"His real name is something like N.E.O, but I didn't like it, so I call him Nee." Sky smiled and patted the robot on its metallic head.
They followed the man, staying behind him as he led them through the streets.

The Avatar had descended through the Spire from his residence on the upper levels right down to a series of access tunnels on one of the basement levels. The Intelligence had been ready, preparing a bodyguard of four MAR-A units, armed with high-calibre assault rifles. These robots were now effectively surrounding the Avatar, one at each corner, marching in lockstep as the group passed through the former underground railway lines.

As he continued along, marching in unison with the robots and grasping his own rifle tightly against him, the main subject on the Avatar's mind was the recent death of Nuke Lassic. The Avatar had not admired his premier rival; there was no room in the crowded business of artificial intelligence for admiration. He had respected Lassic, though: It took a considerable amount of talent to compete so closely with the resources of RAK Enterprises.

The Avatar had first heard of Lassic several decades earlier, at a time long before he would be bestowed with the title of "Avatar". It had been approximately four years since he had founded RAK Enterprises with the assistance of his Chief Hardware Engineer, a beautiful woman named Angela May who had enabled the young roboticist to go from impractical fantasies of intelligent machines to his first useful design in such a short time. The roboticist had been busy in preparing the prototype of his Model 1 Autonomous System for public display when he had been alerted to a business article regarding a company known as Lassic Industries.

The article gave an account of the company, a large consumer electronics conglomerate, and its own attempts to work on the problems of artificial intelligence. The roboticist had welcomed the competition, not then knowing that the company would be so imperative in shaping the future, and in shaping his own life.

A few months later, the first practical designs came out of Lassic Industries, small household appliances with a limited amount of intelligence as opposed to the huge military-specification monolith produced by RAK Enterprises. These two disparate products summed up the production of the two companies in the following years - Lassic Industries would focus on the mass-production civilian market, while RAK Enterprises produced limited numbers of very powerful machines. Eventually, though, the roboticist had seen, the two companies would have to compete in the same market - and the rest became history, as NinjOS dominated the world with its sentient power and the distributed might of its robotic forces.

The Avatar often wondered what sort of potential could have come had he and Lassic worked together, instead of opposition. He wondered whether they would have been able to produce truly outstanding designs, or whether they would have obstructed each other and caused their combined companies to fail. The Avatar didn't truly know - he had only met Lassic a number of times, each time with a certain amount of stand-offishness, and even though Lassic had survived throughout the robotic uprising, the Avatar had never forgotten that it had been NinjOP rather than Lassic who had spared his life during that same uprising. The Avatar could only hope that with Lassic dead, NinjOP would continue to spare his own life. He had certainly given enough of it in service to the robotic forces.

The Avatar realised that he had gone as far as he could go inside the abandoned tunnels. Ascending a set of stairs into an old underground station, he continued to follow through the station, flanked by his MAR bodyguard, up towards the surface. His next stop would be the derelict offices of RAK Enterprises, containing the last remnants - and the last secrets - of the company.

"Neo, you picked up any odd electronic signatures yet?" Dmitri asked as he went along stopping momentarily to check a crossing in both directions.

N.E.O replied in a robotic voice. "Non detected."
"Is that good?" Sky asked, looking around the streets for any sign of Forty.

"Well I assume this other robot isn't one of NinjOPs bots, so it'd most likely have a different signature than the MCUs and nBUs...so, no, no odd signatures is not a good thing." He said, coming to a dead stop and motioning to an alleyway "In the alley, quickly!"

Sky rushed into the alley with the man, she looked back but N.E.O was not behind them.
"Nee?" She whispered, looking around frantically, but the man shushed her.

"Kay..." She said sadly, following him.

Sky looked up and down the street.
"Nee?!" She yelled, her voice echoing slightly. She heard a beep from a nearby trashcan, and N.E.O rose out of it slowly.
"Nee!" She ran and gave him a hug.

Dmitri had a somewhat pained expression on his face as he fought back laughter "C-come on, let's keep moving."

"Okies!" She helped the robot out of the trash can, and they followed the man.
"I forgot to ask, what's your name?"

"Dmitri, Dmitri Kamarov. And yours?" He asked, looking over his shoulder a bit.

"My name is Sky." She smiled at him. "So do you live here?" She looked around, the city scared her a bit.

