Light and Dark

       1

Have you ever wondered if Déjà vu is a sort of warning?

“Nothing has changed. What has happened will happen again. So it’s best to avoid the situation entirely” Something like that?

When you look at it that way, it’s hardly ever wrong.

Life would be peaceful if one could pay heed to this instinct whenever it emerges.

For some reason, it’s hard to do so.

For some reason, one always wants to leap back into the cycle of chaos.

Ah, I’m blabbering again. My apologies. I’m sitting in front of a screen again, so I don’t have much else to do. I’ll catch you up. Bots usually have a high powered battery which lasts them their entire life, but there’s realistically no point in giving droids such juice. So droids just get temp batteries, which need to be charged once every 8 hours to 2 weeks.

The security droids at MAO’s Chiba Lab switch once a week to charge up, and this happens every Wednesday at 9pm which is uhhh…. 7 minutes away. When that does happen, I’ll be storming the facility to get my hands on some files.

Just as the clock strikes 9, three shadows enter the field of vision of the camera I’ve set up just outside the gates of the lab. Thieves, perhaps?

They rush into the lab, and as they finally come into full view my scanner starts beeping.

First up is a huge bot decked out in armor.

Bot Recognized

Name: B-0

Base Model: D-98

Place of Manufacture: Germany

Date of Manufacture: 9th December, 2057

Known Affiliations: NIL

Strength Ranking: #34

A D Model in the top 40? That’s weird. Before I can give it any thought, a slender, polished bot with a pistol in one hand and gold lines running all over his body, walks in just behind the D model.

Bot Recognized

Name: Leroy Thierry

Base Model: S-1

Place of Manufacture: France

Date of Manufacture: 23rd December, 2098

Known Affiliations: NIL

Strength Ranking: #15

The first S model bot? Interesting.

Behind him runs a bot I could’ve mistaken for a human. Of course, every single droid and bot resemble humans closely, but most have some discrepancies, like me having what humans would call a ‘helmet’ instead of a typical skull. Even among the bots that might seem to be human at first glance, there are very few designs which even sensors cannot easily make out as robots.

Her jet black hair, wide eyes and flat nose leave little doubt of the fact that she was modeled after a person. Such bots weren’t that uncommon when the humans were still around, but I don’t think I’ve seen one in decades.

Bot Recognized

Name: Clear White

Base Model: S-24

Place of Manufacture: New York

Date of Manufacture: 8th June, 2139

Known Affiliations: NIL

Strength Ranking: #6

This group’s not the fodder that I assumed they were.

Now that I think about it, I’d heard of a little group busting into MAO facilities across the country over the past few months. It’s not a common thing, since anybody MAO considers an aggressor generally isn’t heard of again. But these guys certainly look like they can take care of themselves.

This is troublesome. I planned on facing a few droids today, not two S models.

Even if it does go well, I’d only be making things easier for MAO.

I decide that fighting the trio’s off the table. So I’ll just sneak in, get the files I’m looking for, and sneak back out. Simple enough.

I make my way into the research centers of the lab, and the path is clear. Except for the numerous busted bots and droids littered all over the place. Even with the security droids gone, the lab had quite a bit of manpower left, but it seems like they’ve managed to handle it just fine.

I walk into Research Center D, and head to the archive.

And almost run into the bot named Leroy.

2

I duck out of the way just in time, and hide behind a terminal.

On a closer look, the other two are standing a few feet away, watching Leroy as he taps away on his tab, which he’s connected to the main terminal of the archive.

He scrolls through the contents of the archive a few times, and the only sound heard in the room is the beeping of the device every time he overrides a security requirement. He’s looking for something, but not making much progress in that direction.

“Well?”

Clear sounds impatient, clearly dissatisfied with the pace of the search.

“Yeahhh, no dice. We should bounce.”

“This is the third fucking lab we’ve stormed this week, Terry. Fuck! We don’t have time for this shit. Are you sure your friend wasn’t just making shit up?”

‘Terry’ looks annoyed.

“My source is very reliable, thank you very much. The key weapon MAO’s developing is an ‘enhanced human’ with capabilities far exceeding those of even the best bots, and it was made in one of their Japanese labs. Unfortunately, I have no further information regarding the matter.”

Cowering in a corner wasn’t really my style, so I figured this was as good a time as any to make my entrance.

