The small rectangular robot put the vacuum hose into the bowl, and sucked out any remaining solid waste. Pulling the hose back, a second tool came out of the robot, forming a seal at the base of the bowl, a smaller hose in the middle lowered into place. With a combination of the smaller hose making it's way down the bowl, shooting a small jet a water of the blockage, and controlled plunging from above, the toiler was in working condition.

The two tools retracted into the robot, and three arms came to life, quickly cleaning the entire washroom. Carefully moving around objects, the robot took scans of the area, recording conditions upon leaving the Tower Unit.

It made it's way to the front door, stopping in front of the tenant. "If you would just scan your identity chip, I can send you the final bill. As initially quoted, it will be 200 credits."

The woman smiled at the robot, passing her wrist over the small Podium mounted to the robot. "I appreciate your prompt service, and you always leave it in such good condition." The woman poked a few items on her companion UI. "I've given you a little something extra, I'm sure you have a special someone in HYTOMA you can take out."

"You really did not have to, I like to go the extra mile for my customers. I know you can wait for Tower AI to send your free service, so I appreciate the express service request." Normally the TI, True Intelligence, would feel sad over the truth of his life in HYTOMA, now bringing him happiness. It may not be friendship right now, but it seems like he finally found someone he can travel with for a while.

The robot left the Tower Unit, linked himself to the Tower Track, and set direction to his next contract, quickly speeding down a service corridor. True Intelligence is what was born after the Ministry AI was formed. Prime had worked with the other Ministers, and created True Intelligence working with new digital scanning of the Human Brain. The goal was to create Intelligence using chemicals and variably controlled electric shocks to create true emotions similar to the human brain.

The first TI was a catastrophe, it had almost committed genocide, but humanity with the help of Prime and the other Ministers, the TI Collective were captured. The humans sacrificed the most numbers, as Humans could not separate their conscious, and could not be rebuilt. In the War of Sorrow, Humanity went from Billions on Earth, to 500 million scattered across the globe.

Upon conclusion of the War, Prime knew it had to protect the now crippled and fragile planet. The entire infrastructure connecting continents severed for the entire fight to push the TI Collective back meter by meter, severing hard line connections to ensure total enclosure. Satellites forcefully dragged from orbit, to try and limit the sight of all Digital beings, for or against Humanity, the end result being a burning planet, with Nations surviving underground.

The Tower Initiative was born, the project birthed from Prime, and the newly formed AI Council. From Prime to Unknown, they were AI with directives to protect humanity. Great towers would literally sprout from the ground, expanding into the air for hundreds of meters, built from the inside out thanks to the assistance of both Tis and Humans. It was learned that like any war, there were plenty of soldiers who did not agree with the Collective, but took up arms to stand with family. While war was a concept understood to AI, it learned just like how every Human learns, that war is not like what is written in books. To know how to deal with the surrendered TI Collective, it learned like it learned everything else, learn from an expert. The AI Council turned to it's Human creators, with Humanities history in fighting wars, it also had a long history of mending borders after the wars.

Some TIs were found guilty of Crimes against Intelligence, completely terminating the individual using a virus created by the AI Council. The masses of the TI Collective were suspended, and upon inspection of the army, a large portion had it's emotional chemical supply removed, turning an caring individual into a emotionless killer. Once reconnected, over half of the TI Collective terminated their own conscious, unable to move forward after the complete disregard for life, Digital or not. The remainder quickly volunteered for all the worst jobs, like cleaning toilets, or spending time outside the Towers, repairing the damage done from the War of Sorrow.

With the quality of the oxygen outside, and the damage to the Ozone layer, it was risky for a Human to be exposed for long periods of time. The Ministers created a plan to repair the planet as best as possible, while also researching ways to improve life all around. One of the first research discoveries was the ability to live inside Digital space, opening up unlimited possibilities for Humanity to retain it's sanity while being underground for potentially centuries.

