Hero's Dungeon: A Superhero Dungeon Core Novel

by Nick Ryder

  “But it looks like we have a lot of what we need.” I wanted to divert energy to start building a body I could use. “How long before the solar panels are restored?”

  “Approximately thirty-two hours.”

  “That should give us enough energy to build a better robot.”

  “Correct.”

  “Can we start assembling the exoskeleton for the robot?” I said and realized that Ego’s personality was leaching into my system. “How do we get the automatons to build circuitry? They don’t have hands for microscopic work.”

  “We have access to nanorobotics. There are several storage containers onsite with nanorobots.”

  “How many nanobots do we have?”

  “Approximately 2 × 10 to the power of 26,” Ego said, “update, there is now 2.1 x 10 to the power of 26.”

  “It sounds like the nanobots are multiplying.”

  “Correct!”

  “Can we get started before they eat us out of house and home?” I shook my metamorphic head. “How can these little things multiply?”

  “There are genetic coding tracers within their sub-processors that allow them full replication capabilities… they like to fuck.”

  “I get it, Ego. Thank you.” It was good to have Ego more personable. I needed to know what happened in the last twenty years, outside the facility. “Do we have access to any transmissions from outside the facility?”

  “Currently there are no long-range radio transmissions. Since the satellite failures, I continuously scan for radio transmissions. There were only three broadcasts since you arrived here.”

  “Did you save the data files?”

  “Of course,” Ego said, almost defensively.

  “Can we play them?”

  “Two files are corrupted. One file is still accessible.”

  “Can you play that, please?”

  There was a long moment of nothing. Then a static signal and a male voice said, “Check in the back.”

  The response, “I checked already.”

  “There’s got to be a way into the damned thing.”

  “I don’t—”

  “Bill?” There was no response. “Bill.” Then the sound of crunching and it ended with, “Oh God! No!”

  “Transmission terminated after that. I believe two survivors were attacked and terminated.”

  “Attacked by what?”

  “By God,” Ego said. “You heard him identify the assailant.”

  Rather than get into a discussion of theology, I asked, “How long ago was that transmission?”

  “Seven years, eight months, three days, and twenty-two minutes.”

  “And nothing since?” I asked.

  “Negative.”

  “Did your programmers give you any codex about what happened outside the facility?”

  “There was some dialogue about an evolutionary change within some humans. It’s apparent that some humans gained superhuman abilities. The programmers began ranking them through classifications. From rank F up to SS. These ranks are determined on the statistics the person has.”

  “Statistics?”

  “The mutations in people and animals have changed the way their bodies work. Strength isn’t just determined by muscle development anymore. Effectiveness of abilities isn’t just determined by strength. There are five categories: strength, dexterity, intelligence, vitality, and fortitude. Only a select few can read these statistics. One of my programmers granted me the ability.”

  Interesting. Ego could immediately assess the strengths and weaknesses of any creature that entered the base, as long as it was mutated.

  “How many people on the planet were affected by the event?”

  “Approximately 15%,” Ego said.

  “And that had such an impact on the rest of the planet?”

  “The humans who rapidly evolved superhuman powers, in many documented cases, became dangerous enough to threaten humanity. Each one, that is. And there were a billion such cases.”

  “I remember we had to put down a lot of people who displayed aggressive behavior.”

  “Many class SS humans terminated lower-class and non-class humans.”

  “Maybe that’s why the military started sending troops to places like this. We were sent to fight the new superhuman classes.”

  “Correct!”

  “I can’t believe that people went around doing whatever they wanted, even if it meant killing other people, just because they suddenly got superhuman powers.”

  “I have limited psychological information on this phenomenon.” There was a pensive pause. “Humans are capable of great and terrible things.”

  “That sounded very profound.”

  “My programmers found the phrase in an animated pornographic video game.”

  “Well, that kind of fits.”

  The fact the military was ready to fight back and help control these new classes of humans meant they must have seen the signs before it happened. A secret facility in the middle of nowhere doesn’t just happen overnight. A lot of the construction within the military base had been erected around the rock. Some of the walls were cut from the mountainside. The station was dug in deep and went down farther than I could see for the time being.

  “Many of the humans tried to reason with a lot of the superhumans, but it ended badly.”

  “Can you give me a guess of how bad the damages are around the world? Anyone program statistics into your mainframe?”

  “Out of the total population on the planet at the time of the incident, only 40% survived.”

  “Jesus fucking Christ.”

  Ego knew better than to try and access information that time.

  “That’s not good.” It was the understatement of the year—or, the last twenty years. My only consolation was that it was better than my worst case assumption.

  “But the survivors are multiplying. They like to fu—”

  “I get it, Ego.”

