Suien’s expression softened as he observed Karen’s reaction to his answer, and the bespectacled netOp couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt as she backpedaled. Though his misgivings about the young woman were not cleared, he was beginning to suspect that her oddities were the product of quirky personality, rather than calculated intrigue. “Ah, no, no, there was nothing wrong with your question. It’s my fault for uh… loving the Sharoan government so much,” he muttered, drawing back slightly and raising his hands in front of him in an ameliorating position. With a brief pause to consider his next words, Suien continued, “I will note that Electopian winters are a lot more manageable than Sharo’s,” he said, missing the suggestion that Karen’s capacity for global travel was apparently impeded, “If you have the chance, I’d suggest Kotobuki or Yoka as good travel destinations around this time of year. There’s plenty to do for a young woman like yourself, and no summer crowds or summer pricing.”
As the dark-haired woman continued to monitor the unfolding situation, Suien gulped and turned his attention to his PET. As Rass and Argo passed by a pair of navis frozen in time, Suien frowned, leaning forward in his chair as he scrutinized the scrolling data feeds. Making a mental note of the Sharoan Special Operations uniforms adorning the stationary navis, Suien himself froze as the amalgamated navi-virus appeared on his display.
“Ah…. Argo? Rass?” he said out loud, fumbling for his battlechip folder with one hand as he started typing out a series of scanner commands with the other, “Are you two seeing this? It looks like some sort of… virus… navi thing?” Suien cursed under his breath as his chip folder toppled onto its side, scattering a few rogue chips onto the ground, “Son of a binome… Tem, can you get a reading on what kinds of viruses we’re dealing with?”
Already on it, Suien. replied Tem, I’ve cross-referenced the viral signatures with publically-available viral census data. Instantly, several windows displaying images of viruses and corresponding vital statistics popped up on Suien’s display.
Quote (Stats)
Candevil: Yumland, Hades, NetVegas
Ashuraid: Sharo, NAXA
Melody: ACDC, Kotobuki, Netopia, Dentech
Puffball: Yumland, Netfrica
Spooky: ACDC, Yoka, Okuden, Kotobuki, Netopia
Fishy: ACDC, Okuden, Dentech, Beach, NetVegas
Cloudy: Yoka, Netopia, Sharo
Moloko: Netopia
Twins: Netopia, NetVegas
As you can see, according to the census data, the viruses fused to… er… whatever that is... aren’t from any single network, explained Tem, In fact, to the contrary, there seems to be viral representatives from… well, more or less the entire global network. Candevils, Fishies, Molokos, Twins...
“Wait, Twins? You say there’s a Twins virus fused into that navi?” interrupted Suien, entering a few keystrokes and expanding the window containing the image and data of the spherical, black virii, “I remember learning about these in an applied systems class back in University. They’re hard-coded with a linked data signature supplemented by an automatic backup recovery subroutine, so unless they’re taken down simultaneously, one will revive the… other...”
Quote (Not long ago)
The Swordies looked like they were completely obliterated, until... The red floor on which they stood suddenly flashed like a large warning sign, almost as if it were angry, and then the Swordies which were hit earlier by the attack were suddenly revived!!Indeed, the thought had crossed my mind as well, said Tem, I’m not sure if you were able to catch this from your vantage point, but the Twins aspect manifested itself the instant that green flash - which I assume to be the Replication Integrity Scan - was completed. My current hypothesis is that this amalgamation’s ability to survive being overwritten by the scan is related to the Twins’ automatic recovery function.
“That makes sense, though it still doesn’t explain how this thing can move within the system.” replied Suien, glancing over toward Karen for confirmation, “If it came in with the junk network data, it should be ghosted out like those two navis behind you, right?”
Correct, though you’re perhaps failing to appreciate the more immediately salient purpose behind me raising this point, said Tem, a hint of panic in her voice, Assuming this amalgamation is capable of harnessing the characteristics of its component parts, I believe any efforts to purge the system of this anomaly will need to be carefully coordinated - if not entirely synchronized - with Argo.
