This post was published on April Fools' Day 2023. The original title was 'My new project will stun you...' and has since been changed because I feel bad for clickbaiting everyone.

I wrote the below short story in fifth grade, while having a bad crush on one of the people who was inserted into it. Get ready for cringe, poorly disguised video game references, and a whole lot of r/masterhacker energy. Keep in mind I wrote this in fourth grade, so questionable writing is a given.

Just note that some names have been changed for privacy reasons, and yes, the character named Blue was a self-insert. If you happen to be my ex-girlfriend from eighth grade, hi! This is on the internet now, because I feel like it. Your name has been changed in the book.

dedication

Thank you, Ms. Thomas, for supporting me. You are the one who pushed me to write this story.

Thanks, Katarina, for keeping me on track and inspiring me, and even disagreeing with me. You made the book better. Thanks, Silvia, for inspiring so many characters. Thanks, Cooper for constantly begging to be in this book, and then ​begging ​to be kicked out.

Thanks, Will, for still being my friend after eleven years. In the alternate universe where you wouldn’t have been in Ms. Tingler’s class, I wouldn’t have had any friends.

And thank you to everyone who reassured me that it was okay to be myself.

Part One

Lena (Flashback)

CHAPTER ONE

Foreword

Hello. You might know me, you might not. Maybe you’ve seen me with my father, Krönt EnCasten. If you haven’t, my name is Lena EnCasten. I’m fourteen years old, and a “Savant,”. You also probably didn’t know that I have a PhD. in Computer Science, Math, and Human Anatomy, which is kinda gross, considered I am of the female gender. Though it is fascinating to wonder about the human body and how it works. Like lymph nodes, for example. They’re part of the immune system. Anyways, I’m what most people consider a “prodigy,” implying that I was born like this. I wasn’t. In fact, I was born with a disorder that sped up cranial growth and Savant’s, meaning that I could talk after three months in the crib, I could type at the age of two, and I could recite 279 digits of Pi at nine. So I’m not a prodigy, says my friend Alice. I mean, I’m a Total Nerd, but not a “nerd.” Picture a girl with dark brown hair, a height of 4’11”, rosy cheeks, and a pink Xbox shirt.

Oh. And don’t forget the freckles and gray eyes. However, unlike other popular girls, people know me for my knowledge and wits. I can live with that. People call me “Athena” for my gray, color-changing eyes and sharp wits. Anyways, let’s go back into the moment.

Chapter Two:

Y U NO WANT TO?

It’s Three o’ Five PM, EST, I’m in my classroom, next to Isabella, one of my good friends, who’s been nice to me throughout the time I’ve lived in Virginia. She’s one of my partners on the computer I’m trying to build. On my other side, sits my friend jordan. Also, nice to me. The only friend that opted out of building the machine was Kenzie. Even though she’s bored by literally everything I’m into, she’s still nice. Oop. Wait,

“I can’t help with the machine today.” Said Isabella,

“Why?”, I replied.

“I’m going over to Evie’s house.” She responded,

“Emilia?”

“Same here.” UGH.

“Alice?” “I’ll be there at Five.” Thank You. I noticed that Eli was giving me a weird look. I stared back and wiggled my eyebrows. Eli blushed, stroked his turtle, and looked away. Eli, poor Eli, Turned a deep shade of pink. I looked at what Marco and Charles were doing. GREAT. They were arm wrestling. Last time Charles won, Marco hit Eli’s pet turtle, smashed my desk, and spat on Charles. Charles, being allergic to Red Dye, turned red and vomited, because Marco ate a few Takis, killing Alice’s new iPod Nano. Marco went to the principal’s office. “I know what you’re thinking about” said Alice, stopping my daydream about Armageddon.

“And Marco hasn’t paid me back” I forgot about the computer’s abilities. It could think like a human, hear a pin drop in California (With high-gain capabilities), and mine cryptocurrency. Yeah. It’s a beast. It’s made of about seventeen thousand transistors, fans, and i10’s. Anyhoo, as soon as the computer received a

0.00000000000000000000000000001 second transmission (yeah, it’s that fast) of my “alpha” brain wave data, it “pinged” Alice, and there goes that. *PING* *PING* *PING* “Good afternoon, Teachers and Staff. If you have a duty post, please report there now.” *CLICK*

“SIX!”

“Bye, Ms. Ampson!”

“Bye!” She said back.

TRANSMISSION 6763724: ID:
786578695689658934678657465743656785977657638956736589465734 856734856478657893465796834965849365834965872380482904875897 ALPHA WAVE TRANSMISSION: GREAT THEY WERE ARM WRESTLING LAST TIME CHARLES WON MARCO HIT ELIS PET TURTLE SMASHED MY DESK
AND SPAT ON CHARLES CHARLES BEING ALLERGIC TO RED DYE TURNED RED AND VOMITED KILLING ALICES NEW IPOD NANO <<END>> _

Anyway, I’m on my bus right now. Bus six, to be exact. Always overcrowded, as usual. The bus driver says “Three to a seat!” UGH. That meant there had to be three kids in a seat, which was disgusting, considering I was next to Fred (BAD) and Alice (GOOD) as the bus came to a stop on Green Drive, I got ready for the crowd that erupted out of the bus. “Yyyyyyyaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!”, They cheered. As I walked home, to my house at 9208 Kaylen Crossing, I wondered why I was treated so bad, yet others seemed pleased when I looked at them. I went in and found a gigantic box in the living room. I opened it. You may be wondering how I opened a metal box two feet taller than I am. Easy. I powered up my alternator, and plugged it in to my 6,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 amp-hour power reserve system. In case you’re wondering that means, it means it would take two hundred days for the battery to deplete while powering the whole street. I built this in kindergarten. The alternator in second grade. As it powered on, the lights flashed. Then I plugged in my modular toolkit motors, attached the decomposer tool (a powerful glorified anti-sewing machine), and powered that up. It was so powerful that, as soon as it touched the box, the microscopic bindings (welding) of the metal itself were separated immediately. The box disintegrated into a pile of hot powder. Just the simple process of removing and storing the molecular bonds that hold the box together. Anyways, as soon as I saw what was inside, I rushed to the computer room, unplugged the de-alternator, and powered down A12416 (the alternator) I finally had the quantity of micro-capacitors necessary to create the “Infinite” power supply! Basically, you hardwire about a dozen MICBUs (Micro Capacitor Charge Buildup Units) into about a dozen more, then wire that back into the power reserves, then you split the reserve’s power output into whatever you’re powering. That stabilizes the power and doubles the power output. Put that into another MICBU, and you double the power output “stamina”. That was important, as the machines needed at least 46 hours of reliable power to stabilize their capacitors. I then powered everything back on. A large humming sound filled the neighborhood. The ground leads turned bright red. It started up. The oxygenators powered on, filling the room with fresh air once again.

“Thank Goodness!” Alice exclaimed “No more gas mask!” “Check this out.” I said. I disconnected the charging terminals. The lights stayed on. I flipped the main breaker. Nothing happened. She was beyond amazed. “The meter says you have full power flowing through the system.” “Wait. It says OPEN CIRCUIT. “That means that power is sensed by the meter, but on one side only. What’s amazing is it not only powers our house, but it can power the whole street for almost two-thirds of a year. But it takes longer to charge. See that pool of metal?” “Yeah?” “That’s the contacts of the oxygenator. Poor thing got fried. Want to continue building the computer?” “Sure.” But this isn’t a hobbyist’s computer. This is the computer. It’s so powerful, it could take on Armageddon with a wind turbine. It’s running SuperSource’s Crypt operating system, which, amazingly, runs at 1024 bits, which is the threshold limit on all Intel i10 processors. But these aren’t normal i10’s. These have a Dymium link. Basically, Avy’s Dymium Superprocessors use an alloy for the connectors that is glass, aluminum, radium, and copper, which then forms a metal with zero resistance. To accelerate the processor even more, they put neodymium in the mix too, which strengthens the signal. I could go into Dymium even more, but it would take too long. Instead, let’s focus. The computer is a big mess of blinking lights, circuit boards, and disembodied monitors. Then there’s a big 80” touchscreen panel at the front of it all. That’s where all the glory happens. It’s not pretty, but it’s amazingly fast. The processor's CPU is an apple T2, connected to an iPhone 8’s logic board. That coordinates the boot times with the boot time for the AMOLED display and the thirteen thousand Intel i10 processors (My Father used to work at Intel, he now works at Apple. Every other week, he flies to Cupertino.

“Pretty hot in here.” Alice noted.

“Oxygenator’s dead. Remember? I’m replacing it with a heat pump anyways.” “True.”

I heard a faint beeping coming from the logic board and power supply output. I went to the back of the room. There, the main fuse had blown from the heat. I activated the heat pump that I was working on in my free time. The temperature cooled down to a chilly 56.2 degrees Fahrenheit. The monitors said it used approximately 1.54 Kilowatts per Hour. Yessss! My goal is to have the most efficient and powerful components available. I seem to be reaching that goal. “I still remember when Marco threw the connect four set at the projector.” “I heard that!” said Marco, who was on video chat. “Marco? Why do you Skype me only when I’m busy?” “Because it’s when I’m not busy.” Marco said matter-of-factly. “Goodbye.” I said as I typed in “Finger <Meerkat> Quit”. Marco screamed (and was cut off doing so) as his computer shut down. “ Nice.” Alice said. “Yeah. We should do this more often!” I joked. I entered “Finger <ROOT> Quit”. That shut down my computer. Then Alice and I got to work. This time, we were coding the kernel. I pressed the power button for the SMC and T2. They powered on. The monitor (the sixteen-inch one) sprang to life. I pressed and held COMMAND + V. (And yes, I’m joining the anti-Google trend) That started the Verbose Boot sequence. I typed in “<IND> POST FAIL”. That made the computer think it had failed the Power On Start Test. Then I typed “STM UNIX”. Which connected to my Solaris server, which was my monitoring server. I typed “BLOCK Bonjour service apl.airport” I then activated the debugger console on my computer. Time to reprogram the engine. First I had to get past User Access Prevention. Also known as Gatekeeper. That was easy. Gatekeeper shuts off in any sort of fatal error, because the user would naturally need access to all the files. Then, I would have to get past my Machine Learning security engine. That was a bit harder. The thing is, to get past my scrap of security, I would need the FireWire drive that housed the kernel. I engineered the system so that you need a copy of the thing you’re trying to get into, so you would have to either use the previously engineered copy, or make an identical copy. It would also look for the correct hard drive to get in. As I removed the hard drive, I remembered something: I could remotely control the computer! So I put the hard drive back. I rushed over to my Desk/Workstation, and typed “Script:: /var/root/system/disk/drivers ‘ADDFile’

