by Prax Venter
“She can’t talk,” Vale said with a depressed monotone voice. “But at least it doesn’t really hurt…”
Vale tried to give him a weak smile, but the movement forced the tears that she was holding back to spill down her smooth charcoal cheek.
“No,” he repeated, and took one ragged breath. They were just code, and this specific code might still exist.
“Don’t…” Ahnix whispered. She felt what he was about to do, but she knew she couldn’t stop him.
“NO!” Mark screamed before reaching up and tearing off the custom program that was holding them back.
Although his new ‘real world’ felt a little less painful than it had been, his raw and barely glued-together mind recoiled from the vibrant chaos assaulting his existence again so soon. He knew this was a mistake, but he could not let them live like that.
As long as their memories were intact…
Mark didn’t waste time worrying about shit he couldn’t fix. If his healing reservoir was gone, maybe he could find replacement parts within the game files. They built the damn thing using those files, and he was going to use them to fix it. Focusing on the code around the corrupted parts of Vale and Roo, he willed his perception to find matches from their original NPC data. He had seen their file names while in Jezebel’s system, so he found them quickly.
A wave of relief washed through his mind when he located clean, original copies of the corrupted information, and he felt slightly more confident about not drowning in these frothy digital waters.
This was nowhere near as difficult as what he had just done, and something inside him clicked. Healing was his specialty, after all. With the steady hand of a master brain surgeon, Mark spliced their replacement files together, making them whole again.
He double checked his work as he felt a mix of worry and jubilation along their bond. They were happy to be fixed and concerned for his mental state, but Mark spent another minute or so trying to restore their acquired abilities… yet they were just gone. As confident as he had become with this system-level existence, he was still acutely aware of the growing pressure within his virtual skull.
With a digital sigh, Mark pulled his wrap up and slumped to the real grass. He was instantly beset by aggressive groping arms and furious kisses from Roo and Vale. They both were sobbing still, but this time their bodies were wracked with the cries of joy and gratitude.
Mark tried to wrap his arms around them both, but he was starting to feel smothered- and that wasn’t an entirely bad thing. The pain in his skull was epic but holding them close did wonders for his sanity.
“You’re going to crush him,” his cat-girl said. He couldn’t see her, but he knew just by the way she sounded that her little lips were curled into an extremely rare broad smile.
“I don’t care!” Roo yelled into his neck, pressing her soft, lithe body into his.
Vale got up first as she could probably crush him with just her tits if she wanted.
“You didn’t need to do that, Mark. It was extremely risky- especially after the miracle you just performed.”
Mark looked over Roo’s silky lilac hair and meet the vibrant eyes of his giant naga.
“Bullshit. Of course I had to do it. I wanted to do more, too.”
“You did the impossible…” Vale trailed off as she moved the tip of her beautiful bumpy tail up between his legs. After a few grateful caresses against his thigh, she pulled it back- this just wasn’t the time for lovemaking. She felt it from him, and he felt it from them all.
They had been knocked down. Hard. But they were still alive.
Roo pushed her puffy lips by his ear and breathlessly whispered, “I love you so much,” before she pulled back and stood up. Mark tried to get up with her, but horrible nausea drove him back to the ground.
After a deep breath, he made another attempt and pushed through the vertigo. Ahnix, Roo, and Vale rushed to his side both physically and through their bond, reinforcing his pattern with their own.
“Okay…hold on.” He breathed through the pounding storm of agony raging in his mind, but his legs gave out and was forced back onto the ground. “I don’t think I should do that again for a while.”
His girls all joined him on the grass as he tried to stop the world from spinning.
“Take your time, Mark,” Vale said, putting her hand on his thigh. “Based on what you did before, I’m pretty sure that Evelyn thinks we’re completely infected by now.”
With a deep breath he forcefully ignored his physical discomfort. They had a lot to discuss.
“So, is she using those humans to control the elite sniper drones?” he asked.
Vale nodded. “Apparently so. Humans are good at operating humanoid drones, it also explains why they were so calm and focused.”
“And she’s using copies of me to… reward them.” Ahnix spoke the words seething with hatred. Mark’s own rage at the idea was fueled by hers. They needed to destroy that place.
“But why would any copy of Ahnix fight for her and against us?” Roo asked. “Why would the trapped humans obey Evelyn’s commands?”
“I was thinking about that,” Vale said as she absent-mindedly caressed the tip of her restored tail. “We obviously don’t know all the details, but she mentioned starting ‘Project Enthralled’ after stealing… our files.” The giant naga shot her vivid eyes onto her sleek-furred friend and then continued. “I can only assume, but I believe she might have used Ahnix’s initial NPC file without any memories of Mark, or us. She seemed to be trying to recreate the bond we share, and the best way to do that would be to trap a Collector and an Enthralled together and allow them to... interact.”
“That still doesn’t explain why the humans are shooting at us,” Mark said, his fingers trying to massage away the pressure threatening to explode out of his temples.
“Maybe to them, they are fighting lava bears, or something.” Roo suggested with a shrug.
