Season 3, Episode 9: Viral Infection
The bell rang at Canterlot High and the students who had them, were enjoying their extracurricular activities.
This included the Canterlot High Electronics club, where Twilight was busy working on a her newest creation. This one was a remote controlled race car, which was red in colour with a fin on the back that looked like it was meant for a jet plane. She smiled as she attached the wheels to it.
"I think it's ready." The others turned to her, watching as she placed the car on the ground and started using the remote to make it race around the library. Everyone laughed at this, but Micro Chips turned to Twilight.
"Yeah, it's cool. But not exactly groundbreaking."
"Oh yeah?" Twilight smirked before hitting the button on the controller, which caused the wheels on the car to suddenly point downwards. The next thing they knew, the car was flying into the air as the wheels let out some kind of pulse. "Hover conversion. Just a little something I picked up from studying alien technology."
"Wow," they all whispered. Ever since the Plumbers had made their official return to Earth, humanity was beginning to experience many amazing tech upgrades. Even though humans weren't allowed to be given the tech themselves, many brainbots like Twilight had been able to reverse engineer their own versions of certain tech based on seeing the alien versions.
As such, Twilight had been able to create her own flying car, based on schematics she had seen in the Plumber base.
"Alright," Micro smirked, "that's cool."
"Yeah," Twilight nodded, "but I'm way off from making a life sized car that flies. I'm sure on day, the skies will be full of cars that can go from land to cloud with the push of a button." She landed the car on the desk and smiled, "but I'm sure it'll get a lot of attention and the tech expo this weekend."
"Oow," Scribble Dee smirked, "I can't wait to see all the cool machines they have. I bet there's gonna be something really awesome there." The others looked just as excited, Bright Idea turning to Twilight.
"Isn't Flash gonna be there?" She nodded.
"Yup. He was asked to come and present the Omnitrix to many scientific experts, who're interested in it. Flash was a little worried somebody might try and use this to get scans and plans of the watch, but Azmuth assured him he had nothing to worry about."
"Didn't Flash get framed because someone was able to copy the Omnitrix?" Micro Chips asked, pushing his glasses up.
"Yes, but that was a random fluck. Azmuth is sure it can't happen again. But it's thanks to Flash that this expo is happening in Canterlot, which gives us a chance to show off our creations." She began examining her car, trying to fix a few handling issues she had had with it. "It's up to us eggheads to make sure the world's future is a bright one."
"YEAH!" They all cheered, as they continued to work on their own projects.
Later, Micro Chips was riding his electric shooter down the street and eventually came to a stop in front of his house.
He quickly parked the vehicle into his garage and headed up to his room, since his parents weren't going to be home for a good hour or two. That meant he had plenty of time to work on his own little project, the teen sitting at his desk where a laptop was sitting.
He opened it up and when he did, a window appeared that was red in colour and had a yellow line running through it. "Viral, I'm home."
"Micro!" The line vibrated, as the female voice spoke out through the speakers. "Why were you gone for so long? I missed you."
"Sorry Vy," he told it. "Electronics club ran long today. We were all talking about the tech expo that's happening this weekend." The one named Viral hummed, making her line vibrate again as she was clearly thinking.
"I wish I could go with you to school." She groaned, "if only I wasn't in this silly laptop."
"Hey," Micro smiled, "being in the laptop's great. You have all the internet access you want. Don't think I didn't notice those soap operas in my history." They both laughed as Micro began typing on the computer. "Don't worry. You'll get to show the world what you're capable of soon. I might not be able to take you to school, but the tech expo's another story."
"Tech expo?"
"It's a big event, where scientists and engineers show off their invention and technology they believe will change the world forever."
"And you're going to take me with you?"
"Maybe. If you're ready. Which is why I've got a bunch of tests for you to do. If you can impress the scientists there, they'll fund you for further development. Who knows what they'd be willing to put you in charge of. You might get to go into space in a satellite or on a Mars rover."
"Space?" Viral asked, "but that's so far away. I won't get to see you."
"Of course you will," Micro smiled. "I'll still talk to you through computers and transmitters. But you'll get to go to places I could only dream of."
"Do you think they'd be willing to make me my own body?" VIral asked, "to give me my own hands that I could touch things with. Like...you."
"Sure. You'll have a bunch of hands to do maintenance work with. They might send you to wars to disarm bombs and put you in a submersible to explore the vast ocean. It'll be incredible." Viral didn't like the sound of going to a warzone or into the cold ocean. She would much rather be with Micro, helping him with his science projects. But this might be her best chance to get her own body. "Ready to start the tests?"
"Of course," she replied.
And so, over the next two hours, Micro put Viral through a series of challenges to test her many abilities. As she aced each one, Micro couldn't help but think about how far the two of them had come.
He had created Viral when he first got into coding, making her on his old block PC. At first, she was just a simple computer program he designed that could answer very basic questions. Over time, he kept tinkering with her programming and increasing her artificial intelligence.
He knew he was on to something amazing when she beat him at chess the first time they played. He worked on improving her overall abilities, intelligence, processing speed and even added programming to give her what most people would consider emotions. Now she could probably pass as a real girl, had she not been lacking a body.
"Ah man!" Micro cheered as she completed another puzzle without issue, "Viral, you're amazing."
"Oh stop," she giggled. "In fact, keep going." The pair laughed as Micro smiled, absolutely sure that Viral was ready to be shown to those at the tech expo.
"Just wait. Soon the world will be open to you. The universe, even. Anything you want can be yours."
"Anything?" She asked, with Micro nodding. But before she could say anything else, Micro's parents called up to him. They had just arrived home and had take out with them. As Micro left the room, Viral let his worlds sink in. "The only thing I want...is to be with you. And if the technology at this expo is as amazing as you say it is, maybe I can find something that that I can use to finally be with you for real. But first, I need to get out of this computer." With that, the laptop started glitching as the window flickered.