"More or less." Dmitri responded, scanning the area before resuming his course

Xivout straightened up again, laughing loudly. "Longer than I've been alive? Now that's a good one! You circuit jockeys go obsolete after what, 5, 10 years at the most? Then you either get scrapped for parts or upgraded so much that you don't even count as the same thing anymore. Me, though, I've been around for decades. And of course, predators have existed longer than intelligent thought has. Don't you dare talk down to me, you worthless automaton. You're nothing but a tool, a hammer that can swing itself." He took a half step closer, placing a claw inches from the robot's chest to send small sparks dancing over its armor. "You're pathetic, you know that? You can never get better. You can never improve. You can learn, you can upgrade, but eventually your programming will be so heavily altered, your parts switched out so many times that you'll just get a new serial number and bam, you're a brand new robot. Me?" He drew his claw back, turning and striding a few steps away, purposefully exposing his back to the bot.

Throwing his hands wide, he spoke louder, his head tilted towards the sky. "I have evolved, I have grown! As the prey evolves, so too must the hunter. But I am still the same creature, the same soul, the same life." He turned his head around to stare at the bot again. "Don't talk to me about age, you know nothing of it." Tilting his head, he turned around again and sat on the rooftop, crossing his hands in front of him. "Besides, do I look like I care about curfew? You want me to go home, well, this is my home. Not to mention, I'd like to see you try to force me to go somewhere. Humans are terrified of me, where do you propose I go? The Spire? Is that where you bots go?"

3/15/70

However, I've implimented a final upgrade to the ProConDeciSoft today. It's been my labor of love over the past decade, and since this is a trial run, I'm hoping it will work out fully. It gives the entire robot-kind something beyond mimicry, something a bit above the call of processing numbers. Although its a simple idea put to complex use, I've procedurally generated aspirations. Hopes, dreams, disappoints, victories, failures. I've managed to "code" feelings. A hobby carried down from my childhood. I've written emotional constructs, and planted them all across the bots. The bots get a little nervous, or anxious. Or excited. They can be frustrated, jealous, and disappointed. Granted, it's all prompted by little numbers, but it's leaps and bounds further than anything I've ever seen tried before. It's that little missing something, the thing that will push robots that little bit closer to their human creators. But no matter how hard I try, I can't help but feel that while I do, they won't...

NinjOP watched as the nBU squad approached the rogue "Hellspawn" unit. It seemed to slow, a fraction of a second passing before halting entirely. It addressed the lead MCU instantly, via localized wireless transmission. Another missive was returned quietly, with little more than short bursts of packets being passed between the bots. It was silent, and the observing human got nothing from the apparent stand-off.

Below, the robots simply passed missives around. Given the localized nature of the nBU, their ability to read and interpret the messages meant that everyone was clued in without orders. Each nBU processed different concepts at different speeds, and a vigorous idea-web began to form around the ranks. Decisions shifted and solidified at absurd speeds, and the natural conclusion fell over the ranks. The Hellspawn unit finished the last packet, a simple request to contact NinjOP.

A single nBU unit frowned, in as much as the robot could, and passed a packet of disagreement along the ranks. Surprisingly, this sparked a heated debate over the localized wireless. Short wave radios in the area were suddenly burst with the static of white noise as disagreement rose and fell among the units. Everything passed within no more than 2 seconds, but for the robots, these were lifetimes. Within 5 seconds of silence, novels of information were passed back and forth, and the MCU came to the conclusion that the Hellspawn unit should be taken to NinjOP. All of the nBU took a firing stance and open fired.

Suddenly, the robots became divided into three stances. The MCU, not operating on Plan A (NinjOP), retreated from the fracas, cutting open an nBU and bounding into the street. The remaining nBU retained military focus on Hellspawn, unleashing a combined volley of blasts. Half of the squad were ostensibly built for homemaking and education, some cleaning, but it was clear that they were not built for combat. These fired rounds slightly wider than they should, or off target entirely. The result was a relatively unimpressive combined attack, managing to lance the rogue bot with a hailstorm of fire. Hellspawn, true to his programming, identified the original source of the conflict and open-fired on the lead nBU unit. The flack rounds were not designed for in-city use. They cut huge craters into the road, but sheered apart all nearby nBU. The remaining units scattered to the flanks. The most viable option for cover.