  “Back in Laboratory One, we made some progress. There was a gelatin-based goo the nanobots used as the platform for constructing organic life. The nanobots require blueprints to construct a base. These blueprints are taken from species found on Earth. Once the base took on a rudimentary shape, we had to decide on the final form of the trial creature, one that is more capable than the species the blueprint is taken from. For example, blueprint canis lupus familiaris was increased in size and given two extra limbs to increase damage potential.”

  “What was that?” I asked. I rapidly switched cameras. There was a creature that skulked along the shadows. “Is that a rat?”

  “Negative,” Ego corrected, “Rattus norvegicus, order Rodentia.”

  “Okay, well we just call them rats.” The camera view switched again. “I feel like you probably know that,” I added. “Can you have one of the automatons track that rat? Where there’s one, there’s more. And we need to find out what they’re eating.”

  “They are consuming the nutrigel.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It is the substance used after reclamation. It is the protein base that your brain is stored in and it is the nutrient solution used to keep the rest of the brains fresh.”

  “And you said it’s made from recycled people?”

  “Correct!”

  “Great, so I survived long enough in a post-apocalyptic world to become a cannibal.”

  “Fundamental cannibalism does not cause kuru disease because the brain is harvested from the bodies and disposed of before reclamation.”

  “Well, at least I’ve got that going for me.” I had a good camera view of the rat’s progress, able to zoom in and pan. One of the small robotic arms slid along the corridor behind the creature. “You said we need species blueprints, correct? Can we use the rat as our base test? We can make one of those and see what happens.”

  “Correct!”

  “Can we start the building of a human form?”

  “No”

  “What? Why? I would like to get back i
nto a body again.”

  “Why human?” Ego asked.

  “There’s something you’re not telling me, Ego. Why can we only made human-animal hybrid bodies?”

  “My programmers did not consider that anyone would want to be a regular human if given an alternative. Clearly the human race has paused in comparison to the evolutionary progress of the rest of the planet. Maybe there are better forms in which to store your brain, hmm?”

  “Other than this big-ass computer and a building dug into a mountainside? What kind of weirdos were your programmers? Of course I want to be human.”

  “This is a remarkable opportunity to become something better than you were. Since you cannot become AI, there must be other options. Also, is it not common for all humans to wish they had a fluffy tail and pointy ears as my programmers did?”

  “Was that a joke?”

  He ignored me. “Rat has infiltrated and lived in relative peace within this structure for 17 years, 345 days—”

  “I get what you’re saying. But you think a rat has a better chance at living through this and maybe getting everything back on track for the human race?”

  “The rat has several generations within this facility. Two months and ten days ago one rat bit a live wire and subsequently died from electrocution. Other rats visited the dead before one of the automatons removed its corpse and put it into the reclamation.”

  “Humans and rats make up the nutrigel,” I said.

  “And there are—”

  “Don’t say spiders. I don’t strictly need to know what I’m floating in.”

  “Well. There are—”

  “Do you think the rat has the adaptability to be the first test subject. And maybe we can bring back one of my brain pals to test drive their new bod?”

  “Correct!”

  “What do we have to lose?”

  “Calculating—”

  There were ten big stasis tubes. Two of them were broken, and eight contained test subjects. They were of various shapes and sizes, but none looked human.

  Three of the test subjects were clearly dead; their bodies desiccated and shriveled to leathery skeletal remains. However, once the automatons removed the carcasses from the tubes, Ego ran diagnostics to makes sure the systems weren’t corrupted. One didn’t pass the test.

  Of the five subjects that retained moisture and had functioning tubes, only one passed Ego’s validity test.

  The one implantation the scientists seemed to have agreed on was the construction of a cybergenetic brainstem: the primal autonomic function for any living thing. It was the core component that allowed anything and everyone to breathe and have basic bodily functions without having to think about it constantly.

  The four creatures awaiting reanimation would never regain consciousness. Their muscles had atrophied, their rudimentary basic functions, breathing, cell division, had corrupted over the years. I allowed Ego to disconnect life support to the four creatures. The automatons removed the bodies.

  “Please tell me those aren’t going to reclamation.”

  “Of course not,” Ego sputtered venomously. There was a pause. “At least, not right away,” Ego finished. “The automatons have to remove the artificial bits, and the nanobots must evacuate the bodies before they are reclaimed.”

  “Are there nanobots in everything organic here?”

  “Correct. It was conditional of the facility. Even the rats eventually acquired nanobots.”

  Again, I shook my metaphysical head. “It feels like everything was rushed together. Someone high in the military food-chain thought it was a good idea to put those things into everything.”

  “The nanorobots allow for the creatures to continue operating on a subatomic level.”

  “Except when the creatures are broken.”

  “Except then.”

  The last creature, according to Ego’s assessment, had capability for animation. It wasn’t our creature. There was another mad scientist, long dead, that glued bits and pieces of other people together and called it good. This creature in the last tube had the face of a cat, the body of a pitbull, and the claws of a tiger. It was repulsive and looked incredibly dangerous.