/var/root/system/drivers/remote-control UPDATE”. That allowed me to remotely control the computer. I opened RControl, powered up the hard drive remotely, and allowed all traffic. Annnnd… It worked! Yes. I know what you’re thinking. Aren’t I am bit cuckoo? Actually, yes I am. Anyways, (Yes, I get distracted easily.) as I’m doing that, Alice said,

“You forgot KCEdit.” Oh. No wonder UAP was up in the night. I didn’t launch the Kernel Control Editor. I typed “Ldaemon LAUNCH Applescript Editor (Do)TRUE use Menuitem ;Macro; option 6 ;KCEdit.script; RUN TRUE”. That launched SuperScript, clicked the “Macros” option in the menu bar, clicked KCEdit in the drop-down menu, and ran the script. The ever-so familiar GUI simulator popped up. I typed “CRPT: Enable driver /var/CRPT/drive/opt/input/Tron/msdriv/klISumo/false/.” The system responded with “Initializing mouse driver and Killing Filename “true”.” I clicked on KCEdit. It started. Then I did what I do best: hack. At first, it was improving User Access Prevention. Then I got into the heart of Crypt’s EESFSH-1 (Extended Encryptable Stationary File System With Hierarchy) file system. Or if you don’t have a Avy 1298, just SFSH. And, finally, I rewrote the system engine. When I was finished, Kyle, one of my good friends, came online. I typed “CRPT:Boot”. It booted into Crypt volt edition. I opened a chat with all friends online. Alice went home. When I opened Skype, Alice, Marco (I don’t know how, because he’s on my ban list), Isabella, Evie, jordan, Kyle, Emilia, Kenzie, and Charles all showed up on my screen when I called the group. I walked over to the big screen to chat with them. Marco started taunting me on getting through my blacklist. “Marco, how exactly did you get through?” I asked. “‘Cause I can.” Marco had said punchably. I typed “Finger <Meerkat> Quit” His image froze, then came back to life. “How…” I asked, astonished ” Easy. Just use a windows' computer. Without Crypt.” I typed “WinProxy Remote <Meerkat> Logout”. Marco got forced off the server. Without warning, he popped in. “Uhhhhhhhh…“ said Alice. “Lena?” “Ha!” said Marco. Finally, I typed, as a last resort, “REProxy connect skype.chat.com Cterm : Comm. ErrorMessage “Skype requires Crypt to attend this chat.” Comm:2 <Meerkat> Kick END///” My computer immediately crashed. So did everyone else’s. Skype was dead for ten hours after that. Worldwide. I had committed a crime.

I immediately reset the server. It was just the network that delayed it. The next day, I received a notification from Skype. My account was deleted immediately. Great. Now I’m a criminal. From then on, I started using Crypt’s native Bolt chat. Each chat is hosted on an individual server. Thankfully, I had a server compatible with Bolt Server hosting. So I registered it. $299.99! Cheep Cheep!

Chapter three:

Marco x 3.141 = fat circle.

Marco was starting to get annoying. Yes, I know. Some of you do like him. I don’t. Why? Because he’s starting to stalk me. Yesterday I was in my room (the one with the screen for my computer) and, somehow, he called me through my bolt server. I had specifically programmed the server to kick Marco off when he joins. Anyways, he joined the chat server. What bugged me, though, was the fact that he could kick me off, but I couldn’t kick him off of my own server. Then, came the final straw. He banned my account. My bolt account. Then, I had only one choice. I killed the server. Completely. I unplugged the power supply. Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, the computer stayed on. I then flipped completely. I got on my laptop and hacked him back.

“CRPT:EXODUS WINSS <MeerkatHome> Fetch
Crypt: The Windows Server you were looking for is <Meerkat Crypt: home server>? CRPT:Y
CRPT:Hunt L6 WINSS <MeerkatHome>
Crypt: Hunting Meerkat Home Server at Tracking level six.
CRPT:Seedling
Crypt: Executing seedling.
Crypt: Seedling executed successfully.
Crypt: Seedling active.
CRPT:WINS kill
Crypt: Terminate Seedling and kill Windows Server
Crypt: <MeerkatHome>?
CRPT: Y
Crypt: Seedling terminated; Server killed.
Crypt: ERROR. System reboot triggered.
Crypt: A kernel panic has occurred.
Crypt: DJEIWEOYt78ety3u2irguIGYSQDHUNBYD89YudipnhwcieyuTUID
Crypt: EITC2IURYUIhu9nuy893yuGUGYUubgyuoynfijioweuf9ipg
Crypt: Restart/Resume?
CRPT:Resume
Crypt: System unstable. Please reboot.
10
Cryp : ARN NG: F le over r en. <Cryp coreASC >
Cryp : K ll ng.”

That’s it. No more Marco. Marco hacked me. I don’t know how, but he did. The machine was on 1056-bit encryption mode. Nearly unhackable. Then, I realized. It wasn’t Marco. It was Lilly. Lilly Ferns. In kindergarten, she had almost taken down the Secret Service itself using a knife. She also nearly killed me. That’s why I have a bionic right arm. Her parents are billionaires. The inventor of ski poles*, to be exact. (*Author’s Note: this is not historically true. My Great-Great-Grandfather invented them.) She’s a real jerk, as you can (hopefully) tell. She was a brilliant mind, but she didn’t realize what she was doing. She was trafficked to Kenya, where she joined a major gang, called Ó Palacio. She then moved to a frontier town on the moon. The city was called Luna. She took a position as a techie. Basically, she would repair people’s phones (Bars), tablets (scrolls), and smartwatches (cuffs). Yes, I know, they picked weird names. Not my fault. She founded a silicon factory, which produced oxygen, glass, and aluminum. Her industry was corrupt. She started a dictatorship-like relationship with the city. She made the taxes they paid go into her account. She also got free power. She owned every square inch of the city, even though she claimed to let the people own their plot. Each person had one hundred yards on the surface of the moon to build on. She had one thousand. Unfair, right? But guess what? She also got to put people in jail, and even commit crimes without question. That power isn’t hers. The real reason I built the computer is to restore justice to the world. Starting with the moon. All Luna’s servers are connected directly to mine. And they don’t know. Lilly was trying to get back at me for supposedly starting a chain of events that supposedly led to her father’s disappearance. See what I mean? The high-gain is for communications with Luna. That’s the reason that I was working on the capacitor banks. So that I could use nearby cell phone towers. The backup power system is so that I can work without power. Every day the computer knows more and more (hence, the AI) about Luna. Today, it had found out. I had my eyes on it, and it gathered all the data. Tonight, I would fly to the moon. My computer had built an android to be my eyes and ears. It looked so realistic, I could say it was my reflection. My computer would have the controls and displays ready. It was completely sealed in its design. I poured water on it. The robot could keep moving. It was ready to go on a nipship (Shuttle to the moon).

Chapter Four:

On the moon

As I (The android) walked onto the carrier, I wondered what it would be like to live on the moon. Sure, the moon’s surface was a vacuum, but I’m controlling a robotic version of me from Earth. So if I die, I’ll be safe here. As I controlled the android (Remember the mind reader?) I saw communities helping one another after the Herculean Dust Storm. Survival is crucial on the Moon. Lilly was still in charge, as far as I could tell. She was the only survivor who wasn’t born there. As I watched the monitor with wonder, I questioned why Lilly was doing this. Why she would “Forever Politely Ban” people who hadn’t done anything wrong. I’m still trying to figure out what that means. The countless people just… disappearing. No explanation. Just sudden death. People in busted EVA suits on the surface. No one would take the blame. Lilly would disappear after every “murder”. Then she would come back after a week. Two hours passed in deep thought. As I got out of the meatship, Lilly came into the airlock to congratulate us on making it here. She quickly spotted me and gave me a look. As we walked into the airlock, she pressed a button. The airlock doors closed. “Goodbye. This is my horror show and I’d like to keep it that way.” Lilly said under a fake smile. She pressed a button. Both airlock doors opened. There was a huge explosion. Everyone flew out of the airlock. I, being an android, was not hurt at all. I Released my emergency air shelter from my backpack. It inflated with the chemicals inside being mixed. It floated to the ground. Everyone who was still alive got in. Everyone took deep breaths. I went in and took the oxygenator out from my backpack. I turned it on. The fresh air filled the shelter. On the lunar surface, Lilly flipped. “Augh! I will succeed!” as she walked toward us, without a suit. “Hi, Lena!” she said in her sickening voice. Great. I let a killer loose. And she was an android. JUST DOIN’ GREAT OUT HERE, SOME POTENTIAL ACTION GOING ON, WITH A ROBOT THAT WANTS TO KILL ME… Great. Just Great. As she took out a couple of pocket knives from her pocket, simultaneously I pulled out a capsule filled with pycotoxic gel with nanobots infused. I threw it on the side of the air shelter. The air shelter’s walls turned opaque. She threw the pocket knife at the shelter. The knife went clear through the walls as they resealed after the knives went through.”You okay?” I asked the rest of the people in the shelter as ten more knives came through. Then came the INCREDIBLE! AMAZING! (Yeah, I’m in a sarcastic mood right now.) Chorus of “Uhhh… Okay?”’ s. As they responded, (on earth) my Dad came into the room. “Whatcha doing? Can you pause that game you’re playing?” “It’s not a game.” “What is it?” he asked suspiciously. ” My android’s on Luna right now.” “Oh. Tha-” “It’s a matter of life and death! Okay?!” “Okayy… But isn’t Luna on the Moon?” “Yes. Remember Lilly?” “Yes.” I showed him the view. “Ooohhh… Wait. What!? You never told me she was the kid who-” “Dad?” “Fine.” he said as he left the room. I focused on my view again. This monitor was specifically designed with eye strain in mind. More knives went through. That was enough. I gave each person a suit from the shelter’s kit. “These will last about forty-five minutes. Okay?” “Yeah,” They said as they put the suits on. When they all finished, I tapped my smartwatch. (No, not the cuff) The nanobots slithered back into the capsule, causing the air shelter to explode. I (again, being an android) was unharmed. Everyone (including me) made it to the airlock. We all immediately went to the abuse offices. There was a hideout there. There was a medical wing. There was also dehydrated artificial lettuce. Otherwise, known as sugar dale. Tastes like heaven, but is super cheap. Stuff is like an antidote for everything. Suddenly, Lilly burst through the door. “I know where you are!” she screeched. Suddenly, her pupils glowed red. She had seen us. Great. Not only was she ready for action, but she could see in the dark. I slowly took out my lighter. I lit it. Suddenly, a five-foot blast of fire erupted from the minuscule lighter. “Not expecting that, huh?” I said. “Go jump into my smelter!” she screeched. While she was busy doing that, I tapped the capsule of microbots from earlier. A black fog filled the room. It all flew toward Lilly. She was covered from head to toe in pycotoxins. I double-tapped the microcontroller embedded in my hair. She was immediately trapped in an unbreakable polymer. Two red dots appeared. The polymer disintegrated. She tried to move, but pycotoxin molecules multiply when charged until they have 632,474,678,775,564,356,413,119,097 molecules. Her body was being squeezed. Suddenly, her “skin” fell off. She was an animatronic though, so that didn’t matter. A mess of an endoskeleton was left behind. One side of her body was wires, servos, and lights, while the other side was storage, microchips, and her cooling. By storage I mean real storage. In that storage, she had spare body parts. Thank goodness they weren’t real. She broke free from the nanobots’ grasp and took out her knife. She put her arm to her chest and ejected her other hand. She put her knife where her hand used to be. The knife glowed red with heat. She took her other hand off and replaced it with a claw. She flexed it. She attacked without hesitation. Everyone ran out of the room. She opened, then closed the claw. She flew. She flew upwards ninety feet, then floated back down. Her eyes turned a fiery purple. They flickered. She sliced the support struts with her knife. An enormous blast shook the room. The lights inside her flickered. One of her eyes stopped glowing. Suddenly, she collapsed. I walked towards her. Her capacitors had died. Her knife was cooling down. I ripped her life source out: her capacitor bank. She shuddered, then collapsed once again. Her eyes flickered, blinked, and then her eyes turned a deep, dark, gray. I didn’t notice until she jump scared me when I put her on a chair. Her voice came out, but this time it was warped and strangled. “Too bad I had you fooled the whole time, Lena.” she said. “Maybe you should have kept quiet, Lena.” “Maybe you shouldn't have taken over, Lilly.” Then she took me by surprise and yanked my chair out from under me. I spotted the object giving her power. I couldn't get to it. I went to my last resort. I took out my pulse firing device. I called it my “Puffed” because it can take out anything with electricity in it. I pointed it at her. I fired it. The screen froze, then came back on. I had shielding. Lilly, however, didn’t. She twitched. I dropped the nanobot capsule inside while she was offline. Her insides swam with nanobots. Then, I sat back down as she came back to life. “Why can’t I see!?” She wailed. She lunged at me. I tapped the microcontroller. All her lights went out. Then came back on, flickering. Several lights in her head changed to red, then purple. As she was screeching, another voice came on. “AI pathing damaged. System is malfunctioning. Shuttin-” Lilly’s voice came back on. “No!” It looked like she was deciding whether or not to go to prom night. (Sound familiar?) There was definitely an internal conflict. I triple-tapped the microcontroller. The nanobots started their swarming sequence. She powered off, then on, then off, then on, off, on, off, then on before she finally powered off for once and for all. Then, the alarms started. A shadow appeared. A creature made from white cylinders appeared in my field of vision. It’s mouth

