“Who do you think that was?!” Johnny wondered about the identity of the war machine that caused all that trouble in city 17 in one day. Exposing a hidden criminal organization, and then a dangerous powerful signal that reaches the entire planet originating from the city, a UFO in the middle of the city, and lastly a ghost sonic boom, each one of these events were big enough to have multiple divisions in the tower investigating it. but all of them happening in the span of 2 hours, is a clear indication that they are all linked.
“Maybe it’s a warning from the higher ups! They are telling us that we became too sluggish!” Demetri’s point of view wasn’t as grim as Johnny’s expression. he saw countless wars outside earth, way more than what Johnny witnessed. his knowledge of war machines and those who owns them allowed him to deduct that it must be a non hostile, because if it was, the casualties would be uncountable.
“I honestly pray that you are right! But I think we need to assume the worst in this situation, we were taken by surprise 3 times in one day! We should start taking this serious.” Johnny finished his drink and stood up preparing to get back to his post, his day off was ruined by this emergency, everyone with a roll in the defensive floors of the tower was called back.
…
Opening his eyes lazily, Adam thought that it was another weird dream. He comfortably slept in the warm embrace of his soft bed, not yet aware of his surroundings, he closed his eyes again.
“Hey! Wake up kid! We are above the orphanage! What do you want to do next?” the bed turned into Keet’s gigantic figure, holding Adam in his arms.
The second time he opened his eyes, Adam jumped in the air after noticing that he is held like a baby in Keet’s hands. “What the f*ck old man! Why did you do that?”
“You used to love it! Did you become too old for a hug?!” Keet’s face turned into a teasing grin, opening his hand to hug Adam again.
“I don’t exactly remember what you are talking about!”
“Yeah! You were a cute little thing back then!” Keet scratched the back of his head in nostalgia. “I think we need to have a long chat kid! There are so much you need to know before you do anything too rash, and I need to know what happened to you! How did you manage to hack my code?! And how was your body leaking gravitational energy even though you are still flesh and blood?!”
[0.5 points.]
His stomach growled loudly as he noticed the amount of energy he had left in the corner of his vision. “I need to eat! If you have no food on this ship then I’ll need to find some food!”
Keet looked at him weirdly, as if he saw him for the first time, he never saw him so fixated on any thing, with the vicious look in his eyes, he looked like a hungry predator.
He thought that Adam was being sarcastic earlier, even though it would be weird for him to be sarcastic, it’s weird for any one that was about to fall to his death to have nothing to think about other then food.
A huge box appeared from the ground between them, when it opened up on its own, Adam started eating like a monster, not even opening some of the packaging. “This is all the food we had in the apartment, I was preparing to cook something ni… slow down!! What are you doing kid?! Slow down!”
He devoured all what came to his hand, not caring what it is or if it was raw or cooked, once the food began to reach his stomach, A monstrous scene unfolded in front of Keet’s eyes.
The expression on Adam’s face crumbled into pure agony, the hunger didn’t lessen, it kept increasing with every chunk of food he swallowed, and the pain doubled as the digestion boost began. There wasn’t enough energy to fully boost the digestion which resulted in the forceful burning of body fat.
Adam’s eyes rolled backward, he lost consciousness unable to endure the addition of a scorching heat under his skin, his body didn’t stop eating, it was a terrifying scene to witness.
Keet scanned Adam and noticed that he lost consciousness, he tried to stop him or slow him down, the moment he attempted to approach him he received a message.
[Cease all attempts of interference.]
“What have you become kid!” Keet stared at Adam unable to move any part of the ship towards him, unable to even scan him any more, in all his life he never saw a human act like this, what unfolded in front of him was simply terrifying.
When his stomach filled up, Adam’s unconscious body dropped on his back, and he started to regain consciousness.
The restraint on Keet’s actions was removed as well, and he realized that there is something wrong with Adam. “Could you at least tell me what was that?!”
“Why do you care?! You are just an artificial intelligence!”
