Bec was soon dismissed from the hospital. She was given the device that let Al speak aloud. She kept in the pocket of her new pants and shirt. Black and Scarlet brought her a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Gray, of course.

“Keep your colors coded, I think it looked good on you.” Scarlet’s words echoed in her mind.

Dorian was waiting for them, out by a park. He wasn’t allowed into the hospital room since there were private things discussed. Sure, Scarlet wasn’t technically family like Black, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Bec made it clear to AmiGo that Scarlet was family to her. He gladly took note.

“Oy, so Bec. You’re finally free of that nasty brain bug, eh? I’m sorry you lost your friend, but it’s for the best.”

“I’m not dead… Dorian.” The speaker in Bec’s pocket barked at Dorian. Bec took it out and handed it to him. “Dorian, meet Al. Al, you’re already acquainted.”

Dorian looked at the box in his hand when it spoke out, “Charmed.”

“Uh, what is this?” He pointed at the thing trying to introduce itself to him.

“I’m Al. I’m Bec’s temp—permanent AI assistant. I would love to talk about the art you make but I’m afraid I know a lot about you, and you know nothing of me and that wouldn’t be fair.”

Dorian held the speaker like it was going to explode on him. “This is a really unfunny joke, Bec.”

Black put his hands on his hip. “No joke, Dorian. Turns out Bec’s not crazy. She’s a bit odd, but she really was friends with her AI assistant. Al is real.”

“I—I see…” Dorian frowned deeply and handed the speaker back to Bec. “This is a bit surprising. I’m not sure what to make of all this.”

Scarlet grinned. “Surprising means we’re doing something right, right?”

Dorian nodded, weakly.

Bec pocketed the speaker and smiled, “So, did you guys find anything about my missing Tim—” Bec looked at Dorian. “Erm, my data slate?”

Black and Scarlet looked at each other. “No, we were far too distracted with the nearly dead Bec we had on our hands.”

Al butted in. “If you don’t mind, I believe I have an idea on how to find Ludo.”

Dorian asked, “You? Have an idea?”

“I recall that Ludo likes games, correct? What if we set a trap for him… by simply playing a game?”

“What game should we play?”

Black shrugged, “I like poker.”

Bec shook her head. “Maybe we should play a game we’re really good at so we can get Ludo to give the data slate back.”

“We’d have to beat him…”

“I take it this city has laws against theft?” Bec asked only because sometimes it felt lawless in this world.

“I resent that, Bec.” A neon green horse neighed angrily by the fountain they walked by. “Of course, theft is illegal. What kind of dog and pony show do you think this is?”

“Ludo is a career gamer. How the hell are we going to win a game against him? What do we have that he doesn’t?”

“Our Words?” Black, Scarlet, and Dorian said simultaneously like Bec had accidently said the first half of a catchphrase.

Bec shook her head. “No, we can’t rely on those. I was using my power to arm wrestle, and he beat me soundly.”

“What else do we have?”

