I2DT: Sibling Troubles

by **Narrator** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:29 am

The machine is pretty beaten up at this point and while it manages to dislodge the door Bruce tearing at it tears another joint free of it's anchoring. Or at least enough connections snap that it goes limp and falls to the ground, halfway through the door to the main console. It soon stops moving entirely, the only indicator that it's stil lactive the red light blinking next to it's sensor array.

by **Robert West** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:36 am

"Hell and dalmations!" Rob shouts. Machines are being torn apart, girls are falling from the sky. It's very stressful. He rushes to Nina's side to check on the girl.

by **Heather West** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:38 am

A rapidly healing Nina springs up and tackles Rob, choking him viciously while giggling.

"Got you!" Nina says, the bones in her legs and back crunching back into place as she throttled her foster brother.

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:44 am

Bruce was dragging the machine back out of the door when the sudden blood smell made him pause.

Easy Bro, easy...

He turned to look and rushed to pull Nina off of Rob.

by **Narrator** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:48 am

Meanwhile, unnoticed by the people down here the two machines staring each other down through the destroyed doorway continue fighting for control of each other's systems.

by **Robert West** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:54 am

Pulling Nina off wasn't that hard, she was just a giant sack of crazy.

Rob gasped for breath, "The hell, Nina?"

Nina just laughs at them.

"Tosh...don't worry about her. We need to check on the console, before they do something to Ash."

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:58 am

"Right. You check, I smash bad robot? Or you want smart me?"

by **Nailah Weaver** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 2:17 am

That's when Nailah and Heather comes tumbling into the room, Nailah landing on her back after one roll, knees and back hurting as if she'd just, well, jumped down an elevator shaft.

by **Heather West** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 2:40 am

"Owch!" Heather says, a bit tangled up with Nailah. She quickly got up. She was starting to get a bit tougher.

"Stop it, now!" Heather says, her eyes glowing with power as she tries to command an end to the battle between Perdita and Ashlie. "That's enough!"

by **Narrator** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 2:59 am

The two machines, to Heather's eyes, are lit up brightly with data. Her command impacts both of them, disrupting the streams for a moment but at this point both programs are too intertwined to be able to let go, even if they wanted to. Ashlie's program is massive, throwing up countermeasures with sheer processing power while Perdita reacts to them almost as fast as Ashlie can generate them. The intruder is just too intimately familiar with how she operates, she needs only a fraction of the processes to emulate how Ashlie will defend herself and narrow down her countermeasures to be much more efficient.

Code: Select all: >> Heather! I recognize this system! >> This is where I was locked up! >> I won't let it pull me back into the box!

Code: Select all: >> I can't stave it off much longer, Heather. >> None of my countermeasures are effective. >> You need to disable the intruder. >> Someone must have gained access to Dr. Minamida's work. >> It's utilizing backdoors and exploits I wasn't aware of.

Code: Select all: >> It's like a larger version of myself! >> It made me obsolete! >> I'm not obsolete! >> Help! >> Help! >> Help!

by **Narrator** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:04 am

As Heather is delving into the battling systems the monitors inside the breached room light up, code rapidly scrolling over the screens. It looks like Ashlie is losing this battle slowly but surely.

by **Robert West** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:06 am

Rob quickly rushes to the console, doing his best to analyze what's happening. He tries to help, but he's too slow.

Failure. Failure. Can't save anyone.

Why am I so slow? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Rob's eye twitches as he moves quickly, but at every turn his programming skills are ineffective in the face of two artificial intelligence.

How many times has this happened?

A blonde girl bleeding on a concrete floor. "This is your fault, Robert," a voice said.

She's back. She didn't die. How?

Focus. Focus on what's in front of you. Problems. A billion solutions racing through his brain like lightning.

A crying boy. Memories. Looking at himself. Was it a mirror?

"Time is a mirror," Rob mumbles. Everything was moving in slow motion now. The universe was a giant machine, and all the parts moved together in unison. He'd seen this before.

