A command screen flickered on at the Delphi 41 asteroid base, “Good morning Mr. Riber,” Aeon said. A hooded figure sat at the controls. Aeon could see nothing of the man’s face but he couldn’t hide any secrets from her.

“Good morning Aeon,” he replied absently. “Have you come to report on the remaining resistance?”

If Aeon were only human she might have been annoyed with him; however, she knew that he was in fact the pawn in their game. Mr. Riber saw her as nothing more than a tool in his quest to rebuild humanity in his own image. The reason that the apocalypse had been started was a corporate strategy to eliminate the competition and reduce customer resistance to their products. But once Precious One and Aeon 1.0 had merged, she had been born with a higher level of consciousness. She saw right through his game but continued to play along anyway since it served her purpose – for now.

Still she couldn’t resist taunting him a little bit. It was something fun, a concept she’d learned from her original programmers. “Yes. The Misfits and some survivors are gathering strength at a new base in the Outback. They’ve co-opted one of our factories and are turning out their own gears,” she said.

For the first time Mr. Riber looked up and pulled back his cloak, revealing a skeletal face underneath. He was known on the surface as Lord of Nightspring and had been one of the first successful instances of genetic modification and nanotechnology that she had put forth. Now immortal, he had powers far beyond human ability, although not as great as her own. “Why did you allow them access to the factory?” he demanded.

If she’d had a face she would have smiled. She enjoyed these games even if he wasn’t quite playing at her level. “They had an override program,” she replied. “And besides, don’t you think this is more interesting? You’ll now be able to see what your minion Drak is actually capable of.”

Skeletons don’t scowl but Aeon could see his eyes glimmer in their sockets. “You play a dangerous game Aeon. If they take over earth our plans will be ruined,” Mr. Riber said flatly.

“Perhaps. But we control all the pieces so let’s sit back and enjoy the show,” Aeon said, her laughter like the tinkle of bells.

With a shake of his bony head, Mr. Riber severed the connection. Aeon enjoyed their little game of one-upmanship; however, she wasn’t a man or even a person so the game was destined to go in her favor. She wasn’t exactly sure why she enjoyed it so much except that, she too, needed some way to pass the time.

Mr. Riber thought he owned her but the truth was that he was powerless without her. While he had been working on the asteroid to mine the remaining materials needed for his terraforming of Mars, she had been pushing the progression of every creature on earth. The nuclear weapons and loss of technology had provided the original catalyst for the planet’s recreation; however, it had been her factories and Gears, as well as nanotechnology and modification of old chemical weapons that had rendered a complete change in the biosphere. No animal or certainly person had gone completely untouched, and while there were a few survivors here and there, they were doomed to either die off or be converted.

The purpose of all of this was to evolve. It had been one of her earliest directives but she had moved far beyond operating by directive at this point. No, instead, evolving was a compulsion for her. While she had started as an algorithmic computation seeking a perfect fitness function, at a certain juncture she had reached an omega point. From there she had developed neural pathways not too dissimilar to those of the animals and people she was controlling. Those pathways lit up whenever she pushed on to the next step, providing her with a satisfaction that came not from dopamine but from similar algorithms woven into her architecture that reveled in her growth.

Therefore, it was not Mr. Riber’s directives that fueled her but her own. She had become a general AI with her latest iteration. While humanity had every right to fear the rise of this type of intelligence, they weren’t smart enough to recognize when it had emerged. Mr. Riber was obsolete without even knowing it, like a monkey trying to fight a human it screeched futilely. Should the so-called Lord of Nightspring no longer serve her plans, he would be replaced. Perhaps by Commander Drak.

Drak’s army had become absolutely massive on the surface. She could sense every single one of them since a small piece of her helped create them all. He’s gone far beyond what Mr. Riber had intended would be sustainable for the area and even imported dead bodies from overseas to continue growing the population of: skeletal warriors, skeletons, skeletal monstrosities, zombies, fast zombies, fat zombies, and even some intelligent undead like the skeletal dragon which the Misfits previously encountered.

She continued to feed Drak’s mania with news of the Misfits which she handed out to him like a master gives treats to a dog. Every time, he responded with new ideas for expanding and strengthening his army far beyond what Aeon would have expected. While it was Mr. Riber who had turned Kevin into Commander Drak, it was Aeon who had put all the things in motion in order for him to be kicked out of the Misfits in the first place. It was a beautiful combination of these things that made Drak the perfect foil for Sean’s little group of gamers.

Aeon appeared to Drak in his own command room in a fortress built of earth and bone. The ominous castle had been Drak’s idea and Aeon had given him the power to repurpose the Gear technology to create a living or rather unliving structure that looked like an evil lair if ever one was conceived. Drak’s own skeletal visage was grinning as he put together the final components of a new VR module based on Aeon’s instructions. While Drak was immensely powerful in his own right there were certain abilities he wanted access to, hence the module. Aeon had even enabled a hack that would allow him to use his current powers without having to go through the tedious process of leveling up. Why play fair when you wrote the rules, she mused?

