NIGHT FOUR
A Rose By Any Other Name
"That should fix your problem," Dusty assured Ben Law as she activated the restart sensor on the computer. The holoscreen flashed off and then on again, displaying the familiar blue welcome screen.
"Thanks Dusty!" Ben Law exclaimed happily. "I was so worried. I had no idea what to do. The guy who I usually go to for help on this stuff just got fired."
Dusty turned to Ben Law. "Yeah, I heard about that," she said. "He left the machines running all night or something, right? And it ended up costing the plant billions or credits in wasted materials or something?"
Ben Law shook his head. "I just can't believe he would do something like that. I would wave to him everyday when I left, and he seemed like such a nice, responsible guy. Plus, they say they can't account for all the used materials…"
"Well, no one knows what really happened." Dusty shrugged. "Apparently no one can find the footage from the holocam in the system."
"Yeah, only Y-S4N and L1S know what really happened," Ben Law lamented. "I guess the only other person that might be able to help the poor guy is the so-called Uber-Hacker that people have been talking about."
Dusty stood up. "I have to go now, I have another job to do."
Ben Law nodded and thanked her again for her help. As Dusty left the nanotech manufacturing plant she was lost in thought, so she didn't notice that someone was following her until two blocks later when she came to a hovermobile traffic signal. As she stopped and waited for the "X" sign to flash, she distinctly heard another set of footsteps stop as well. Dusty inhaled shallowly. When the "X" sign came, she walked rapidly and determinedly across the street. The footsteps followed her. When she got to the other side, her stride turned into a run. The footsteps also began to run. Dusty turned a corner and sprinted as fast as she could, but the footsteps closed in on her. She was so terrified that she didn't notice the pole lying in the middle of the sidewalk. Dusty tripped and fell. As she raised herself up, she heard the footsteps stop just centimeters away from her. With her heartbeat pulsing in her ears, Dusty looked up to see…a bouquet of red roses?
The bouquet was held be a man with round features and a jolly, smiling face. Dusty exhaled, relieved. "You must be the Herbalist!" She got to her feet and took the bouquet from the man. She smiled and said cheerfully "I guess you came to save me tonight after all!"
"Yes, the Herbalist did come to save you," the man said, still smiling. But the face around the smile was changing, transforming…"that's where the flowers came from. But he's been detained at the moment…"
Dusty's blood ran cold. The roses dropped to the ground, spilling petals over the meticulously maintained streets. She tried to back away, but her shoulder hit something solid. She turned her head to see that the pole on the ground had transformed as well. The M4F14 behind her became a wall that was a half-cylinder in shape. Turning her head back around, she saw that the M4F14 had also become a half-cylinder wall. The two halves came together to encase Dusty and drown out her screams.
A few minutes later, the two dark forms separated and Dusty's body slid to the ground, where it was surrounded by red rose petals.
Posting Bale
In the prison unit, Ocular-Enso stood before a pair of sliding electronic doors with his head held high and a defiant look in his eyes.
The Wraith waved its hand over the lock sensor. The doors slid apart. "This is where you will be administered the puzzle to determine your freedom," The Wraith stated.
OE smiled, confident he'd be able to attain his goal. "Okay! I choose Math! I good at Math!"
Challenging an AI to Math…,mused Y-S4N, uh-huh, that's smart…
"Time to go in." said the Wraith. Ocular-Enso entered. The doors slid shut firmly behind him.
Meanwhile, a dark figure silently approached the prison unit. The (artificial) moonlight reflected off the metal piece circumscribing his right eye. It was Zero. And it was time to kill. The memory of the pathetic Mutant creature which had called himself Zero's "friend" briefly flickered in the cyborg's mind, but Zero shook it off. No, the Mutant had just been a distraction, a hindrance to his mission. The slight warmth the "friendship" dredged up from the heart that he thought he no longer had was a nuisance. It meant nothing, and it was better now that the annoyance was gone. His head was clearer and his prerogative was stronger than ever. He had to kill Seven.
Zero's keen instincts had been alerted by Ocular-Enso's behavior. He had located his target at the prison unit. Zero waited in the shadows that the Neon-7 light above the entrance cast. Whether or not he had been a patient man, he was a patient machine. The time that past was insignificant to him. There was only the mission.
Voices approached the entrance form the inside. Zero tensed, preparing for action, and pressed his cybernetic body up against the wall. He could hear one of the voices shouting angrily. Then the door slid open and a form was pushed outside. "That's what you get for arresting me!" the creature turned and yelled as the door slid closed. The creature took a few steps back, muttering to himself, then…
Zero pounced. He flung the creature into the wall and pinned it there with his elbow and lower arm. Then Zero raised his other cybernetic arm to strike the killing blow.
"Hey," the creature mumbled. "Whaterryado un?" Zero paused, his metal hand a few centimeters from the creature's head. Zero became aware of a smell…it was the substance 600z3. The cyborg grabbed the creature by the collar and shoved him into the light. It wasn't Ocular-Enso. It was some pathetic drunken human idiot.
The intoxicated man sniffed. "First they fire me for something that wasn't my fault, then they arrest me for drunken and disorderly, now they gotta beat me up too?"
Zero twisted the man's head sharply and said into his ear, "Where is Ocular-Enso?"
The man looked confused for a moment (well, more confused than he already was), then the light of recognizance lit up his eyes. "Oh, that loon?" the man snorted. "He was crazier than me…" Zero twisted harder. "Oww!" the man cried. "Okay, okay, he's still in the prison unit…"
The cyborg tossed the man aside and stomped away.
Host AIs: Y-S4N and L1S
Roster:
1) Frozen
2) Mekal
3) ThunderChicken - DEAD [?] (killed by...Everyone???)
4) onetruth - DEAD [QA] (air-locked)
5) Ocular-Enso
6) Kat
7) Crazypainter
8) GC - DEAD [?] (killed by M4F14)
9) Nayana
10) Slickster - DEAD [bioEnginner] (killed by M4F14)
11) Dusty - DEAD [?] (killed by M4F14)
12) Dawh - DEAD [QA] (air-locked)
13) Sinistral - DEAD [?] (killed by Zero)
14) taliesin
15) woon
16) Ben Law
17) Phaze - DEAD [?] (killed by Mimic)
18) SoKrisky
19) Brandonb - DEAD??? [?] (killed by Seven)
20) Joe's Student-DEAD [M4F14] (air-locked)