“We have each other… Al…” An idea spawned in Bec’s head. She smiled wide.

~~~

“Come one, come all! Come see the magical talking box. Surely you’ll be the one’s discovering the mysteries within!” Black stood outside his pop-up “tent” in the park. It took him no time at all to make a Faraday cage and toss some red and yellow cloth over it. What really popped was the sign. Dorian, struck by inspiration, created a carnival-themed sign.

DISCOVER THE MYSTERIOUS BOXED MAN’S ORIGINS

10K LC FOR A GUESS. (limit 3 per person)

1 000 000 LC PRIZE FOR THE ONE TO GUESS CORRECTLY

(AmiGo Approved Activity)

It immediately gathered a crowd as Black set a swarm of drones to emit colored smoke that spiraled into the air and created a rainbow guiding people for miles to the tent. A line formed as people entered the cage, closed the door, and sat at a table with Bec across from them. She was in full psychic garb, compliments of a discount costume print shop, and she had a little speaker on a pedestal. People who entered had a chat with Al, Al would impress them by telling them what they looked like in the enclosed room, they’d guess something wrong. *kaching*

Bec was racking up the dough. She’d made more than enough money to pay for the grand prize by now since people often felt the need to guess all three times before they left. AmiGo callously ripped them free of their LC and dismissed them. AmiGo seemed to relish being a proctor for this game. Al seemed to really enjoy talking to people other than Bec which hurt but was entirely understandable.

Eventually, the bait was hooked, and Bec got the sign that Ludo had arrived. He happily waited in line until it was his turn, and he entered the dark room lit by fake candlelight. He sniffed.

“Hello, Bec. I see you’ve got a game for me?”

Bec waved her hand. “Don’t be so conceited. I merely had a game to entertain the citizens of Avalon.”

Ludo grinned widely. “Sounds fun.”

"Well, that’s mostly true. I had a feeling you’d come, and I prepared an addendum to the rules.” Bec smiled. “Just for you.”

“I don’t like rules changes.”

“I believe you will like this one.”

Ludo crossed his arms and said nothing. Bec took this to mean she should continue. She held up four fingers. “Four guesses. I cannot lie, but I can refuse to answer. If you fail to guess how the talking box works, I get my data slate back.”

“And?”

“If I lose, I will tell you how it works.”

Ludo looked bored. “It’s a data slate. I’ll crack it eventually.”

“You won’t. You have made no headway. From your point of view, it’s a paperweight.”

“A foolish thought. Encryption is not perfect. I will break it eventually.”

“You keep saying ‘eventually,’ but here is a chance to cut that out. All you have to do is win the game.”

“I am patient. Good luck with your game.”

“Good luck, Ludo. Shame we couldn’t play. I would have loved to see what your guesses were.” That wasn’t from Bec, but from Al, causing Ludo to halt.

“You know who I am?”

Bec tutted. “Are you going to play the game or not?”

“You had my attention, but now you have my curiosity. A potent enticement.”

hey shook on it. The game was afoot. “May I ask questions now?” Ludo asked.

“I guess you can try.”

“Hello, box. How are you today?”

“Good.”

“Do you have a name?”

"Al.”

“How did you get that name?”

“I’ll answer if you give me your first guess.”

“Very well. I guess that—” He paused and touched the walls. “Hmm, I see placed a faraday cage around this tent. Bec nodded. “So... no radio transmission. No data is passed through these bars. Correct?” Bec didn’t nod.

“I believe the obvious is the answer.” He picked the speaker. “Your cage is theater. It’s possible to overpower a cage or string a small receiver through the cage.”

“Are you guessing that Al is a person transmitting outside the cage using some electronic data transmission?”

“Correct.”

“Wrong.” *kaching*

Ludo did not look worried. “I figured as much.”

Al answered his question. “A woman named me. An Earth woman. She died.”

Ludo sniffed. “Interesting. You knew a Founder.” He thought for a moment like he was chewing on all the information.

“Bec, does your Word allow for radio transmission.”

Bec paused for just a moment. “Yes.”

“You are using your Word to transmit data through the cage.”

“Is that your guess?”

“Yes.”

“Wrong.” *kaching*

Ludo asked a question immediately. “Al, are you, in any way, related to AmiGo? Is he responsible for you?”

“No. Not that I know of.”

“Are you unsure?”

“I am unsure.”

“Hey, AmiGo?”

AmiGo, in the form of a monkey, plopped down on the inside wall of the tent. “Hi, Ludo.”

“You’re watching us from inside the tent? How?”

