Red dots strobed slowly among the patchwork roads and buildings, and Mark reasoned that they were the locations of the drones Ahnix had previously tagged.
Above the map were three colorful buttons: Drones. Surveillance. Others. The one called Drones was clearly highlighted, and Mark’s eyes scanned down a handful of other options down the left side. Search. Tag. Inhabit. Logout.
“Hello, Mark!” Roo said in his ear. “I’m going to watch your feed, okay?”
“Uh, sure.”
“You can ride along in any of ours by selecting Others.”
“Damn,” Ahnix swore in his ear. “The chef drones were taken. A lot were taken.”
Mark looked down and noticed that he didn’t have a body.
“Hello, everyone. Did I miss anything?” Vale whispered in the darkness around the map in his field of vision.
“We just started…” Mark said.
“I was kidding, Mark. I spent hours looking at all the data Jezebel gave us. It actually looks like a complete package. She included pretty much everything we’d need to not only run it but troubleshoot potential issues. Still need to put one together first to be sure, though.”
“Good. Right. How do I…?” Mark had no hands, arms or anything.
“Just focus on what you want,” Roo whispered in his ear.
He concentrated on the Surveillance tab at the top of his vision. The red dots on the map faded and many hundreds of green dots took their place. Roo continued.
“These are active camera feeds. Buuut, it looks like the one on the lab is disabled.”
“It’s not disabled,” Vale said, her voice distant. “It’s gone. Jump over to my perspective, Mark.”
He looked up and triggered the Others tab and the options along the side changed. Ahnix, Vale, Logout. It wouldn’t make much sense to pick his own view, and since Roo was peering over his shoulder…he selected Vale’s name, and his perspective changed to that of a smoldering pile of charred rubble.
“This…” Mark started.
Roo spoke softly. “It’s all gone…”
“Exactly how long were we inside Jezebel’s system?” he asked.
“Over six real-world days,” Ahnix said.
Mark channeled his rising insanity into a deep chuckle. What real choice did he have?
“Ah, yes. So, is there any, like… backup? Of the video files, I mean.”
“No,” Vale said. “The only ones we’d know about would have been stored in the lab itself. And I’m with you; without proof, we can’t be 100% sure a physical copy-”
“A very sad physical copy,” Mark interrupted.
“Mark,” Ahn
ix spoke forcefully in both his simulated ear and through their tethered hearts- shaking him back closer to sanity. “Until we have proof, we carry on.”
He took in a very large virtual breath and let it out. The three of his loves harmonized their vibes with Mark, and he was reminded of the minor speech he just gave out on the lawn to move past this kind of shit.
What was one more Mark, anyway?
“Right. Drones.” He focused his attention on the associated tab, and the red dots faded back into existence. As his eyes focused on a particular pin, a pop-up window gave the drone’s type and condition. There was a single construction drone with 20% functionality, six pleasure bots- the best at 35%, and a single street cleaner drone at 52%. Mark had seen the tortoise-shaped robots that swept the streets all the time on his way to and from work. They were essentially slow-moving domes that whisked garbage into themselves. Although it might be good for sneaky scouting, it would take over an hour of crawling along the road before the thing reached the research facility.
Not really seeing anything interesting, Mark selected the “Search” option on the side. Many fields with various options for criteria came up, but after a moment his eyes landed on the functionality filter. He cranked it up to 100% and activated the search button with his will.
The map pulled out a bit further and highlighted only a handful of drones. A cluster of three caught his eye.
“Senior Care drones?” he asked.
Ahnix spoke quickly, and he had a feeling they had all tuned into his perspective.
“These are positioned far out in the suburbs. We might want to find something closer to our mission.”
“These would be perfect for practice though,” Vale said. “No one will bother us way out there.”
“Too bad there’s only three,” he said.
Roo sighed. “It’s okay. You guys take them, I’ll stay close to Mark.”
“Right. Going in,” Mark said as he targeted one of the drones and tried to inhabit it.
He felt a slight jolt, and then his vision widened well beyond what his brain was used to seeing.
“Holy fuck,” he said as he tried to process what was being shoved into his simulated visual cortex.
“Oooh, they have 360-degree fields of vision,” Roo whispered in his ear.
Mark spun his head on pure instinct, and the dimly lit hallway remained stationary within his perception. Gaudy, pink floral carpet ran below his broad, white feet. His drone’s head was currently tilted downward, yet he could see the yellowed ceiling tiles above as well.
“Whoa.” He expected to feel nauseous- but he didn’t feel anything. He focused down at his puffy white fingers and marshmallow arms.
“Your mind isn’t used to this much visual input,” Vale said with a note of concern. “You doing okay?”
Mark’s eyebrows would have come down if he had any. He lifted his drone’s head and took a step forward. It felt weird, especially seeing in all directions at once, but he was determined to push himself and figure this out.
“Fine, Vale. Where are you guys?”
Vale responded first. “I’m in a room… with a corpse.”
“These are not bad,” Ahnix said. “They’re soft but humanoid, and I think they are relatively strong. I’m in a large area with a lot of tables and chairs.”
Mark focused down at his body and saw that he was chubby and covered in white fabric over what had to be foam padding. He realized that if he just focused his attention on one particular point, it simply felt as if he had amazing peripheral vision. He took another step down the dark hallway and paused to wave his arms to test his range of motion. Mark could feel his internal gyros stabilizing his robot body and was acutely aware of how much space there was between his hands and every visible surface.
