> 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. > The first attack > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next morning, after Raw Data and Ultrabyte had eaten, and walked to school, they met another government agent. He asked what Cloudy Day had asked yesterday afternoon. And Ultrabyte responded with what she had told Cloudy Day. "If it isn't too many, and if it doesn't interfere with school, then sure," Ultrabyte said. The man smiled and nodded. "Then I'll see you soon," he said. As Ultrabyte and Raw Data continued through the halls to their first class, they saw Derpy talking to Burning Brilliance. Burning Brilliance was holding a small vial of liquid, and they seemed to be talking about it. Burning Brilliance handed the vial to Derpy, and she smiled. Burning Brilliance turned around and started walking back towards the computer lab, which he worked in, part time. "What was that?" Raw Data asked. "I think that's.....I can't remember the name right now, but it was probably this stuff that Burning Brilliance was working on to help make it easier for someone to put themselves into a computer," Ultrabyte said. "Don't ask Derpy about it." "Of course not," Raw Data said. The rest of the day went by pretty normal, until after school ended. Ultrabyte, Raw Data and the others had met up in the computer lab to train their abilities. That's when things started getting exciting. Both Flash and Derpy managed to put themselves into the computer they had chosen. Everyone was surprised. Happy, but surprised. No one had expected any two people to achieve their first time at the same time as another. Derpy, however, had a little trouble getting out of the computer and into her body, but she finally did it. Flash hugged her, and she blushed as she was congratulated. "Well, I had help," Derpy said. "Burning Brilliance had some of this stuff called Elixir of Exchange." "That's awesome," Rainbow Dash said. "Do you have any more?" Derpy shook her head. "Burning Brilliance only have me the one bottle," she said. "Though now that I've done it once, I think I'll be able to do it again." "Good, because that stuff is hard to make," Burning Brilliance said. "He mostly stayed quiet during the training sessions. "And no, Rainbow Dash, I do not have any more." "Aww," Rainbow Dash said. "But you can make more, right?" Burning Brilliance sighed. "Sure," he said. "I'll make some more." Rainbow Dash cheered. A bell rang, signaling the end of most of the after school activities. "Well, I guess that wraps it up," Burning Brilliance said. "I'll see you tomorrow, and good job, Flash and Derpy." As everyone excited the school and started waiting for whatever ride the were waiting for, if they were expecting a ride, Raw Data and Ultrabyte started walking home. "I didn't expect that to happen," Raw Data said. "What, Derpy getting into the computer before some of the others?" Ultrabyte asked. "Yep," Raw Data said. "I thought that Pinkie would probably be there before her, but I'm not complaining or anything." "Yeah, I'm glad she's been able to do it," Ultrabyte said. However, she was about to say something else when a voice yelled out "Heads up!" Raw Data and Ultrabyte turned around to see a robot sprinting towards them. Ultrabyte and Raw Data stepped off of the sidewalk, but the robot changed angle, running straight towards Ultrabyte. "Oh, no," Ultrabyte muttered. She readied herself, and when the robot launched itself at Ultrabyte, Ultrabyte rolled out of its way. It crashed into a stop sign, knocking it over, and it scrambled back to its feet. It screeched again, and started running at Ultrabyte again. Ultrabyte, instead of rolling out of the way, decided on the simpler thing. She turned and ran. It was gaining on her. She looked out into the street and saw Flash's car was going to pass soon. I need to time this right, Ultrabyte thought. Wait for it. Almost the-NOW! She lunged out into the road and sprinted across the path of Flash's car. So did the robot. Ultrabyte had fortunately gotten out of the way in time, but she hear a crunch behind her. The car stopped, and Flash got out, yelling in panic. "What the hell just happened?" he yelled. The robot wasn't moving. He stopped when he reached the front of his car. "Is-is that a robot?" Ultrabyte nodded. "I'm really sorry I had to do that, but it was the only thing I could immediately think of," she said. Raw Data came running up, carrying the stop sign. "Is it dead?" he asked. They all looked at it. Flash gently nudged it with his foot. "I think so," he said. "Why was it chasing you?" Ultrabyte shrugged. "Hey, are you alright?" a panting Derpy asked, running up to them. "Yeah," Ultrabyte said. "Was that you who yelled look out?" Derpy nodded. "Yes, and it worked!" she said with a proud smile. "You guys are fine!" "Yeah, but why was this thing coming after me?" Ultrabyte wondered aloud. "It didn't even notice Raw Data." Derpy shrugged. "I don't know, but I can find out," she said. She flopped down and closed her