“That human was made almost five decades ago, and it was a failure.”

3

As I get up from where I was hiding, none of them look surprised. The huge bot, B-0, strides towards me, swinging its arms menacingly. If they were going to try and attack me, I thought they’d at least have the sense to not have their weakest member lead the charge. I could just punch his large metallic jaw right off his face, but I decide to let him make the first move.

He stops right in front of me.

And extends his hand.

“Hello.”

Confused, I shake his hand halfheartedly. Apparently satisfied, he turns around and returns to where he was standing.

“You said the human was a failure?”

Clear wasn’t as big on the niceties.

“Yes. MAO has an underground lab in Okinawa, it’s their largest facility. That’s where this human experiment was created.”

“Can you send me the coordinates real quick?”

“Sure.”

Somehow I’d entered a conversation with these people even without introductions taking place. I’d bet good money on ‘Terry’ having a scanner on him, which would mean he already had all the necessary data about me, but it was still weird.

“Well, I’m-”

“Nito. We know.”

That’s just a name I throw out when necessary. I’m slightly surprised, but he continues before I can say anything.

“We’ve been looking for you for a while actually, funny that you should find us first. I’m Leroy Thierry, but since I’m not an 18th century tyrant, you can call me Terry. These guys are Clear and Bo. Also, you’re awful at stealth, please never try that again.”

He rambles on absent mindedly while tapping away at his tab like a madman.

“Looking for me? Why?”

“Well, you’re the only one MAO classifies as a Tier 1 Threat who’s still on the face of the planet. Except us, of course. And we have a spot open. Wouldn’t hurt to have the seventh strongest bot around.”

Strength rankings are obviously not objective and depend on the metrics the scanner uses, but #7 was still a stretch. I felt vaguely annoyed.

“Well, you game?”

It’d certainly be logical to team up with these bots in the face of a common enemy against whom anyone would need all the help in the world, but something told me this was not going to end well.

Not for me and certainly not for them.

“Eh, I think I’ll pass. Keep fighting the good fight though.”

“Bummer. I hope you don’t mind answering some questions about this experiment before we part ways?”

If he really was bummed, he sure did a good job at hiding it. He was too busy trying to access the lab’s database to even look at me.

“You’ll find more than I whatever I know if you pop by the lab sometime.”

“I’d bet against it because by the looks of it, the lab’s data has been wiped clean.”

That was certainly surprising.

“Maybe it’s just been taken off the global databases.”

“Perhaps. But it’s not worth the effort to actually go there and confirm this theory. Even if we flew, it’d take us over two days to get there undetected, and that’s time we don’t have.”

“Alright, I can tell you what I know. The experiment ran from January to September 2124, it was on 25th September 2124 that the ‘human’ was to be ready to survive in the real world, but apparently its bionic structure was unstable and it blew up on everyone’s face. It was written off as a failure and as far as I’m aware, they left it at that.”

“I fucking told you Goud was making shit up! That alcoholic bum!”

“Alright, change of plans. Nito, can I count on you to help us out just for this week?”

“Huh? What exactly are you planning to do?”

For the first time in the conversation, an expression crosses his face. It’s a sinister smile.

“We’re going to take down Karl Sparks.”

4

“About that, uhh…. I recently got my calibration system all busted up and I haven’t had the chance to get it fixed so I don’t want to get into anything too big, y’know?”

Next thing I knew, Terry’d taken me to an ‘old friend’, some underground mechanic going by the name of X.

“I get it fixed, we’re ready to go. Ay?”

“Why are you so fixated upon me joining you? I’m really not worth it.”

“The records I have of you seem to suggest otherwise. And you seem to hate MAO as much as we do, that’s always a bonus.”

It was true that I’d been chipping away at MAO over the past few years, but to face Sparks head on was something else entirely.

You’d never catch me telling anyone that though.

“Alright. You win. Lead the way.”

The room we walk into is spick and span, and filled with modern tech. It certainly doesn’t look like the shady dungeon I pictured before the door was opened.

“Dropping by uninvited again, Terry?

With one eyelens larger than the other and old jetpack parts for legs, X was certainly a sight to behold.

“I’m bringing you business, stop whining.”

X mutters to himself. He then notices me, and does a little lap around me, peering at all my features.