He took another step, and as he willed the senior care drone to obey his command, it began to feel… easy. Mark flashed a grin no one could see, and he sprinted his drone down the hallway.
“Wow, Mark!” Roo cheered in his ear. “He’s really getting the hang of this, guys!”
Mark came to an intersection and made a right turn going full speed. His drone was being pulled forward by the current momentum of his mass, so Mark put out a puffy hand to prevent him from careening into the bland yellow wall. The calculations for optimal trajectory and limb position blitzed through his mind, and he laughed as he bounced off the wall without losing any speed.
A door opened in the new hallway and he saw another puffy white drone step shakily out into the dim hallway.
“Is that you, Vale?” Mark said, realizing that he wasn’t the slightest bit winded. He slowed to a walk as the other bot used the doorframe for support. Getting a good look at Vale’s drone gave him a better idea of what he looked like. Their heads were perfect spheres with a black strip all the way around that must have been their ‘eyes’. The rest of their body seemed to be entirely made of various-sized pillows.
“Yeah. I’m… not used to having legs.”
“As far as tails go,” Ahnix said, “I also miss mine.”
“It’s easy! You just put one foot in front of the other.” Mark gave her a small demonstration. Then, reversed his direction and alternated touching his drone’s fingers to where his nose would be- if he had one.
“Maybe you should take this one, Roo,” Vale said. “I feel split in half.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely. I’ll stick to transport pods.”
Mark stood still and watched as her marshmallow drone flinched once before its head panned up again.
With a confident strut, the Roo-controlled drone stepped right up to him and waved its pillowed hand.
“Hello in there!” her soft voice shouted in his mind.
Mark reached out and grabbed her hand. The sensors in the artificial skin told him that he was holding something, but it felt nothing like it should. More like he was reading about what it felt like instead of actually touching it. He brought her drone’s thick fingers to the place his lips would be and then let her go.
“Hello, Roo. Let’s go find Ahnix. Whaddya say?”
“I say lead the way.”
“I think I can see you,” Ahnix said. “I’m at the end of the hall.”
Mark focused his attention on the part of the world over Roo’s shoulder and saw movement through a glass window which was precisely 56.07 feet from one of the many laser rangefinders built into his head. He was starting to like this thing.
Roo’s drone had turned its body to face the end of the hall, and Mark tapped her on the shoulder.
Without moving, her drone focused its backward-facing sensors on him.
“Hmm?”
“Race ya!” he said before sprinting down the hall.
Mark exulted in his new body. No lungs, no heartbeat… Even though he was truly digital, when he was inside The Crystal Heart augmented reality filter, he still felt- real. Like he had a real body.
This new state of being also felt real but in a completely odd and liberating way.
“You were right, Roo…” Vale whispered, watching his feed. “He’s like a fish in water.”
“More like a human on Earth,” Ahnix said dryly. “I can see them both barreling down the hall at me. I think my problem is that I’m too used to my feline counterbalance.”
With zero effort, Mark focused his attention backward and saw Roo close behind him. Through their bond, Roo felt the rush of excitement cascade through his digital mind when he noticed how close she was, and she let out a tight giddy laugh. Roo’s laughter was magical- but he wasn’t about to let her win.
Consciously calculating the optimal cornering speed given available surface traction, Mark slowed down right before they hit the glass and sped up at the apex of the curve- shooting forward.
Roo, however, was just throwing herself forward and took the corner way too fast.
“No, no, no!” he heard her say in his mind’s ear as her drone tried to stop. She put out both hands and manage
d not to shatter the glass window, but Mark took a hefty lead. The normal part of him that would want to go back and see if she was okay was switched off by the fact that these were just disposable bodies to play with.
Mark slid to a halt when he came to the wooden double doors thrown wide open and saw another pillowy drone walking towards him. Splitting his attention, he was able to keep an eye on both of them at once.
“Hi, Ahnix. You okay, Roo?” He said.
Mark waved his hand, and he could instantly tell this new drone held his cat-girl by the sway of its hips. But he could also tell she was walking extra carefully, as if it was taking more concentration for her than usual.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Roo pouted into his ear. She was next to him a moment later and bumped her drone’s hip into his. The velvet-girl seemed to be controlling hers effortlessly- if a little carelessly.
“These Asswiper5000 drones are great!” Mark said, bumping his padded hip back into Roo’s drone. “I feel invincible.”
Ahnix closed the distance quickly and put her hands forward. At first, he assumed she was coming in for a soft robot hug, but she pushed his shoulders backward so hard he had to fight to stay up.
“Knock me down, Lover,” she purred in his ear.
Mark’s attention focused on the white sphere head of Ahnix’s drone and could absolutely tell she was doing the whole regal, “worship me” pose. He set his feet, calculated the shortest route from his right shoulder to her drone’s center of mass, and grinned in the void.
Roo’s bot skipped over to a table and pulled out a chair, its metal feet screeching on the linoleum. Mark waited for the spectator’s butt to touch the chair and then launched himself forward toward Ahnix’s padded senior care bot.
As if in slow-motion, he saw her arms and legs tense, then noticed her body begin shifting to his left. His augmented perception predicted that her intended path led directly into a table containing a chessboard that was abandoned mid-game. In the microsecond that it took Mark to plot winning moves from either black or white’s perspective, he realized his cat-girl was faking her true intent.
Mark altered his plan of attack and pulled his elbow to his side as he began twisting his torso. Ahnix’s drone skidded across the immaculate floor and, unsurprisingly, shifted her weight to dodge right instead.