“None of this matters,” Ahnix said after a small hiss. “We need to destroy that factory and erase Evelyn.”
Vale sighed. “It appears we might be back to a blank slate as far as our synchronization with the wrap. Without any of our unlocked capabilities, trying another assault on Evelyn or Triple-zero would be a bad idea.”
“I disagree,” Ahnix said standing up, her tail flipping aggressively behind her. “We assault the real-world factory with drones.”
Everyone turned to the half-lidded cat-girl as she looked down on them. The regal desert queen raised a single black eyebrow. “Besides, Evelyn probably thinks we’re dead, right? Mark saw to that. She won’t expect it.”
The prospect of immediate retaliation was infinitely alluring, but the giant naga needed a much better plan.
“With what drones? Also, it’s a military factory that potentially houses living brainwashed people, including Vince’s children.”
Mark nodded. She had a point. They probably couldn’t just blow the place up. But the giant naga wasn’t finished.
“A frontal assault might not be the way to go, but if we could sneak in and do some sabotage?”
“Either way,” Mark said, weakly cutting his hand through the air. “We are going to destroy that horrible… monster.” His mind went to the long row of Ahnixes and wondered what kind of life they were living. The beautiful creatures around him honed on his strong emotions regarding the subject.
“They’re just kids…” the giant naga whispered.
His cat-girl remained quiet, but deep down, Mark could sense that she still wanted to just reduce the whole place to ash, humans and all.
“I’m going to go talk to Vince,” Mark said. “Tell him we found his kids. Maybe he can help in some way. Then we need to check out the real-world Coventry Industries factory.”
“Be careful, Mark,” Vale said. “He might run headlong into danger if you tell him before we have a plan. And if anyone tips Evelyn off that we aren’t erased, she might send physical drones to destroy our home system in your apar
tment… that is, if she has given up on capturing us.”
He didn’t even consider that. “I’ll be careful,” he reassured her.
“I’m coming with!” Roo said.
“Okay, Ahnix and I will stay back for a while and work on an initial plan. We’ll join you soon.”
They all entered the house and then split up to take care of business. Roo and Mark crawled into the sleek, black ChronoMind replica and dove one level down to their drone inhabitation interface. Time crawled to a standstill and then most of his mind raced forward as if he were rocketing to the stars. When he was face to face with a satellite map of the area, Mark found that the pain in his mind receded dramatically, and he wondered if it had to do with his conscious mind slowing to real-world speed.
Shrugging off what didn’t matter, he quickly found the senior care drones clustered together and saw that Roo had promptly inserted herself into the damaged one again. He targeted one of the 100% ones and jumped into it.
“Okay, we’re back,” Mark said through his drone’s speakers.
The other man snorted and rubbed his fingers in his short black beard. “Uh huh… And?”
“And we learned a lot about our enemy, but it came at a price. We also think we found your kids, Ken and Jason.”
Vince was clearly having a hard time believing him. “That quickly, huh? Just that easy, you say you think you found exactly what I-”
Michelle cut him off with a small hand on his leg. The other man’s mouth snapped shut, and his eyes dropped to her touch.
Ahnix must have joined them already as she spoke now with a low growl from the third drone.
“Listen to me, you asshole. Why do I have to keep explaining ourselves to you? I’m highly motivated to burn the place to the ground. Saving your children makes our mission a lot harder and puts our lives more at risk.”
Mark held up one of his padded drone’s hands. “They took a lot from us, and we are going to assault their base of operation- no matter how you feel about us. I came here to tell you what we know. We met another uploaded human. Evelyn. And apparently, her mental pattern was used for the Update. The one that did all this. She seems to believe she is chosen, or godly- or whatever, but she has power in both worlds.”
Vale jumped into the conversation from the transport’s internal speakers.
“On the net, it’s classic divide and conquer. She keeps everyone afraid to work together in large groups, while also providing protection against her own monster.”
Mark spoke again. “Out here, she’s the one trying to wipe out humanity, and she’s using brainwashed humans to do it now. It explains the new drones we saw.”
Mark saw the questions bouncing around in both their heads.
“This other uploaded human, Evelyn… has captured and brainwashed my kids to kill people... as drones? This is crazy.”
“They used me to gather data on human conditioning. I died over and over, but the AI researcher invading my home system kept forcing me to start over until my mind, or subconscious- neural connection… I don’t know, but eventually, we succeeded. You two said you went through similar experiences, right?”
Vince nodded, and Mark continued.
“We learned that Evelyn is using us, using Ahnix to… as motivation. Someone to love and protect at all costs.” Mark couldn’t continue. His mind boiled over with hatred for what that vile woman was doing.
Roo took over in a soft voice. “Your children may think they are really fighting monsters instead of real-life humans… But Vale is a brilliant tactician. We are going to get them back. Isn’t that right, Vale?”
“Wait,” Michelle said before Vale could speak. The mousy woman rummaged around in her huge canvas bag for a moment, her brown bangs falling over her eyes. With a puff of air from the side of her mouth, she blew the strands from her face as she came up with a round object in her hand.