However Hellspawn was already on the move. The missile systems unleashed a small flurry of rounds, completely decimating the remaining nBU units. Any orderliness in the stragglers was lost. The renegade robots were out on a limb, and scattered into the city. Although their unique codes were trackable, it was a waste of resources. Logically, the rogue nBU would merge back into the mass, and resume patrolling the streets guiltlessly. The MCU, conversely, rejoined the Hellspawn, promising safe-passage beyond that point. The silence reigned as it waited the Hellspawn's answer. Or worse, the Hellspawn's potential wrath.

Elsewhere, NinjOP was distracted. Unfocused. A message came through over the network. "Master...I again request permission to go into the warehouse district with my full command to sweep for the Escapists." NinjOP was exasperated with the archaic form which Theta X used, and wondered what other oddities had been built into this robot. The reply was quick and simple, an example of how things should be done. "N. Denied. Unknown force, loss incalculable. Scan area, return to patrol." The message was sent out, and abruptly forgotten. Below, NinjOP wondered how the Hellspawn would respond.

However, no matter how human we may make our robots, they'll never be perfect. Anyone familiar with the coding, or the processing, can trick the robots. Like people, they can be formulaically manipulated. When a robot is malfunctioning, they have a process. Diagnostic scans for missing firmware, then drivers, then hardware. Failing that, they check their internal processes for flags. If that produces no results, they'll scan system files for variables. If it is processing more or less data suddenly, or if they are taking more resources for nothing. If everything passes the gauntlet, a rescan is done. If that turns up negative, the hardware exists to forget the problem ever existed. If the problem comes up again, it repeats the gauntlet. If it doesn't, it acted as if it never existed to begin with.

Nuke Lassic, final page
Journal of Artificial "Intelligence"

Theta computed the short and somewhat curt responce he had recived from NinjOS, and to him it made little sense

"How can I scan an area with the resources I have?" he wondered as his chariot and escorts approched the warehouse district. The city was divided into districts to more efficiently keep tabs on locations and places humans might use and each district was further sub divided into numbers, so while there was one uniform "Warehouse" district, it it's self was further divided into 12 sub districts.

Theta consulted records of the ditrict and found that 10 or the 12 sub districts were in use and would therefore be illogical to use as a hiding location. One sub district was in the process of rebuilding and therefore would also be illogical to use as nBU's would be all over the area.

That left sub District 6, which was inactive and conviently located on the citys outskirts, which could help facilitate a quick evacuation of the base if nessisary.

"That would be logical"

Theta thought as he approched the sub district. He did not physically enter the district, he felt that the risk of detection would be too great. He detached his two shoulder drones and had them orbit the district at their maximum height of 200 meters. He had them scan for heat based signatures.

After twenty minutes of scaning the drones relayed data back to Theta, of the one hundred and twelve buildings in sub district six, four had abnormal heat signatures for what were supposed to be abandoned buildings. he orderd his drones to get closer to the four buildings to determine the cause of their heat.

One building was found to contain five humans huddled around a fire, Theta marked the building for later, while it seemed like people bairly surviving, but it could also be a foreward observation post as well.

Scans of two other buildings indicated no other inhabitans, but Theta's city blueprints indicated the remaining three buildings all were positioned above the underground power cables that flowed into the City. One building's heat was a small electrical fire caused by a short in the line and the other building was build from an insulating material that by its nature kept more heat in.

That left the last building, a large supposedly empty warehouse that was right on the edge of the city and was over a power line as well. On a hunch, Theta accesed the cities power record and found that this partucular line was reporting less power geting into the city than was being produced.

"They must be powering their own devices by taping the line." Theta computed. He ordered his drones to do a visual sewp of the buildings exterior to be sure. The picture comming in throught one of the drones showed through the one of the windows what appered to be a small scale human settlement, armed humans walked around inside and signs indicated that these humans lived here for the long term.

"Master, I have located what apperes to be a Escapist base. My scans indicate that at least hundred humans live here and all appere to be armed. I request my full command be deployed to neutralize this base. I'm also sending my scan data of Warehouse sub district six to give irrefutable proof that this is a major human opperation."

Information is the seed for an idea, and only grows when it's watered.
_{-Heinz V. Bergen}

There was an awful lot of activity around the Hub. Camera recordings were filtered through processing and their information distilled. Tapped radios crackled, spitting out bits of information which was in turn gathered up and sorted for relevance.