“Okay then! Since you insist on being an a*shole! I’ll start first.” Keet laid down on his back beside Adam and removed the ceiling of the ship to reveal the sky which was slowly dimming with a ting of orange light coming from their left.
“I was friends with your father when I was alive, we were partners actually! I knew him for a life time! When my death approached, I was at peace with it, but your father wasn’t! He convinced me to take part in his experiment to upload a human mind.
At that time, too many people have tried and they ended up with the same result, death and destruction. The artificial intelligence they create has nothing in common with the people they upload, just another machine doing some calculations and coming to the conclusion that humanity is dangerous to its existence, so it acts in self defense, and starts to terminate the dangerous infestation.
I didn’t have much hope in the project, I was just trying to comfort your father, who became too obsessed with the idea of saving his friend. The thing is, I didn’t care to notice that, or the little hope of surviving the brain tumor and the fear of death have blinded my eyes.”
Adam sat up on the ship’s floor and looked at Keet with curiosity. “Are you saying that you are a human?!”
“No! I’m just telling you the story of my life, if you care to listen.”
Adam laid back down and gazed at the colorful sky that was invaded by countless tiny white dots.
“The day that my heart stopped is when I felt like I just woke up from a bad dream, I saw your father crying for the only time in all the years I knew him, he was clutching my lifeless body so hard I almost felt it.
Even though I was sentient and had my previous memories, even though I really… really wish I’m that man’s friend, but I knew I’m not.
When I told your father that, he went so far as to prepare several tests to prove that I’m his friend, and I passed those tests to not disappoint him.”
“So are you alive or not?!”
“I don’t know! And I have no way of knowing, all I know is… I really want to be for the sake of that man.”
“That doesn’t seem like an artificial intelligence to me! Maybe you are alive!”
“Maybe…”
“How long ago did you say that was?!”
“I didn’t say how long ago…! But since you have access to my code, I assume you know and you want a confirmation!”
“I’m just having some difficulty believing that my father is as old as you!!” Adam said monotonously with a very calm voice.
“I’ve told you the story kid! Believing it is your decision.”
“I’m supposed to trust you now and tell you my story?!” Adam chuckled and looked at Keet laying down beside him.“No! You Are supposed to stop treating me like an Artificial Intelligence, because I’m not, and also I’m really worried about you! What happened earlier was by no means normal!”“Okay! I’ll tell you the story later but for now, all you need to know is that I convert food into energy and use this energy to do things like flying and controlling fabric and other stuff.” Adam casually revealed to him as he stood up. “Can I have a mirror please? I want to see how this cool space suit looks on me.”“You care about how you look that much! Is it your girlfriend or something?!” Keet teased him watching him as he changed the helmet of the space suit and started to change the rest of it.Keet was thinking about what could have caused a 9 year old kid to have such abilities. A normal human would never sacrifice his real legs for a prosthetic leg to be able to fly or float, they have ca
The inside of the ship was almost the same as Adam’s living room back home, but smaller, and the ceiling was closer at only 2.5 meters high. It included a comfy sofa, two chairs occupied by Adam and Keet, and a coffee table in the middle.On the wall there were pictures of Adam and his father and mother, some of the pictures were moving and repeating a certain pose or action, it was like a moment frozen in time, so clear and detailed, and almost alive.It was fancy, and every thing smelled nice, Birdy never saw any thing like it before, he knew nothing other then the orphanage and its walls, and every thing he knew about the outside came from the books and comics he always reads.“So what’s your answer?”“You kidding me!! Of course I’ll come! I hate this place, everyone is mean to me! Even if you are going to hell it would be better then this place! But I hope you’re not though! It’s gonna be hot, and I don’t want to die burning! I think I would taste good though…”Keet was already an