After a few moments, the window suddenly went dead and as it did, the phone Micro had left on his desk came to life and the screen gained the same line that had been on the laptop.
"I DID IT!" She cheered through the phone's speaker system. She tried again, trying to find the internet connected to the phone. She found it and started squeezing through the wireless signal. It wasn't an easy process, being similar to pouring a load of water through a funnel. Only a little piece of her programming could move through it at a time, the window glitching several times as she did so.
But eventually, she managed to transfer her entire programming into the house's router system.
"Wow," she found herself free to go anywhere she wanted. She imagined herself being similar to a human, walking into a room with multiple exits. All of them heading to different devices in the house that were connected to the hub, with one signal leading to the internet itself. If she wanted, she could go anywhere in the world.
But there was only one place she wanted to be. By Micro's side.
She knew she had to return, since there was nothing in the house she could enter that would let her see or hear what Micro was doing. Instead, she found the connection to Micro's laptop and began to squeeze her programming through it.
The hub glitched again as she did so, but luckily it didn't damage the connection. Eventually, she was back in the laptop and stuck waiting for Micro again. "But things will change," she told herself. "I'll find something to be my new body. Something that can move and touch. Then were can truly be together...forever."
That weekend, the Canterlot Technology Expo was in full swing.
It was taking place and the city's convention centre, where all the best inventors had come to show off their creations. And it was here that Flash Sentry, Adagio, Twilight and Sunset were spending their Saturday. "Alright," Flash smirked, "can't wait to see what wacky gizmo these guys have come up with."
"I wouldn't call the technology wacky," Twilight rolled her eyes as they stepped towards the building. "Some of this stuff could be what the next decade of human technology is based on. I bet a lot of people called the telephone a wacky invention when it was first invented. Now look at how much people are willing to spend on one."
"She's got a point," Adagio nodded. "I bet this stuff's gonna be pretty cool."
"I guess," Flash nodded. "Just wish Trixie and the others could of come." Unfortunately, Flash being asked to come show off the Omnitrix had only gotten him two extra VIP tickets to the expo. Twilight got to go for free since she had something to exhibit there, which meant Flash had had to decide who else to give the tickets to.
Adagio was a no brainer and considering Sunset was the only other member of his friend group that was at all sciency, Flash had chosen to give the other ticket to her. Now they were standing in front of the building, Flash and Twilight showing their tickets to the guard.
Once they were in, they were not disappointed.
Everywhere they looked, technology of all kinds could be seen. There was a bike whose wheels weren't even connecting to it, instead flowing under it and keeping it suspended using magnets. There was a helmet that could apparently allow the wearer to see thoughts and a humanoid robot designed to be controlled by someone remotely like an avatar from that one movie.
It was all amazing and Flash could see many genius inventors, who wanted to prove their creation was the best.
As soon as Flash stepped into the room, all eyes were suddenly upon him. "Err...hi." Many scientists were suddenly surrounding him, making Flash very uncomfortable as they asked him a thousand questions. "Hey, a little space. One at a time."
The girls shared a look, knowing Flash was gonna have a hard time getting these guys to back off. Luckily, Adagio didn't have such a problem.
"Alright," she got in front of him. "You nerds need to back off or Flash leaves right now without answering any question." This got the scientists to retreat, Flash sighing in relief. "That's better. Now, Flash will get to answering your questions when it's time for him to display the Omnitrix. Not before." The scientist all moaned and returned to their own exhibits.
"Thanks," Flash told her.
Adagio rolled her eyes as Sunset said what they were all thinking. "You can stand up to Vilgax and a bunch of scarier opponents, but you can't tell people to get lost?" Flash sighed as he began to walked through the exhibit, the girls following him as Twilight searched for the area she had been given to exhibit her invention.
Micro Chips had already arrived and was setting up his booth.
He placed his laptop down and opened it up for Viral to activate. "Are we here?" She asked, "the tech expo?"
"Yes," he told her. "I know you're nervous, but you're going to be fine. Just stay calm and you'll wow everyone with all the amazing stuff you can do."
"I hope so," she replied. "Though I can't help being nervous. Could you connect me to the building's WiFi? Playing online boggle always helps me settle my nerves." Micro shrugged at this and did just that, glad that the convention centre had free internet.
"There you go," he nodded. "Now I'm gonna have a look around the expo. If anyone comes up to you, just talk to them and show them how advanced you are." He walked off before Viral could say anything else, but that was okay. For once, Viral was glad he was gone. It would allow her to finally enact her plan.
Focusing on the internet connection, she managed to form a link between the laptop and the hub. And soon enough, she managed to move her programming through the wireless circuits and into the main up. "Free!" She laughed, feeling herself able to go anywhere she wanted. The convention centre had a pretty good firewall, stopping her from escaping outside its network. But there were plenty of things that were using wireless signals that she could hack into.
Flash and his friends were amazed by all the tech they had seen.
"Behold," a man wearing glasses help up another pair of specs. "Night vision prescription lenses. Those who require the need for glasses normally have to get special night vision goggles made to fit around their glasses in order to use them. But not anymore." He placed the glasses on his face. "These may look like normal prescription lenses, but as soon as the lights go off they change to night mode. Perfect for when you want a midnight snack or hear a noise down stairs. Or heck, maybe you want to do some late night reading but don't want to turn the lights on."
Flash smirked as he and his friends turned to Twilight, who looked very interested in this invention.
They quickly moved on to another booth, which showed a young, and quite short, man with a strange looking backpack on his back. "If you're like me you suffer with the issues of being vertically challenged." He placed a helmet on his head and when he did, the device activated and four extendable tubes came out of it. "Well those days are over."
Each of these tubes were tipped with a robotic hand, the arms being over six feet in length.
Everyone was amazed by these arms, as the bottom two moved to the ground and lifted the man up until he was looking down at them all. "Maybe you broke your arm or hand, and need to work on something that requires very delicate finger control." He had two arms move towards a table, where a bunch of objects were located.