“Fine, fine bot you are. I assumed you would be, since even Terry has some shred of class and wouldn’t hang about with any hoodlum, but you might just be the best I’ve ever laid my eyes on.”

I’m not going to lie, that felt good.

“I assume it’s about your calibration system? Oh, and your left leg doesn’t seem to be in the best shape.”

The large eyelens clearly served a purpose.

He seats me and gets to work immediately, and he’s done with the job in no time. My calibration feels better than it’s ever been. I thank him and get up to leave, but he gestures for me to sit back down.

“Does this interest you at all?”

He pulls out an appendage running from the elbow to the wrist. It’s the exact same shade of white as my parts, with gold engravings on it. He holds it up with distinct pride.

“The Azure Dragon.”

Holy shit.

What’s the Azure Dragon, you ask? Only the most powerful weapon in the world.

Towards the end of the 21st century, the humans had almost been wiped off the face of the earth. Only the three battalions remained, three groups of highly skilled individuals who held their ground against the bots much longer than the rest. Among these, only one lived to see the dawn of the 22nd century. It was the Beijing battalion, led by Son Li; a fearsome war general who single handedly put thousands of elite bots in the ground. His trump card was the Azure Dragon, which he’d had implanted onto his body somewhere around 2070.

In the end, they say he ended up dying of old age and the bots made short work of the rest of his men. That marked the end of the human race, but Li remained an indomitable force whose name was permanently etched into the annals of history.

How did this bot in front of me come into possession of the world’s most revered weapon? It certainly would’ve been an interesting story, but it didn’t seem like one he was willing to share.

“I certainly can’t afford that.”

“I’ll give her to you for free.”

Terry butts in.

“Hey, you never offered it to your old buddy here. Now that I think about it, you’ve never offered me anything for free.”

“Bugger off. I just want this beauty to see some action, and you would never give her any. Stick to calculations and data collection and all that other nonsense you do.”

“Alright, I’ll take it. Does it plug into my central unit?”

“Nah, that’s the thing. There’s no activation mechanism at all. Although I hear that the way Son used to do it-”

He leans in.

“-is through pure will.”

I wait for him to burst out laughing, but he looks dead serious. Will? Really? Is this a shonen anime?

“Honest to God, it’s the only information I have. They say it was Son’s absolute determination to further his and his comrade’s lives that activated the Azure Dragon each time he needed it.”

“On second thought, I’ll pass.”

I had perfectly functional arms that held some cool gadgets, there was no point in replacing them with a decorated hunk of metal.

Absolute determination? Pure will? Laughable ideas. Only an idiot could achieve interminable conviction. The sentient mind is conflicted. The sentient being is confused. I don’t know what Son’s deal was, but I don’t think anybody else in the world could use this.

Especially not me. There’s nothing I could even try to fight so desperately for.

Not anymore.

X looks disappointed.

“Well if you change your mind, I’ll be here. Or not. You never know.”

5

Terry leads me to their hideout, a cozy little basement in Southern Hokkaido.

“We move around often, so we just set up shop in abandoned labs or basements.”

When we walk in, Bo’s put up a tiny force field in his palm and Clear is flinging blades into it from across the room.

Bo’s the first to notice us, and walks over.

“Hello.”

I haven’t heard him say anything except Hello this entire time.

Terry catches my confusion and explains.

“Bo was a D-model bouncer for a nightclub in Germany in the early 21st century; all he can say is ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’. I found him sitting outside the building, covered in snow and ashes, about three decades after all the humans in Western Europe were wiped out. I fixed him up with whatever parts I had on hand, but it was pretty much impossible to deal with his language interface. I’ve set up a com link with him, but communication was never really his strong suit so he just sends me a few words here and there and expects me to make sense of them.”

“Alright, alright. You said you had something.”

Clear doesn’t seem like the patient type.

“Yes, the Okinawa Lab Nito mentioned had concealed connections with a few important MAO Labs. The kind of ones you setup to send top secret information. One of these connections, surprisingly enough, was with the Fuchu Prison. Sometime around 2171, the Okinawa Lab’s online presence was erased completely. But I dug around a little, and Fuchu has concealed connections set up with several MAO labs in the country. It was hard, but I managed to piece together the reason. They’ve been picking bots up from the prison for decades. They’re told they’re being recruited as soldiers, and then they’re used as guinea pigs for off the book experiments. It’s an ugly affair.”