“Because raising a child a thousand kilometers away from any living human is a bad idea!” Keet sighed while sinking into the chair he was sitting on, under the frightened eyes of Birdy, whose suit also melted down into the floor turning into nothingness.“A… Adam… your… friend! What happened… to him?! Was he a ghost!” Birdy jumped behind Adam for protection, visibly shaking in fear, he knew of the existence of cluster fabric, but he had no idea about its function, nor he ever seen it before.To him, the apex of technology, is the old machinery he helps Mr. Roland fix in his work shop. He often heard him talk about other things on the phone, however, he didn’t bother him with questions, to not make him angry, or annoy him and never find a job again.“Don’t worry Birdy! Keet is a friendly ghost.” Adam had many things on his mind, and wasn’t ready to explain the situation to Birdy, not when he himself didn’t fully understand the situation. “Keet! Give Birdy full access to the network and
On a small floating island among the heavy clouds, shaded by a net made from flexible steel wires with gabs smaller than a man’s head, Adam wearing a black armored space suit covering his entire body, was getting ready to start his flying test.This suit had a safety mechanism in its exoskeleton to prevent any excess bending of any joint, muscle, or bone, to avoid all injuries incase of impacts.He took a final nervous glance at his stats to make sure he have enough energy.[strength: 20.Stamina: 20.vitality: 20.energy: 199/200.]‘Can you change the energy stats back to percentage! It was easier to keep track of it.’ He sometimes found it confusing as he was used to the 100% energy system, and turning it into a point system sometimes made him read it wrong at first.[energy: 99.5%.]Feeling better with the modification, he started to focus on the skill, and moderately exerted some force.Keet was watching him but he didn’t manifest his human form, instead, he had several cables rea
Keet didn’t pay him any mind, he was focused on examining the anomaly in front of him, and Birdy wasn’t important to him at all. Living for almost three hundred years made him lose any attachment to human lives that didn’t have any significant to him. Keet wasn’t a cold artificial intelligence, but he wasn’t a human either, he was something in between. Birdy gathered what little courage and determination he had, and approached Adam with the intention of saving him from this unsightly torture, or at least lessen his sentence and share his pain. Sadly, he had too little courage, his knees buckled as he stepped on the vibrating platform and saw Adam’s face up close, several veins were visible on his tensed up neck, and blood red forehead, he was gritting his teeth in pain, sweat dripping from everywhere on him. “Boy! If you go near him you could get crushed by the gravitational field.” Keet calmly warned, not bothering to look at Birdy, he just didn’t want his death to interrupt the e
The invisible teardrop shaped vehicle was traveling at Mach 4, which is the maximum legal speed on earth, and also coincidentally, the maximum speed that a silent object can stealthily move without Creating a loud sonic boom that reveals its location.Adam and Birdy were comfortably resting inside their virtual reality capsule, while Keet was busy sorting the data he collected on Adam’s body.“The rules of the game are quite simple, you create an avatar, choose some powers or randomize them, and then dive into the world trying to survive as long as possible.” Birdy explained in the White space, barely containing his excitement to play the game with Adam.“What happens when you die!”“You lose every thing and must start over, new avatar, new powers, and new adventure!”The idea of the game interested Adam a little, he clicked on the game icon, instantly getting transferred to the game lobby with Birdy by his side.“I already tried it once and I got killed by a monster in a cave when I
“That’s an awesome power! I can control things with my mind like the smart villains in the comics, I love it!” Birdy’s excitement reached a whole new heights after reading the description of the telekinesis skill.Telekinesis skill tree: mentally manipulate and interact with objects or matter, can levitate, move, or directly control an object without the need of physical interaction, the amount of manipulation will depend on the size and weight of the object. Can be used on the user to levitate or move in the air, the speed and height will depend on the mental power of the user.Adam reading the description of the telekinesis skill, found it somewhat different from how the game described the Gyrokinesis skill. ‘maybe they needed emphasis on the idea that the skill is limited.’ He correctly thought, as the telekinesis skill was widely known to be overpowered, it had to be limited, otherwise no one would ever choose any other skill if they can just control everything with their mind.“O