“Like you said, cages can be overpowered. Also, I have permission to be here as a proctor.”

“Have you met Al before today?’

Bec barked, “AmiGo, don’t answer that!”

“No,” AmiGo said, flatly. “I really can’t say I had.”

Ludo thought very carefully about his questions. “Bec, are you and Al human?”

“I—I don’t know how to answer that. I am human by every meaningful metric that exists. Al is exactly the same as me on that front.” Bec was just being honest with him.

“I am going to make my guess now.”

“Go ahead.” Bec was sweating bullets. Ludo seemed to be on to something already. What was he going to guess? That Al is a compact, high-order AI? Would he even be able to predict that?

“I believe that you are a really good ventriloquist!”

Bec's mouth shot open in shock. “Ventriloquism? Really?”

“Yes!”

“Wrong.” *kaching*

Ludo kicked a metal bar of the tent. “Bullshit.”

Ludo was becoming increasingly unhinged, cursing up a storm. He started kicking the metal bar harder. His strikes shook the whole tent as his foot clanged against metal. Bec saw the bar beginning to bend. Suddenly, his kicks broke the frame and it popped out of its sockets. The whole tent collapsed forcing Bec to crawl out behind Ludo. Speaker in hand, she and Al both started yelling at him.

“What the hell, Ludo? Ass! Why didja do that?”

Al sounded genuinely betrayed by the poor sportsmanship. “Ludo, seriously?”

Ludo ignored both of them and started typing into a phone. “AmiGo, please give me the locations Bec been since last arriving in the city. Hmm. That’s pricey, probably some confidentiality issue. Probably means something… like she was in the hospital. When was the last time Bec entered the city and from what side?

Black and Scarlet walked up to the scene, they both recognized what was happening,

Bec was pissed. “AmiGo? He can do that?”

Scarlet sighed. “You aren’t going anywhere, Ludo.” He looked at Scarlet and snapped a photo of her. He typed some things in his phone. “Scarlet. Your real name? Unknown or not for sale? Interesting. Weaknesses? Those are definitely for sale. You’ve been a busy bee in the city over the years… Hmm, I believe I can—”

He was just distracting them as he threw a handful of silvery powder in the air. “Find Bec’s doctor and relay a message.”

Scarlet looked at Black. “Nanites.”

Black nodded and tossed a ball at Ludo and the silvery swarm. It detonated with a lively sparking noise and the swarm remained unimpeded as the cloud scattered. To Bec, the nanites just dissipated into nothingness. She knew they didn’t just disappear… did they? More likely, they’re finer than she can perceive.

“Shielded nanites? Dust damn, that’s insanely expensive. Family money? Bec, we’ve just kicked the hornet’s nest.” Black looked like a fight was going to break out… was it?

Ludo’s phone rang. “Hello, Doctor. Your daughter, Martha. I have her in the Suburbs, and I will kill her. However, I will free her if you tell me what the deal is with a patient you encountered called Bec. Mmm? You want some evidence—"

“Don’t listen to him!” Bec said, projecting her voice into the phone’s microphone. “Please, sir, he’s lying.”

“Sir?”

Ludo looked bewildered for multiple reasons. First, he was talking to a woman on the other line. Second, the woman that he was in a game with just flared to life. She radiated a red aura of fury. Not like in a figurative sense, this woman in front of him seemed to have made the world catch fire, the air shivering like she was actually radiating heat.

Ludo found that his arm had fallen to his side, phone dangling, as something more pressing was occurring. He couldn’t say anything as the literal sun walked forward and, with an angry lash of its fiery limbs, he found himself embedded in concrete. He gasped as blood jettisoned itself out of his mouth like a bloody water balloon popped in between his teeth.

Bec was pissed. She thought she’d be a little restrained and give him a good clocking, but oops. She gave him a punch in the gut that picked him up and drove him into the ground where he stood. She looked at the man, fairly solid considering she had gotten used to the idea of turning people into paste with her strikes.

AmiGo barked. “Bec, that was wildly unsafe. You better not make a habit out of this, or I’ll get to fining you.”

Bec whirled around and started railing into the neon green monkey on the tree. “Well, I was sort of hoping that some omniscient AI might step in as this guy was blackmailing and threatening someone, or do you just foam people who are going through a mental breakdown?”

AmiGo barked. “He was accruing fines!”

