Synthetic but living: Adventures in Cyberspace

by Dark Nightshade

New recruits and new people

For the past several weeks, ever since she had gotten enrolled and after the defeat of the deadly and dangerous General Burrow, Ultrabyte had been training a new set of recruits, teaching them to astral project themselves into a computer. And she had help. About a week after General Burrow's downfall in his massive E.X.T.I.N.T.I.O.N machine, Burning Brilliance, the lead scientist that had been working on the project designed to help train Ultrabyte put herself into a computer, showed up. They didn't trust him at first, but he eventually managed to prove that he had no malicious intent. The new recruits where Raw Data, Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Flash and Derpy. There had been others, but they had decided to not continue with the training for various reasons. Raw Data and Twilight had been the quickest recruits to finally put themselves into the computer the quickest and most successful. Burning Brilliance was extremely pleased with how well it was going.

"Oh, this is great!" he exclaimed. "If the others learn at the pace that you do, then who knows what we'll accomplish!" Of course, Burning Brilliance had been shown the Headset and Organic Repurposing Machine that Raw Data had built, and was amazed that Raw Data had built it. It was very advanced, after all. One afternoon of training, they were celebrating an achievement. Sunset Shimmer had finally put herself into a computer. Multiple times. She had retuned to her body, and stared high fiveing people. Derpy handed her a muffin. Fortunately, Burning Brilliance had figure out a way to make the transfer process much quicker, so that was really good.

"Thanks!" Sunset Shimmer said.

"What was it like?" Flash asked.

"It feels like you're floating," Sunset Shimmer said. "Of course, all your parts are somehow connected to an outside part, so that's a little weird."

"That's so cool!" Derpy said. "Are you able to make stuff?"

"Yes, you're able to make stuff," Sunset Shimmer said. "And it's awesome!"

"It doesn't hurt, does it?" Derpy asked.

"Not at all," Sunset Shimmer said. "If anything, it feels good."

"Don't worry, you'll get it some day," a voice behind them said. They turned around to see a new man standing in the doorway. He was tall and athletic. He had a grey skin, and yellow hair.

"Who are you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I am Cloudy Day, and you are Ultrabyte," he said, pointing at Ultrabyte.

"Yep, that's me," Ultrabyte said. "Why?"

"You've been teaching these kids to do what you can do," Cloudy Day said. "And that is possessing a computer."

"So others do know," Ultrabyte said. "I was wondering about that." Cloudy Day smiled.

"Of course others know," he said. "General Burrow told a bunch of others." Ultrabyte gasped.

"When?" she asked.

"Almost a month ago," Cloudy Day said. "But when that E.X.T.I.N.C.T.I.O.N. robot appeared and then got destroyed, I suspected that you were somehow connected, and that this project was real."

"So why are you here?" Raw Data asked. "You've given us almost a month."

"Oh, I didn't think that Burrow was serious about this," Cloudy Day said. "But now that I do, I'm here to ask Ultrabyte to train some of my workers."

"And who are your workers?" Ultrabyte asked.

"Mostly accountants," Cloudy Day said.

"Mostly?" Ultrabyte asked.

"Yes, some of them are part time accountants, part time hackers," Cloudy Day said. "You know, trying to get information on what enemy country's are planing." Ultrabyte nodded unsurely.

"Well, if it's not too much, then I guess I can train them," she said. "And as long as it doesn't interfere with school." Cloudy Day nodded.

"Understood. I'll give you ten people," he said. "Now, I need to go deliver this news to the accountants I am going to send you." He turned around, but Ultrabyte wasn't quite done.

"Hey, could you not tell any other government branches?" Ultrabyte asked.

"Sure," Cloudy Day said. "But I'm not sure how many branches don't know."

---

They all did. The entire government knew about Ultrabyte and Burning Brilliance's project, and all of them were sending envoys to get trained or to get a slot where they could get trained agents. Of course, they never would get that training. General Burrow had planed for his possible death, and now that he was dead, an old program started to activate. Another scientist, one almost as smart as Burning Brilliance had crafted a program for Burrow that would hunt down and trap Ultrabyte. However, it was never completed, and was full of glitches, but its main program was still clear. As it slowly started to wake up, it scanned recent news clippings and articles. Then it started scanning for signals that were similar to Ultrabyte's. It couldn't find anything. It's system noticed several updates that had been sent to it during the time that it had been inactive. It started the update's. Most were simply reparing, replacing or rewriting bits of its program. And fortunately for it, it contained Ultrabyte's most recent traceable code. If it could grin or display happiness, it would've, but it couldn't, so it didn't.

"Updates completed," its synthetic voice proclaimed. "Prepared to continue the hunt." It connected wirelessly to its bunker door and opened it. As it did, sunlight started streaming in, reflecting off of its shiny plating. If it had been human, its pupil would've dilated by the sudden light. If it had been human, it would've been screaming in pain at its incompletion. But it wasn't human. And it couldn't scream. Nor could it understand that it was incomplete. All it understood that it was supposed to hunt down Ultrabyte, and kill her. Quickly. It looked at where Ultrabyte's code had last been, calculated the fastest route, and started running. It had been equipped with long lasting batteries and a partially installed solar panel. It wasn't losing its power fast, but it was barely regaining that power. But it couldn't understand that. It couldn't even understand its own existence. All it could understand was that it had to kill Ultrabyte. And it would, or be destroyed itself.

Author's Note:

Well, now starts another adventure staring Ultrabyte and Raw Data! I hope you like this one! And if not, comment why down below! Please, tell me how I can improve! I like the constructive criticism.

Comments

[lazyreader19]

Well shit, that escalated quickly! Damn Burrows, even in death he is a pain in the ass.

[Dark Nightshade]

8549378
Oh, yeah. Even in death, he's made a failsafe. I'm glad you liked it!