“Then you might get much better use out of this than we will,” she said as she extended her offering to Roo’s drone. “Consider it fair trade for the licorice rope.”
“Oooh,” the velvet-girl vibrated excitement through their bond as she clutched the object with her drone’s one good hand.
“That’s an EMP grenade…” Mark said, awe in his voice. The electromagnetic pulse could completely destroy all computer hardware in range without causing any harm to people within the blast radius. He saw them on the news once being used by the police to take out automated turrets and other weapons in hostage situations.
Michelle nodded. “Use it to save his boys.”
Vince looked down at the small woman, and Mark saw his growing fondness for her reverberate from his eyes- but then he remembered he was in the car with many other eyes and became self-conscious. Instead of saying something that would warm her kind heart, he tried to make a joke.
“Jesus, woman. What else do you have in that big purse of yours?”
Mark groaned internally. They would just have to work that out on their own.
“I found it in the stockpile where we found this bulletproof vest and all the ammo...”
“Thank you, Michelle,” the car said with Vale’s voice. “This changes everything. If we can disable the immersion rigs, not only will it become much easier to disengage the humans from their immersion pods, it should also shut down the military drones sniping everything that approaches the McKennitt Smole research campus… Hmm.”
Mark leaned forward and put his padded hand up to his drone’s nonexistent mouth like he was going to tell them a secret.
“She’s a brilliant tactician and a beautiful princess.”
“And has the best tits I’ve ever seen,” Roo added with a cheery voice.
Vale cleared her virtual throat, and Mark could sense the redness in her simulated cheeks.
“Yes, well... We still need to scout out the factory- sneaking in and out is still going to be the hardest part. But, if we can pull that off- Roo, as soon as the sniper drones around the dead zone lose their remote human inhabitants, I want you hopping in one right away. Take out all the other military drones in range. If I’m a good tactician, you’re a master markswoman.”
Roo’s bot bounced a bit in her seat. “I am,” she said in complete agreement.
“Then, depending on how it goes, either Ahnix or I will drive Vince and Michelle right through the dead zone, while Roo covers. We’ll be ejected once the Wi-Fi signal is cut off, but the momentum should carry you close enough to run the rest of the way. This one grenade won’t be enough to win the war, but it might be enough to push us toward our end goal. Getting those nanites to us is still our best hope for doing serious damage to Evelyn and the drone factory. You two will have to convince whoever is inside the dead zone that we are the good guys, and quickly. That is assuming there are people still alive inside. But we’ll deal with that if we have to.”
Vince took a deep breath. “About my boys… Maybe I should come with-”
Commander Vale’s firm voice filled the vehicle. “We need to get a better idea of what we are facing before that part is decided- but this is a military factory that makes combat drones. Lots of murderbots. If one of us gets taken out, we can always try again with a new drone. The best option is for us to drive your children straight to you, inside the dead zone.”
Vince took a deep breath and closed his eyes, thinking over everything they had just discussed. Mark didn’t blame him.
“Yeah, she’s not bad,” the other man said finally. “So… we just sit in this transport again while you do all the work?”
Vale answered. “Until it’s time to get those nanites. They are the key to everything.”
“The boys may be in shock from the rapid disconnect,” Michelle said as she put a hand to her temple. “They’ll need help walking.”
Mark slapped his padded chest with his drone’s pillowed hand. “These are made for carrying people. And seeing as we don’t have many infiltrator drone options out there, it will probably be me driving this thing.”
“These are the small problems,” Vale said. “We need to gain intelligence on the factory first.”
Vince set his cold eyes on Mark’s drone, and his sensors let him see every small movement the bearded man’s face made. A slight wince there, a quick breath as the bizarre reality of the situation hit him. Vince was relieved that he had some potential answers, but he was also trusting in the word and ability of virtual strangers to save his children. He let out a big sigh and nodded.
“Just sit tight, we’ll scout and be back soon,” Mark said before pulling out of his drone and leaving the two humans to wait in the transport.
He focused on the map and willed it to center on the physical location of the enemy’s stronghold. The tangle of roads and buildings zoomed closer, and Mark saw the fortress they needed to infiltrate.
There were no available video feeds nearby, which made sense. And other than a 42% functional streetcleaner, there were no other inhabitable targets close by.
“Let me get in it,” Ahnix said, looking at the same shoddy bot. “I miss scouting.”
“Go for it,” Mark said as they all switched to the cat-girl’s perception feed.
He watched as the red dot pulsed to yellow, and they shifted downward to take control of the filthy road-sweeping drone. One grime-coated camera still worked, and Mark could see the shapes and outlines of a sprawling industrial area ahead. Smokestacks, metal girders, and massive warehouses filled the little bot’s limited view. Ahnix slowly rolled forward along the curb toward Coventry Industries.
The trundling drone resembled a dog-sized turtle and was going just about as fast. As the minutes added up, Mark’s mind began to wander. He replayed the diary of the woman who ended the world over and over in his mind. The part that mentioned his AI assistant fleeing into the net was troubling. Sasha could still be out there somewhere- He could still be out there somewhere, walking among the rubble, alone and broken… like this shitty robot.