There was not a single conventional light on in the room, but the glow of over nine monitors, all on simultaneously, had engulfed the area in an almost blinding light. The figure’s eyes burned into the monitor ahead of him, as he continued to type away at the keypad at his lap, practically unable to see his hands in vicious luminosity of the area, though it wasn’t necessary. In his ears rang the familiar purr of computer equipment that lined the walls of the rather, confined area, various fans directed at him and the electronic paraphernalia to keep both sides from frying, and the clicking of fingers endlessly into a keyboard among many, linked up to a bundle of wires that traveled on into every direction imaginable.
Welcome ‘Unknown User’.
Dynatech Artificial Intelligence Construct [Version 5.1 2600]
Copyright 2014 – 2120 Dynatech Laboratories.
Press Any Key To Continue
C: \ VOCALS \ TEST
PLAY \ NAME_1 .VCL
The female lying upon the table, underneath a bed sheet that hid her neck and below, blinked and began to speak, addressing an unknown person, in a soft, greeting tone. Her eyes seemed to stare off into the distance, unmoving and cold.
”Hello, I am the Kay-RX11 Humanoid Android Personal Assistant Model.”
The figure let out a frustrated sigh, turning to his right and shaking his head. ”No, no, you’re not. At least, not anymore...” He turned back to the monitor, pondering for a moment. The program didn’t seem to like some of the changes he was making to it, and was persistently refusing to allow him to alter the woman’s name. Three months he’d spent on her and all seemed to be going well, but the smallest errors in his work were always the ones that peeved him the most. Right now, she was on stand-by, as he continued to alter parts of her personality, before finalizing how she’d permanently act. He felt more at ease if she went by a more casual name.
TOOLS \ EDIT \ NAME_1.VCL
He thought to himself for a moment, looking over to the girl laying on the table at his side, still staring off into space in a deathlike stare. She reminded him so much of Natalie, which was very was peculiar indeed. As much as he hated to admit it, he had always found the Nightrider remarkably cute, so with his project, he had decided to give her a few qualities reminiscent of the albino. Though not looking at him, and rather lifeless at the moment, the eyes of the girl were a brilliant magenta, a rather original color, and one that perfectly complemented her reddish-purple hair.
”Alright… Let’s see how this sounds…” Carefully taking his time, he typed in a few characters and executed a playback of what he entered. All the data he entered was received from her wirelessly, thankfully, else the entire complex’s power would have been on the fritz, or worse. And for now, this wasn’t something he wanted to bring to the attention of others, yet, anyway.
PLAY\ NAME_1.VCL
There was a whirr in the machine behind the monitor in front of him, a pause, and the silence was broken as she spoke again, a bit more melodiously, and quietly.
”Hello, my name is Kizana.”
He grinned, dropping the keyboard unceremoniously and turning in his chair to face her, stretching in place for a moment. He yawned slightly, running a hand through his hair and looking at the android in front of him, still and unmoving, the voice file having finished. He removed his goggles from over his eyes and off his head, sitting them on top of the nearest monitor, before cracking his knuckles. His fingers were tired, mainly because for the last hour, they had strained themselves as he eagerly tried to finish his work. Satisfied, and tired, having only slept six hours the previous night, he leisurely uploaded all the finalized data into the artificial being, before a message appeared on all the monitors around him, a blue window signaling success on a jet black background.
Information Transfer Complete! You May Now Exit.
He quickly shut off the entire network, killing all the monitors around him and sending the room into darkness for a split second, before a flashlight in his front vest pocket was retrieved and turned on, slicing through the darkness and searching about to his left. He directed the light onto a nearby lamp at his desk, and leaned forward to switch it on, as the noise from the computers began to wind down. “There, finished with that. I hope you aren’t too upset, but addressing yourself would have taken eight minutes every damn time…” He quickly turned around in his chair, as the disconnected Kizana awoke from stand-by mode, blinking and facing him quickly.
”That was very unnecessary, Mackenzie. You should have said please.”
”It was far from unnecessary, and besides, Kizana is a nice name. You’ll grow to love it.”
”I don’t understand what you mean by that.”
”It’s likable… It… has a nice ring to it.”
”I… Don’t think I understand that either, but I won’t bother asking. I wouldn’t want to be unpleasant or frustrating.” She looked off to the side for a moment, and slowly turned her head to face back up at the ceiling. It looked almost as if she was a hospital patient, and her movements had an uncanny fluidity to them, as she was an advanced model. Most other bots that worked in the more controlled cities, like London and most of America, were simplistic in design, and weren’t quite as configurable as this one. Not even the most expensive android sex dolls were quiet capable of what Kizana was, though they achieved realism to a great extent in rather, decidedly strange ways. As long as it took him to get this far with her, it wasn’t as if he had to work from scratch, though. The schematics, and hell, herself physically and mentally, were pretty much in the later stages of completion. But after seven years of not being maintained, she was in dire need of a few more components before she’d be fully functional.