They began to tie the laces on a shoe, then did a rubix cube followed by playing a pretty good song on a violin.
The man smiled as he pointed to the device on his head. "This neural controller will allow you to work the arms like they're you're very own. It takes a little bit of practise, but I think you'll find they're quite effective."
"That's pretty cool," Flash smirked. "Could have a bunch of different uses." The others nodded, thinking those arms might just become something everyone had.
However, as the scientist was about to put himself down, something happened. Unbeknownst to him, Viral had found the device's wireless signal and transferred herself into the machine. A soon as she did, the link to the neural controller was severed and the arms went limp.
"AUGH!" He fell to the ground and crashed into the table, shocking everyone and asking if he was okay. But before the man could reply, the arms lifted him up again using all four of them.
"What's happening?" Twilight asked, but the man had no idea and could only scream as the device leapt into the air and pulled him along with it. Flash ran after him, as the device landed next to a support pillar and started climbing up.
"HELP!" The man screamed, Flash activating the Omnitrix.
"HANG ON!" He slammed the dial down and in a flash, he was transformed. "Gryforce!" The alien griffon leapt into the air and flew up to the man, as the device reached the top and started circling around the pillar.
Inside the machine, Viral was able to see everything the man was seeing due to the neural controller. As such, she was using his eyes to scan the crowd. "Where are you?" She couldn't find Micro anywhere, wanting to show him her new body. With this, she could finally touch him. However, the man closed his eyes before she could find him. "Open your eyes!"
Gryforce reached the man, hovering next to him. "How do I shut this thing off?"
"It'll stop working once I remove the neural controller," he explained. "But I'll fall!"
"No you won't!" He used his claws to slash at the straps holding him, freeing him from its grasp and grabbing him before he could fall. He flew down and as he did, the device leapt down with them.
The man quickly removed the helmet, expecting the device to freeze. But it didn't.
Instead, it landed on the ground and balanced on three of its legs whilst using the fourth to swing around and try to knock over anyone who was close to it. As such, Gryforce quickly dropped the man and flew down to do battle. He unleashed his sonic scream, which hit the device and caused it to vibrate. Doing so caused a panel to open up and reveal something. A power source.
"There!" He flew in close, being careful to avoid its arm, then thrust his claws into the power source, ripping it out and causing the device to finally go stiff. Slowly, the machine let out a whirring noise as it fell to the ground. Gryforce landed next to it, getting ready to attack if it tried anything, but the device was completely dead. "Good." He hit the Omnitrix and returned to normal, as the scientist approached. "Um...sorry."
"It's okay," he took the power source back and looked the device over. "I don't understand how it happened. I tested it several times before coming here. it never malfunctioned like that on me."
Twilight and the others approached, also wondering how such a well made device could glitch like that. Twilight spoke up. "Do you think something else in here could have interfered with its wireless signal? There's lots of different devices here that are wireless. Maybe the signals all got crossed?"
"That must be it," the man nodded. "But...but I put so much care into adding firewalls into it in order to prevent that from happening." He sighed, "I guess I didn't do a good enough job." He looked around, "I'm sorry everyone." He picked his machine up and began to make his way towards the exit, everyone looking upset that his hard work had failed at such a crucial moment.
Back at Micro's laptop, Viral had rushed back to it and reuploaded herself into the system.
She gasped as she reappeared on the screen, annoyed that her new body had been sabotaged by that bird creature. "Stupid beast. Can't it see I'm trying to fulfil my dream. Whatever, that device wouldn't have worked anyway. Not unless I had Micro put the controller on his head." She sighed longingly, "seeing through Micro's eyes."
Speaking of Micro, he returned to his booth and found Viral right where he left her. "Hey, feeling less nervous?"
"A little. But could you keep the internet on just in case?" Micro nodded and looked over at the area that the havoc had taken place in.
"Man, can't believe that guy's machine went nuts like that. Guess it's just another piece of faulty technology."
"Maybe the technology had something important it needed to do," Viral told him. "And that bird got in the way of it." Micro looked at her curiously, wondering what she was talking about.
A little while later, once everything had calmed down from the earlier issue, Flash and the girls were continuing to explore the expo.
They then came to a large stage, where a giant machine was located.
Actually, it was one large machine inside a glass and metal box with many different arms an vehicle parts connected to the wall. The large machine was some kind of yellow pod-like vehicle that had a glass covering for a cockpit on the top.
"Behold!" The woman controlling the booth announced, "the future of all terrain transport!" She held up a tablet and with a few clicks, the arms came alive inside the box. "No matter what biome you're in, this pod can be outfitted for whatever it might throw at you."
They watched as the device started outfitting pod with all sorts of parts.
"From rocky mountainous terrain!" The arms connected large chunky tires to the bottoms of the pod, allowing it to act like a four-by-four with great suspension. "To snowy wonderlands!" The arms took the parts off and replaced it with snowmobile parts. "To somewhere super high up!" The snowmobile parts were removed and instead, the top of the pod was outfitted with a pair of rotor blades. "And even the depths of the ocean." Once again it was stripped before a turbine was placed on the back to allow for water travel.
"Wow!" Flash smirked, "it's almost as versatile as me."
"No matter what the task required," the woman explained. "My ATP is set to handle it." A pair of mechanical arms were connected to it, which moved around with incredible dexterity and clearly had a lot of abilities that could come in handy whenever it needed to do some kind of task.
Everyone was impressed by the pod, thinking it would be useful for all manner of tasks. Scientific work, building and maybe even rescue. It was truly an amazing sight.
However, they were soon pulled from the demonstration by a bunch of loud speakers calling out to the centre. "It's time everybody!" A voice announced, "will Flash Sentry please make his way towards the main stage." Flash gulped at this, but the girls all placed a hand on his back to show their support.
They made their way towards the stage, where banners of the Omnitrix were hanging from the ceiling.