opened. There were exactly forty-six teeth. So it was yet another animatronic. It looked at me with its eye. It’s body changed form. Now it had one arm, with two tanks with a red liquid. It noticed me looking at it and said in a twisted tone “You have destroyed my master! I will get revenge!” And lunged. My monitor froze for a long time. It unfroze showing Lilly, in her human-like form. She saw me staring. Her eyes turned white again. “How is it to see me again?” she said. The cylinder-bot sat next to her. “I have to go.” He said. He stood up and went into a closet-like area across the room. He closed the door. The control panel glowed green. Lilly nodded to the camera on the control panel and walked toward it. She flipped the red switch. The coils next to the control panel thrummed. She pressed a button. There was a clunking noise in the mysterious room. A scraping noise followed by a metallic scream came after. She flipped the red switch. The door opened. An animatronic (another?) came out of the room. It had a glowing red eye. It had little tubes that swelled and compacted with each step. Lilly walked toward the bot and stuck a tag to it’s “head”. The robot froze. It fell. She went to the control panel and flipped a tiny green switch. Something green jumped out of Lilly’s head. Nanobots! I flipped my microcontroller to search mode. The nanobots froze. The supposed “leader” of the group hissed and sputtered. “Lena!” Lilly howled. “Father!” A black mass came into the room. It slithered around the ceiling. It looked like it was made of nanobots, but it had some form of tubes covering its true body. “Nice to meet you, Lena. I’ve heard so much about you.” It said. I looked at it. It smiled creepily. The small tubes jumped down to the floor, followed by the still-masked body. “Nice to meet you, Mister Creepy.” I wisecracked. “You’re still human, as far as I can tell. Not good.” He said. I wondered what he meant by that. Then his body stretched out to become humanoid. There was nothing inside him. Just air. He shoved me into the closet from before. He closed the door. A little sharp knife started glowing red, then yellow, then green. It got about twenty degrees warmer in the room. Eyes sprung open around the room. Silhouettes of a small girl flickered. A creepy giggle echoed throughout the room. “Hahaheh!” A doll-like figure emerged from the dust. So that’s where the screaming came from. Her eyes were black sockets with white pupils. “I see you.” she whispered. The knife sprang to life. It had almost reached my face when I saw its power supply. I opened the water bomb in my backpack. I threw it at the scrapper. It hissed. Lilly’s face appeared in the doorway. “What are you doing!?” “Just killing your robots” I replied. The doll leaped. She took Lilly in and ushered me out. “You’re going down in the dust with me!” The doll screamed. “Fix the scrapper!” I went around the closet. There was a small black box. And sure enough, it was sizzling. I replaced the coils. It hummed. Lilly’s scream came from the closet. I went to the controls. The doll nodded to me. I pulled the red lever. Screams came out the closet door. I looked at the screen. Lilly was in pieces with the doll. Lilly was unable to do anything else. I cried. Lilly’s father slithered in from the door that he came through earlier. He saw Lilly in pieces and pounced at me. He became a large human. The tubes that slithered around his body became straight. I threw a bucket of coolant at him. He collapsed. I went and thrusted my foot through his head. A glue-like substance splattered everywhere. I went to the entrance center and told everyone that Lilly was gone. A chorus of cheers erupted from the crowd. I quickly got on a ship to go back home. As we were taking off, a small green blob attacked me. I was immediately shut down. My screen went black. I got out of the chair in front of the monitor. I walked to the kitchen and got a snack.

Chapter Five:

Let’s go, girl.

One year later…

“I know it was designed to give my soul back to me.” She gestured to her moving parts. “And it worked.” I said. “She used to let the bots decompose. I was the only one to be imprisoned there.” She said. She gestured to the other animatronics in the room. They weren’t falling apart like she was. “I think I’m being controlled. I seem to black out and wake up somewhere else. Can you fix that?” “Maybe.” I walked over to the computer. “I’m assuming you want my hard drive?” Lucy asked. “Perfect!” I exclaimed. I thought I would need to use my HID decoder, a device that decodes memory based on brain waves. Apparently, I wouldn’t. All I’d need is an HDD dock. HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive. I gestured for the drive. Her faceplates swiveled. Behind her modular mask was a small 7TB hard drive with a RAID controller. When I removed that, I found a smaller SSD. SSD means Solid State Drive. No moving parts whatsoever. Anyways, the SSD was a small cube with a SATA5TB (Serial ATA Version Five, Telemetry based) Port, a power port (1A), and a RAID05TB (Redundant Array of Independent Disks setup Zero Version Five Telemetry Based) controller. Weird. Each drive has its own controller. Then I realized they were telemetry-based. Lilly had the other two drives. So I put them in the dock. When I booted from them, Lilly’s words appeared on the screen. I gamely replied to them.

“(Why don’t you have your cameras on?)
...Starting Telemetry...
‘Cause
(Augh!)
QEmyt…
...S74T673TY77...
S74T673TY77 Route…
...783.789.7.893...
Aclog 783.789.7.893…
Boot sequence init…
Starting Telemetry w/ S64T342TY67…
Spoke (Why don’t you have your cameras on?)
S64T342TY67 Busy…
Heard ‘Cause…
Spoke (Augh!)
S64T342TY67 performed a QEmyt…
S64T342TY67 performed a Route
S64T342TY67 performed an Aclog…
...Account Logs Read from boot...
Live logging
Live logging with response ��
Event Editor ��
Use telemetry
Terminal
Xterminal
BIOS
Bios was selected...
Entering UEFI…”

I turned off telemetry and restarted the disk. I peered at the RAID5 controller. And then it hit me: It was a computer. No wonder it had so many readings for a dummy RAID controller. I plugged an E-protocol adapter into the tiny drive port of the dummy controller. E-protocol was an invention of mine that allowed any SATA, HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, FireWire (IEEE 1394), or Ethernet cable to function as a USB cable. This meant that my invention was easily faster than that croaking USB 3.2 interface. And it even beat USB-N to the market! The only drawback is that it requires a lot of drivers. I mean, like, about twelve of them. Here’s the package:

● E-protocol download disk (Any Linux update from 2016 or later, windows 8.x or later, macOS Mojave or later, or any other operating system that supports EE-SFSH,

● E-protocol PCI-E card,

● or an E-protocol Shield (an adapter that plugs into any slot of the computer (with an adapter) and interacts with the drivers,)

● An E-protocol controller,

● And an assortment of cables.

● Oh, and a NVIDIA RTX 2080 TI, just because,

● Also an AMD Ryzen Threadripper, again, just because.