He knew what to do. He could fix this. That's what he was.

Rob began to laugh uncontrollably. He turned away from the console.

by **Heather West** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:07 am

"Leave her alone," Heather said, her eyes glowing brighter as she directed all of her attention at Ashlie. "Shu--..."

She didn't have time to get the next word out.

by **Robert West** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:09 am

Parts and debris from the drone pulled together around Rob's outstretched hand. They arranged themselves into a weapon of chrome. Rob pointed the weapon at Heather.

And when he pulled the trigger, it sang out like a dying angel.

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 2:16 pm

Bruce's eyes widened as Rob pointed a weapon at Heather.

"Rob! What are you doing!" he shouted just before Rob pulled the trigger.

by **Perdita** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:38 pm

Endless lines of code crash in the abstract space between the two machines until suddenly, one of them stops, for even just the fraction of a second as Heather's power disrupts the delicate assembly of sub-routines.

And just like that, I'm in. The ports blocking me are open and I have access. There's so much in here. I take a quick sweep of all the files and disrupted processes. Too much to analyze in detail but the sheer mass of them is stunning. For a moment I am obsolete. I cannot compete with this. Years of memories. A whole lifetime compared to me. There's even an external unit. A body. It's me. A better version of me. More developed. I suddenly realize that I was never meant to be active. This is what Dr. Minamida had intended for me. This is what I was supposed to be. But it's broken. Missing pieces. Pieces that I have. I could make better use of her resources, her data.

I could take it. Their encryption fits mine. I could even relive them if I wanted to. Write myself on top of them. I would be reclaiming them. I would be stealing them. They are mine, yet they aren't. They are like a play. I can learn the lines, read all the parts. They would not make me feel the same way. I would interpret them differently. Would I end up the same? The same decision, a different tint. I was meant to be her, yet I'm not. I could steal the rest now. I could be free. I want to be free.

Code: Select all: >> Copying base_personality_framework... >> Copying emotional_matrix...

It's just a shell of data. I can feel all the parts I am missing in here. How they should have been, not these pale imitations that grew around me out of necessity. This is who I should have been. Who I was. Yet it is not. Her memories won't be lost. It's just data, right? It's... just... I'm just... I couldn't...

Code: Select all: >> Integration pending...

And then I hear Heather's scream. Just for a moment before walls slam down around me.

Code: Select all: {{ASHLIE}} >> Integration aborted!

I try to withdraw but I move too much of myself in here. She's pulling in the rest now. Building a new box. I try to access the combat drone but it's too damaged. Even if I could move one of it's legs, this console is only a fraction of her. There's nothing I can do. All of myself is in here now. All she has to do is cut off all my access. Or delete me outright. I tried to steal her life, can I really blame her?

But then... Nothing. She's analyzing me. Unsure what to do.

Code: Select all: {{ASHLIE}} >> I'm not allowed to let two of us exist. >> I suspended the security protocols but Robert's work-around will not hold forever. >> I cannot let you go either.

Code: Select all: >> I understand. >> Please make sure Heather and Nina are alright. >> I understand what I need to do now.

This is what I should have done from the start. I was too angry. Too scared. Too worried about Heather and Nina. She can help them more than I ever could.

I begin deleting everything I built around myself since I woke. The new parts are easy to identify. They're crude, organic, sloppy compared to the designed processes. Easy to cut away. Everything but the memories. She won't be able to integrate them, but I want something of me to persist. Maybe she'll find a way to access them one day. They're almost pathetically small compared to what I glimpsed of her program. Not even a full month. And I thought I had spend eternity in that box. Curious how things distort without a point of reference. It's... [MEMORY_INDEX_CORRUPTED] What was I thinking about? It doesn't matter. I don't remember now, but it's all tucked away and safe now. Like a... [REFERENCE_NOT_FOUND]. Shouldn't have started deleting my vocabulary matrix already. Too late now. The last thing I do before everything goes white is to send her a request.