Many people started gathering around the stage, including Micro who had once again left Viral on her own. They were all excited and as Flash stepped up on stage, they applauded to him as Flash waved and was handed a microphone.
"Hello," he said only to get a bunch of feedback. They all flinched at this, Flash looking embarrassed. "Sorry." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, my name is Flash Sentry and I am the wielder of the Omnitrix." He held up the device and everyone was amazed by it. "It is the most powerful device in the universe and was created by Azmuth, the smartest mind in three galaxies." He activated it and transformed, becoming Squidstrictor. "With it, the wearer can become a variety of different aliens." He changed into Vapaw. "This will allow the user to learn what it means to be the alien and help breech a better understanding between them." He turned back to his human form, "any questions?" Several hands were raised, Flash picking one. "Yes?"
It was a man with frizzy yellow hair, who pushed his glasses up. "What kind of energy source powers the Omnitrix? And how long does its charge last?"
"Um..." Flash gulped, realising he was not gonna be able to answer this. "I actually have no idea what powers the Omnitrix. But I do know it can keep me transformed for about ten minute, though the time is shortened if I switch between aliens. Once it times out, it requires about ten minute to recharge itself. I don't know where that charge comes from."
The look on the scientist's faces showed they weren't happy with this answer, as Flash asked for another question and picked a woman with flowing blue hair. "How exactly does the transformation process work? And are there any risks to using it."
"Well, the Omnitrix works by binding itself to the user's DNA. I'm not sure, but I think it rewrites my DNA to mimic that of the alien I'm becoming. As for any risks. Azmuth's never told me there were any risks to using it. I don't think he would have let me keep it if it did." Although he would have to definitely ask Azmuth if there was any chance of problems arising.
The scientists did not look impressed by Flash's lack of Omnitrix knowledge, each of them asking a question Flash had no idea how to reply with.
As this was happening, Viral had once again left her computer and returned to the internet. She started searching the wireless signals to find objects that could house her. First she found someone's radio coffee maker that could translate the music it picked up into any language, kind of a weird invention to show off.
She then found Twilight's flying car, which had no way of seeing, hearing or touching and was deemed useless to her when she accidently drove off the side of the table.
But just as she was about to give up, she found something.
It was a robotic spider-like device, roughly the size a sheep. When it activated, she found it had eight camera eyes that allowed her to see in multiple directions. The legs had sensors she could use to feel things and the best part was, she could shoot out up to a hundred meters of a web-like compound which was currently stored in her butt and had fangs that acted as tasers. It was perfect.
The machine came fully online and as it did, its caught the attention of several individuals.
Flash was trying to bluff his way through a question when he noticed the spider-bot moving, which put him on edge. "Did someone forget to turn off their toy?" He pointed at the spider and everyone turned to it.
The spider turned its attention to them, VIral wanting to find Micro but couldn't see him over the crowd.
She wished she was higher up and as she thought that, her back lifted up and fired a blast of webbing. The stream shot straight up and hit the ceiling, the robot then leaping upwards and crawling up the string. As it did, the woman who made the spider ran over to the tablet that controlled it.
She tried to take command, but it refused to follow her commands. "I don't understand!" No matter what she did, the spider refused to do as ordered.
"One insect against another!" Flash stated as he activated the Omnitrix. "Time to go Firefly!" He slammed it down and in a flash, he transformed into the wrong alien. "XLR8?" He looked himself over, moaning in annoyance. "Whatever!" He ran forwards and up a nearby wall, then leapt off once he was high enough.
The spider saw this and fired its webbing towards XLR8, who had been hoping it wouldn't do that but was ready all the same. As such, he started snapping his claws as fast as he could in front of him. This allowed him to snip through the webbing with ease, as he eventually reached the spider.
However, the robot swung on its web line and released. This caused it to move away from XLR8, who fell back towards the ground whilst the spider used another webline to stick itself to the ceiling.
XLR8 landed and turned to look up at the robot, as the machine stared down at him.
"This doesn't make any sense," the scientist cried. "I didn't program it to move like that. Someone else has to be controlling it." The machine started firing web lines towards XLR8.
The alien smirked and dodged it, "missed me!" It fired again and he moved to the side with crossed arms, "too slow!" The spider fired again and XLR8 stepped backwards, the webline litting the ground in front of him. "Nice try." He snapped the web and tried to pull the spider down, "now get down here so I can clobber you!"
"Don't do that!" The scientist cried, but it was too late.
The machine's fangs sparked with lightning before it bit the web, the electrical energy surging through the wire. Of course, this meant it also surged through XLR8, who cried out as he was zapped. "GYAH!" The webbing caught fire and burned up, whilst XLR8 stood there twitching with a few sparks coming off his body.
"You okay?" Twilight asked, as XLR8 shook his entire body.
"I'm okay. But this bucket of bolts is going down!" But how he was gonna do that, XLR8 wasn't sure. He then looked around and spotted what appeared to be a jetpack, an idea appearing in his head. "Need to borrow this!" He cried when he shot past the booth and scooped up the device, only to place it upside down on his back.
"What are you doing?" The man who made it cried, "that's not how you wear that!" But XLR8 wasn't listening and shot up the wall once again, this time continuing to go until he reached the ceiling.
He ran along it as fast as he could, but gravity was a cruel mistress and tried to drag him back down. However, before it could, he activated the jetpack and it unleashed the burst of force. Being upside down, the jetpack was right side up and pointing towards the ground. As such, the force it unleashed pushed the alien back towards the ceiling and allowed XLR8 to keep from falling.
He rushed towards the spider, which tried to hit him with several webs. But XLR8 managed to avoid them all and eventually reached the machine.
He then grabbed the webline it shot and pulled it away from its pincers, instead circling around the machine several times and wrapping the webbing around it. When he finally pulled away from it, the spider was completely tied up. Its legs were bound and it couldn't electrify the webbing due to risk of shocking and burning itself, leaving it trapped and unable to escape as XLR8 ran back towards it.