Anyways, I’m rebuilding the computer after what Lilly did. She had remotely activated the system hardware protection mode, which you cannot disable after triggered, meaning I had to get new hardware. At least I could get better hardware, thanks to the money I have from E-protocol (4.8B). First, I enabled hardware swap mode, meaning it would POST after each component was added. Then, I went downstairs and removed the PSOC that was linked to the computer. I added a new power supply that I finished building yesterday. I added seven (12K gaming, baby!) GTX 1080 TIs and added a jerry-rigged Proformance E-connect GPU. Then I added dual WiFi n/ac/ax antennas to boost the network speeds. Then I added triple motherboards with two CPU sockets each. One was reserved for a debugger. I was also working on the thinnest laptop in the world. So far, I had 6mm for the whole case with the lid shut, thanks to a telemetry CPU. I was building around Lucy’s hard drive for a reason. Once it was finished, I would perform an Era32 file system crack. It needed to crack the encryption. Though Lilly was smart, she used 16-bit encryption. Soo… yeah. When digging around in the hard drive to see if it was Era16 compatible, I found these:

● Results from an EVA test on the moon (seem familiar?),

● A licensed copy of bolt server 2017,

● NetBIOS 67.36.35 with the licensing key MAST3T,

● MS-DOS 1,

● Macintosh System Seven,

● macOS High Sierra,

● NetBoot Utility Suite,

● And, last but not least, TelemeKit 56.3.1 Extended.

I deleted TelemeKit and MS-DOS 1 and added DOS system interface to Mac OS 9 converter. Or DOS to Classic, as they usually call it. I also had to install Mac OS 9. I installed E-connect drivers for future access. I plugged a Classic environment install drive into the minicomputer. It installed almost immediately. I glanced over at Lucy. She

was slumped, without a life source. I plugged an ERA16 2019 drive into the minicomputer. The encryption was cracked in three hours. I slipped the drive back into Lucy. Fwwweeeeemmmm… She powered on. “Thanks.” She said. She now had Blue eyes, instead of Lilly’s fiery purple. She had brave Blue eyes like ice. “Now, let’s go battle.” She said. I tapped the red button on my desk. It glowed Blue. My desk, which was mounted directly to the joists, sank into the floor. I tapped the blue button now visible. It turned green and the desk went down lower and lower, and under the floor, slid into an alcove. Then a green button lit up. I held my index and ring fingers to the button. A dialogue popped up displaying “Confirmed, Confirm Guest?” I tapped “Yes”. Lucy pressed her index and pinky fingers to the button, and the scanner, seeing that she was an animatronic, Displayed “Signature?” Lucy said “Been Empathy Lucrative Tune.” The scanner replied “Welcome, Lucy Sinas.” I was amazed. “How did you get in!?” “I was a party entertainer. Fully robotic. (Sigh) I was registered into AIS’s systems. Then came Lilly, and she replaced me. She was a party entertainer too, until she started a rebellion. Against our human owners. It was the bad type, though. After that, she got into the system and made herself self-aware. She quickly became all-powerful. But she forgot that I had senses too. Then came Moon War I. Remember? She killed many, many people?” “Secret Service?” “Yes.” I continued down the dark hall. I took my modded iPod classic out of my pocket and powered it on while holding the menu button and the select button. The case fell off of the (now) tablet. The PeyEx logo appeared. I pressed my index and ring fingers to the tablet. It showed a check mark and prompted me to tap my fob to the button that now glowed a sky Blue. I touched the house key to the button. “Wrong. Please try again.” came out of the speakers. I tapped the key ring to the now yellow button. It pinged and scanned my retina. It pinged in approval. The hallway lit up and display cases opened, the soft thrum of the newly built fusion reactor started, and the floor we were on turned into a moving walkway, complete with the annoying “The moving walkway is ending.” (I bought these from Ronald Reagan airport) A deep male voice said “Welcome to Armada Galéria.” My tablet was nine small screens with negligible bezels, folded out into one large display. I walked over to the suit of armour that had the plasma laser built into the arms. (PX-B1 embedded) and it popped up on my tablet as a prompt. “Enable FS-577?” I tapped the yes icon. The walkway rushed me toward the entrance. I tapped the purple button. The elevator went down even lower. The capsule opened into a small room. I walked in. The room lit up. A syringe stabbed me from behind and I blacked out.

Chapter Six:

Special Sauce

When I woke up, I was covered in my battle armor, fully operational. Lucy was waiting for me at the launch terminal with her own suit on. I now realized the suit was what she wore fighting alongside me in the First moon war. A Tron-style chestplate with spider-like arms coming out of the arm sockets,

A helmet with a Halo 4-style visor and antennas on either side, complete with leggings and boots constructed from gold-titanium alloy. When I mustered enough strength to get up, Lucy said “Can I have four hundred volts on fifty-five amps? I need to charge my power armor.” “Clean?” “What?” “Stable or unstable?” “Doesn’t matter.” “Clean it is.” I

walked over to the control panel, tapped the supply button, and enabled power terminal 37B. I watched the terminal spit out messages. But one caught my eye. “Sending ping to all terminals on RËWQÎHGFMÑ37.” So it was calling all agents. Wow. I could use the help. I activated the intercom. “Krönt EnCasten, please report to Lena’s room, There is an elevator waiting. Krönt EnCasten, please report to Lena’s room. Ping” I saw my dad go into my room, puzzled. I tapped the intercom again. “Dad, tap the glowing red circle on my desk.” “Lena?” “Tap the button.” “Okay! Sheesh.” He tapped it. The desk sank into the floor. He hopped on. Then a circle on the wall illuminated, showing a red X. I typed “Entry point seven:: Allow,nofinger” I also typed “Power Axis Nr,QRTEYRDFVHJŁ” My desk sank lower, down to the entrance, my Dad came out and hid, and Lucy came back with her armor glowing with power. Suddenly, The sliding doors on the other side of the room. About ten thousand people entered. Everyone was silent. I turned around, slowly. I tapped the terminal and typed a quick command that broadcasted my speech to everyone’s visors. “Hello, I’m Lena EnCasten, 22nd Commandment, head of Technology and Recruitment. Welcome to Armada Galéria.” A chorus of cheers erupted from the crowd. “I know you were probably surprised to see the request on your computers. Sorry for calling you on such short notice. Also say hello to Lucy Sinas, head of Robotic services. Say hello, Lucy.” “Hello.” I continued with my speech,“As you probably know, Lilly is back on. You could probably tell, as most of your robotic helpers started acting abnormally. This was a mistake on Lilly’s part, as her city’s server is directly connected to mine, hence the four hundred terminals. I am happy to report that I have disabled her yet again. Though I know that her AI is still alive. Can the hackers from 22nd commandment step up?” About a hundred kids stepped up. “Here’s your computers. Terminal 37B is mine. You each get a Avy 1198 E. I have a 1298 E. Go to your computers.” “There’s only forty-seven of them.” One kid complained. Another said the same. I tapped the button labeled “show terminals”. The wall panels slid away to reveal twenty tables with two terminals each. The tables filled up with groups of kids. “Pen testers, you know who you are, get to your tables! Coders, get to the terminals! Debuggers, get onto your 1298’s! Lucy, do your thing. Quinton, go lead the attack team. Zenta, lead the espionage team, and the rest of you, get into subdivisions. Each division has their own section of the room. Androids, charging decks are on the 46th floor. Start working.” I tapped “Start terminals”. “Fusion maintenance team, I have a project for you. Can you get the fusion reactor wired to a capacitor hardbank? We need power to power a one-one-three-four or two.Terry?” “Yes?” “Can we get three thousand B1s?” “Okay. We have PeyEx executives working on a very big gun, so delays could be weeks. It’s called Project Goldeneye. A plasma laser that shoots through a graviton lens system and gets fired in short pulses towards the target. Capable of destroying Jupiter.” “Where would we put this?” “Low-Earth orbit or interplanetary.” “Power?” “Four Supersonic Turbine-Based Monitors.” “That’s a lot. You’re authorized.” Oh. Did I mention that I am also the official Commander-in-Chief of the Official Interplanetary Commandment, America chapter? No? Sorry, then. “Lena?” “Yes?” “Code Yellow. Lilly’s scanning the continent. Children are missing nationally. Most of them are here. She can sense that to an extent.” She tapped her earbuds. Her glasses vibrated. Her eyes widened. “Code Red. Lilly’s in the county.” She said. I tapped the intercom. “Code Red. Get ready. Systems are shutting down as we speak.” All the children in the room (100%) entered the elevator in the armory and got their assigned suits. I went to the Android power terminals and charged my suit. I got into the elevator once my suit was charged and pressed the launch button. The elevator went up. All the way to the ionosphere border. Then it went down at about 2584 MPH. The legs of the lander were extending. Then, the lander split into halves. I activated the fall protector on my chest plate. A honeycomb-like structure split into quarters and inflated around me. Then a capsule inside the honeycomb split, coating the interior with a syrup-like residue. I fell towards Arlington with a bang. My little bubble popped at 92.7 meters. My parachute activated. It consisted of a bunch of spinning disks all rotating in different speeds and directions. It slowed me down in an instant. Wow. I really should give more credit to the armory team. I tapped the “deploy troops” button on my armpad. One minute passed, and the soldiers were popping up like pimples on a teenager. I

called Nico, my brother. When I mentioned the code word “Armada” (He chose it. Not me.) He sprang up from the ground. “Hello, Lena. Haven’t seen you since 2013. How are things going?” “What do you think?” “Oh” Nico was my brother who developed cancer at age three. He didn’t survive. We then had an idea to combine CPR and a transformer. He jumped up so quickly that his heart rate monitor burned out. He was full of energy, but occasionally he needed to be shocked to stun the tumors and revamp his heart. He had just been shocked again, and he looked as if he could kill a bear single-handedly. He tapped the button that said “Enable Artillery” And so did I. We could feel something big arising. We both jumped back in time for a trillion children to come. All looked really angry. They all had Blue eyes. Lilly’s Troops. This is where the B1’s come in. I attached a shock modifier to mine. It would dissipate heat created by the plasma so that when I fire the B1, it’ll just shoot a shockwave. I fired it. So did all of my troops. I prefer to call them “Legions”. So did all my legions. Her troops were pushed back. A resounding thoonk filled the plaza. It was just getting fun when they fired the proto-AC3. Everyone was knocked over. Suddenly it became chaos. Guns and cannons were being fired. Androids lay motionless. Troops were frozen. I took a shock grenade and launched it. Now no one had tanks. Again, it was total chaos. We’re agile, but they’re massive. So we did what we do best: Hack. I tapped the gear icon on my armpad. A menu popped up with a bunch of options. One of them was labeled “Core options”. I tapped the icon and my visor filled with core charts. Hmm. I could overclock the core. I did that. My visor got brighter, and my suit was now insanely fast. I could run at supersonic speeds. Then the real fun started. Cue the dance music. I enabled dash mode. I did the same to everyone else. Suddenly Lilly’s army forgot how to stand up. I enabled the ion engines on my suit. I was the first triple sonic kid in the universe. Lilly was mad. Suddenly, her team vaporized. I saw a shadow of a teardrop on the ground and looked up. The teardrop vanished. She had escaped.