Just what function she would serve, he’d just have to wait and see. But the android known as Kizana was going to be his ticket to recognition, and leaving this wreck of a city. In fact, she was perfectly capable of decent performance already, but the young Emmerich kid wanted her to be at the most optimum implementation possible; after all, such a state-of-the-art piece of equipment as her deserved no less. She was made to be perfect, and her design was to be nothing but flawless.
She was elusive towards her lack of realism. Her voice paused for a short time, as if thinking of something to say, though there was no real need for that. Finally, she spoke, and while the curious tone of her voice and the content of her words were enough to reveal what she was, Kizana was as close as anything could get to genuine. “I would like to know if I can stand up yet, Mackenzie. It’s beginning to become very uncomfortable just laying here.”
”In a second, Kizana, I’m sure you’ll live.” He smiled slowly, at the same moment, she did the same, and in no way did it look forced or blatantly unreal. Her lips curved into a smirk at the wit of the comment, which she had rightfully guessed as ironic. Zero was pleased to know that she wasn’t completely unaware of how the human psyche worked, as most androids of her type had a multitude of problems concerning understanding tone, sarcasm, and especially humor.
”You’re always busy with something. You are the typical engineer.” She slowly turned to face him again, her expression, while genuinely curious, peculiar, given the circumstances. Her eyes blinked again, and Mackenzie had trouble telling weather or not there was sincere, living inquisitiveness behind them. Though he knew well that it was impossible, it was hard for him to dismiss the implausible idea completely.
”You say that almost as if you’d know the typical engineer, Kizana.”
”I guess you’re not so typical. Rather short.”
He sat motionless for a moment, his brow flinching for a moment, as his eyes locked onto hers. “I just created a comedian.”
”Think of it as payback.” She said swiftly and grinned, beaming at him in an almost childish manner. She certainly was showing that, even for an artificial being, she was capable of wit, and there would definitely be no problems where interaction would be necessary. Kizana was still smiling from ear to ear, her distractingly pearly whites looking a bit too well kept, yet dismissible, as she continued to add. “And I apologize if I offended you. That wasn’t the intention… May I please sit up now?”
He frowned, no longer looking at her, but rather, feeling about the dark, junk and computer wire littered floor of the room, his fingers scouring the surface for his apparently, now missing, data pad. “Whatever makes you most comfortable, Kiz...” He let out a brief sigh, obviously a bit frustrated, as all he managed to come up with was the wrapper of an unknown food item. Still leaning out in his chair, he pulled back from the floor and raked the fingers of his hand through his hair, looking at her as she stood. “I just need to figure out how I’m going to get to the site before Vesper does, and it’s going to be hard enough getting… Onto the… Surface…”
The android Kizana stood before him, her eyes closed as she stretched and swiveled from her spot, bringing her legs off the edge of the table and down to the cool floor. She stood upright leisurely; her bangs of magenta swaying back and forth in front of her eyes, and unbeknownst to her, the navy blue blanket began to slip away. The sheet, which had previously covered her body from the shoulders and downward, was now descending quickly down the length of her body, and landed into a crumpled pile against her feet. She was completely unclothed before him, and blonde Mackenzie’s words trailed off, as he had now found himself frozen in a state of perpetual immobility. He nearly fell out of his chair, mid-gawk, and fell face first into the ground, the digital notebook breaking his fall somewhat, as he stare up at the illusory woman. She was beautiful, and yet, imperfect, carrying features and details that were unique to her; that were human.
Of course, for the entire time he had been working on her, he had avoided such observations, especially seeing as how he had not created Kizana visually anywhere other than her facial features. It took Zero awhile to pull his eyes away and examine the small peripheral notebook at his side, before bringing himself, with it as well, to a stand. He turned away, sitting it upon his desk and staring ahead, rolling his eyes and sighing. “Kizana…”
She looked around for a few long moments, not exactly paying attention to him, as she stretched about. Counterfeit interest to get moving was evident in her voice, as she brushed back an unwanted strand of hair caught in her eyelashes, and glanced over at the teenager. ”Mackenzie, I think it would be nice if I had some attire...”