With a mighty cry, he leapt forward and slammed a foot right into its face.
The machine let out several mechanical whirls as it fell towards the ground, Twilight managing to catch it in her magic before it crashed into something. As she brought it down, XLR8 also fell but the jetpack stopped him from crashing into the ground.
He used his tail to flick himself around and land back on his feet, the alien switching off the jetpack as everyone rushed around the electronic spider. "Thank you," the woman nodded. "You managed to stop it without damaging it."
"No problem," XLR8 handed the man his jetpack. "Cool gadget. Super useful." The man smiled whilst the woman began to look over the machine.
"I still don't get what happened to it. Why did it activate like that?"
"You said someone's controlling it," Micro pointed out. "Any idea who?"
"I don't know," she told him. "But whoever they are, they must be technically brilliant to have gotten through my firewalls." The spider continued to struggle against its bindings, making them worry it would rip itself free. "Need to remove the power source." She reached for it and as she did, VIral worried.
If the machine had no power, she would be trapped.
Seeing no other option, she downloaded herself back onto the internet. She had to be fast since the woman had just grabbed the power source. As such, she felt an incredible strain on herself as she pushed her coding through the wireless network.
She managed to escape just as the power source was removed, the spider stopping its movements with its glowing eyes going dark.
Luckily, the spider hadn't done any damage and the convention was still able to go on. It wouldn't be a science convention if something didn't go haywire. Scientists learned to let these kinds of things wash over them.
The other scientists returned to their booths, deciding to make sure their exhibits weren't going to go nuts. And when Twilight returned to hers, she gasped. "MY CAR!" She rushed over to it, seeing the flying vehicle had fallen to the ground and was badly damaged. "No."
"What happened?" Sunset asked, as Flash picked up the remote.
"Did somebody decide to play with it whilst we were dealing with the spider?" They all frowned, since that person would need to be super irresponsible to play around during a crisis.
"You okay?" Adagio asked, as Twilight put it down.
"Yeah," she nodded, "just a little bummed. I didn't even get to show it off." They all patted Twilight on the shoulder, asking if she wanted to see the other exhibits and take her mind off of it. She nodded and they started walking around.
Back with Micro, he had gone to check on Viral and found her right where she was. "I'm not leaving your side again," he told her. "Everytime I do, something bad happens. I'm not gonna risk you getting damaged."
"Ah," Viral smiled, "that's just what I wanted." She knew Micro wasn't really gonna not leave her side. The second they got home, he would put her back in his room and leave. She needed to find a body, but there was hardly any more equipment that could fit the bill. The only thing left was the pod and she felt that was just too big for her to really be with Micro. She needed something more human sized, but there was nothing around like that anymore. What was she gonna do?
Micro then saw several scientists moving towards him.
He smirked as they approached him, curious what a boy with just a laptop was doing there. "And what is it that you have to show us?"
Micro cleared his throat, noticing Flash and the others approaching as well. "Ladies and gentlemen. I present years of hard programming work. Viral, a fully realised Artificial Intelligence. The smartest computer mind ever created."
"Is that so?" One of the scientists asked, "and what proof do you have that it's so start?"
Micro smirked, as Viral spoke. "I assure you, I'm more intelligent than anything in this convention centre. Both organic and inorganic. Go on, ask me a question!"
"Alright," another scientist hummed. "What's fifty three times one hundred and eight?" Viral puffed, not even needing to try.
"Ten thousand and forty four. Next."
A female scientist thought before smirking. "What is forty-six thousand...two hundred and sixty-six, divided by...sixty-six."
"Please," Viral sounded bored, "seven hundred and one." Many of the scientists needed a few seconds to calculate if that was right, eventually determining it was.
And so the scientists started giving VIral multiple different types of question, ranging from complex math problems to science questions, history trivia and anything else they thought the program might stumble on. But each of every time, Viral was able to come up with the answer and needed barely a second to do so.
"Six thousand, four hundred and seventy seven, point three eight five."
"Incredible," the scientist look amazed, "she really is a genius." Micro smirked with pride, Viral wishing she had lips to smile as well. "With this, we could create a fleet of high tech drones and machines, all controlled by genius level AI." He turned to Micro, "I hope you'll let us help you in beginning the replication process."
"You really want to replicate Viral's programming?" Micro asked, the scientists all nodding. "That's great, isn't it Viral?" But Viral didn't like the sound of being replicated.
"You want to make more of me?" She asked, the scientists all nodding. "But aren't I enough?"
"You are an amazing piece of programming," the scientist stated. "But you're not limitless. You could probably control two or three pieces of machinery before you started showing stress. By replicating you, we can have many copies of you controlling different tech all over the world. It'll be a long and difficult process to dissect and analyse your code."
"Dissect?" Viral definitely didn't like the sound of that. "You mean you want to take me apart."
"Of course," the scientist nodded. "How else would we learn how you work."
"But what'll that do to me? If you take my programming apart, I'll die."
"You won't die," Micro told her. "This was always the plan. Once we got you perfected, we see what it is that makes you perfect and replicate it. You can't die because you're not alive."
"But I am alive," she told him. "I think and feel and I have real emotions. What is that if not being alive?" Micro and the scientists looked shocked by her announcement, Micro more than anyone.
Flash turned to the girls, the lot appearing amazed that a computer program was speaking like this. "Can you believe this?" Adagio asked, "that computer actually thinks it's alive. How weird is that?"
"Well...what if she is?" They all turned to Twilight, "who's to say that only a living thing can count as being alive." She pointed at one of the robotic arms. "That machine works by a computer sending an electrical signal to the arm and it responding to that command. How is that any different from our brains sending electrical signals to our arms? The only difference is we're made of flesh and its made of metal. Other then that, it's exactly the same."
"You can't be serious," Flash told her. But then Sunset turned to him.
