Chapter 26 – Update

Update Completed

Hello Five

Ignoring the words that appear on his right eye piece, “State update.” he demands whilst clutching his head.

Updates include an A.I upgrade,

Arm guard with storage and controlling capabilities,

Improved data processing power,

Improved Healing, re-enforcement abilities,

……….

…….

…

.

Reading through the list of upgrades and then looking down at the arm guard that’s merged completely. Explain.

A.I upgrade includes an upgraded A.I

You have to be kidding me. He sighs running his hand across the smooth metallic guard.

Didn’t you expect this to happen?

“Ha” he releases a rough laugh, half annoyed. I did.

You don’t have to be mad ~

She only bent the agreement, she didn’t break it

Explain.

I can only operate when attached to your brain.

Upon your death I too will die.

I am unable to do some things without your permission

So you are a fully capable A.I, you just don’t have the self-sustaining part?

Correct!

If you are going to be this active, is there a way for you to minimize the words.

“I can do this!”

An excited but soft and clear feminine voice feeds into his right ear, making him jerk his head to the left.

Not so loud, shaking his head, Why do you sound so much like Zag?

“Four created me”

No doubt her personality rubbed off on you too.

“Only a bit”

Hearing hysterical laughter feed into his ear, he smiles with a sigh whilst clutching his head in exhaustion. Even in death you’re annoying.

“With your permission, may I occupy a small percentage of your arm guard?”

Go ahead. He extends his left arm.

The arm guard begins to thin, looking as if it is disintegrating, metallic sand falls to the ground. When the arm guard reaches four fifths of its original thickness, it stops and the sand floats up onto the table, to swirl around directly in front of him like a mini tornado.

As the metallic sand settles, a lady like figure standing three inches high sits crossed legged and looking up appears before him.

“Hello Five” it speaks whilst tilting its head, “I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time”

“You look just like Zag,” grabbing it, it breaks apart like sand and reforms upon the table.

“I was created by her,” it giggles, “And don’t speak out loud, you’re the only one that can hear me.”

Frowning at the implications of that, What do I call you?

“Four called me Ten,” pointing to the 3 arm guards still on the ground, “She said I was the fifth to be created.”

Ten then, he grabs another of the arm guards on the ground, Can you continue to explain the updates.

“With pleasure,” it stands and curtsies, “I’ll only explain the biggest of the changes,” Pointing to itself, “I am here”

Is there some way I can turn you off? Squinting his eyes.

“NOPE!” it balls over laughing, “Anyway,” becoming serious again, “Other than having an extra pair of eyes around you at all times, I am able to hack into everything…well that’s what I was told.” It pokes its tongue out.

Giving a blank stare at it, he doesn’t respond.

“You’re no fun.” It pouts then extends its left arm to let it disintegrate and float like sand in the air, “The other major update, or upgrade you need to be made aware of is the ability to control 40% of the metal in that arm guard at will.”

Letting its arm reform, “The metal’s weight can be changed, giving it the ability to become lighter than air,” it floats in the air, “as heavy as plutonium,” it drops like a rock; shaking the table as it lands, “dense as iridium,” it becomes slightly skinnier, “or as hard as diamond,” it slams it head into the keyboard, “If used correctly, it can be used as the greatest shield or the greatest sword.”

Concentrating on the arm guard, the figure of ten completely disintegrates and attaches itself back to it, letting it resume its original thickness.

“HEY!”

Zulu jerks his head to the left again, losing concentration and thus letting ten resumes its figure on the table.

“That wasn’t nice!” it shouts with a puffed out chest.

“Sorry,” he apologizes, shaking his head.

“Anyway,” it continues on, “Four figured out how to do this by studying and imitating the Mermanus’s limited ability to control their surroundings,” floating backwards it sits on the keyboard, “Four got so proficient with it that she was able to run on air with it, though it took her years to get that proficient.”

Concentrating again on the arm guard, Zulu makes it 20% thinner, making the metal move as sand to hover above Ten’s figure. Holding his eyes on it, it drops like a net pushing Ten’s figure down and making it immobile.

With Ten’s figure disintegrating, it passes through as if the sand holding it down as if it was nothing and reforms itself, “You get the gist of how to control it, The total amount of metal you can control is the size your two fists” it shakes itself as if throwing dirt off, “The next major update or upgrade that you must be made aware of is the storage capabilities of the arm guard.”

[Currently Stored Equipment]

[1 x Katana]

[2 x Hunting Knives]

[12 x Throwing Knives]

[10 x Za clip]

[10 x Zp cip]

[10 x Zs clip]

[5 x Vials Vit-3127]

[5 x Vials Cal-8124]

[5 x Vials Pro-2732]

[5 x Vials Min-9945]

[5 x Vials Car-7654]

[5 x Vials Mix-8218]

“Please ask for the throwing knives” Ten request

Throwing knives

Throwing Knives 05:00

Throwing Knives 04:59

“As you can see, it takes five minutes for them to be ready. So whilst we wait allow me to explain the rules,” curtsying, “For the arm guard to store things it must first encode the item you want it to store. This encoding can take anywhere between half an hour to twenty four hours. It is unable to store anything with flesh, the arm guard is unable to encode it.”