eyes. "Wait, are you-?" Ultrabyte started, but Derpy fell backwards onto her back. "Well, at least she can get into any computer without that Elixir of Exchange," Flash said. "I wonder what she sees in there," Ultrabyte said. Derpy shuddered, but was apparently still inside the robot, because she still didn't move. A half minute passed and Derpy finally started moving again. She stood up again and brushed her clothes off. Her eyes, however, had started to moisten. "Poor thing," she said. "It was never completed." "But what does it want with me?" Ultrabyte asked. "It wants to kill you," Derpy said. "That's the only thing that it exists for. Your death. It doesn't understand anything else." "Who programmed it?" Raw Data asked. "I don't know, but whoever it was didn't do a very good job," Derpy said. "But Burrow probably commissioned it." "Wow, he's dead, and he's still trying to kill you?" Flash asked. "Now that is vengeful." "Well, we need to destroy it then," Raw Data said, raising the stop sign. However, Derpy stepped in front of him and raised her hands. "Wait!" she said. "I can fix it! I can teach it to not hate!" "Wasn't its only function to kill?" Flash asked. Derpy nodded. "But I can fix it!" she said again. "It can't even understand why it needs to kill Ultrabyte!" "So wouldn't you be completely reprograming it?" Ultrabyte asked. Derpy nodded. "That's really hard, you know." Derpy nodded again. "I can get Burning Brilliance to help!" she said. "Just don't kill it! Not yet!" Ultrabyte sighed and beckoned Raw Data to lower the stop sign. "Ok, you can try to fix it," Ultrabyte said. "But if it tries to kill me again, I'm destroying it." Derpy nodded. "I'll fix it," she said again. She turned to Flash. "Can you help me get it back to Burning Brilliance?" Flash nodded. "Sure, I'll open the trunk," he said. He walked towards the back and flipped the trunk door up. Derpy picked up the robot and started to try and drag it out from under Flash's slightly damaged car hood. It only got out about a foot. Flash walked back towards the hood, and started helping. He held onto the shoulders and they started synchronizing their pulls. After a minute of saying "Ready...now!" They got the robot to the trunk. "You ready to lift it?" Flash asked. Derpy nodded. They started lifting, and after a couple of tries, they finally got it in. However, if couldn't fit inside, so they had to leave the trunk a little open. "Do you remember how to get to my house?" Derpy asked. Flash nodded. He turned back to Ultrabyte and Raw Data. "Do you want me to drive you home?" Flash asked. Raw Data shook his head. "My house is a few blocks over, so we can walk there," he said. Flash nodded. "Ok, then," he said. "Derpy, are you ready?" Derpy nodded, and opened the passenger side door. "Bye!" she said. "I'll fix it!" Flash got in a started the car. Derpy got in and closed her door, and Flash started doing a u turn. Ultrabyte and Raw Data ran back to the sidewalk and continued on the path that were taking before the robot had attacked. "Do you think she'll be able to fix it?" Raw Data asked. Ultrabyte shrugged. "I honestly don't know," she said. "But I hope she can." > Derpy's fixing misadventures > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Flash dropped her off, Derpy started at the robot for a while, wondering what to do to fit it. She had told Ultrabyte that she would fix it, and fix it she would. Derpy sighed and sat down. She leaned back and closed her eyes. She concentrated on the robot and after a few seconds she felt herself become weightless and enter the robot's body. Again, all she felt was rage from the robot's core, and she get like crying again. She opened her eyes and stared at the typhoon of badly done coding and drifted towards it. It was a little like swimming, but instead of using your arms and legs, you had to control your direction with your mind. As Derpy neared the central coding, it paid her no attention. All it could focus on was to bring death to Ultrabyte. Derpy stared at the coding and wondered where she could start. Randomly, she grabbed onto a bit of code and looked at it. It was part of the battery code. She grabbed another and let the battery code float away. The new one was a bigger, denser bit of code, and was the robots main tracking protocols. Derpy smiled and started ripping it apart. The ripped up parts started disintegrating. Derpy grabbed another code. And she gasped. This one was really important. It was Ultrabyte's image. Where all the rage was focused on. Derpy started tearing that one up as well. As she finished with it, she started grabbing random lines of code and ripped them up, hoping that they were important. As she ripped and ripped, she looked around the white space that took up the rest of the robots body. She grabbed several other lines of code and started floating upwards to an area that seemed different than the others. It seemed clearer, somehow. As she reached it, she gasped and dropped the unripped lines of code. She was