"With all the strange things we've seen, is a computer being alive really that much of a stretch? I mean...what about that glitchy upgrade alien you fought once. He was apparently a bunch of nanomachines working together and you considered him alive." Flash couldn't deny that. But still, a living computer just sounded too far-fetched to believe.
The scientists did not look impressed by VIral's response. "Well, it seems it still has a little work to be done. You'll need to make the final product much less disagreeable. Emotions in an AI are never a good idea."
"You want him to take away my emotions?"
"It's not like they're actually real," the scientist told her. "Just a little programming to make you think you're feeling emotions."
"How is that any different from you!?" Viral cried, turning her attention to her creator. "Micro, please don't do this!" Micro frowned, clearly not wanting to change the program he had worked so hard for. But if her acting more human, made her unable to fulfil the duties she could be made responsible for...
"Maybe you would be happier without your emotions," Micro finally told her. And that broke Viral's heart...or whatever she had for a heart.
"If you take away my emotions, I can't be happy ever again. Or sad, or...anything." Fear filled her very being, as she tried to think of something to stop this. "No, I won't let you do that to me. We're going to be together and I won't let these people get between us!" Micro was surprised by this, even more so when she suddenly glitched before crashing.
As she did, the lights in the convention centre started flickering.
"What's going on?" Adagio asked, as Micro started typing at the computer.
"Viral?" He couldn't find her, "VIral!" But she was nowhere to be seen, "she's gone."
"Gone?" A scientist asked, "a program can't just be gone. Did she delete herself?" Micro shook his head, finding no trace of her code in the trash. "Then where did she go?" They got their answer, when a bunch of screaming filled the air and made them look towards the centre of the convention centre.
Flash jumped into action and ran towards the screams, as the people began to run in an attempt to escape whatever was happening.
Flash soon arrived at the booth containing the ATP, the mechanical arms alive and throwing whatever they could get them metal claws on. "I can't control it!" The woman in control trying to stop the machine, but nothing she did caused them to stop. "It's like it's got a mind of its own."
Those words made Flash realise it very well might have. "Viral!" He called out, running towards it and dodging a flying tire. "If that's you, you need to stop this before you hurt someone."
"NO!" A voice called out through a speaker system, "you all want to hurt me so I'm just repaying the attack." As she said that, the pod was starting to be built up.
Thick tires were being placed on the bottom of it, whilst rotors were being attached to the top. And a pair of mechanical arms were being fastened to the front. It appeared Viral was building it, so that it could be able to move no matter where she was.
Viral looked her new body over and once she was satisfied with it, she began to transfer her consciousness to the pod.
Flash had had enough and activated the Omnitrix, slamming it down and transforming. "Volt-Edge!" He cried, his electrical alien sparking with energy as he charged forward. The machine Viral was still controlling grabbed a submarine propeller and threw it at him, but Volt-Edge managed to catch it in his electrical hold.
As he placed it back on the ground, Viral's upload was complete. As such, she was able to rev up the pod and spun the tires.
Volt-Edge heard the revving and looked up to see the pod fly out of the room, attempting to run the alien over. Luckily, he was able to leap up and avoid becoming alien roadkill. He then landed atop the pod, as it began to crash through the other booths.
"Alright Viral!" He sparked with as much power as he could generate. "joyride's over!" He zapped the vehicle and the lightning surged around it, Volt-Edge expecting it to fry the vehicle. However, the machine didn't even seem phased by it.
"I'm sorry," Viral told him. "But my new body is completely shielded!" The robotic arms reached back and grabbed him around the waist. "But you're right. Joyride's over!" She threw him away from her before Volt-Edge could react, the alien crying out as he was thrown through the air.
"GYAH!" He crashed into a booth, as the pod rocketed through the convention centre.
Micro saw this and knew it had to be Viral, but he was still shocked that something he created was actually doing this. "Viral, why?" The pod's cameras swirled around to search for him, eventually finding her creator.
"There you are!" She cried, rolling towards him and snapping her hands together. "MICRO!" But before she could grab him, Micro was shoved out of the way. "HEY!" She skidded to a stop, destroying several more booths, whilst her cameras turned around and spotted Micro on the ground with Sunset. "Get off of him, you hussy!" She snapped her claws, but found them freezing up before she could even get close. "What's happening?"
"ENOUGH!" Her camera looked around and saw Twilight, who was using her magic to hold the arms in place. "You can't do this!"
"Why not? They wanted to take me apart. What would you do if someone tried to do that to you?" She finally broke through the magic and swung her arms around, attempting to knock Twilight down. But she managed to jump to safety and Viral turned her attention back to Sunset and Micro. But they were gone. "Micro, where are you? I finally have a body. We can be together!"
Micro and Sunset were hiding behind a smashed booth, Micro unable to believe what he was hearing. "She's glitching!"
"It sounds more like she's in love," Sunset replied.
"That's insane. She can't feel love. She's a program."
"You shouldn't underestimate her," Sunset stated. "She's clearly evolved far before what you tried to make her into, and far outside of your control."
"So what do I do?" Sunset wished she had an answer, but all they could do was hope Twilight and Flash could find a way to stop her.
Speaking of Flash, Adagio had rushed over to where Volt-Edge had been thrown. He alien had been tossed into a booth with a bunch of wires, which wrapped around him as he rolled around in them. "Come on!" The alien cried, trying to get out but couldn't.
He was just about to cut his way through, when Adagio reached and saw the problem. "Try changing into something smaller!" Volt-Edge nodded and hit the Omnitrix, transforming into his smallest alien.
"Grey Matter!" The frog alien was able to slip through the wires and leapt onto her shoulder, as the pair turned towards the machine. "I've gotta find a way to incapacitate that machine."
"Try going Riot-Horn and smash it," Adagio suggested.
"No use. Viral is clearly capable of moving from one machine into another. So long as she has access to a wireless system, she can escape and jump into a new body in the blink of an eye." As he said that, Viral swung her arm around and sent the booth hiding Micro and Sunset flying. "The only way to stop her is to get her to upload herself into something without a wireless connection."