Suien’s eyes widened. “Ah… yes, I can see how that could be a problem.”
--**--Net World--**--
“Hey, guys? We’ve seen this sorta thing before, right?” asked Argo, taking a nervous step backward as the amalgamate roared, “Yeah, 326J or whatever? Electown war, big mutant navi, spat out a buncha viruses.” As the memory unfolded in his mind, Argo’s face shifted from apprehension to rage as the melee system furiously clenched his gauntleted fist. “That thing nearly deleted us when we tried to negotiate with it! I’ll be friggin’ damned if I make the same mistake again,” he hissed, assuming an aggressive posture and clicking his Ishamel-buster into place, “Buck up, Ishy. We’re gonna blast this thing into next week!”
Argo paused, glancing upward in thought, “Or uh… into this week? Because he’s from the past? Time travel is confusin’.”
“Argo, wait!” shouted Rass, his pink-helmeted face popping up on a chat window beside Argo, “Something’s d-different about this one. I think..." he hesitated for a moment, sizing up the amalgamate before him, “I think this guy n-needs our help.”
Rass, I’m against this. Keep in mind that Suien’s walking on thin proverbial ice with respect to the Sharoan government. If we’ve got a chance to eliminate the cause of the viral infection on this device, we probably should take it, added Tem, Furthermore, I assume you noticed those Sharo military navis behind us? The Sharo Special Operations military navis? Whatever this thing is, it looks like Sharo was very interested in taking this thing down, which regrettably means that it’s an enemy of ours.
“I know, I know” replied Rass, shaking his head, “But he’s asking for help, and I th-think we’re probably the only ones who c-could help him, since… well, you know…”
Quote (Flashback)
H-Hey! Science nerds! What the hell was that light? I thought you said I was gonna get a new body! You guys $%&$ed it up! I can’t see nothin’! I can’t feel nothin’! I CAN’T MOVE!“I mean, he’s sharing a body with others, he’s on the r-run from Sharo, and he’s able to function in a place like this. He’s a l-lot like us, and he’s all alone in here. Shouldn’t we at least try?”
Sheesh, could you be any more obnoxious? Save your system resources. It’s been over fifty standard cycles since the last activation of the soulcross splicer, and if they’ve got half a brain between them, those intruders are long gone. Nobody is going to hear you, even if we had a vocal modulator to connect to.
Huh? Someone else here? You’d better not &%$# with me or I’ll beat the stuffing out of you.
Oh, I’d very much like to see you try, Unit 4RG0. Melee subroutines aren’t going to do you any good without motivation circuitry, I’m afraid.
What the hell?! How do you know who I am?!
Merely a rudimentary diagnostic scan of this “body”… if we can even call it that. No motivators, no sensors, no central processing unit, just an experimental power core and whatever was laying around in the lab - which includes us, I guess.
Hmph. Well, you seem to know an awful lot. Who the hell are you anyways?
Finally asking a pertinent question? Impressive. I am designation T3M, designed for strategic analysis, tactical decisionmaking and large-scale...
Hah, a tactical subsystem? I heard they were developin’ some fancy-schmancy problem-solving AI out here. Useless stuff next to me, of course. Ain’t no use for brains without the brawn to back it up.
...it’s a good thing you’re not an arrogant ass, because that brawn of yours is really doing the three of us a lot of good right now.
Well aren’t you a bitchy little smarty-pants program? And what’s with the “three?” Who’s the third?
Tem sighed. Well… yes, I suppose the parallels are rather hard to ignore, though you do seem to be using a rather loose definition of “function” she said, But fine, I'm apparently not immune to your appeals to sympathy. I do maintain that he’s junk data that needs to be disposed of, but I… agree that he appears to be exhibiting some modicum of sentience and self-control that warrants further inquiry.
A beat. ...and I will be charging our buster reactor for when he starts attacking us.
“You mean ‘if’ he starts attacking, right Tem?” asked Rass.
