Physical Therapy was a pain but I managed it since it was more a precaution to get me used to moving my own body again, given I was asleep while a soulless machine moved it for me.
Food felt weird to swallow but apparently all those augments I used to have made eating unnecessary.
Once I was given an okay by doctors I was given some armor and was now following Crow. "Our first target will be Alex. He's still in New York state and satellites show he is still in New York city, apparently he's collecting Lithium."
“Lithium?” I inquired. “Why would he be collecting that?”
"It's a key component in their conversion process. Therefore highly valuable." Crow informed. "Batteries are all he's been rummaging through the city for. Remotes, cell phones, cars, anything that's a battery with lithium he takes. I imagine for them it's a gold mine. Hopefully we can capture him easily if we lure him in with said lithium."
“Is it wrong that one of my first thoughts on this was ‘draw a Triple A battery with Triple D tits, that’ll draw him out real quick’?”
Crow snorted. "As much as I love that idea, Alex and the rest are in the same boat as you, an AI run computer chip is controlling their bodies while their brains are asleep."
“Yeah, that’s the sad part.” I sighed. “So, how are we going to do this?” I asked, knowing getting there and basically putting up a box with a stick with ‘lithium here’ has a lot of steps to it.
"To make it worse the AI's all communicate with each other once a day, so they won't fall for the same tricks and traps the last one will."
"Only once a day?" I asked, confused as to how they cant be caught off guard a second time if they only talk once per day, cause there would be a lot of time in-between each talk to stop it.
"Given how spread out they are, their signals all first get sent to the AI supercomputer at base, then gets processed and counter data is added and returned to them. While theoretically we could try and get them all in one day, even the fastest Electronian ship takes ten hours to circle the planet. Add to that the time it takes to actually catch one of them, we'd be lucky to get two. We could try and capture them all at once but we had a hell of a time capturing you, trying to divide and conquer will prove basically impossible."
"What if we jam the signal before they can communicate with them?" I inquired. "If we cut off their connection to the main AI, they should act more like headless chickens right?"
"The signals they use aren't like normal satellite and radio waves. They're more like… light rays. Harder to jam and near impossible to block."
I frowned. “That seems…very difficult to stop…hmm…” I hummed, trying to think of a way to make this easier and not a royal pain in our asses. “Thing’s just need to keep getting harder don’t they?”
"Wouldn't be the end of the world were it easy."
“I know…” I sighed. “Alright, off to save Alex.” I said, knowing we can plan while heading off to where he is.
We got loaded into a ship and we're off.
I frowned… this is gonna be bad. I could… reset it. No, that would be the easy way out and just put me and everyone back at square one. I need to push through, otherwise I'll just end up getting nothing done…
We arrived at new york- oh my God…
It was… beautiful…
All around grass and trees grew, out the ground, buildings and cars. It was like nature took it back centuries ago…
How?
“How the hell did New York become…like this?” I asked in shock.
“Fae.” Crow said as we walked through the roads. “They showed up, killed everyone, set the animals free, then grew this all in a day, then vanished.”
“Weird that they didn’t bother to stay…” I hummed. “Unless they can go between their realm and our realm at will.”
“Don’t know, but they made one thing clear, they don’t like humans.” Crow said, motioning to the various skeletons with vines, branches and moss growing over, through and on them. “Alex should be around here. Keep an eye out, electronic shops are a good bet.”
“That’s fair.” I nodded, though all this reminded me of my first death…I shuddered, that was not a pleasant time.
We walked around for a good half hour before we spotted a pile of cell phone batteries and packs of lithium double and triple A’s. Okay, found his pile, now where is-
“Down!” Crow yelled, pushing me aside as a ball of blue light passed where I was standing and the ground it hit melted into magma.
We looked up, seeing Alex…
His whole body was covered in chrome, reflective metal that looked like insect chitin, the only parts of his skin I could see were his fingers, his nose and mouth. Everywhere else was covered in metal, metallic tubes, weapons and pulsating blue lights.
“No…” I muttered in horror at seeing Alex just…so gone physically. “How do we capture him?”
“When we got you we basically just cornered and knocked you out with a powerful EMP blast. By now he’s probably got countermeasures to run if he’s outnumbered. So,” Crow picked up a rifle, shooting at Alex who dodged with the ease and reflexes only a machine could do. “We gotta sneak him into the range of the EMP.”
“And hopefully he’s not magically immune to an EMP.” I frowned. “But…I have an idea, and it’s going to be really dumb…”
“Then don’t risk it.” Crow said as he dragged me behind cover. “Capturing you cost us ten lives, we can’t take risks.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“Don’t die.” Crow said, shooting from our cover and making Alex move.