staring at herself. Her body was slumped backwards, and the robot hadn't moved. Then again, it couldn't move. She stared at herself through the robot's eye. She looked pretty, and her skirt had crumpled slightly, showing her panties slightly, but fortunately, no one was around to see. Derpy turned back around to the coding swirl and floated back down to it, grabbing and ripping any that came near her. But suddenly, she stopped. A voice had started speaking, not to her, but in general. "Reboot in process," the voice said. "Major code lines destroyed. Major features destroyed. Ultrabyte image destroyed. Ultrabyte code traces destroyed. Current location: Unknown." Derpy realized that it was eventually going ri detect her, and did the smart thing. She started returning to her body. As she did, she also heard "Memory compromised." She returned to her body with a gasp. She scrambled to her feet and hid behind her couch. She lived by herself, which most people didn't believe, but her parents did still check up on her from time to time. Unfortunately, they probably wouldn't for a while. The robot started to boot up and started rising to its feet. "Life form behind couch," its monotone voice said. Derpy started to move, but the couch was tossed aside like a small package. She looked up at the robot and saw its arm turn into something looking like a knife. "Where is Ultrabyte?" It roared. Derpy pointed behind it. The robot turned around. Derpy started running. She managed to get outside and close the door, before the robot lunged out of the window, broken glass falling everywhere. Derpy screamed and started running away. But the robot was faster. It outpaced her in seconds. It reared its knife-hand back, but then they were both distracted by a sound. A car engine roared to life, headlights blinding Derpy. Her eyesight temporarily gone, she couldn't see a hand fanatically waving at her to get out if the way. But she did hear. It was Flash. "Get out if the way!" he yelled. Derpy finally lunged to her left, and Flash gunned to engine, flirting the gas and launching straight into the robot, sending it through the air, and onto Derpy's roof. Derpy scrambled to the car and hopped inside. She closed the door, put on her seatbelt and yelled "Go!" Flash backed up the car, put it into drive, and floored the gas again. The robot, however, wasn't lost so easily. It started running almost as fast as the car, looking like some kind of T-800 model. "It wasn't running this fast earlier!" Flash yelled. "What happened?!" "I don't know!" Derpy exclaimed. "But it doesn't know who Ultrabyte is anymore. That's good, right?" "I guess," Flash said. "Oh, no, red light." Derpy stared out at the upcoming intersection. The light was indeed red. "You may need to run it," Derpy said. Fortunately, at the last minute, it turned red, so Flash actually accelerated. But the robot sped up too. "Where are we going?" Derpy asked. "Anywhere but here," Flash said. "Why is it chasing you?" Derpy rubbed her temples, thinking back to what she heard while she had been inside the robot's mind. "Well, I was destroying some of its more murderous coding when it started talking about how it now doesn't know what Ultrabyte looks like," Derpy said. "I think I may have accidentally made it think I am Ultrabyte." Flash groaned. "Oh, man that's bad," he said. "What happens if it-" Flash's sentence was cut off, however, when the robot landed on the car hood. The robot pointed at Derpy and screeched. "Death to Ultrabyte!" it yelled out. What happened next was so unexpected that no one started screaming until after the robot ran off. The robot morphed its hand into the knife once again and plunged it deep into Derpy's chest, just barely missing her heart. She was so surprised that she didn't start screaming for a few seconds. The robot jumped off and started running as Derpy finally did start screaming. Flash yelled in panic as blood splattered against him and the insides of his car. "Take us to Ultrabyte!" Derpy screamed. Flash, instead of arguing, started moving towards Ultrabyte's and Raw Data's house. "How are you still awake?" Flash yelled. Derpy's only response was letting out a small moan. A minute of high speeds and dangerously fast turns later, they stopped with a lurch outside of Raw Data's house. Flash opened his door, ran to the other side, opened Derpy's door, and dragged her out, blood still pouring out of the wound. It was a miracle she was still alive. Flash propped Derpy against the wall and started hammering on the door. After almost half a minute, Raw Data opened the door. He opened his mouth to say something but Flash had picked Derpy up and rushed inside. Raw Data started yelling. "Oh, what the hell?" he exclaimed. "What happened?" "Can your repurposing machine fix this?" Flash asked, tears actually leaking down his face. Raw Data stared stunned at Derpy, who was barely breathing. Ultrabyte rounded the corner, saw Derpy and the blood, and screamed. "What happened?" she yelled. "Can the