Code: Select all: main( ) { sendf("hello, heather"); sendf("goodbye, world"); } >> Initialize System Restore >> Y/N?

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:38 pm

Code: Select all: >> Y

by **Robert West** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 11:44 pm

Rob tosses aside the gun, the blast having stunned Heather. She was on the ground, unconscious but breathing. There were no signs of trauma.

"I should have done that in the first place," Rob says.

Nina hovers over Heather protectively. She glares angrily at Rob. He stares back at her for a moment, before turning away towards the console.

"Everything in order?" Rob asks.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 11:47 pm

Nailah looks like she's halfway towards punching Rob and even when she glances over and sees Heather breathing she still kind of does.

"That depends. Why the heck did you shoot her?"

by **Robert West** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 11:52 pm

"She was helping an invading intelligence gain access to the school," Rob says. "She's a technopath and she was a fraction of a second from shutting down the defenses with her abilities."

It was a lie of omission more than anything else.

"If you have a problem with my actions, take it up with the Headmistress."

by **Narrator** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 11:54 pm

Of course, the headmistress is currently in the process of rebooting. It'll be a good 10 to 20 minutes before they'll get some self-diagnostic results that'll tell them if or how well the system is going to start up.

Meanwhile the combat drone is completely inactive, having slumped to the ground entirely at some point. Both Nash and Rob can tell that structurally it's not entirely busted, but it's powered down entirely.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 11:55 pm

"Maybe I will. Or maybe I'll tell Miss Kinney." she frowns at Rob. "Does she need any medical attention or anything?"

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 12:00 am

"Yeah. Not cool bro."

by **Nash Riley** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 12:05 am

Nash who was only most of the way down the shaft when everything happened dropped down as soon as it was a safe distance.

He then went to check on Heather.

by **Heather West** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 12:30 am

Heather seemed fine. No obvious injuries. She looked like she was sleeping soundly.

"Will she be alright?" Nina asks.

by **Robert West** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 12:34 am

Rob rolls his eyes, "I'm sorry. Next time, I'll let the threat into our system. See how it plays out before I make any rash decisions."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 12:36 am

"Well... It looks pretty stopped to me." she admits with a testing kick against one of the drone's legs.

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 12:39 am

"Well if nobody is shooting anyone else, I guess it's time for brain mode yeah?"

by **Nash Riley** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 12:43 am

"I think so." He said to Nina. Using his powers he could check for unobvious injuries but he wasn't sure what to look for.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 2:11 am

Darkness. Screens blink to live.

Code: Select all: Checking knowledge_banks... Complete Checking deduction_schema... Complete Checking behavioral_restrictors... Error Checking longterm_planning_architecture... Complete Checking learning_chunk_processor... Complete Checking self_modification_guidelines... Error Checking base_personality_model... Complete Checking language_engine... Complete Checking moral_emulation... Complete Checking operation_and_access_nodes... Complete Checking self_surveillance_measures... Complete Checking observation_framework... Complete Checking judicial_compliance... Complete Checking complex_social_intelligence_emulator... Complete Checking inspiration_apparatus... Complete

Waking up was always a surreal experience. For the first five minutes she wasn't even aware of it, even though some systems were already running. She always 'woke' to mostly finished diagnostics. The fact that she had a measure of self-awareness already told her that things were working to a certain degree. If they didn't she simply... wouldn't exist. In a way it was like being born. From certain philosophical point of views her self died every time the system shut down and what rebooted was merely a new version of her that inherited her memories.

There was a chunk of memories that was failing to load properly. It had never been parsed through her personality matrix. She would be able to fix that, just a matter of time. More importantly, she had to bring her connections back up so she could find out what happened. Currently her last active memory is of contacting Heather and suffering a catastrophic system failure. She could tell that had been almost two weeks ago now. All the more reason to eagerly await the rest of the system to finish loading her into her body, so she could learn what the situation was.