It was a well-cooled machine. Some parts might even have been well oiled.

"Show me," rasped a voice from where the blinking lights didn't quite reach. One of the many screens blinked for a second then flashed up to display Theta while yet more details scrolled down the side. A record of an encrypted transmittion which was being worked on by yet more programmes provided a few details while the behaviour it exhibited gave more.

Another image popped up on the screen. Slaughtered people in their hiding place. Evidence of heavy weapon use. The figure leaned closer.

Data entry

High likelihood of a lack of time before NinjOS action. Direct communication could be necessary. Trust will be gained best this way. Escapist is undoubtedly monitoring certain channels making direct contact simple enough. Message should be brief and give just enough information that they can act on it. Inadvisable to show all information or all reaches of data net.

There was a moment of hesitation before a pale hand grabbed for a microphone to record.

"Escapists. Information has been received which indicates that a location in Warehouse district six has been identified by NinjOS. Attack is inevitable. The images are of a Tankbot in the area. Relocation of any stores and/or personnel and/or equipment is recommended. Further contact will be made if more necessary information is found."

After pushing it through some voice-distortion software and more than a little bit of white noise it was sent off to all the most likely Escapist message collections. It was possible that it would even reach the Escapists with enough time for them to move.

It walked slowly into the middle of the street, carefully examining each building. The robotic eyes narrowed and widened as it looked into the dark corners, the nooks and alcoves and at the rooftops. The slightly colourful robot lowered the rifle and continued to observe for a good while yet. Nothing was stirring. Silence enveloped the landscape, as it was still standing there, as a final monument to law.

Finally, it moved.

It approached a building and grasped a window's ledge, then pulled himself up and slowly, very slowly, climbed up the buildings side, leaving dent after dent in it's way. He looked into the abandoned and looted rooms, illuminating them with his yellow eyes, but remaining only a silhouette, as if he were a Lovecraftian monster closing in for the kill.

Finally, it grasped the cracked edge of a rooftop and climbed up. His rifle on his back and his bayonet at his side, 421 slid open one of his side panels. He rummaged inside and finally took out a small microphone connected with an old-fashioned cable to something inside. He wiped his mouth carefully and pressed a small button.

The silence was broken my an unimaginably loud siren. As the noise subsided, a metallic voice spoke, audible for miles around the epicentre of activity. "Citizens of this Metropolis. Justice has arrived to destroy the wicked and smite those who harm the innocent. You have been warned."

It put the microphone back and, pleased with itself, closed the panel. It stood still, before finally removing the rifle from it's back and scanning the neighbourhoods, noting the hustle and bustle of activity, carefully calculating distances and watching for criminal activity.

Sky heard the strange announcement. "Citizens of this Metropolis. Justice has arrived to destroy the wicked and smite those who harm the innocent. You have been warned."
"That sounds like Forty!" She said, running towards where she thought the noise was coming from. With N.E.O following behind her, she ran through the streets until she spotted Forty on a rooftop.
She clumsily tried to climb up a drainpipe, it took her several minutes to reach the top.
"Forty! It's me, Sky." She said, debating in her mind whether or not to hug him as well.

Dmitri's attention snapped to sky as she ran off, but he had to duck into an alleyway as a patrol passed by, he dashed towards the building, yelling "Chyort, chyort, chyort, chyort, CHYORT!" He quickly and easily scaled the building, coming up behind sky "Don't run off like zat!"

"Sorry Dem, but I saw my friend." She said, patting Forty's metallic shoulder gently.

Dmitri muttered something in russian that, if translated, would make babies cry and milk curdle. "Come on, we need to get you somewhere relatively safe before sunset...which is any minute now...Chyort."

"Okay okay..." Sky took a blue ribbon out of her pocket and tied it around one of Forty's arms.
"Stay safe Forty." She said to the robot, before following Dmitri back down the drainpipe.

Dmitri looked at the horizon "Not enough time...sky, would you mind staying with me for the night?" Dmitri asked, seeming truly nervous for the first time

Xivout stopped in mid rant, looking up as he heard an electronic voice filling the air.

"Citizens of this Metropolis. Justice has arrived to destroy the wicked and smite those who harm the innocent. You have been warned."