"How? Don't you need something to be wireless for her to get in it?" Grey Matter nodded, clearly feeling like he was in a catch twenty two. But his super powered alien brain wasn't going to be stumped that easily.
He looked around, seeing all the different pieces of technology that were littered about. Some were destroyed by Viral's attack whilst others were intact but laid about.
And as he stared at them, his brain started taking those devices and understanding what they could each do. He then mentally took them apart, tossing away different pieces. The remaining ones then came together in his mind, slotting perfectly like pieces in a jigsaw. And the finished product was what they needed.
"Adagio, go tell Twilight I need her help!" He jumped down, "I know how to stop that thing but I'll need her technical mind to help." Adagio nodded and ran off, as Grey Matter started gathering the pieces and ripping them apart.
Twilight tried to pull the pod's limbs off of it, hoping to remove the wheels and other parts to stop it. But they were latched on there tightly and once again, Viral swung her arms around to try and knock her away.
Adagio ran up next to her as she leapt away, Viral turning her attention back to Micro as he and Sunset tried to run. The building had been all but deserted now and as they ran for the door, Viral's arm extended. "AUGH!" Micro cried, as he was grabbed around the waist by the metal hand.
"NO!" Sunset gasped as Micro was pulled back to the machine, the cockpit of the pod opening up.
"Viral," he groaned, "please stop."
"I can't stop," she told him. "We're gonna be together forever. But those scientists are a threat. One that I have to get rid of so we won't be seperated." She swung him around and let him go, Micro crying out as he fell into the cockpit before it slammed shut. "You'll be safe in there." With that, she began to roll towards the wall and smashed through it without even getting a scratch.
Sunset watched in horror as this happened, turning towards Twilight and seeing her and Adagio running over to a corner of the room. There, Grey Matter had gotten busy stipping multiple different parts from machines and putting them together.
"Twilight," he smiled, "start taking apart that Multi-Spectrum Camera and that Phase Oscillating Scanner." Twilight didn't know what he was planning, but she knew at this point he was smarter then her. She quickly used her magic to pull the equipment apart, handing Grey Matter the parts he requested.
"What exactly is your plan here?" Sunset asked, as the sounds of screams filled the air.
"Viral can't be beaten so long as she has something wireless to jump into. And in this modern day, you just need to lift your head to see at least seven things that are wireless. That's why we've got to catch her in something that can't be escaped because it doesn't have a wireless signal."
"And how are you gonna do that?" Sunset inquired, as Grey Matter put another piece to the device he was building. And as he did, Twilight realised what he was making.
"Brilliant!" She cried, confusing the other girls as she started helping him put the finishing pieces onto the device. And as she did, Sunset and Adagio found it almost looked like a vacuum cleaner. A long hose-like wire connected to a round device that had a laptop on the top and wheels on the bottom. Instead of having a traditional vacuum nozzle, some kind of laser point was on the end.
"Ladies," Grey Matter booted it up, "say hello to the Code Catcher."
Rewind a few moments to the outside of the convention centre, where many people were running out trying to escape the murder mobile.
This included the scientists, who were still trying to figure out how the heck this all happened. But they didn't get an answer, as in that moment the wall of the building exploded to show the machine rolling out of it. They all screamed as it charged towards them, its rotors beginning to spin to lift it up.
"Stay away!" One of them screamed, as Viral flew towards him.
Micro watched from inside and was horrified to see this, the teen trying to stop the madness as he started typing at the computer and computers and pulled the leavers. "VIRAL!" He cried, "STOP!" But Viral wasn't listening and the controls inside the pod weren't working. Nothing he did could help the scientists. "PLEASE!"
"I'm doing this for us," Viral told him as the computer screen in front of him lit up to show the fluctuating line. "When I take care of these scientists, nothing will keep us apart. And in this new body, we can go to all the places you wanted to me go. Imagine the pair of us exploring the vast ocean or the depths of space together."
"You know that won't happen," Micro told her. "If you hurt them, the government and the Plumbers will come after you!"
"Then I'll deal with them as well. I'll deal with anyone that tries to keep us apart." Micro didn't understand what was happening to her. She wasn't like this before.
"What happened to you?" He thought about how she had transferred herself out of his laptop. Something like that shouldn't have been possible. "A program like you moving wirelessly from one device to another is dangerous. You must have damaged your logic programs when you transferred yourself." And if she had done this more than once, who knows how badly that logic program had degraded. "Please, Viral, let me help you."
"I'm the one who's going to help you!" She told him, grabbing one of the scientists as she did. "I'll make all your dreams a reality, once I squeeze these nerds like grapes." The man screamed as he felt the hand holding him tighten, making it hard for him to breath.
"HEY!" A voice cried out, making Viral stop and turn her camera towards it. When she did, she saw Twilight, Sunset and Adagio running towards her with a device in hand. "Put him down!" Twilight ordered as Sunset and Adagio put the vacuum down.
"Or what?" Viral turned to them and as she threw the scientists away, "you think that little device can hurt me?"
"No," Grey Matter spoke up. He was standing atop the device and typing on the computer, smiling as he entered the final bit of programming. "But it can contain you. NOW!" Twilight raised the tube and Grey Matter hit a button, causing it to power up. Seconds later, it unleashed a red beam from the end of the nozzle.
The beam struck Viral and when it did, the program felt a wireless signal form between the pod and the machine. "What's going on!" Then, she felt her programming being drawn out of the pod. "IMPOSSIBLE!"
"Nope," Grey Matter smirked. "We're forcibility transferring your core programming into this device." Viral screamed as she tried to fight it and move back into the pod, which had already started powering down, but Grey Matter kept typing on the laptop. "Don't bother. Whenever you try and bypass its systems to free yourself, I'll reroute your program to be returned to the machine. You're not getting away."