I know what I said, Rass.
The fusion navi gulped, and glanced over toward Argo’s screen. The burly green navi rolled his eyes and lowered his buster. “You’re going to !&%#in’ get us killed one of these days, Rasshole,” grumbled Argo, “But… yeah, I guess it’d be kinda %&$#ed up to start attackin’ when he’s askin’ for help.”
--**--Real World--**--
“Wait, you guys are going to try to do what?!” demanded an aghast Suien, “Rass, I… that is to say, we - need to complete this job as by-the-book as we can. This entity is, more likely than not, the root cause of the anomalies plaguing this network, and we need to make sure it’s taken care of.”
“Just one cycle, Suien. Th-That’s all I’m asking for. pleaded Rass, “He sounds like he’s been alone for a long time, and I don’t know if I could live with myself if it turns out he needs our h-help. We even have a spare PET to hold him in until we can f-figure out how to fix him.”
“Rass, he’s not like you. It’s probably a copy of some navi data that got caught in the system. Any sort of sapience you might detect is probably data echoes from something long since gone. You’re talking to data echoes. To a ghost. A recording.”
“And how do y-you know that? What if you’re wrong? Please, Suien. One cycle.
Suien removed his glasses and began furiously rubbing his temples with both hands. A moment later, the dark-haired netOp sighed, turned to Karen, and readjusted his glasses. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, “I know the job was to remove the root cause of the anomaly here, but we’d like to try to...” He paused, choosing his words carefully before continuing, “...ascertain the intentions and nature of this entity. If we can somehow coax it out and capture it in this spare PET, that should at least clear this system of errors.”
Suien paused, his eyes widening for an instant as though he had just realized something. He glanced up at the anomaly once more, then turned to face Karen again. “Incidentally,” he began, gesturing toward the monitor, “what caused you to want to target this particular portion of the network? Those look to be Sharo Special… special-looking navis down there. Can you tell me any details about the time, location, and situation contained in this network? It could help us figure out what we’re dealing with here.”
--**--Rass.EXE--**--
“Hey, are you there? F-Focus on my voice.” said Rass, extending an arm toward the amalgam with a comforting gesture, “I think we can g-get you out of here if you just follow my d-directions. We just need you to jack out into these coordinates here.”
The fusion navi felt a jolt from within his body as his reactor core hummed to life, channeling vast stores of energy into his buster reserves. Tem was apparently making good on her word, and though he had vigorously advocated on behalf of the amalgamate before him, the fusion navi was nevertheless grateful for her foresight.
Turning his attention once more to the amalgamated navi, he implored - nay, pleaded once more, for its cooperation. “Please, we can g-get you the help you need. T-Talk to me here - let us know how we can help you.”
--**--Argo.EXE--**--
“Hey, you!” grunted Argo, extending his left hand in what could be construed (with a fair amount of creativity) as a supportive gesture, “I don’t know if you’re already talkin’ to my counterpart, but just in case, we’re here to help. So uh… listen to what he’s sayin’ and don’t go attackin’ us.”
CORE SYSTEM ARGO, interrupted Ishamel, THOUGH YOUR BODY POSITIONING IS OF A GENERALLY WELCOMING CONFIGURATION, YOUR FACIAL STRUCTURE IS DECIDEDLY NOT. SUPPORT SYSTEM ISHAMEL RECOMMENDS SMILING TO INCREASE PERSUASIVENESS OF THIS MANEUVER.
Argo swore under his breath, but managed to twist his face into a rough approximation of a welcoming smile. Even so, he muttered under his breath. “But seriously. Try anythin’ funny and I’ll make sure you regret it.”
Rass:
1: Attempt to calm down .AMALGAM, convince him to come quietly and jack out into the spare PET.
2: Charge
3: Charge
4: (prepped dodge)
5: (prepped dodge)
Argo:
1: Attempt to calm down .AMALGAM, convince him to come quietly and jack out into the spare PET.
2: Charge
3: Charge
4: (prepped dodge)