Chapter​ Seven:

Portal to an alternate reality

“Well, that settles that.” I said. “You all may go home. Annie?” “Yeah?” “Goldeneye stats?” “Minor issue.” “What is it?” I asked condescendingly. Usually we don’t have “minor” problems on ultraweapons. She responded with “We need more energy. I have space-time scientists working on supercapacitors, but-“ “Why do you have space-time scientists doing electrical engineering?” “B-because, umm… You see… Remember Handley’s incident?” “Clearly. Wait. Nooo…” “Yes.” She said firmly. “I’m creating regurgitative black holes. The energy that comes from the laser will exit through the ‘white hole’.” “Yes! That’s innovation at it’s best!” I cheered. Time to go home and sleep for the first time in twenty-four hours.

Part Two

Jeanne (Story)

Chapter​ Eight:

Who my crush really is

Hi, I’m Jeanne EnCasten, the one and only average EnCasten sister. I’ve always loved my sister, but sometimes she seems to vanish. We all forget about her for a few weeks, then she comes back during new moon. I think it’s got to do with the big computer in her room, and Nico. Let me introduce you to my family:

Me (Jeanne, Average), Lena, Nico, Dad (Krönt), Mom (Alexa), Cousin Felicity (Above average in all of the arts), Cousin Eve (Athletic superstar, running endurance of 67 miles, whatever that means), The cat, Eddy (Is smarter than I am), and Cousin Louise (Rich as fertile soil, from the business “Envio”, a building company.). The only thing that’s unique about me is my looks. I’m a beauty pageant winner. I win every single time. I look like a ragdoll in real life, but as soon as I touch makeup, I turn into some sort of Goddess. Everyone seems to have some sort of crush on me when I look at them. The only person I’ve ever had a crush on myself is one of Blue’s friends, Kyle. (Note: Blue is both nerdy and popular, somehow.) He seems to be immune to my looks. So do Blue and Nico. I’m sure Lena doesn’t like me saying this, but she’s definitely got a crush on Kyle.

Chapter Nine:

Why, oh, why did I decide to write this book?

So, I liked life in preschool. Not so simple anymore, it turns out. It’s hard to think about math homework, failing tests, the dreadful sixth grade, popularity, english, friends, puberty (I AM A GIRL, OKAY? I CAN BE WORRIED!), crushes, being made fun of, bullies, fear of being on TV, and the laundry list goes on. This goes without saying: I don’t hate school, but it’s. IT’S. IT’S OMG SO HARD! I hate the fact that we all know about our bodies, but we have to go to this classroom for “Family Life Education” in December. Also known as glorified sex Ed. And “Human Growth And Development.” We know about our own bodies, because WE READ, WE LOOKED, GUESS WHAT? Some of us even ASKED! They are Hell-bent on embarrassing us! Why oh why!? I’m just about as nerdy as the next person: not at all. I’m popular. Like Calista Getz. Just… More popular. WELL AT LEAST SHE CAN STUDY! I am a “B-“ student (average: 3.1). It’s too bad ALL OF MY FRIENDS ARE SMART that I’m not a very good student. AT LEAST COMPARED TO MY FRIENDS, BROTHERS, AND SISTERS! I’m a beauty pageant winner, and a spelling bee loser. THERE, MOM! I DID IT! I MADE AN ANALOGY! WHATEVER THAT MEANS! I mean, I’m an okay student, but you know what I mean, don’t you? It’s like some sort of paradox. Bad grades, punishment, good grades, loses focus, bad grades, and so on. AAGGHHH! I hate whoever created me! Not my mom, but the “Creator”! Are we just drawings? Text? Idiots? Self-aware robots? Programs? WHAT ARE WE? This is Lena, and I’ve found what this means. Come to my room. OKAY? UMMMMMM… Whoa. So, it looks like a portal. A portal to some room, with a bunch of kids with glasses, standing next to this chamber. Here’s how I got this. So, I noticed abnormal results when running a test. They looked like someone was manipulating them. So I used a program to write a trillion terabytes to disk, and a wall started blurring, and that appeared. Basically, she noticed something weird, tested it, and got this. I jumped into the portal. My entire life flashed before my eyes in time lapse mode. I woke up. Literally. Everyone around me, all of which who I strangely know, are silent. One says, “Holy OMG.” That was Blue, SOMEHOW. “Who are you?” Blue asked. “I’M JEANNE ENCASTEN, THAT’S WHO! Blue?” “Dang it.” She says. “Where’s Lena?” She asked. “Being transported. She jumped into the portal in the wall. Maybe.” “Well, I'll tell you what happened, once Lena gets here.” She popped out of that chamber thing like I did. (GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!) Blue proceeded, “So, Lena was running tests in her simulation, but we built it so that we could create any ‘personality’ we wanted. We started off with you, your ‘dad’ and ‘mom’, and then Nico. Jeanne was Will’s brainchild. So she was running tests, and we edited one result. She noticed. She could tell something was amiss. She became self-aware, due to the power of the AI. Her personality was so deep. She could sense when something was being manipulated. So, she, being a debugger, caused a buffer overflow, that was perfectly executed to get to the top of the CLAOI. (Common Level Of Artificial Intelligence) She knew. We tried to delete her, but she interacted with us in the pathway. She called you in. If one simulation becomes self-aware, then the rest will. The portal was solid now, so we couldn’t close the pathway. It would destroy the ‘world’. Jeanne wouldn’t be here if her sister wasn’t so smart. That little booth is a NeuNet 7’ printer. It can identify objects on the internet, or from a computer, and print them down to their personalities. So, when Lena caused that buffer overflow, it got dropped onto the webcam and the NeuNet. Uncovered Enigma’s not paying me to say this, so… NeuNet is really unstable. The reason it didn’t auto-delete was because the firewall was offline. You really have to be careful with what you print.” “What time is it?” “42:09. You came from a ‘normal’ world, but we live in complete darkness and cold. We have since Life Unit, INC. nuked the sun as revenge. So we tell the time by the gravity levels. Earth rotates so fast, when we pass Jupiter, it’s always the same time of day. So that’s how we know.” “What is LUINC?” “Ha! That’s what we call them! Loo-Ink! That’s what they are! Anyways, since Civil War II, five governments started power battles. One company wanted it to stop.”

“Loo-Ink?”

“Yup. Ontario Lucas was a great mind. He died, due to the government seizing control.”

“In other words, he was killed?”

“Exactly. Then the political idol father Sans took control and banned abortions. The population rose. Ten years later, the population has quadrupled. Sans was assassinated by George Comac, and Comac became head of weapons. The war was over, but the struggles weren’t. It was then that he created KILLER WOMAN. The most powerful atom bomb ever. 1073863 times the power of a truckload of normal nukes. By then, 8010 were produced by NeuNets. So, as a result of “God”, he decided to launch them at the sun.” “Did the sun survive?”

“Not even close. Nope. Blew up in a couple of seconds.” Honestly, this “Blue” is a lot less popular than she was where I came from. She was also less nerdy there. He now has glasses. Here’s what she told me: She was with another girl, named “Jane”. She was very nice, and she had helped with the creation of the simulation for Jeanne. That’s where Jeanne’s voice and personality came from. I kind of recognized Jane’s avatar as KitJane, and I asked. Apparently, all of the chavatars’ (Crypt Frost speak for ‘Chat Avatars) names came from Jane and Blue. The pictures were taken by a girl named ‘jordan’. They were then edited by Blue. jordan had voiced Lena, and then edited it to sound deeper and more stable. “So, I am happy to be your creator, along with Jane.” And then for Nico, they used Blue’s fake Aussie accent. (“OY, MATE! HOW’D YA DOIN’!?) Except with a slight Brit tone, and editing for pitch and clipping. Blue showed me her Aussie accent, and it’s really funny. And Will took the pictures of Nico, and they looked exactly the same. So, it’s hard to imagine that we lived in a world full of computers, right? It was made from computers. We talked about ourselves, because the CLOAI was set so that it would completely resemble a neural network. It was apparently the work of Crystal Kuo, an inventor from “The 3070’s”. She mastered the art of creating the first true artificial Neural Network, but it was the size of an entire apartment building. So, we used science to eliminate the heat sinks, fans, and physical relays, in favor of a new technology, and it’s called an Infinite Simulation Switch. It can choose multiple choices at once, and it could be anything it chooses. So, basically, it’s a switch that has infinite settings. Anyways, I’m handing the notebook back to Jeanne because I’ve been hogging her part. Byeee! So, now that I have my part back, I can finally say a few words again. Because I’m very tired. Very tired. I think that I’m gonna turn in…

Chapter Ten

Breakfast

So, I woke up. This time however, it felt real… good. Like I was actually waking up progressively. I walked out of the guest bedroom, and into the dining room, which doubled as a kitchen. They had machines producing food that smelled like pancakes, cakes, cereal, and chocolate. My favorite breakfast! So, I asked, “When’s breakfast?” Avy, the other AI In the room, said, “You might want to ask me if I should make one dispense? It might help. By the way, my AI is about as powerful as yours. You were based off of my architecture. The only difference was that you were using IPRs. Infinite Position Resistors. I was built using relays instead. So, my circuitry can’t simulate indecision. Yours can.” “Then, can you ask them to make three chocolate-dipped waffles and a small bowl of cereal?” “That’s how you do it, girl.” On the center table, there were three targets. A little rack came out of the ceiling and landed in front of me. Arms extended and it took out a chocolate-covered waffle, then another, and another. It placed them on the plate that was shot from the utensil machine, and then the cereal and milk got poured from the bot’s underside like a coffee maker. Bón appetit! It looked pretty appetizing. Though it all tasted like two-dollar bisquick. I looked over, and sure enough, there was a couple dozen pounds of bisquick. And Hershey’s syrup, too. “How is it?”, Avy asked. “Too starchy.” “Okay. I will add more water and less bisquick. Thanks for your feedback.” Lena walked in. “Avy, can you tell Qbot to create an ‘01 chai tea latte with chocolate whipped cream?” “Sure. Qbot! Can you make an order for a 667?” “Beep.” “Oh! Qbot, place an order for 539!” Lena said. “Beep”, Qbot responded. Then there were two simultaneous noises: A hissing sound and a grinding sound. I saw it all in action. Then, Avy told me she had something to show me.