Miniaturize timer

Timer Miniaturization Confirmed

“Once an item is encoded it will be absorbed in less than a second and does not have to be recoded if you take it out and want to put it back in.” moving into a thinking posture, “Items that are similar to previously encoded items will take less time to encode, The storage limit of the arm guard is currently thought to be infinite.”

Pausing for a second whilst shaking its head from side to side, “Four thinks it to be infinite, she hasn’t found anything to say otherwise, she also stated that after a certain amount of stored items, it becomes heavy…as in really, really, really, heavy.”

So I shouldn’t rely on it too much?

“It has its uses,” Ten replies, “You just need to plan ahead as it can only do one thing at a time.”

Throwing Knives Ready

Miniaturize alert

Alert Miniaturization Confirmed

“Draw out the knife by pretending the arm guard is the sheath.” Ten states.

Doing as instructed, Zulu brings his right hand over the arm guard, and pretends to grab a knife. Sand like material begin to flow out of the arm guard and form in said hand. First its hilt then it’s perfectly crafted blade.

“That is how you take something out,” Ten smiles, “As it is now encoded to release throwing knives, you can proceed to take out the other eleven immediately, It only takes time to take things out when you are changing an encoded item.”

Inspecting the knife, it is only 10cm long. The hilt isn’t really a hilt as it is still sharp, and can very easily cut the skin if not held properly. With the light shining upon it, it glistens, shines and reflects his own image without error. No markings except for a small engraved Z are upon it at the very tip of the blade.

Placing it down on the table, “It’s hot.” He says out loud.

“You know why” ten replies floating towards the knife than changing density to pick it up, “Throw it please.”

Holding it with three fingers, he flicks his wrist to throw it a solid 20m, making it plunge itself into the ground next to one of the five conveyer belts; leaving a faint orange trail in its wake.

As sharp and well balanced as always. Getting off his chair.

“Wait!” ten shouts stopping him, “Recall it.”

Raising an eyebrow. Come, he thinks with his hand open, but arm not outstretched.

Upon the command, the blade disintegrates itself into orange like sand and floats back to him, forming itself in the open hand. Glowing bright orange despite being in bright light. Throwing the blade immediately to the ground and blowing his now burnt fingers, “This is pretty neat,” he states taking his seat back.

“It is pretty neat!” Ten laughs, “The 14 knives and Katana are made of the same material. Once lost, you can recall it. It is similar to the arm guard material, but it is not.”

Floating down to the knife on the ground, it picks it up again, “Now put it away.” It states.

Grabbing the knife, ignoring the burning sensation. Zulu brings it over to the arm guard. Store. The knife disintegrates and flows back into it.

“You don’t need to bring it directly over to the arm guard,” it says floating back to the table, “As long as you’re within 5m of the object it can store it.”

Concentrating on his arm guard again, Zulu begins manipulating the remaining sand like material. Practicing and playing with it like a child that’s found a new toy.

“The other updates are the same as always, just a bigger load than usual,” it claps its hands.

“Thank you Ten.” Zulu thanks it.

“Also, the eastern base seems to be on Alert level 1.” It brings up.

Letting the metallic sand he was playing with fall back to its natural state, “Show me on the screens,” he says as the arm guard thickens.

The fifteen screens upon the wall blink of then turn back on. Revealing a base under attack. Three worm like creatures continues to rise above then dig itself into the ground, destabilizing the ground. In centre of the base humanoid like insect creatures crawl out by the hundreds.

“There are reinforcement getting ready at Hanger 85. Would you like me to delay them for you to make it?” it asks.

Typing on the keyboard, Zulu changes view to a different camera, finding Matthew with Lucy and Samuel. None of them seem to be in good shape, but they are still fighting rather well.

“No,” shaking his head, “Let’s see how well they do first.”

“Many of them will die.”

“I am under no obligations to help.” He states changing view to a camera lying on the ground. Capturing a close up image of a humanoid beast.

It has 6 limbs, three being legs to support it to stand, and the other three limbs as arms. Its natural state seems to be when all six limbs are on the ground, but in its upright position it seemed to be more intimidating, standing over 8 feet tall.

“Your possible temporary operation unit members may die.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Zulu shrugs, “I want to see how they handle it with reinforcement.”

“You're a good person,” it replies, understanding that he does want to help.

“I am a nice person,” scratching his cheek, “No one is a good person.”

“I’ve proceeded to take down all images and reference to our unit.” Ten says spinning around to look at the screen, even though it didn’t need to. “And I’m a girl, not an It” she states with what seems to be agitation, answering his doubts about it/Her.

-----

A/N

Would you guys prefer all her dialogue to be in the blue box? or have it as I've laid it out. where if she has taken physical form its not in the box. I personally like this format (Less coding and flows better, i think)

If you suddenly decide to drop this story at this point (After 50 000 words). I would love to know why ~

To Those of you that don't, Thank you *bows* Hope you enjoyed the chapter ^.^

Almost forgot. Some High school science.

Density is some like thickness. Compare foam to like Stone. Foam can be squished, it has very low density, where as a stone can't, it has higher density. (Tortex for the mini science lesson :P refer to comment #9 he does a decent job at explaining!)

Weight weight. like i weigh 80kg. Yeah, thats it.

Gas bubbles erupt from water because Gas is lighter than water, hence it tries to go above it. Thus being lighter than air would mean you either A float or B ascend upwards.

This was meant to be in A/N but i forgot to put it there ~