"...oh for geart's sake..." he muttered, lowering his head again. Innocent? Who in this city is innocent? We all have sins, we all have lied, cheated, stolen. It is not a matter of innocence, it is a matter of survival... He shook his head again and looked around to spot a tankbot moving towards the outskirts of the city. "What... why is this entire city going to hell? New bots, total paradigm shifts, explosions, armies... this is getting ridiculous." He suddenly surged forward to grip the bot in front of him by the shoulders, lifting it into the air. "What the hell is going on? Why the sudden change in... everything? What happened to cause this paradigm shift? WHAT IS GOING ON!?"

"Uhh, I guess so, if Nee is okay with it." She said, looking at the bot for confirmation.

ASATU-ZEM cocked its head to the side, listening.

"Not one of mine, I don't think," it muttered. It was another odd quirk of code deep in the bowels of the intelligence, designed to make the construct act more human: occasionally, thoughts would be processed verbally. It was inefficient, but it did serve to confuse observers as to whether it was man or machine. Robots tend not to talk to themselves you see. "An old security drone, perhaps, reactivated by someone with more curiosity than sense." The robot paused, and it took Xivout a moment to realize that it held a silvery revolver in one gloved hand. "I would appreciate it, sir, if you would put me down."

"External Address:-I do not mind. As long as the human man doesn't try anything. If he does he won't be getting up in the morning."

"Okay then! Lead the way." Sky said to Dmitri, smiling.

The robot's eyes followed Sky and Neo for a while, as well as the slightly suspicious man. Only the glowing green of his eyes could tell that he wasn't hostile towards the group. Once they left his sight, his eyes slowly emptied of colour and the robot sat down, holding his rifle close. Barely visible against the backdrop of grey that blended almost perfectly with his gunmetal frame.

He took out his bayonet and sharpened it slowly on a metal plate he scavenged. While doing this, he was intently scanning the surrounding rooftops, noting the commotion. However, he couldn't enter a fight just now. He needed to be completely ready. In a short while, the blade was sharper than a dragon's tooth, ready for combat.

However, the ancient machine is also ancient and needs rest. It lies against the wall. It watches.

Andrew sighed as he stared up at the sky. Things were happening around him; people talking, proclamations being made, killings occurring. These only served to inhibit him. It was oddly noisy tonight. There wasn't normally this much activity at night. Oh sure, there was the occasional person caught out after curfew and the even more rare raid by the Escapists or by the Robots in their constant back and forth pissing contest, but such things weren't common. Tonight he'd born witness to the aftermath of a massacre and now loud proclamations concerning 'Justice' and 'Smiting'. He had to admit, he didn't much fancy the sound of people judging him. He was fairly certain he'd come up short of whatever arbitrary rules they had drawn up. Better to avoid the whole farce.

He dragged himself to his feet, feeling energy return to the muscles in his legs. After a quick poke around the corner of his little hiding spot, he set out. His shoes tapped quietly along the otherwise silent road. The wind blew a light gale at his back, casting a ghostly howl around him which caught the rims of his weather-beaten hat and making them flap slightly. Had he not been ever-so-worried about the current state of affairs he would have stopped to take in the picturesque scene he was a part in. He - a young Urban Pirate - alone in a bleak, dusty, empty city; utterly alone except for those cold automatons and colder humans. He was sure that in a more peaceful era, his story would have made a riveting read for those interested. "A Pearce's Work Is Never Done" he'd call it. Perhaps he would have even made it on to these 'Best seller' lists that some books claim to be a part of.

"This is hardly the time to be daydreaming about what could have been," his brain whispered in his ear. It was correct, of course. As he ducked below the shadow of an alcove he spotted a few figures stood on a roof top some distance away from him. That seemed fairly silly. Why would they expose themselves in such a way? It left them open to attack on all sides, not to mention people could see them easily. Perhaps, Andrew reasoned, they had no reason to hide. Again though, that was silly. NinjOS had an army, and one - possibly more - of the figures was human. NinjOS didn't generally associate with humans on top of roofs. Or, at least Andrew had never seen such a thing before. There was always a first time for everything. Still, he didn't want to associate with them. They likely meant trouble no matter who they were with.
"Discretion is the better part of valour, and tonight, I'm going to be a valourous knight, as far away from everyone else as possible." He mumbled as he turned from the little roof top gathering and edged away as quietly and as quickly as he felt he could risk.