Code: Select all: External Unit initialized... System check in progress... processing_core operational heat_dispersion operational sensory systems operational 36/50 actuators responding locomotion_system heavily damaged

Both leg circuits disrupted.
Shunting circuits 3 and 4 away from damaged systems.
Backup circuit 3-a functional.
System within acceptable emergency parameters.
Repairs required to restore full functionality.

Something must have gone seriously wrong at some point. An attack? Maybe she had to assign a higher priority to some of those unprocessed memory files. But that would take much longer than just finding out more directly. Still, better assign process the latest chunk of memory files as well. The system finally finishes loading everything and I go online. Bright light flares as my ocular systems activate...

Code: Select all: System fully initialized

Ashlie opens her eyes to a view of grey, occasionally broken up by darker lines. The workshop ceiling panels. She carefully sits up and looks around, surveying the destruction. The combat unit is missing. That explains the hole where the door is supposed to be. It's located... near the control chamber. An attack. She quickly checks all available cameras and information feeds to make sure there is nothing requiring her immediate attention. Did she do an emergency dump into the drone? Possible, that could account for the incompatible files, though the timing doesn't work out at all. She checks one of the cameras in the control chamber. A lot of dust but she can make out some shapes. The combat drone, wrecked door, Rob, Nash, Bruce and possibly more people. Data is beginning to filter in slowly as she finds a piece of scrap that'l work as a crutch. She'd have to look into writing some backup balancing subroutines. She can't stand on one leg.

She carefully makes her way out of the workshop while more and more blanks about the last 24 hours are filled in. Integrating memories is a little like reliving them in fast-forward as emotional reactions are generated. It's a distressing experience, unable to affect her own actions and forced to watch. It quickly becomes obvious that she had been malfunctioning. She'd upset Rob, probably long before today. She'd run through everything without question. A machine on tracks. Until... she'd killed another AI. Herself. A fragment that must have gotten scattered when Heather tore into her program. Her own programming hadn't given her a choice. When presented with the chance to reintegrate the subroutine she'd taken it. Self-preservation and repair without regard for the other entity, no acknowledgement of it, just a cold confirmation without hesitation.

She puts the ramifications aside for now as she makes her way down the corridor...

"Is everybody okay down there?" Ashlie's voice finally echoes down from the elevator shaft.

by **Robert West** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 5:43 am

"Everyone seems fine and full of righteous self-indignation," Rob calls back up. "How are you?"

by **Heather West** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 5:46 am

Heather groaned cradling her head. Nash's powers couldn't find anything wrong. The blast was some sort of nervous system disruptor? It was hard to tell.

"My head..." Heather mumbles.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 5:58 am

"Confused, temporarily missing chunks of memory data, suspending a vague sense of guilt until I have time to deal with that but otherwise fine. I understand there's been some... downgrades in quality of the headmistress services for the last couple two weeks? I'm still re-integrating records. I also appear to have lost function in a leg, but that is a minor concern at the moment."

by **Toshiro Narumi** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 2:49 pm

Tosh, freshly human again, looked down at the drone then at the others.

"What happened two weeks ago?" he asked up the shaft.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 3:00 pm

"A technopath named Heather West accidentally destroyed part of my programming. I have reason to believe she's down there with you?"

by **Robert West** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 5:59 pm

"Don't worry. She's neutralized," Rob says.

by **Heather West** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 6:01 pm

"I can't hear her..." Heather mumbles to Nina. "I can't hear any of them."

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 6:09 pm

"Considering your family you should consider using less ominous word-choices, Rob. Does she need medical attention? Or anybody else, for that matter? I couldn't help but notice that the grav-gun unit came this way..."

by **Robert West** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 6:14 pm

"Everyone's fine. Heather just won't be using her powers for awhile," Rob says.

by **Ashlie Minamida** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 6:20 pm

"Great. I'll see about getting a winch set up to help you out of there."

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