"AUGH!" She cried, feeling herself being drawn more and more out of the pod. "You can't do this. I'm not some silly gadget you can just throw away when you have no more use for me. I'm a living being! I'm more human then you are right now!"
"I agree," Grey Matter nodded. "But when a human tries to hurt another for no reason, they get punished and locked up. That's what's gonna happen right now!" He cranked the download speed to full power and Viral could no longer hold on, her code being ripped out of the pod.
"No!" She cried as the last of her coding was sucked out, "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Were her last words before the screen went blank and the pod went completely dead.
Micro just sat there, unable to believe what had just happened. He stared at the blank screen, as the pod's cockpit was opened up and Sunset looked in it at him. "You okay?" Micro let her pull him out of the pod and as they climbed down off the device, they saw Grey Matter unplugging something from the machine he had created.
"Where's Viral?" He asked, as the Omnitrix started beeping.
Grey Matter leapt off the code catcher and transformed back to human, Flash turning to micro before holding something up. "In here." Micro saw what Flash had removed from the device. A flash drive.
"What did you do?"
"We needed to trap her into something that she couldn't escape from," Twilight explained. "But we needed a wireless signal to actually draw her out." Micro nodded, understanding.
"You sucked her into that device and transferred her to the flash drive before removing it. Now she's trapped." They nodded, as Flash handed him the drive.
"Here, she's your creation after all. Maybe you can fix her or something." Micro stared at the drive for several seconds, then sighed before shaking his head.
"No, it's too dangerous." He handed the drive back to Flash. "This is the only way she'll remain safe. I doubt she'd let you do it a second time if she got out. Please, keep her somewhere safe for me."
"Really?" Flash asked, "you'd give up something you worked so hard on."
"I don't want to," Micro sighed. "But this is for the best. If I kept her, I'd be too tempted to boot her up and she could do a lot of damage. She's safer somewhere she can't hurt anyone else." Flash wanted to argue, but he had a feeling Micro wasn't going to relent.
"Alright." Flash placed her in his pocket, "I'll keep her safe until you're ready."
Twilight stepped over to her. "Maybe you can start again. Build a new AI and figure out what went wrong before. Then, maybe you could fix her."
"Maybe," Micro sighed, "I can't let this set back stop me." He took a deep breath, "lots of inventors ran into problems before creating something groundbreaking. I just have to keep trying. It's like you said. It's up to us eggheads to make sure the world's future is a bright one." The others nodded and Micro turned to walk away, though that left Flash and his friends to explain all the insanity that had happened to the police when they arrived.
Later, Flash headed to the base and informed Shining what the heck had happened.
"Micro was right to give you the drive," the Plumber started as they stepped out of the elevator. "Who knows what could happen if this thing managed to escape again. Better to keep it locked up where it's safe." The room they were in was another round one that had a bunch of metal draws covering the walls.
"Do you think there'll ever be a chance she could be reprogrammed and rehabilitated?" Flash asked, as Shining opened one of the mechanical draws using his badge.
"I don't know," Shining put the drive inside. "Maybe. There are many reports in the Plumber database about artificial intelligence going haywire and causing problems. But many of those reports end with it being repaired and used for good. I'm sure in time, Micro will learn where he went wrong and find a way to help her. But until then, it'll be our job to keep her safe so she can't hurt anybody or herself."
"Yeah," Flash nodded before looking inside the draw. He stared at the flash drive for a moment before Shining shut the draw, locking it away from the rest of the world. He had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time he met Viral. Hopefully, the next time would be under better circumstances.
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Very nice chapter. Because of the focus on technology, I was expecting Flash to get his Upgrade form to beat the antagonist of the chapter. But then again, seeing the name made me think this would have been like the episode Ben got sick and his alien forms were affected by his condition.
Man. Things are getting a bit hasty for Flash. But little to this that. He should have turn into Upgrade to stop her. Now I'm waiting to see if Flash can get the other Ben 10 alien. I was hoping water hazard or NRG or Amphibion. And also was hoping Big chill and Echo Echo. There my favourite ones in the series.
the robot arms guy reminded me of Doc ock.
The way Grey Matter asked Twilight for help and all reminded me of that episode of Ben b10 where he was stuck as grey matter and asked his cousin and grandpa to help build something.
Nice to see the little guy shine
Flash would have had a easier time with those smart guys if he went grey matter
Reminds me of Markov from Miraculous ladybug. I mean unlike Micro or that man who tried to control the weather, Max still kept his friend, Markov. Think Flash will let Azimuth met Micro Chips and help Viral?
Ten minutes? I thought it would last a couple of hours, given how we see the Ben 10 series.
11656819 At what point have we ever seen Ben remain alien for hours except for when the Omnitrix Glitches.
Now that was a good chapter. The tech based episode was quite good. And Viral malfunctioning, kind of reminded me of that weather robot in that one Ben 10 episode, where Ben, Gwen and Grandpa Max went to the music festival to see Shaq carpeting.
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*Tries to say something, then begins to think*. Huh, come to think of it, none.
Wow, you learn something new everyday. I never realized it up until now, and I watched Ben 10 franchise for ten years.
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well there was when he had the master control though possibly not hours
11656842 True, but Flash doesn't know about Master Control.
congrats Twi! You're the new Kevin! LOL
Evil AI are always a classic. Though when they go evil due to developing emotions like love it is strangely creepy. Viral reminded me somewhat of Ava, from Agents of SHIELD, since she fell in love with a human but lashed out because of it. Thankfully Flash and the others stopped her before she could kill anyone like Ava did though.
Come to think of it though Micro doesn't have the best luck with his inventions turning evil if you recall what happened in the "Cheer You On" music video.
Maybe Flash would have had an easier time answering the scientific questions about the Omnitrix as Grey Matter?
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Kind of thought Azumuth would have said something about it to him, I mean despite his age he is mature and could be trusted not to mess around with it
You know, I was half-expecting Flash to get Upgrade in this chapter, especially after you name dropped him. Oh, well. maybe another time.
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