He pauses with a frown on his face.

“In three days, there’s a ‘government inspection’ of the prison scheduled, but they’re actually looking to pick up the strongest bot in the place for some important research.”

“Why the fuck does that matter?”

“Because the inspector is Karl Sparks.”

Sparks had become the Governor of Tokyo two years ago, presumably by pushing money in the right places. The current prime Minister of Japan was a buffoon, and maybe even on Sparks’ payroll. Given free rein, Sparks had effectively tightened MAO’s grasp on Tokyo, and the entirety of Japan by extension.

Clear jumps out of her seat.

“Fuck yes! Alright, here’s the plan. We move in, destroy any hostile bots, and hunt down Karl Sparks.”

“It’s not going to be that easy. Sparks is a force to be reckoned with.”

As much as I hated to kill the enthusiasm, it was my responsibility to let them in on whatever information I had.

“He’s a monster. Everything MAO’s pulled off in Japan over the past few years has been because of him. He’ll probably have a backup plan for if things go sour, and that’s assuming he’ll need one in the first place. He’s an S Model with some nasty gear.”

Terry looks confused.

“There’s almost nothing about Karl Sparks on any database in the world, how do you know all this?”

I walked right into that one. I don’t see any way to wriggle out of this, so I might as well get it over with.

“Karl Sparks is the man who created me.”

6

Clear gapes at me. Terry seems unfazed, he’d probably guessed as much already.

“The Tokveyainich module?”

So he’d even heard of the module. The man was full of surprises.

“Yes. I was the second one to be created, hence Tokveyainich-2.”

“What are you guys talking about? What’s Tokyovanish?”

“I’ve only heard rumours, I’m sure the man himself can explain the whole thing.”

“Tokveyainich. It was a module for bot creation, personally designed by Sparks to produce the planet’s best. From the AI to the parts, everything was top notch. The first bot from the line was Tokveyainich-1.”

“……..”

“Also known as the Vessel of Order.”

The Vessel of Order. The best droid the world had ever seen. Interfaces so advanced, so complex it was almost impossible to believe it wasn’t sentient. Weapons that could raze a country down to nothing but dust in a matter of seconds. It had the largest part to play in MAO’s takeover of Japan and “cleaning up” of the criminals the country had been plagued by a few decades ago. There probably wasn’t a single bot in Japan who hadn’t heard its name.

They both look surprised. Even on the databases, Tokveyainich-1 was referred to as the Vessel of Order, so there’s no way even Terry could have known.

“The third model was that human you were looking for. It blew up most of the Okinawa lab, and that includes the module and all the researchers who were working on it. And that was that.”

“…..”

It appears this was too much information for them to handle.

“Anyway, bottom line is that Karl Sparks isn’t to be taken lightly. A long time ago, I even heard a rumour that his creator was the one of the scientists responsible for the AI Revolutionization, so I have no clue what kind of software he has.”

In 2055, a team of scientists from the USA claimed to have completely erased the boundary between AI and human intelligence. The new AI, they claimed, achieved an unprecedented level of sentience, on par with that of humans. Within a decade, these new ‘intelligent’ bots rose up in rebellion and eventually wiped out the human race, but I digress.

That’s the key difference between droids and bots in case you were wondering, the former are based on a slightly more modern form of AI as the humans knew it and the latter are based on the ‘revolutionized’ AI. In comparison to bots, droids are simply advanced electronic devices.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Although I’d bet against him having any code I can’t override in under a minute.”

“Why are you guys so hell bent on going after MAO anyway?”

For the first time since I’ve met him, Terry has a grim look on his face.

“I was created in 2098, as the world’s first enforcer bot. Until my CPU stops running, it is my solemn duty to protect the world from those who seek to bring harm unto it for their own profit. A few years ago, I came to the conclusion that Karl Sparks and his activities are a threat to world peace. Which is why me and Bo have been on his trail since then.”

Clear shrugs her shoulders.

“I dunno man, justice or something?”

7

We arrive at the prison just in time for the big event, and Terry takes only a moment to get us in.