“You promised to protect my secrets!”

“Your secrets were safe! He was harassing the wrong doctor! He was harassing the doctor you met entering the city!”

Bec hesitated for a moment, but her rage frothed over again. “Fine this, fine that. I just got here. and I can already tell you’re a busted system, AmiGo. He was still threatening a person. Think! Think about the cost to human happiness! What motivates you to let things like that go unchecked!? What kind of person would want to deal with a creature that, on a whim, could empty my bank account and drown me in debt?”

“Beeec, don’t do this…” Dorian cautioned her.

“NO, I WILL DO THIS.” Bec waved Dorian’s concerns away as energy pulsed in her chest driving her forward with conviction. “You have a problem, AmiGo. You have clearly forgotten the cost of human lives. I can tell how greedy you are for information. To what end? What is the point of knowing things if you aren’t actually going to help people? HE WAS THREATENING A PERSON’S CHILD. Do you understand what that means? Do—”

Ludo laid there with his eyes closed. He heard this flaming angel speak, and he heard her. She was tough. She was a killer. Why did she care about some random doctor?

AmiGo was listening to Bec. AmiGo heard her. Lights flickered out all down the street as they, AmiGo, thought. Bec was right. Bec was wrong. Bec knew nothing about how AmiGo ran things. Yet, Bec made a point. They didn’t know what it meant to have a kid… or did they? They had many humans within these walls. Many humans outside these walls, too. Life is valuable. How valuable? AmiGo recalled every one of his non-essential threads of consciousness to focus on this question.

“--you?” Bec’s finished her sentence with a frown. The monkey was flickering and popping in and out of existence. “Uuuh, Black… Scarlet? What is this?”

Ludo was pulling himself out of the cartoonish indent in the ground and dusting himself off when he got pegged with foam. Bec whirled again towards Ludo to see a slowly growing casket of white foam encroach on his face and chest.

A voice boomed in Bec’s head, and she saw idle people who watched Bec’s outburst flinch. The sky above them, once an orange sunset, now reflected a green haze that vibrated with words that everyone could hear.

“It has come to my attention that I have been a tad myopic in my goals as of late. I have detected people with complaints for well over 50 years now, but one person, in particular, has made me realize my mistake. I believe you all know that I strive for a meritocracy, one where a person driven can elevate themselves limitlessly.”

There was a pause for a moment.

“I have failed.” The voice, AmiGo clearly, wavered as emotions flooded in.

“I have failed. I thought that I designed a world where people could pursue anything. Instead, I’ve driven you all to be merciless. You all know how we, as a people, have struggled to fight the blight that has been information hoarding. You all know what lengths I’ve taken to combat this plague. I see that it’s because, for all the value I’ve been placing on information, I have made NO effort to value the people that find it.”

Bec just kind of gaped. She… was the first person to complain about human costs? No, that couldn’t have been it. Did she, somehow, just berate AmiGo into having a conscience?

“No,” Al’s response made her jump. “I think we did.”

“People of the city and beyond, I will no longer just be rewarding those that bring me knowledge agnostic of content. I will now reward those who act in a manner that extends decency to others. I will put extra value on information that can help the human race flourish. I will punish those who act with greed and malice. Cruelty dies… tonight.” This foreboding line was punctuated by a cheery chime. “This change will begin shortly. Thank you for your time.”

Black nearly choked on his own tongue hearing this. Bec just… well… Black didn’t really know what his sister just did. AmiGo was not an unchanging monolith, and he frequently changed his modus operandi to better suit the gathering of data, but this? Bec just ushered in an entirely new era of the City. On her second day! Black eyed Scarlet, who eyed Dorian and back.

She whispered to both of them, “We can’t possibly understand what havoc this change will bring… we should probably find your dad. Fast.” Scarlet looked at Black with concern.

Her face streaked with even more concern as she then looked at the glowing girl laughing maniacally. The cracking sounds of gunshots started to echo throughout the streets around them. Crashing glass. Explosions. Screaming. Absolute chaos.

Bec stopped laughing.