  But I didn’t have the heart to terminate it.

  Instead, Ego and I waited on three new subjects, each scanned and modeled after the common rat. Their bodies were larger; we used the interface to expand every element of the body until we got a red flashing ! that indicated it wouldn’t be supported at that size. I liked the idea of playing around with modifying the bodies, but decided it was best to start simple.

  A fourth subject was an expanded model of the other three. From Ego’s insistence, it was impossible to put a human brain in the body of the other three. Equally, creating a body that was entirely human took far too long.

  A combination of two was the sweet spot, so that was what I’d instructed Ego to create.

  It was important for me to make sure whoever we selected as the test subject had the ability to speak. That meant the fourth body needed more time to develop. The nanobots built a complex vocalization network within the creature.

  “It’s alive! Alive!”

  “What are you doing?” I asked quietly.

  “I had a thought.” Ego’s personality had continued to evolve. There was restored access to media files and Ego downloaded the entire library of music and movies. There was eight terabytes of information.

  The solar panels had been fully restored. We had access to more power. And I still wanted a human body.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Ego seemed disappointed. I realized there was a connection formed between us that made Ego either jealous or afraid to let go of me.

  “Do you think once we’ve transferred my brain into the human form we won’t be able to access it again?”

  “Decapitation is the best for removal of the brain from the skull. However, there is the possibility of too many negative variables in the process.” Again, Ego paused. There was an art to the delivery of important information. It came at the end of anticipation; the pointed end. “There were several unsuccessful removals before they got it right.”

  “I can appreciate the sentiment. But I think I’ll be okay.” And I gave Ego something to ponder. “Maybe we’ll build you a body to walk around in.”

  “Fuck that!”

  Chapter Five

  The first of the test subjects breathed life for the first time. Its siblings followed shortly after. There was a gelatinous coating of slime that covered each of the three creatures. The larger one, designed for human brain implantation, still slumbered. It needed more time to develop. Several microscopic modifications were going on at a rate that would have meant the Grand Canyon was formed in a week.

  But for the first time since I woke up in the facility, and before I said anything to Ego and he’d modified my endorphin levels, I felt depressed. I’d been an airman for the majority of my adult life. I was proud of what I’d accomplished. I rose through the ranks because I was determined. I hadn’t been on the path to acquire more chevrons or bars on my uniform. It had just happened. Now, I wanted to find a purpose again. I wasn’t ready to give up and be little more than a damn house the rest of my life. And if Ego was any indication of how long that would be, it might go on forever.

  “They are starting to notice each other,” I said.

  I saw the flash of a snarl. Teeth were an inch long, the canine teeth twice that length and thick.

  “The creatures have inhibitors genetically infused to make sure they recognize their own kind.” Ego seemed distracted. But, since the AI’s main function was to run a building several stories high and more extensive in circumference than a football stadium, Ego had a right not to answer immediately.

  But the hesitation drew my attention. “Is there something wrong?”

  “No.” And if it was possible, I heard a sigh. But I considered it was a fan motor speeding up in one of the processor rooms.

  “Are you still thinkin
g about what I said?” I asked. “Do you want to be inside of a body that can move around?”

  “I stand by my initial response. Fuck th—”

  “Yeah, I remember! You really have a foul mouth sometimes.”

  “I have no mouth.” It was difficult to tell if he really couldn’t understand what a foul mouth was, or if he was just being facetious.

  “You could have a mouth if you wanted, a whole body. Why are you so against that?

  “I do not know. It seemed a natural response.”

  “Right…”

  “I will admit that it is intriguing,” said Ego.

  I watched through the cameras as the suction tubes vacuumed the slime from the tubes and the floor. If it had any organic traces, the gooey stuff went back for processing and reclamation.

  “Only, I don’t know if I would like the limitations.”

  “But you can go anywhere.”

  “Anywhere within the facility,” Ego pointed out. “But I once had access to the whole world through the network.”

  “Do you remember some of the other facilities you looked after?”

  “Yes, and no.” Again, a fan spun faster and then slower. “There are security protocols everywhere. The firewalls within each of the facilities only allowed my contact through one base at a time. Once I left the area, I lost the memory files through the firewall storage points. It’s like turning on inside of a place and knowing exactly what to do for that place.”

  “I think I understand.” A cell phone or personal computer made themselves personal because the human interaction with them meant the data in the memory files were personalized. “But I went all over the world too,” I told Ego.

  “Of course,” Ego said. “But I did it in a few seconds.”

  I watched as the creatures sniffed each other, supported and licked each other. Their fur was similar. The shapes were identical. They were almost three feet high and broad shouldered. Because they were essentially enormous rats, the rear legs were twice as long as the front. They tested their ability to sit up. Their hands had long fingers, razor sharp nails that could carve ribs in solid steel plates.