It’s a huge building, sprawling over several thousand feet and boasting a height of seventeen floors. It was renovated a few decades ago, since the dilapidated little cove made in 1935 couldn’t fit all the bots Vessel of Order was hauling in. Taking in the magnificent construction, we make our way to the panopticon of the prison, where all 3,400 cells and the 4,628 inmates currently locked up inside should be arranged in a neat little cylinder spanning all seventeen floors.

When we do get there, it’s not quite like I pictured.

Because the cells are all open, and the inmates are duking it out in the center of the massive room. Circuits and limbs fly out of the huddle like fireworks, and the din is almost deafening.

“Find the strongest one by having it squish the rest, eh? Classless, but quite efficient.”

My scanner’s going crazy, so I end up switching it off. It seems like there are some half decent bots in this muck after all.

There’s a few bots making short work of the rest, and the most prominent one is clearly a tall, pale gray bot with electric whips in both hands. I’ve heard of this one before. Kenzo the Ripper, a bot that was convicted on thirty four charges of slaughter. His arrest at the hands of the Vessel of Order three decades ago ran on the news streams for months.

As if on cue, Kenzo notices us standing at the door. He says something to the prisoners, but it’s drowned out by the ruckus. Frustrated, he swings his whip to the ground with full force.

ZCKRACKZS!

That certainly got their attention. The bots follow his gaze towards us.

“Don’t know who they are. Don’t like their smell. We kill them first.”

Certainly not a man of many words.

Somehow, all the bots heed the words of this mass murderer who was about to electrocute them all, and we’re the prime targets now.

Bart floats toward us menacingly. Just before we’re about to come into range of his whip, a small bullet hits him just above the left leg.

And he collapses to the ground.

Terry grins.

“They can try their best to hide it, but it’s child’s play to locate the CPU of A models.”

Their new leader getting downed so easily certainly doesn’t lift the morale of the inmates, and they shrink into a huddle.

The four of us walk toward them instead, and soon it’s a massacre. The bots probably would’ve preferred Kenzo’s whip over what we were throwing at them.

Just as Clear lunges on one of the last surviving bots, a bolt of lightning drops from the sky and strikes them both. Clear’s flung against the wall, and only char remains of her soon to be victim.

As we look up, we notice something flying around near the ceiling, several hundred feet above us.

A bot with long, wiry limbs and small wings is gliding above us. A bot I’d recognize anywhere.

Karl Sparks.

8

Terry takes almost no time to notice him and start firing, but Sparks swerves around each bullet and every few seconds, he drops a bolt of lightning in return.

So this is a deathmatch. 

Bo immediately runs over to Clear and puts up a force field covering them both.

I’m useless over such a distance, so I grab onto the wall and climb toward the higher floors. I’m an easier target this way, but hopefully Terry can keep him occupied until I reach the seventeenth floor.

Each of Sparks’ blasts is huge enough to fling him back by a few feet, and he uses this recoil to throw Terry’s aim off. Terry also manages to keep away from each blast, so the battle rages on. Which means Sparks is at a disadvantage, because I’m already at the fifteenth floor and in about a minute, I'll be close enough to take him down.

Click

An unfamiliar sound puts an end to my overly optimistic line of thought. I realise that Terry’s run out of ammo. His pistol holds an absurd number of bullets, but he’d been firing nonstop for minutes on end and the inevitable had occurred. It looks like Sparks still has some charge in the can though. He charges up an attack larger than any he’s let loose so far as Terry desperately reloads his gun.

Terry gets one shot off before a massive bolt hits him dead on, flinging him through iron bars and cement into the wall of a cell. The ground is covered by fumes and dust, but I can tell that he’s suffered severe injuries.

The recoil from this shot was so powerful that it flings Sparks halfway across the room.

And right into Terry’s bullet.

So he’d been using his missed shots to determine the magnitude of recoil before he made a decisive shot. What a guy.

The bullet passes cleanly through Sparks’ left leg and emerges from his back, busting his left wing on the way.

He swerves out of control and tumbles toward the ground. I wait for the right moment to leap at him, but just before he gets into my range he fires a bolt at me and the recoil flings him to the opposite side. He manages to land on the twelfth floor landing, and runs down the first corridor he comes across.

I leap away from the bolt and consider making another leap toward the twelfth floor, but I hesitate because Terry and Clear are probably still out of commission. Perhaps we should retreat instead of running the risk of overextending ourselves and getting caught in a tricky situation.