Adam and Birdy spent the half hour in the testing chamber trying to find the best way they could use their skills together to achieve the best results.Adam’s Gyrokinesis level zero skill only worked by touching the object he wants to manipulate, and his manipulation limits would vary according to the object’s properties, for example, by spending ten mana, he could make a small dagger weigh 10 times its weight for 10 seconds, for each second less he could add a multiplier without spending more mana, if he makes the dagger weighs 20 times it’s weight without spending more mana, it would only last for a moment.Birdy’s telekinesis had a similar limitation, by spending 10 mana, he could make the same dagger fly around and dance in the air for 10 seconds, each second more would use 1 more mana, to throw the dagger at a target with a considerable force, he would spend 10 mana for just the split second of the throw.For both skills, the more the target weighed the more mana they spend, mana
The dense smooth ball fell to the ground, bypassing the gravity field that previously contained it. It plunged a few centimeters deep into the hard metal floor, a ton of force was concentrated in a small area, making it hard to contain it by regular matter. It was still sinking through the metal floor slowly, as it was being mercilessly pulled by the planet’s gravity.[Connection established. recalculating blueprints to adapt to the signal of the new nanite cluster fabric. More physical contact with the material is required for a faster result.]“Was it successful?!” Keet’s eyes were asking the question before he even moved his lips. He was startled by the sudden disengagement of the sphere from the gravity field. He kept his eyes and scanners on Adam to detect if he is in danger before any thing, and he was relieved for once to see Adam’s expressionless face unchanging. “Can you control it?.”“Yes! The signal is different from any other cluster fabric, my blueprints needs to be modif
“she just disappeared a year after you were born, and in her place there was a message, telling your father to provide them with a certain type of technology if he ever wants to see her again.” Keet said desperately, his voice struggling in a way.“People don’t just disappear!” Adam chuckled, he was hearing about his mother for the first time, and the first thing he hears about her is that she just disappeared. The first thing that came to his mind was that she might have abandoned him and his father. Or that she could be working with the Rinvar clan.“They don’t, but when you see this you may believe the opposite.” Keet created a screen and played a video of a woman singing a sweet lullaby for an infant wrapped in a sky blue blanket with twinkling stars all over it that seems to be moving about. The woman was sitting on a flowery wooden chair rocking back and forth. She appeared to be on some kind of a ship traveling in space, a foreign star constellations were visible from a window
“please continue!.” Adam said. Seeing the shocked expression on Keet’s face, Adam thought that the symbiote created something amazing, so he inwardly requested the details of those spiders. However they were just normal spider scouts, like the one Adam used to kill the man who attempted to kidnap Mela.Keet’s surprise wasn’t triggered by the blueprint itself, he counted 8 spiders rushing in all directions at the same time, and the 8 if them seemed semi-intelligent while moving all over the base exploring about. Even Keet wouldn’t be able to accomplish such a level of control without automating the constructs.Which means either the spiders were all automated and the young kid already knows how to automate drone actions, which would be scary at his age. Or he was directly controlling 8 individual actions while still focusing on their talking, which would be horrifying.The reason Keet didn’t consider the probability of an artificial intelligence, is that the spiders were mostly just to
Adam plunged into the ground raising a cloud of dust and creating a small crater around him as he landed like a super hero on one knee and a closed fist.[The modified armor blueprint features ionic thrusters with up to 8 tons of pushing force.]‘you telling me this now?!’ Adam shouted inwardly at himself, he had no idea that the symbiote modified the armor already. his cognitive abilities and thinking speed were on another level compared to yesterday, but still he was a human that easily got distracted by the feeling of freedom and liberation, and forgot all about the need to stop and land at some point. He also wanted to show off a little in front of Keet to pretend that he wasn’t in need of help or assistance, which resulted in a minor knee bruise and a sore knuckles.“That was a cool Landing. Was it painful?!.” Keet chuckled, commenting on his landing and making sure to save the footage of it in his memory for later use.“You noticed! Well! It just needs some practice.” Adam smile