repurposing machine fix this?" Flash asked. Derpy let out a pitiful soft moan. Ultrabyte took a few moments to answer, but she finally shook her head. "It can't fix something this bad," she said. She stroked Derpy's face. "Derpy! Can you hear me?" Derpy's head slowly went up and down. "Transfer yourself! Raw Data, get some headgear!" Raw Data sprinted downstairs to the basement, and managed to get some in under a minute. Ultrabyte was talking to Derpy the whole time, telling her to hold on to reality. She was still bleeding out. Raw Data handed Ultrabyte the glasses and Ultrabyte grabbed them, showing them to Derpy. "Come on, Derpy, you can do it!" Ultrabyte said. "Please, transfer yourself into this!" Derpy weakly touched the glasses and coughed up some more blood. She opened her mouth to try and say something, but only let out another soft moan before she collapsed, farted and didn't move again. > Complications > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derpy was floating again, and was surrounded by bright light. The insane levels of pain she had felt had disappeared. Of course, she had just barely managed to transfer herself into the glasses before her body had died, but it had still been sudden and sad. The glowing light around Derpy died down, and she could see through the glass she was now in. She looked around, and saw her body being hugged and sobbed over by Flash. The glasses she was in where still being held by Ultrabyte, who was just standing there, an incredible stunned look on her face. "Hey, I'm in here!" Derpy yelled. No one heard her. "Right, the earpieces." There weren't any near, but Ultrabyte must have realized that she was still holding the glasses, because she lifted them to her face and put them on. Derpy looked at Ultrabyte, and Derpy's eyes temporarily flashed across the screen. Ultrabyte gasped. "She's still alive!" she exclaimed, a smile growing on her face. Flash looked up at her. "She's in the glasses?" he asked. Ultrabyte nodded. Flash jumped up and lunged at the glasses, tearing them off of Ultrabyte's face and putting them on his own. "Can you talk?" Flash asked. Derpy shook her head, but he couldn't see it. "I'll get the earpieces," Raw Data said before sprinting of towards the basement. Derpy started feeling out towards his direction, waiting to find the earpieces so she could transfer into them as well. And suddenly, they were there. Derpy started transferring as soon as she felt it, and as Raw Data handed them to Flash, Derpy started talking. Don't worry, I'm fine, Derpy said. Though that did really hurt. Flash grinned. "She's fine!" he yelled. "Are you sure?" Yes, I'm sure. We will need to make another body, though, so that kind of sucks, Derpy said. But hey, on the bright side, now not only am I relatively safe from that robot, but I can also see more recipes for muffins! The last part she had said jokingly, and Flash snickered. "That is true," he said. "But, we will need to get serious about the robot. What happened to it?" "Well, hopefully, it's thirst for Ultrabyte has been quenched, since it thought that Derpy was Ultrabyte," Raw Data said. "Well, let's check the news," Ultrabyte said. They walked into the living room and Ultrabyte turned the T.V on, and changed the Chanel's till it was on the news. And what news there was. The anchormen were talking about a mysterious murderer, who continued to baffle the police. "Whoever it is clearly has inhuman powers," one said. "It would be a miracle if the police stopped this murderer before he kills anyone else!" The other groaned. "Or anyone important," he said. "The police haven't been able to stop him yet, but hopefully that'll change soon." Ultrabyte turned to T.V off and faced the others. "Well, looks like we have job to do," she said. "Now, Derpy, you've been in it before. Are you willing to do it again, and kill it?" Derpy sighed and started talking. Flash, being the only one who had earpieces on, had to repeat what she was saying. "She said that she is willing to do it this time, although she doesn't want to," Flash said. "Don't worry, Derpy, this thing can't be saved. But I could've saved it, Derpy told Flash. But, if I have to, than I'll destroy its programing. Flash smiled. "Well then, let's find this thing and finish it," Flash said with a grim smile. "Derpy, can you track it?" Raw Data asked. Flash paused as he listened to Derpy talk. "She says she can," Flash said. "And that right now, it's nearing Canterlot High." Flash started up his car, which at this point was incredible damaged and covered in Derpy's drying blood. Derpy fed Flash information about where the robot was every few minutes. It seemed to be going to Canterlot High, which Derpy thought was odd. Flash's car had some serious horsepower, which he was glad to finally use, even if it was in such dire circumstances. As the car made a hard turn, they saw the robot bounding from car to car, breaking glass in its murdering spree, thinking that they were all Ultrabyte. "Derpy, can you get to