”Yeah, I kind of noticed.” He said, shaking his head, a bit ill at ease. He sighed and pulled away from the desk, lifting his goggles off the nearby monitor and turning to the closet door. He pulled them over his head, just about his brow, and fought the urge not to glance over at her. He slid the closet door open, revealing a pile of unused computer equipment, clothes, and junk from around his room that couldn’t be kept elsewhere. “I’d rather you call me Zero, just like everyone else…. Otherwise, it seems kind of odd…”
’Of course; as if a nude android woman in your room isn’t odd enough, Mackenzie...’He thought to himself, letting out another exasperated sigh as he found what he was looking for, tossing the dark hooded cloak to her. Kizana caught it effortlessly and getting the general idea, began to slip into it. Sliding her arms into the sleeves and pulling it over her head, she walked over to him, frowning slightly.
”I like Mackenzie more, actually.” She watched him for a moment, before mimicking his sigh to near perfection, and smiling brightly once more. “You people and your modesty…”
”Humility is useful. And fondness… You already have preference, after being awake twice in two days?”
”I was made to.”
”Then I hope you like the cold. We’re going out.”
***
Evelina ached everywhere. She was tired, cold, sore, and her eyes stung badly, which had caused her to keep the lights dim. She would have preferred laying down a bit more, normally, but a shower was. She felt lavished under the warm spray of water, her eyes closed and accepting the cascade, her hands wrapped around her chest, almost as if holding herself tightly.
She was glad to be finished crying. Crying wasn’t something she did often, and never had it been so ungainly. She was numb, now, numb to most of what had happened, though she still shaking faintly. She felt, in a way, humiliated and defeated. She cried for too long, unable to walk without the assistance of Ghost, and only until the shower, did it cease. As if all purpose for her had suddenly vanished, disappearing into the darkness she had slowly sunken into. She could protect no one. She had failed in life. Evelina could only do one thing:
Kill.
Revenge had done nothing. In minutes, she killed fourteen people, pure, yet calculated and cold, rage. It was exceedingly easy for her, as if she didn’t have to try. But she still felt cold inside. She felt alone. The entire way back home, she hadn’t spoken a word to Ghost, or anyone. She hadn’t even looked at the survivor, who came with them. Evelina wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t care, or because she felt a sense of shame in her actions, but it didn’t matter. She felt weak, and Golem, Natalie, and the rest now saw what she truly was. Evelina Maruska was a weak woman, a lost woman who found solace and purpose in destruction. Instead of helping the people she loved, she destroyed what opposed them, and in turn, had destroyed herself inside.
While the rush of warmth and water soothed the pains and the bruises from her fall, its comfort would be only temporary. It would be just like the act of desperation and retribution had been; a mere distraction.
She couldn’t face the rest, she really didn’t want to, but she knew she would. Sooner or later, she would have to, and she feared what they thought of her. Marcus had done his best to console her, but she saw the look in his eyes. She could read eyes well, and his showed that the person before him was different from the girl he met many years ago. She had twisted into something meaningless, just like the deaths of all those that had seen the end of her gun. She was a murderer.
Her dark hair lay mopped over her sullen eyes, as her head moved down and looked over the ridge of her chest, to her throbbing feet. The pain was only deterred slightly, and Evelina had hoped the shower would do more to let her rest. Unfortunately, sleep would only be an escape as well, assuming the night terrors would be easy on her this time around.
Her brow winced, and still quaking, she brushed the hair that had been swept over her eyes away, and shut off the spell of rain. She hurriedly, and awkwardly, pulled the door to the shower open and stepped out, sharp pain searing through her ankles and droplets of water descending down her legs and pooling beneath her feet. Eve reached to the towel on the rack in the wall at her left, quickly wrapping it around her and running a hand back through her hair once more, through force of habit. Trembling and weary, she leaned back against the closet wall, staring up at the flickering, dim fluorescent light that occupied the ceiling.
The floor beneath her feet was porcelain and steel, and the concrete walls were bare, and she realized that, unlike some of the others, everything in her room was only there of necessity, and nothing more. She was one of the few with a bathroom area like this, and she had done nothing to make it at all visually appealing. It was dark, and for the first time, she realized the symbolism in it, of her.
Evelina looked ahead, and on the wall opposite of her, was the dirty, mirrored cabinet than hung over the shoddy, porcelain sink. In the mirror, was the reflection of her under the diffused light of the bathroom, looking ahead with tired, dark eyes. It took her a moment before she gained the will to drag her feet over to the sink, resting her hands on its edge and looking ahead at her pale visage, her eyes cold and her hair drenched and sprawled against her shoulders.
She slowly moved a hand from the edge of the sink and placed it against the glass, drawing it across the reflection of her face, as a rogue tear streaked down her chin from her eye.
And in the faint distance, there was a knock.
***
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