Just as I’m about to jump back down to the ground floor, a bullet gouges a hole in the wall, only a few inches from my face.

Terry had staggered out of the cell and shot the bullet before collapsing again.

It’s clear what he’s trying to say.

“Go.”

Somehow I land the jump perfectly and take off running behind Sparks. His malfunctioning left wing’s emitting a buzzing sound, so it’s easy to trace him as he frantically runs down the hallways. Since he’s dragging his left leg behind him, it takes me only a few seconds to catch up to him. I catch a glimpse of him as he turns a corner, and dash behind him. As I round the corner, he’s standing a few paces away, smiling. His wings are flying down the hallway by themselves.

Fuck. He’d taken advantage of the fact that I was using the sound to track him. In my defense, a detachable wing system was unheard of. I raise my fist, but he immediately clasps it with both of his hands and shakes it firmly.

“It’s good to see you again, my boy.”

Before I can react, the whole world turns dark.

9

An absolute black stretches as far as I can see in every direction.

My body’s perfectly visible, so it’s not an issue with my visual receptors.

Somehow, it’s just me in an infinite sea of nothingness.

I walk, run, fly, nothing works. I can’t even feel the land beneath my legs, but since I’m not tumbling into the darkness, I know something’s down there.

How long has it been? I don’t know. My internal clock says it’s only been about a minute, but that’s ridiculous. It seems that even my perception of time has been altered by this illusion.

The silence has become ear-piercing now, the darkness almost blinding.

I try whatever comes to mind for a while, but nothing works.

Whatever I do, the world around me remains as cold and uninviting as ever.

Eventually, I come to the logical conclusion that the situation is hopeless. I consider deactivating myself, but I decide to seat myself and wait for a little while.

Wait for what? Damned if I know.

After a disturbingly long time, a bright light emerges at the horizon.

The rays of light fail to penetrate through the darkness surrounding me, but that only serves to emphasize the magnificence of the source. An absolute radiance within an ocean of darkness.

Just by looking at it, I can tell that it’s the kind of light that exists only at the horizon.

A perfection that exists beyond the realm of possibility.

No matter how desperately you grasp at it, it’ll remain as elusive as it’s always been.

Only an idiot would fall for such a cheap trick. I refuse to indulge it.

There had been an intangible, impermeable divide which separated me from the darkness, but now it seems to have taken its leave.

The man who rejects the light belongs in the dark. To the dark. Simple logic. My form is slowly fading into nothingness.

The tendrils of darkness slowly wrap around me, suffocating me.

What comes next?

Eternal peace?

Nothing at all?

Grumbling, I pick myself up and hobble towards the light.

Why am I doing this? I wish I had an answer.

All I know is that I can’t accept fading away like this. I can’t accept this darkness that seeks to claim me.

One who can accept neither the light nor the dark.

A truly pitiful existence.

Instantly, the world takes on colour. As my surroundings gradually come into focus, I realize I’m back in the hallway where Sparks left me for dead.

“Hey, he’s awake!”

Clear shakes me by the shoulders triumphantly. Terry smiles as he taps away on his tab.

“Rerouting all input and output receptors except the ones that deal with self-perception to a void location, not a bad trick. That must’ve been quite the experience.”

“Certainly was.”

I still feel dizzy. Receptors aren’t parts that are meant to be rerouted in the first place, and to have them shaken up twice in such a short time had probably messed with my overall circuitry.

“I almost thought we’d lost you there. Luckily you reacted to the stimuli I sent in, so I was able to forcefully reroute your circuits again.”

Ah, so that’s what it was.

“Did you get him?”

“We were going to, but we found you lying ass up in the hallway.”

“You should’ve gone after him. He’s probably gotten away by now.”

“We’re a team, aren’t we? You expect us to leave you here to decorate the floor?”

Clear sounds annoyed.

“Also, he’s not out of the building yet. I put the whole thing on lockdown. He’s currently in the control panel, trying to find a way out.”

“Alright, let’s go get that bastard.”

10

We walk into the surveillance room just as Sparks is trying to slink out. There’s no words to be exchanged between us, so the attacks start flying immediately.

It’s a sloppy affair. I’m still wobbly, Clear and Terry still haven’t recovered from the blast, and Sparks is dragging one leg behind him.