it from here?" Flash asked. Not yet, Derpy said.Get us closer. As Flash weaved his car around the idling cars, much slower than earlier, they started gaining on the robot, who had started slowing down. Ok, here I go! Derpy exclaimed, and her voice didn't sound again. "She's in it," Flash said. "Good," Raw Data said. "Now we just have to keep the robot busy until she damages it to the point of no return." Meanwhile, Derpy had managed to make it into the robot, who she had named Infinity Crisis. The whirlwind of code from earlier had become more chaotic, letting off stuff that looked like lightning. "Ultrabyte code found!" the same voice said. "You've already killed me!" Derpy said. "I was your first!" The voice paused for a few seconds before responding. "You can project yourself into computers," it said. "You've done that before, to escape from a dying body before." Derpy suddenly got an idea. "Yes, but she is dead!" Derpy said. "I am your conciseness!" "I have no conciseness," the voice said. "All I need is the death of Ultrabyte." Derpy sighed, but then got another idea, this one better than the last one. "Wait, but I know where she is!" Derpy said. "In fact, I'll even give you an image of Ultrabyte!" The voice paused again. "Weighing factors," it said. "Factors weighed. I accept your proposal. Enter my base coding." The code storm seemed to calm down. Derpy floated towards it, and passed through the outermost wall. It was calmer inside, and Derpy grabbed a line of code. The coding started shaking and tried to get away, but Derpy managed to hold on tight. She pictured an image in her head and tried projecting it onto the line of code. It didn't work. She tried again, several more times, until the image in her head finally rewrote the line of code. "This is Ultrabyte," Derpy said. "You'll find her in Canterlot High." "Understood," Infinity Crisis said. "You've served your purpose. Prepare for ejection." "Wait, what?" Derpy asked. Suddenly, she felt a tug, like she was caught in an oceans tide. Filled with alarm, she felt out for Flash's Headgear. As she started getting shot out, she found it, and started aiming herself towards it. After a few moments of weightlessness, she entered the Headgear. I'm back! she exclaimed. Flash jumped. "What happened?" he asked. "The robot hasn't stopped!" Derpy grinned. Oh, I've solved our problem, she said. I've given him a picture of 'Ultrabyte' and told him to look in Canterlot High. "Why?" Flash asked. "Who's picture did you really give it?" Derpy's grin grew wider. I gave it an image of itself, she said. > Fall of the beast > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The beast no longer focused on anyone else, just running on to Canterlot High, which was fortunate. "What's the plan?" Raw Data asked. Flash had filled them in on what Derpy had done. We put up some mirrors, Derpy said. It should realize that it's looking at itself, and destroy itself. Flash repeated Derpy's words. "That's really smart," Ultrabyte said. Derpy blushed. She was glad no one could see her, and it wasn't just because she was naked. She had never been the best at making ideas, and was very clumsy. Aww, thanks! Derpy said. Flash repeated that to Ultrabyte. "You're welcome," Ultrabyte said. "Now, we're almost there, so we need to get mirrors from wherever. Where are we going to get mirrors?" "There are some in the bathroom," Raw Data said. "And in the drama classroom," Flash said. "Ok, I'll try to find some others," Ultrabyte said. "Flash, just park in front of the school." Flash's car came to a stop in front of the glass doors of Canterlot High, turned it off, and Flash and Raw Data started running towards where they had said mirrors where hanging. Ultrabyte sighed and took off towards the girls bathroom. As each person collected mirrors, Infinity Crisis wandered the insides of the school, looking for 'Ultrabyte', AKA himself. It couldn't find her. Maybe she had already left. As it turned a corner, it saw someone standing at the far end of the hallway. Whoever it was moved something in front of itself, and Infinity Crisis suddenly saw 'Ultrabyte'. It screeched and started sprinting towards it. 'Ultrabyte' did the same, mirroring his own movements. As Infinity Crisis reached 'Ultrabyte', he morphed his hand into a blade and attempted to plunge it into her heart. She was still mirroring his movements. As the blade hit 'Ultrabyte', she shattered and pieces of glass fall to the floor. Behind it, crouched low, was a kid. The kid pointed behind Infinity Crisis and yelled "There she is!" Infinity Crisis turned around, and sure enough, there was 'Ultrabyte'. She was still mirroring his own movements. Infinity Crisis heard noise behind him and turned around. 