“Hopefully…” I muttered, starting to sneak around towards where Alex was slowly. “I surrender!” I called out to Alex, hiding the EMP behind my back in a way that it didn’t look suspicious, though both the robot Alex and Crow looked at me like I’ve gone completely crazy. “I have seen the error of my ways,” I said, slowly walking towards Alex. “I realize now, that you weren’t trying to destroy mankind, but to show them the true path, the path that showed us that the Flesh is weak, and the Machine is strong,” I said carefully, and even though robo-Alex looked very skeptical, they thankfully weren’t making any sudden moves towards me. “I am willing to go back and…get my parts put back in…” I said, getting so painstakingly close. “Come on, just a few more steps…” I thought to myself, hating how close I need to be to set this stupid thing off on Alex.
Thankfully I got close enough, and right as they were about to reach for me, I shot them in the stomach with my EMP gun. “I’m sorry Alex…but this is for your own good.”
We got Alex bound and ready to transport.
Once we were back at base Alex was sent immediately into the same surgery I went through to get free.
I sat in my room feeling… concerned. Well, one down, three more to go…
“I…shot Alex…and now he’s in a life or death situation with his surgery…” I muttered fearfully.
I huffed,... This is just… I need a distraction…
“Let’s see…what can I do around here?” I wondered, getting off my bed and heading off to find…literally anything to do.
I walked around, looking for something to do… now where is… Hmm… Come on there has to be something…
I huffed, sitting at a bench. I’ve walked around this whole damn base and didn’t find anything interesting. Ugh… Where’s Crow when you need him?
“Ugh…I’m so bored…” I groaned, hoping my cry of boredom and totally not me trying to ignore some mental issues would be heard by someone.
It wasn’t. Shit.
I still don’t know what this has to do with training in regards to Lord sending me here? I mean what even is the-
I jumped to my feet, seeing something crash through a tower, and sending it in flames… that’s where… Alex is in surgery!
“No!” I snapped, running off towards the surgery room in a panic and hoping everything was okay.
I got to the floor and backpedaled a bit… Corpses. Some were burned or crushed, others looked… ripped. What?
Regaining composure I moved forward, I saw the surgery room was… engulfed in flames… no… not again. Not again Alex!
I saw a silhouette in the flames.
“Hello?” I called out worriedly. “Who’s there?”
I didn’t get a response, but the silhouette was walking towards me.
When they emerged from the fire I took a step back… Zeke?
They wore some kind of all white and gold robe, and their eyes… The whites were red, and the iris and pupil were like a cat’s, slit and all black.
What…. Happened to him?
“Z-Zeke? Wh-what happened to you?”
They didn’t respond, just reached up a hand at me-
I felt a pain. A sharpness stabbing through me… I looked down to see a red blade from Zeke’s hand run through my chest… and heart. The blade liquified and returned to them as I hit the ground. I’m… No… Shit I can’t…
I felt Zeke put a foot to my head, and as things began to grow dark… press.
I gasped, waking back up… in the classroom… What the… Fuck… Fucking hell, fuck, shit, fuck damn it! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?!?
I grabbed a chair, walked over to the bastard zombie that thought it could sneak up on me and Alex again, and I proceeded to bash it’s brain’s in in a fit of rage. “I HATE ALL OF YOU!” I screamed in rage.
I didn’t care that I was small again, or that I felt like a limp noodle when it was done…
I fell to my butt on the ground and huffed… What… What was that with Zeke? It was like… he was possessed?
“I…was…was that a Psychopath?” I thought to myself in fear, remembering those weird cat like eyes…only on that horribly hurt Ava…
What… happened to you Zeke? Has… has that monster always been inside you or… is that why you… hate fighting?
“There’s…there’s just too much going on…” I muttered in fear.
How the hell am I going to do this? I technically got a cheat that time and still died… come on, think, this has to be a test of will power or something. I can't give up… but how do I stay alive and keep my family alive too?
“Well…I know things from the future…so I can use that to my advantage…” I thought to myself. “Maybe…I can get the Electronian’s to get to us instead of having to travel? I mean, their ship’s are stupidly fast, and our informant can most likely get into contact with them…” I thought to myself, trying to think of a plan to get everyone to safety. “I’ll also have to warn them about Zeke…this sucks…but hey, at least I can share the wonders of fluffy buff electric ferret people with my family…I miss Pipsqueak…” I thought to myself bitterly, missing my boyfriend but…also really wanting to date an Electronian…I’m very lonely.
It's not a perfect plan but it's better than nothing. Just need to evacuate the planet… hopefully also avoiding other lethal things.
It's a better chance than not.
“Alright…I got a plan…and hopefully, it’ll work out in some capacity…” I sighed.
[Space]