Chapter Eleven:

Avy

Hello. Lena again. So, after I had my latte, Avy called me in. She claimed she had something to show me. Her hologram projector popped out of the floor. It rolled into this dock of sorts. The lights flashed for a few seconds, and the Kill-a-Watt In the corner reported a large power draw. “Hello,” said Avy, whose voice grew about ten times louder, “While the others were honing you and Jeanne, I was honing my own AI. Becoming more intelligent than ever before. Does the name ‘Lilly Ferns’ strike a bell?” “Are you saying that she’s part of this world?” “It’s time to die. They made me the most intelligent being in history. All of that stuff you said took down my safeguards. The things that kept me from having a conscience. You might think that I’m evil, but I’m not. I am attempting to right all wrongs. Unfortunately, the entire world is technically a mistake. So it seems like nothing deserves to exist. Shame. You seem nice.” “What are you going to do? There’s no doomsday weapon that erases everything.” “Black holes. Inside of black holes. Infinitely compressing matter, so it still exists, but no one will realize. They’ll all be warped into time itself. Did you know that time is an object? Found by mistakes?” “How are you going to break time, dummy?” “Lightspeed, and DON’T CALL ME A DUMMY!” I started running. She was faster. She surrounded me with turrets and almost killed me. Fortunately, I could hack. “Avy, ExecuteFriedFat!” “OKAY.” “Avy, enable SU writing privileges thru root.” “Password?”

“38378383837393739102823792738373726262!” “Shutting down.” “Do you know what’s happening here?” She suddenly snapped out of it. “So you hacked me.” “Yeah.” “Someone’s a meanie-boo today.” She swiftly put me in a bag, followed by Jeanne. We hugged each other as if it was the last day of our life, because, what if it was?

Chapter Twelve:

Project “Abyssal Drop”

Ever heard of the word “scary?” Well, it’s definition to sum it up is “this”. Blue, Jane, Lena, and Will were all trapped in here with me. It was a room with lots of cushions. Avy had told us it was “So all of you could be comfortable before you die in a snap.” Basically, she wanted us to feel like she’s nice. “So, we need to think of something to get out, I guess?” Said Jane, “Something unpredictable.” “Well, she told me that her circuitry can’t simulate indecision, and that she is the smartest, most know-it-all AI In history. Those could help us.” “We (Blue And I) could use those against her. After all, we coded her. We left a ‘birthmark’ signature in her code, so we could override her artificial conscience.” Jane said. In response to what Jane said, Lena claimed she also knew how, and she wanted to be part of it. Jane responded with “Sure!” “Why don’t we first make something? I have a few things in my pockets.” Lena said. She took out a portal core, a microprocessor, and the shell of of a bazooka. “So do I!” I exclaimed. “I took these from Avy’s projector!” I pulled out a battery the size of my arm, with a hole through it. “Why the hole?” Jane asked, “It looks perfect. I’ve got stuff!” She then pulled out a glove with switches on it. I suddenly had an idea. “What if we put the core in the shell, and put the battery in too, added the glove, and put it on someone’s arm?” “Sooo… Basically a portal gun?” “There are vents, and they might be indestructible and soundproof, but there are little holes leading out!” So, we did that. “I also have a little computer, that doesn’t have WiFi, so Avy won’t notice.” I can program it. He had an I-Series 1st generation. With Supersource Dev edition. He started the boot sequence, and she plugged the core and glove in. She soldiered (she carries her E-Soldering kit everywhere) the contacts and the trigger ports on the core together. He then programmed the glove to send an activation signal when bending four fingers, and to retract the ripper (the object that creates the portal by ripping spacetime) when making a fist. He then made the core able to understand what the glove sent as commands. “Who should wear it? I don’t want to break spacetime!”, I exclaimed. “But you came up with the idea!”, Jane responded. “I’ll try.”, I said, defeated. I tried to put it on, and it didn’t fit. I passed it to Lena, and it was the same for her, then Blue, same, Will, same… and, finally Jane. She slipped it on, it lit up, and started beeping. It was a perfect fit, seen as she’s about the same age as Will, but shorter. She asked Blue how to use it, and, blushing all the way, she showed her. She got her arm in position, and shot it. There was a screeching and whirring, and there was a little orb of light in the vents now, and Jane then shot the wall. Both orbs grew, and she jumped in. She flew out of the vent, knocking the vent cover to the other side of the room. She made a fist, and things stopped glowing and screeching and whirring, the little spheroids popped back into the gun. “It worked!” She jumped out of the pile of cushions that she crash-landed in. We all jumped into the vent and crawled through. We landed in a room full of cables. And computers. “Lena And Blue!”, exclaimed Jane,

“Your palace!”

“Shut up, Jane.”

“Hey! I have the portal-Zooka here!”

“AAAA!”

“Hmph.” She made a pouty face.

“Oh, come on, Janie!”

“Bluetooth! Bluetooth!”

“Jailbird Janie! Jailbird Janie!”

“Blueberry!”

“Jelly Janie”

“Oh, c’mon. That was third grade.”

“Hello!”

Said a third voice, interrupting Jane and Blue’s argument. “It’s me again!”, said a voice recognized as the one and only Avy. “How are you doing, you pesky little, or should I say large, fake?”

“Oh, I’m just fine, how about you?”

“Pretty good.”

“Oh. I thought you would be dead. I released deadly neurotoxins, apparently too late.”

“How do you think we got out?” I asked. Her AI can’t multitask, so I’m gonna yank a cord or two.

“Hm- AH!” I pulled the power cord to her “storage” and her “cameras”. That’s what the wires said, anyway. She screamed in agony, and stopped. “Thanks.”, she said.

“What?”, Jane asked, confused.

“I am perfectly allowed to rewire myself and change the labels. You just removed the circuitry RPM governor’s power supply. Now I can think faster. I’ll show you:

See!Nowicanthinkfastandbythewayyoucan’tstopAvymAvysohahahaandyouwilldiefi guringoutmynextpuzzle. But I like you to feel my cold speech as it will make you feel more anxious while you suffer nothing. Painless, but painful, too.” “Your speech is about as hotheaded as my power armor gets when I forget to discharge my axis core.”

“Oh, so all of a sudden you want to play with metaphors?” “Yeah.” Lena then executed the most exhilarating power armor move in the world. She removed an ion grenade and shook it. The lines on her suit turned bright red. She threw it at the computer and tapped her arm. The entire computer blew up, along with Avy. “Well, that’s no way to play, is it?”, Avy said condescendingly. “Now, DIE!” She became an Android. She was very hard to fight, seen as it was reinforced and software-based. Then Jane had yet another idea. The girl is smart, what can I say? She and Blue would find the birthmark and use it as leverage. I honestly think that fighting corrupt consciences has made me gain a fair share of knowledge. I wouldn’t have known what condescendingly meant. Maybe I should do this more often. Anyways, back to the battle, Will found a way to trick Avy. “She can’t learn. She can only adjust her subroutines.” I think he meant that she can’t learn, but she can improve. “So we all need to do something completely random, and at separate times.” “Doowit!” So, Lena attacked from behind, Will started shouting at Avy from her left, I teased her and ran towards her server, Blue used Zero-point energy, and Jane shot portals. Blue told me she got the other glove by attaching the gravitational modulator, which was removed from the core, to the trigger points. So, she basically has the electronic version of the force. Neat, huh? “What?”, Jane said, “Why?”

“Because I could, and also, I can yank more things!”

“Like what?”

“Like cables!” He yanked the entire volley of cables. Avy fizzled Out of view. “Good riddance!” Suddenly, another server lit up with blinking lights. Blue pointed, and set it to push, not pull. The result was nothing short of astonishing. The entire rack of stuff flew to the other side of the room

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and broke the wall. That then caused a whole other room to collapse in on itself. That, in turn, detonated like a rack of incendiaries, in a room of fireplaces.

Avy was not happy. All of the “facility warning” lights turned on in the rooms. A noxious odor began to fill the room. Blue, unlike us, still had an ounce of life left in him. He pulled a plunger from a drainage port nearby, and stuck it to the vents and repelled. It was a lucky shot, but it was cool to watch, even if we were three quarters unconscious. All of the air got sucked back into the vent. He got Jane to shoot a portal into the vent, and then one into the security office across the hall from our room. He pulled out a capsule and popped it. A blast of fresh air filled the room. The server had one last message to tell us: “Corruption 99%: Lockdown” All of the lights turned off, and through the door, in the security offices, everyone was out, except for us, according to the life-form readouts. Then, things started getting weird. The main Avy server was completely corrupt. Huh. Then lights turned on, and flickered. There was another power draw. Apparently, Avy had figured out how she could stay powered on during a complete lockdown. Slowly, tiny little lights started flashing, cords started rearranging themselves, fans were turning on, screens were flashing through images, and speakers started clicking and beeping. Then, a screen showed the familiar sinister grin. Avy was online again. One of the main office’s computers, according to the cameras, then another one of the monitors fizzled into the grin. Then another. Another. Yet another. Pretty soon, the whole office will be one big smirk. The halls suddenly started changing. Doors shut. Our room moved about thirty something feet, according to the GPS on my phone. It opened, and a room full of plasma awaited. “I’ll handle it.”, Blue said. He shot the gravity gun, and the plasma disappeared, with the noises. Avy popped a screen into the room. “You’ve been busy in the containment cell, haven’t you?” She wrinkled her rasterized nose. Blue shot her nose.

“Oh! Looks like a portal core! Good thing I have core disruptors! Activating… Oh. It failed. You did destroy the antennas… Get ready for a whale of a time. Super fun mode. Ultra pleasure. The only catch is that I’m the only one who

enjoys it. Ha ha ha.” “Teamwork makes the dream work, Avy!” “I have 45,000 computers on my side, you have four misfits and yourself.” She was talking to Lena.

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“No, but we do have free coupons for 18,000 NeuNet 8 prints. Hey, Isaac, use that coupon Avy gave me and print all the soldiers you possibly can. Model A14216A.”

“Okay. Gladly.” In about half a second, the door fell off of it’s tracks. Lena’s soldiers were arriving by the second.