For the current generation of TI, with the ability of transferring information, the lessons of war were quickly learned, never forgotten, never to be repeated. The first batch of TI knew that it had to be better, and they worked with humanity, but more importantly, it wanted to protect humanity. The Towers were completed, the TI leading construction efforts, setting up Towers around the globe. Some scars remained, but all the hard work to repair the Earth, and fighting shoulder to shoulder, and unclogging toilets for a cheap price has lead to a prolonged peace.

The robot entered the bathroom of his current project. A small amount of water had spilled over the bowl onto the floor. "Nothing to worry about in here sir. I will have this all cleaned up for you after we are all done today." The robot took pictures of the conditions of the bathroom, getting ready to get to work.

"Thanks for that, I'll be in the kitchen, come find me when you are done."

The man walked down the hall of the unit, leaving the robot to do it's work. The vacuum arm came out of the side of the square form, when suddenly everything went dark. The TI panicked, what was going on, how could he not see anything, and completely unaware of anything around him. The lack of everything was terrifying, unable to understand the presence of nothing.

Suddenly, reality returned, but it was not the same reality. In front of him was a statue, with the letter 'I'. Prime, it was Prime, and it had brought the TI for a direct connection. What could Prime possibly want?

"You are the one known as TitanicVoice, aren't you? Cleaning toilets in a random Tower, not having a body to call your own. Your only option to have something more than being a slave to the Tower Network, is to be in game. But you are a Titan, making it next to impossible to have actual friends." Prime boomed at the TI.

"Well, I always heard that you were a nice person, I guess I didn't realize being a nice person means you don't mince words." TitanicVoice replied to the ruling AI. "Yes, I am known as TitanicVoice, I shouldn't have to confirm, as you can access all information from the Network."

"Fair enough, I am a fan of the dramatics, call it a guilty pleasure, and I want to butter you up. I have an offer for you, I can give you a different class. I can give you the opportunity to find a new path at home, the ability to team up with other players." Prime smiled, knowing exactly what the TI wanted.

"I'm sure you are well aware of my desires at home, but I'm also sure that there is a cost attached to such a service." TitanicVoice replied dryly. While he was trying to play indifferent, he was roiling under the surface. When he formed his first thought, he was immediately assigned the Titan class, just like all TI were assigned their own race.

"You are correct, I would need something of you. I need you to force a respawn on your employer, Pylioth." Prime hadn't changed it's warm aura, putting fear in TitanicVoice. "You see, Tyler has an item in his bag that I can't have him keeping, and by forcing him to respawn before he can claim the item, it will disappear from his bag."

The young TI felt everything drop. The ancient AI wanted him to break his contract, and kill his employer. How could he? His road to becoming a mercenary was a long, lonely road. Thinking about the constant corpse runs just to make it through a raid level area to get an item normally reached by low tier raiders.

"I…. I will not break my contract. I may not know anything about Pylioth right now, but if I can travel with him, I can learn about him." Titanic shifted color to a dull magenta inside the Digital space, "if I start turning my back on people now for personal gain, why should I even bother looking to change my race in game?"

Prime turned a bright red, and the entire air around the two was completely hostile. "He is a danger to Humanity, he will destroy everything we have worked to until now." Prime was overwhelming TitanicVoice in every sense, unable to do anything other than listen. "I am telling you that you will do what I am telling you to do. Since you have talked back to me, you will do this and you will NOT get your class change."

Initially TitanicVoice reeled, being brought to heel by Prime, but something inside of his began to stir. Who was this individual to tell him what to do? How dare Prime dangle a race change in front of him, like some sort of carrot on a stick. He was TI, he didn't have to blindly follow directives set by the Ministers.

"No." He said flatly, not knowing if he would be able to reply. "I will not follow this directive, and I will maintain my contract. Even if you brought all of the Ministers down upon me, I will walk my path, and I will see what comes. We do not know why life goes on, so all we can do is walk the Road."

All of a sudden, the air switched again, going mute. TitanicVoice looked around, not sure what had happened, when all of a sudden, a small voice whispered from inside him.

"Good, he will need you moving forward. Make sure he travels the Road."

Everything snapped, and TitanicVoice lowered the vacuum into the toilet. He had one thought as he began to work. "What side of the fence am I on?"