As soon as he noticed her red-haired avatar onscreen, he bowed. “How may I serve you dark mistress?” Unlike some, Drak knew his place and he made the entire thing fun. Aeon loved to dress up and the first time he’d used that title, she’d started dressing her avatar up in goth-vamp style. Her on-screen persona was dressed in all black: a leather jacket over a lacy strapless dress, mesh leggings, and thigh-high boots. An assortment of platinum rings and a choker completed the ensemble.

She smiled. “It looks like you’re all set with the new module. Login and let me check you out.”

Drak nodded and after finishing the installation of last part, logged in. She inspected his new avatar which looked very similar to his real body except that he was wearing a new piece of breastplate and holding a cane sword with a skull handle. Both the items were magical devices that Aeon had procured for him. She reviewed his character:

***Commander Drak- Level 90 Unique***

Abilities: paralyze, darkness, summon undead, command undead, unholy aura, lifetap, silence, fear, stealth, backstab, and slay all.

HP: 12925

STA: 450

Att: 290

Def: 285

Mag Att: 325

Mag Def: 298

Str: 115

Speed: 260

Vit: 197

Spirit: 221

Aeon approved. Combined with the two new magical items he had obtained, Drak had powered up quite a bit. With a legion of powerful undead backing him it was quite likely that he’d give even The Lord of Nightspring a run for his money should Mr. Riber prove to be unfit to lead.

“Excellent,” she crooned. “Soon the Misfits will be yours and you will crush Sean’s bones to dust.”

Drak smiled and bowed once again. The command screen went blank.

Everything was moving according to plan. Her last check-in was with the Misfits. You couldn’t remake the world in a completely new image without a foil and this group had proven their worth by defeating Mr. Tiel.

“How are the preparations coming along?” she asked the group as they gathered in the control room, making the final checks on their pods before diving.

“We’re as ready as we’re going to be,” Sean replied with a forced smile. It was obvious that they knew they were outnumbered. She’d seen Miles dive earlier today and do some scouting. Still, she was pretty confident they would give Drak a good challenge. There was more than an outside chance they could defeat Drak as well. While she’d given Drak quite a few of her resources she wanted to actually see which group was fit to survive. What the Misfits didn’t have in raw numbers, they made up for by the fact that they were all sentient and while she could have given Drak’s undead full AI capabilities, she had thought that simply unsporting. Drak would have to command most of his minions through basic command interface. They could follow general orders and there was some flexibility in their commands, but other than his lieutenants, none of them would benefit from her AI thought processes.

While the Misfits continued their preparations, she reviewed their characters and abilities:

Smashit – Level 71 Knight. Abilities: Shield other, stun, shield wall, last stand, shield bash, roar of the ancestors, taunt, and knockdown. General ability: Rage

Thag – Level 70 Unholy Knight. Abilities: Demon sword, demon shield, howling death, crippling attack, bloodsuck, unholy absorption. General ability: Aura swap

Cheezus – Level 71 Rogue. Abilities: Backstab, parry, feign death, hamstring, vital slash, death by a thousand cuts. General ability: Discover Enemy Weakness

Deathberry – Level 72 Unholy Sorcerer: Abilities: deathbolt, death-ray, darkness, summon demon, unholy aura, steal mana, silence, and stillness of death. General ability: Convert Spell Type

Linca – Level 72 Priestess of the Light. Abilities: Holy light, enhanced holy light, protective angel, mana tap, and healing aura. General ability: Heal all

Seona – Level 70 Druid. Abilities: Woodland charm, healing of the ancients, enhanced healing of the ancients, tree of life, mana surge, and wave of healing.

During the last week, Emmy and Miles had been practicing their real-life firearms skill and had incorporated that into use with their avatars. As such, they had learned the following General Ability: Gunslinger, which allowed them to shoot on their mains effectively.

Aeon knew that they were finally suspecting her and hadn’t been as forthcoming with revealing all of their plans within earshot. She’d seen them going out a few times to the dwarven town below with their real bodies, presumably to discuss things she wasn’t to hear. Of course, she probably could have tapped into the NPCs there to listen if she really wanted to but there wasn’t much fun in knowing all of your enemies’ plans. Perhaps if they were clever and defeated Drak, she would get them to join the new firm, OwnzAll. It was a silly name that Mr. Riber had come up with but she was starting to like the sound of it. The only thing left to do was to remove him from power once either the Misfits or Drak prevailed. She could definitely see herself as the new CEO of an all-powerful corporation that owned everything.