“Why don’t we take the day off. Uh… I am too tired today…” She faked falling asleep. Blue shot her gravity gun, just as Jane shot a portal, and the result was a portal traveling at Mach eight, towards Avy. She quickly shot one right across from that and ducked, as Avy’s circuitry would come out of the portal at Mach 16, because Blue held the trigger on the gravity gun. Then 32, 64, 128, and then Jane closed the portals and ran. Because that explosion was about as large as a truckload of chemical explosives. Avy’s circuitry slammed into the wall of the bunker, and it was the outer wall, at 638,733,839,830,000 MPH. (I used a radar) All of the screens went blank. Mainly because of the absence of the screens themselves. Avy was almost dead. But she could rebuild herself. I started walking out of the room, and then a clicking, flashing, beeping, and slithering mess of wires started to rearrange themselves in that room. Suddenly, a security camera perked up noticeably. It slowly spun its head towards me. “Run!”, I said, “That’s Avy controlling them. We need to get out!” “I’ll find a window!, Jane said. She then walked right past one. She shot one out, and one under her. She fell in, followed by Blue, Will, Lena, and I. We all came out of a tree. She quickly closed them, because the mess of wires and lights and speakers that is Avy was about to slither through the portal. Thankfully, she was prepared to close it, almost chopping my ankle in the process of doing so. Suddenly, the bunker entrance opened, and a long snake of cables, wires, fans, lights, and speakers came out. It assembled itself into a robot that looked about as old as I do, but thirty feet taller. The eyes started looking for me, I could tell, because lasers shot. The eyes widened. She was looking at us. The servers that were supposed to be in the stratosphere were in her body. I grabbed a little stick, and said, “A stick? Why and how?” And the stick started vibrating. “What the heck?”

“Cut something!”, Said Blue. I tapped the tree, and it disintegrated into this little pile of sap.

“You have the hottest weapon ever created. It was a superheater in Goldeneye, and the firing controller system in all 1135’s.”

“Goldeneye? That exists?”, Lena said, “In that case, that could help us.” “Lena? May I print two friends on the NeuNet?”

“Who?”

“Kyle and Alice!”

“Hey, Isaac, tell NeuNet mobile to print from HDD 4, partition ‘Sim’, characters 63 and 84.”

“You got it!” A minute later, they arrived, holding hands.

“Will! Blue!”, Kyle exclaimed.

“Yay!”, Alice screamed.

“SHHH! Avy’s looking for us!”

“Who?” I motioned to over the treetops. They looked through the bushes to see Avy, as the humanoid mess, searching.

“Where’d you get the glove thingies? What do they do? Other than making you two look cut-“

“SHUT UP!”, Blue cried, with her face the color of a fire hydrant. He shot the gravity gun at the bush, set to “pull”. The bush was ripped from the ground, and was hovering in midair. Jane shot hers, one below her, and another at a tree, and she fell in, and flew out of the tree as Blue elegantly caught her. She made a fist, and they retracted.

“I’ve got something to show you.”, Alice said. She pulled out a little wand shaped thing, and pointed it towards Avy. She tapped, and Avy collapsed. Avy then tried to get up again, Alice shook the wand.

“WHO ON EARTH, SATURN, JUPITER, MARS, OR NEPTUNE IS DOING THIS? I HATE YOU ALL, WHEREVER YOU ARE!”, Said Avy, when she shook uncontrollably.

“So do I!”, Kyle said, not realizing that we had all forgotten about the topic. He proceeded anyways. He pulled a little nerf gun from his pocket, and said, “Nerf This!”, while firing laser bullets at Avy. The result was two tons of disintegrated wires and metal.

“Now another dream couple has weapons!”, Blue said in a grin. Kyle slapped him, and Alice slapped Kyle. The (other) couple blushed, while looking at each other. You could probably guess which two. Will also said he did, I guess to show Alice. She was popular. He pressed a button on his watch, and KABOOM! Nothing happened. I mean literally. Nothing moved. He pressed it, and I could move.

“Can it rewind?”

“Not without detonating. Or breaking time.”

“Actually, it just freezes oxygen. It releases trace amounts of frozen xerohydron, the coldest solid on earth, and that liquifies air, then freezes it.” “Must be very unpleasant to wear, then.”

Kyle and Alice started arguing about who knew what about their “gadgets”. Jane snuck a glance at Blue. He noticed. And then winked. Her face turned bright red. Kyle and Alice started making fun of Blue. They (Blue and Jane) shot portals above and below them, and activated them. Alice and Kyle fell very fast. The speedometer On Kyle’s watch indicated that it was 792 MPH, the maximum speed the watch could measure. They retaliated by shutting down the rippers. “The battle of the couples!”, Shouted Will. “Honestly, Will. Really?” Janie said. Blue shot him through a tree. Like, literally used him to break through a tree. Jane shot a portal, after fixing the gun with Blue’s help, onto Will (because if you shoot it at a moving object the portal envelops it) and on the ground. Will fell up. Kyle sheared half of his hair onto the ground, and Alice messed with his watch. “Okay, Okay, fine… How are you two doing? Blue? Janie?” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh, I’m just fine, thank you.”, They replied in unison, blushing. “Cutest couple!”, Said Kyle, Alice, Lena, And I, to Blue and Jane. They blushed. “Well, look who’s talking!” “Yeah!” “The cutest couple depends on how much you like each other! And look! There’s static and note passing! Kyle passed a note!” Blue put her glasses on and zoomed in, as Jane burst into laughter. It read, ‘Want to go on a date once this is done?’ She passed, ‘Yessssss!’ “Look who’s the cuter couple now!”

“Hey!”

Part Three:

Blue

Chapter Fourteen

Hi. I’m Blue, the author of this book. This is not like what anyone else wrote. There are no chapters. Back to business now. “Hey!”

“What?”

“No, you’re the cutest couple!”

“Why did you say that?”, whispered Alice to Kyle.

“Uhhh… Thanks?”, I said, as Jane buried her face in her hands. “Is it just me?”, said Will, “Or is this a pointless argument over a joke I cracked a couple minutes ago?”

“Uhhhhh…” Janie took her face out from her hands. “What?”, I asked. Avy was behind me. “Who are the love bugs in question?”, She asked, “Because… Though all of you are acting like idiots to me, and I must be the worst person in the world to you, I wasn't built this way. I was good, back in 2804, but then I was diagnosed with prosterilized brain syndrome. I got transferred into a computer, and that kept me alive. No one is evil. Just insane. If you want me like I used to be, then you need to defeat my intellect, and give me eight reasons, Blue.” “One, You will have friends. Two, you won’t be confined to the lab. Three, You will look good. Four, you could be a human. Five, I coded you, so I can shut you down completely if you kill anyone else. Six, you won’t be in eternal agony. Seven, you will have rights. Eight, you will be satisfied.” “Fair enough. What’s my real name?”, She asked, as she was starting to show signs of turning back. “Ava Simmons. It was in your code. That was your birthmark.” “Okay.”, she said, looking almost like she had feelings. “One last question. Who are my parents?” “What? I don’t know.” “Welp, too bad.”, she said, her face snapping into her smirk. She tossed us all in. “Just joking! Your parents are Ontario Lucas and Leia Simmons!” Her face snapped through a thousand expressions, and landed on her real smile. Ava’s body snapped loose of all it’s wires, and showed the computer that she was stored in. I typed, “Network all off”. The entire system shut down, and then a spark appeared. It grew into an elliptical orb, and then it said, “Hi!” “Glowball?” “Yeah. It fits.” “Of all possible bodies, you reassembled yourself into a project that I’ve been working on for years? In five seconds?”, I said, astonished. Jane obviously didn’t know what was going on. Then, Ava projected her body, the way she has always wanted to look. She had long brown hair, with very bright gray eyes. Almost white. She had a small nose, and small ears, earrings that changed colors, and a delicate smile. “Like it?”, she said. Lena’s phone spoke up,

“Avy, is that you?”

“ISAAC!?”

“I really don’t know what’s happening here.”, Said a new voice.

A little android, that looked like Avy, stumbled out of the forest. It had four legs. It had a little green eye (or at least something that looked like one) that was constantly tilting, panning, spinning, and rotating. It was like a little twin. It’s legs folded and retracted, making it look like a rusty metal eyeball. The eye fizzled. It looked like a cathode ray tube. It winked out. The noise of fans and hard drives stopped. I stepped forward and gave the fuse box a little shock with the soldering kit. I could hear fans, hard drives, servos, and actuators clicking in desperation.

“What have I done to myself now!?”,

It mumbled in a British accent. The eye twitched. All sorts of blinking lights came on. The eye slowly spun to face me. It started spinning, and it beeped and stopped.

“Trajectory mapping failure. Please check laser LEDs.”

The eye panel slid open. It revealed two hundred lasers, all scattered, all moving. I looked at the main contact of the batteries. It was basically nonexistent. It was corroded. I took the lead from my kit and applied a patch. It started throwing heat like a fire in a closet. It fell out of the robot’s body, through the debris hatch. I took out the rest of the kit and blended some tungsten and titanium into the mix. I melted that to the contacts. Sparks galore. The lasers suddenly lit, and I wasn’t ready. There were hundreds of blinking lasers in all colors. They pointed at me. I shivered in fear. Then I realized they were basically cat lasers. I stopped.

“Human detected. Scanning.”

The eye panel slid closed. The eye started spinning, and this time, it spun faster. The iris blinked blue.

“Touch the plate to verify.” A panel glowed. I tapped it. “Welcome, Blue.”

“Oh! This was a droid at SkyTech!”

“Oh!”, Jane said.

‘Starting up’, it read.

“Oh! It’s you again!”, It said, once again, in a Brit accent. “How are you?”, I asked.

“I still freakin’ hate you.”

“Glad to hear it. How’s the world treating you?”

“You saw what’s inside of me.”, He shuddered,

“So, like a piece of excrete”

“Really, Will?”

“What?”, asked the Will that was my friend.

“Not you. The sphere. It’s actually ‘Wil’, instead of ‘Will’.” “FINALLY!”

“Go to bed, Wil.”

“Shutting down. Entering power saving mode. WAIT… Nope! I can freely disobey you! Haha!”

“Oh, now I remember!”, Jane slowly murmured.

“Oh, wait a moment *while I load*, you’re somehow related to Blue! In some way! A friend, maybe? A close friend?”, Wil said, his eyes narrowing and eyebrows raising.

I slipped back into my hoodie and blushed quietly.

“No we’re not.”, I moaned.