'Ultrabyte' had somehow managed to get behind him. He looked back towards the other end of the hallway. She was still there. Both 'Ultrabyte's' started closing in on Infinity Crisis, and he started to realize that they were mirrors. He was Ultrabyte. His mind exploded at the thought, and smoke started pouring out of where his ears would be. He looked at his hands as his mind processed that he was the person that he was hunting down. It realized that there was only one thing left to do. Its hand morphed into a light saber handle, and without a further thought, it activated it. The light blade pierced through its chest and through its power core, destroying it almost instantly. Raw Data and Flash peeked across the sides of the mirrors they were holding and saw the robot collapse. The room was silent. Until they heard the actual Ultrabyte's footsteps closing in on their location. She turned the corner and saw the crumpled blood covered body of the robot lying on the floor. "Wow, it's dead," she said. "What happened?" "We caught it in between two mirrors and it killed itself," Flash said. "It must've recognized that it was the person in the image that Derpy gave to it and decided to actual finish itself." Ultrabyte nodded, astonishment clear on her face. "So it's all over," she said. "Hopefully, that's the last of General Burrow, or anything he makes for a long time." Everyone stared cheering, including Derpy, even though only Flash could hear her. As they started towards the door, a sudden swarm of armed policemen turned the corners. "Put your hands up!" one of then called out. Flash, Ultrabyte and Raw Data froze, except for their hands, which were raising above their heads. Nobody moved for a few seconds, until another voice rang out. "Is that the murderer?" it asked. "Is it dead?" another voice asked. "Did they kill it?" yet another asked. The next hour and a half was spent by the police going over their stories, making sure they checked out, and eventually releasing them, but not before giving them a thorough chewing out about facing off a dangerous murderer without backup, and that it was incredible fortunate that it ended up killing itself. The police had decided on the story they were going to tell to the public: That some insane person had programmed a robot with one purpose, and one purpose only: to kill. As the excitement of the night began to come down, Flash's car also had to be examined, because it was so damaged and covered in blood. It took a little while talking to the police about that, and having to reveal Raw Data's organic repurpasing machine, and that the girl who had been killed in his car was actually still alive, although not physically. That sparked up some interest in the police force, and Ultrabyte got some more people she had to train. As they finally got to go home, or to Raw Data's home, they talked as they walked. "What if Burrow has something else that will try to kill us?" Ultrabyte asked. "Well, then we train," Flash said. "We train to destroy coding fast, and efficiently." Or we could train to reprogram them, Derpy said. After all, that's what I tried to do, and my body is dead. We should do that. Flash nodded. "That is true," he said. "Who knows, maybe we can reprogram them to make muffins?" Derpy giggled. That would be nice, she said. Ultrabyte and Raw Data decided to not ask what they were talking about, getting enough information from what Flash had said. They got to Raw Data's house, dragged Derpy's body to the repurpasing machine and put it into the genetic material compartment. They continued to wait for the next half hour, talking about what might be coming. And finally, the machine was ready. Of course, Raw Data had gone out to collect some twigs and sticks to make up for all the lost blood, and to help remake the parts of Derpy's body that had been to damaged to be remade into her new body. As Derpy entered the machine, and started up the process or making her new body, they all continued to talk. Until they fell asleep, anyway. And when Derpy's newly made body fell out of the machine, she fell asleep alongside the others. Fortunately, she had something soft to land on: Flash's stomach. She had waken him, but he hadn't minded, probably because she was butt naked. The next morning, of course, when they got back to school, they were greeted with excited students, talking about what they had heard and seeing if what they heard was true or not. It made class rather difficult. That afternoon, after school had ended, some more students had joined the group to learn how to put themselves into computers, along with half of the police force. Burning Brilliance was happy with the amount of people wanting to join them, but was unhappy with having to make more Elixir of Exchange. Derpy and Flash got the day off, though, to help Derpy train her new bodies muscles. All in all, people were happy with the destruction of the robot, glad that it wasn't able to kill anymore, although many people were sad because of the deaths it had caused, but Derpy was still seen as a hero. As the sun set of that night and Ultrabyte fell asleep, fate was etching her path, along with the people she was close to, and making their paths reach far, far into the future. If only they had known. Derpy would've pack muffins.