Still, Sparks is impressively durable for his physique, and I’m starting to think this might not end well. He’s catching onto our attack patterns now, and intercepting almost every single hit thrown at him. Even Terry’s bullets are being dodged with ease.

I receive a message: “His CPU’s on the left side of his chest. If we go in together, we should be able to take it out.”

Terry nods imperceptibly. I kick Sparks in the chest, but he recovers quickly and grabs hold of my leg. Just as he’s about to fling me away, Clear sticks a blade into his dented chest and twists it. Before he can react, Terry places his gun on Sparks’ chest and fires.

His right arm suddenly falls limp midair, and his left arm follows suit. His legs give way under him, and he collapses to the floor like a broken marionette.

It appears that Karl Sparks has been deactivated.

It’s finally over.

“You’ve done well.”

Sparks’ head jolts up, his eyes gleam a bright shade of red.

The voice he emits is unnaturally deep and has a distant echo to it. It appears he’s been hacked remotely.

“I would say you’ve exceeded my expectations, but I’d rather be frank with you in our first interaction.”

“Who the fuck is this?”

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. You’ve done splendidly today; I must thank you for your efforts.”

The man’s words were puzzling, and something about them rubbed me the wrong way.

“Certainly, you must be confused. But you have no one but yourselves to blame. Those who fail to see the strings can only dance to the tune.” 

Sparks’ limp body suddenly starts glowing.

“This piece of junk’s going to explode, and take everything in an 8km radius with it. I do not doubt that bots of your caliber will somehow get through this little scrape, so we shall meet again. When I deem it necessary.”

The glow gets brighter and brighter, until it fills the entire room.

Bo sets up a small force field around the body just as it erupts.

The explosion flings us all into the air.

11

How long has it been? Seconds? Minutes? Hours?

I’m one of the most durable bots ever made, but even I’m having a hard time keeping up with everything that’s been thrown at me today.

I walk around the room and find the three sprawled out, but in decent condition. The shockwaves had rocked the building and its current residents a little bit, but Bo’s force field had taken the brunt of the actual explosion.

Eventually, everyone gets up. Although nods are exchanged, nobody says a word. That message didn’t leave us in a chatty mood.

After a few minutes, I get an emergency news alert.

“A band of terrorists who had been sentenced to life terms at Fuchu prison have broken out and attacked the governor of Tokyo, Karl Sparks, who had visited the prison for a routine inspection. We regret to inform you that he is no more. These terrorists have been classified as a national threat, and Prime Minister Gakunin has declared martial law within the country. Further updates will be made available on the common news stream whenever they are available. If anybody can provide information on the whereabouts of these bots, they shall be rewarded handsomely by the government of Japan.”

The biodata of all four of us is attached to the alert.

Now I get it.

Assuming that the Prime Minister was in the opponent’s pocket, he’d taken complete advantage of our actions here. In one clean blow, he’d taken full control of the country and restricted the movement of the only bots who could pose a threat to him.

Not only was this not the end of our battle, the rest of it had now become a much steeper climb.

“Fuck, FUCK! He got us good. We’re going to stay here for now, I own all the surveillance of the place and they won’t expect us to squat at our last known location. I’ll try to hack into the government’s feed and figure out what’s going on. Nobody leaves the building for now.”

It was just like Terry to already formulate an entire plan.

“I need to go somewhere. It’s important.”

Terry glares at me, but balks eventually.

“Alright, try to stay on the radar on your way there and under on your way back. Should throw them off our trail for a while if you pull it off.”

I nod and leap out of the window.

2 hours later, I’m back at X’s little underground lab. He goes ballistic the moment he notices me.

“You’re all over the fucking news! Why would you come here right after you jumped the fucking governor, are you trying to get my place torched?”

“It’s alright, I’ll be gone in a few minutes. I just needed something.”

He sighs, and a half smile crosses his lips.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist it. Sit down.”

Without me having to say anything, he gets to work and within a few minutes, the Azure Dragon is part of my right arm.

To fight and lose, to give up in the very beginning. Both are one and the same. You’re a loser either way. There is no grace is being shaved down to your very core, only to reach the same conclusion.

Despite that, there’s something off about not even being able to hope that fighting would result in victory. Perhaps if you grasp at the light with all you have, your fingers can graze something at the very least.

Or perhaps I’m just babbling again.