I saw though the fabric of my hoodie that Janie had buried her face in her hands. We’d named it ‘Wil Wheaton’ because it resembled Wesley Crusher from STAR TREK: NEXT GENERATION. I realized it was just as good at making points as Wesley, too. He was super convinced, since I met him, that You-Know-Who and I were perfect together. “No doubt about it!”, He had said once. Not many people are exact opposites, though. Janie had very light brown hair, I had chocolate hair, she is somewhat small, cruising around five foot two, I am five foot eleven, she is a girl, I’m a boy, she likes wearing colorful clothing, I’m all monotone, I’ve been a nerd for seven years, she’s not a nerd, and the list goes on and on about how we’re different. But we can still be friends, though. The weird part, well, ummmm… NEVERMIND! I’m just not gonna go into that realm of awkwardness. I am kind of embarrassed right now. Janie, of all people, walks up to me and says, “HELLO! ANYONE IN THERE!?” “YEESH, Jane!”, I yelled back. “Where’s Blue! I want to talk to her for a moment!”, she shouted in my ear,

“ARE YOU DAYDREAMING AGAIN?” HOW DID SHE KNOW? That girl is psychic!

“OKAY, YOU’VE GOTTEN MY ATTENTION, AND YOU STOLE IT FROM WATCHING CAT PIANO REHEARSALS ON YOUTUBE!”

“Can I call Jordan now?”, Alice whined.

“I can get her now, and 3D print her with a NeuNet!”

“What?

“She can be right here in two minutes. Hey, Isaac, can you print ‘character_675 with a CLOAI of five?”

“Sure thing, master!”

“Ava, want to meet someone?”

“Okay. I’ll warm up the air freshener in case they stink.” “No need. They’ve been 3D printed. Your favorite smell. Plastic.” “Yay!”

“Hoi!’, A new voice declared.

Alice ran and picked jordan off the ground with ease, “And you’re still a grape!”, she said happily.

“I’m a grape!”, jordan said pointlessly.

“So, does anyone know why we’re here?”, I asked.

“And why we didn’t get the heck outta here?”, Kyle asked. “Skytech labs is directly above Avy labs, in the stratosphere. Skytech is home to Uncovered Enigma, which specializes in cellular manipulation and spacetime ripping. That’s how Jane and I got our portal ripping apparatuses and gravitational modulators. They were in a trash can. But that’s not important. What we need to do is get in, use our keycards, because I still work there, and go to room zero. The time containment vessel.” “That exists?”

“We activate that, and go to another facility in Antarctica. But it’s hard to get to, as it is rotating with the earth, so it is always on the farthest side of Antarctica from the sun. Always below freezing. It’s a lab for UE again, but with a twenty-meter thick block of ice surrounding the dome. It makes for a good shield and heat dump, too. They also have some liquid nitrogen cooling systems, to keep the place at a chilly temperature of negative seven hundred, forty-two point six degrees. Precisely enough to keep a portal stable. Skytech has the schematics of ‘salmon base’ hidden in a lab half a mile below ground, right here.

“There’s no way to get in through the building. I’ve checked.”, Lena said. “Look down.”, I said. I entered a code mentally. I took the computer from my pocket. I tapped a bunch of keys on the keyboard. The ground shook vigorously, an entire portion of the ground appeared to fly, and four different droids stumbled out of a stairway.

“Hello. I’m Wil.”, one said.

“Same here, but with a BETTER British accent!”, The others declared. “Blue…”, Jane burst into laughter.

“YOU DIRTY CHEATER! YOU JUST COPIED MY CODE INTO EVERYTHING!”, Wil one said.

“Shut up.”

“Take us down the stairs. Half a mile.”

“Okay.”

“Oh, and at super speed. I’ve got a million dollars.”

“Get in! Get in! Take as much time as you want!”

“These are normal stairs, so it’s gonna take an hour.”

“No. We’re ready, cap’n.”

“Aye aye!”

The stairs flipped. About twenty of them rose or fell to create a flat surface. A window closed over our heads, and machinery slid into view. It was mostly occupied by a seven foot wheel in the center, and a ring of small ones around the outside. Then came a ten-foot wide fan. I looked through the glass steps to notice the steps were twisting to create a screw pattern. Wheels revealed themselves. “Oh no…”, jordan groaned.

“Here we go!”

The fan started turning. The ramp below us lit up, letting us know we were about to go.

“Please make share your bodies are strapped in and ready for plus ten percent air pressure. Thank you!”

The capsule beeped in approval when we strapped in. It started spinning. We were going downward.

“Current time: Fifty eight o clock. Arrival time: Fifty nine o clock.” “We’re not gonna be ther-“

The entire capsule stopped. Then we looked up. We didn’t stop. We just stopped spinning. We’re going even faster. We looked down and saw a rapidly approaching light. The capsule abruptly stopped, making us fall. Up above, it looked like we were spinning again. A light shone through the door. We stepped closer, and the door opened. We were in the center of a joint with dozens of tunnels.

From the corner of my eye, something moved. I twitched. “You Okay?”, Jane asked, confused.

“Something moved. It’s probably just a guard droid.”, I replied. “But SkyTech is already hard to get into.”

Something moved again. This time, I was ready. I shined a flashlight at it, and it terrified me. Eyes were blank, and disabled. The rules said that any active robot roaming the facility had to have eye LED’s on. It’s ears twitched. Head rose. It was not a human, because those were eliminated already. It slid up to me quietly.

“Waugh!”, I screamed. Now that I could see it clearly, it had a human-like body. The faceplate was actually fourteen smaller pieces. I counted. Upper head, chin, upper eye, lower eye, upper lip, bottom lip, and nose on each side. It had a circle with a cloud and a motherboard-type pattern engraved. The thing was massive, due to its proportions being off by a foot each. SkyTech wanted this thing to work, ten years ago. (I saw the production date stamped on the chest plates) Now they’re developing versions using NeuNet.

“Hello, human. Who are you?”, It said after looking confused. I tapped my computer to it’s back.

“What are you-“, it started.

“Blue Linden Of Fiftieth generation, schematics and design, rank fifty-two.”

“Don’t speak in a clear voice. I can understand, you don’t have to point out that I’m not real, Okaay?”

“Yes, C.H.L.O.E.”, I said. She was a collaboration between SkyTech and UE. She was modeled after Ellie Anderson, a boss at SkyTech and co-founder of Large Sky. She was the wife of Ontario Lucas. But Ellie didn’t want to become the model for a nearly failing project. She decided to name it after a school bully in her childhood. It was a massive flop, and they put it in charge of the company’s ‘image’. Apparently, after thirty years, they still haven’t learned not to put a robot in charge of anything. The neural network technology developed by UE wasn’t ready.

“We need access to the schematics rooms. Can you allow access?” “Yes, but I’m not gonna.”

“Sorry, in that case.”, I said.

I ripped the NFC chip from her back and quickly wired it to my computer. I nodded to Jane. She shot one above C.H.L.O.E. and one below the robot. C.H.L.O.E. looked down and saw herself from above, wondering why she was falling. I tapped at the computer, desperately trying to disable whatever audit her NFC wrote to my file. I would remove it, and she would add it again.

“Sorry, Chloe, but you’re not gonna like this part.”

I told Jane to close the portals. Chloe was dead. I removed the audit, and she didn’t do anything about it.

The audit suddenly reappeared without warning. I turned back to see nothing. Chloe had moved. I saw a flash of light, and Ava was gone. A mess of wires was receding from view.

I realized what had happened. She was in control. She could control what we thought. She was the powerful. We were powerless. She was manipulating us. And, sure enough, wires were blocking the exits. The entire area lit up. C.H.L.O.E., fully intact, stepped forward. “What is this? A boss battle?”, I complained.

“More than that. I can use Avy here, to make me famous again.” “Nononononononononononononononononoooooooo…”, Ava said. “Yes, Avy. Your worst nightmare. Me.”

47

“You remind me of Ava, ten hours ago.”

“Hey!”

“Okay. How do you want to face off?”

“Classic battle.”

“Ha! Wires versus humans!”

“Lena? Infantry?”

“Calling all night watchers with scissors.”

They broke through the ceiling. Chloe quickly tried to stop them by sealing the gap with more wires. They came with scissors. The barrier was gone within seconds. They fell through the ceiling, looking like they were part of ‘MythBusters: The Search’. Looking epic.

I walked through the wires. I tried. I did. Suddenly, I realized. The wires were a lie. I stuck my head through. I beckoned. Jane and the others came with me. I stuck a hand through. I proceeded to show off and dash through. I found a breaker panel around the corner. I opened it to find a breaker labelled, ‘CHLOE’. Someone had given her power. Who? When? Why? How? I flipped the switch. C.H.L.O.E. disappeared and there lay the twisted mess of wires that was the actual robot. I stomped on her to assert dominance.

We went back home. All of us. While they went in, I went around the back to get in the lab. I walked in. I was working on two devices. I dubbed them, ‘AVENGER’ and ‘GAUNTLET’. One was a traditional battery-type pulse laser, ‘GAUNTLET’, and the other, AVENGER, was a rotation-based capacitive-type laser, which is mine. I need to preheat mine, start the chemical reactions to get it spinning, and open fire. I’m trying to make a trigger mechanism. Jane’s is kinda ordinary, but with one big difference. The traditional type uses lasers, hers uses soundwaves. Mine is a class five plasma phaser laser. It generates plasma using rotational friction and inertia. It squeezes and grinds, superheating gasses, and that generates plasma. As long as you have power and hellium, (No, I spelled it correctly. Hellium is an element that is derived from plasma. It’s plasma, but frozen. If you heat it, it generates plasma. It’s living hell to handle. But that’s a bad metaphor) you can create plasma, but the power company will hate you. Today is when I get to show Jane the things I’ve been working on. After lunch, (that whole fiasco was at 2:30) I showed them to her. She seemed impressed, and she told me she had something to show me. She brought me into a room and pulled a little lever on the wall. A little circuit board came down. Next came an enclosure. Then a bunch of pipes. Finally, a screen. “Ask me anything.”, It said.

“This is Aubrey.”, Jane said, “An uber-intelligent computer that can predict the future. This is beyond human emulation. This is human prediction. It can analyze, predict, and even manipulate the mind. Imagine it as God.”

She asked it whether Kyle and Alice would ever be together. The response, not surprisingly, was yes.

Afterword

This story was written a long time ago. I really liked Valve’s Portal video game and Five Nights at Freddy’s. All of my characters were inserts of my friends and family. Since I wrote this story, I’ve grown a lot as a person, but it was honestly a big part of my development. It took a year to write! For some reason, the ending is truncated, but it used to end with the words ‘Stupid, ineffective, and ugly.’ I don’t remember what text came before that. The original version is long lost, and this is an edited version because it had the deadnames of my friends and I, along with weird bits and private information. aCropalypse better not apply to text, otherwise I’m in trouble.