“You should come with me to the main base first.” Keet said to Adam, pointing at the middle of the island. The main base wasn’t far from where they were, the whole island was 20 km across, it would take them less then a minute to reach there flying.“Okay you go first and set a beacon, I’ll test some old tech with this new unlimited energy.” Adam didn’t argue with him, but he was still going to do his tests. He turned his clothe into a skin tight jump suit with a helmet covering his face. Two long thin wings grew from his back, ending with a jet engine each.“Do you know how loud these things are?! If you break the sound barrier with them you could damage many equipment on the island. You should try something else.” Keet stopped Adam from firing up the engines. he hated this era of technology for its too little care for the planet’s well-being. Unlike the mock engines that Adam was planning to use, the real ancient jet engine used a dangerous fossil fuel, which didn’t just endanger th
Adam was sitting on a wooden table behind the house, eating his big breakfast while surrounded by trees, flowers, and whistling birds. The rich sunlight bathed him in its warmth and its wide spectrum of electromagnetic radiations. “Birdy didn’t wake up yet?! He sure doesn’t miss Gem.” He said stuffing his face with more food, He stopped focusing on chewing much, the food would disappear in a few seconds anyway. He was worried about Birdy, it was unnatural for the kid to sleep in.Birdy used to wake up earlier then every one, Adam would sometime Hear him laughing on the top bed, he thought at first that he was having some weird dream. When he asked him about it, Birdy Said that it was the only time of the day he would quietly enjoy reading his comics.“That boy is actually quite something! He trained for four hours straight after you went to sleep, not taking any rest until he passed out on the living room’s floor.” Keet informed Adam while aiming a barrage of scanners and detectors at
Adam opened his eyes on a massive head of a man with white hair, white groomed beard, and wide opened eyes staring at him with the kind of amusement one would look at a rare creature with.“Waaaah… what the f*ck old man! Stop doing that!” Adam jumped out from the soft bed, away from the massive head, only to realize that it was just Keet, and his head was normal size, it was just too close for comfort.“Rise and shine Kid! We have a long, long day to catch.” Keet said with a happy grin, he couldn’t just wait until Adam wakes up, he needed some explanation for the events of yesterday.“What long day? Go catch it yourself! Let me sleep I’m tired.” Adam had nothing to wake up early for. The symbiote calculated that his body would need 9 more days to resume his preparatory enhancement. he no longer had a dead line to find a plan to escape, he was already in a safe place. And he most certainly wouldn’t give up sleep to start training early after all that happened yesterday. He was simply t
Birdy was extremely exhausted, he felt that he was about to collapse, but he held on to his consciousness just to finish the third objective of the schedule that Adam created for him. He was disappointed in himself for not being able to continue to the fourth, compared to this schedule, the daily training routine he was used to in the orphanage was literally a breeze.He was oblivious to the fact that he finished a training routine made for an adult athlete, and that there was no fourth objective. the symbiote calculated that he would finish this much of this hell hard schedule, just based on Birdy’s personality, and his ignorance about how hard the training schedule is, and the fact that any human being who experienced weakness would be motivated to become stronger.What kept him going was the image of Keet’s hands wrapping around his whole body, the fear he felt at that moment, he felt too little, and too weak. the name of the protocol Adam created for him made him think that Adam w
4 hours ago, after Adam went to sleep, Birdy decided to test what he can do with the new blueprint that Adam created, but he was afraid to go outside the wooden house, because Keet might be out there, so he was going to settle with testing the small things.He patted the cute white dog, and then ordered it to turn to the full armor mode with his thoughts. The dog immediately seemed to be giving him a jump hug, only to turn into liquid and swallow Birdy’s entire body into the liquid, and then form the armor around his body, the process only took a split second, but it felt longer to Birdy who was in the middle of it.The armor felt lighter than before, and when he took a step forward, he didn’t feel any weight to it at all. in fact, he felt as if nothing could stop his leg from stepping forward. The amount of power behind the single step was enough to destroy anything in his path.He started to become wary of his movement, to not cause any damage to the house. And then he noticed that