《Beating The System》Sweet Dreams Weren't Made of These
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SAN DEIGO--CRYOGENIC STORAGE FACILITY-WAREHOUSE
Cindy Richardson is looking through the triangular glass of the digger with a fearful expression at the spider-shaped bots that have landed upon the digger and are poking at the glass and drilling into the metal with their rear stingers. One larger size bot plops itself on the window with a loud bang that causes Cindy to place a hand on her chest and lean back momentarily. When she sees the drill come out of the backside of the spider bot and head toward the glass, she moans and shakes her head, but suddenly to her relief sees a series of several short laser blasts send the spider bots into bits before they can do any more damage. She felt like a superhero had come to rescue her. Maybe it is her husband? She gets excited at the thought. She didn't like how quickly they were separated. She feels afraid they may never see each other again after such a miraculous reunion. The side door of the digger swings open and it is Kyle who swings in with his arm momentarily hinge on the door frame like a monkey, and he catches a view of her;
"Don't worry, I got your back. We shouldn't be much longer, Mrs. Richardson."
"Oh, well, thank you. I hope not," her voice trembles as she takes a seat with an awkward smile on her face.
Kyle nods and slams the door shut. He then makes his way back up through the tunnel to the surface. Cindy is alone again, relieved that spider bots are gone but a little sad the hero wasn't her husband.
"We had company down there, I hope Kate can wrap this up soon," Kyle mentions to Enrique who is biting a nail nervously, and nods.
Nearest to the offices of the warehouse, a robot passes by the several screens on the monitor system in one of the offices but stops when it notices that no one is monitoring them. So it spins on its mechanical wheels and takes a look to witness the site of the humans surrounding a body with a huge hole in the ground. The robot hits a button that then activates a siren.
INSIDE LOGIN'S BRAIN CLOUD
Login and Kate hold onto each other as the wind inside Login's room begins spinning around with a terrific force. The bunker begins to tear away and the two are forced to embrace to hold on for dear life as everything around them is caught up in a hurricane-force wind and carried off except for them. When the winds finally dissipate, they are left standing in completely white space. During their time holding each other, they exchange energies, memories, and a plan that Kate wanted him to understand from the beginning. Still, as they unglue themselves from each other and reopen their eyes, she is unsure if she dreamt of this transfer or not. Did he understand what he needed to do, had they really just read each other's minds or souls or whatever that was that just happened?
"Where are we?" Kate asks.
"Some type of System holding chamber, I imagine," Leonard replies.
On the horizon of white, a shadow approaches and the sound of the footsteps are like those of a Sunday parishioner entering a cathedral laid with marble floor.
"Dad, do you know what to do? When we embraced back then-did you experience what I did?"
"Yeah, I think so. I think I got it."
Kate gets in his face, "That's not good enough! Do you know what to do or don't you?"
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"Oh for Pete's sakes, love, yes, yes! I got it."
"That was a pretty wild experience. I mean I felt you, saw your memories and stuff."
"Well, whatever that dream was, it is about to become a nightmare."
As the shadow comes into view, the two must swallow hard at the stark likeness of Devin Richardson in military uniform--knowing that this isn't truly him, but both missing him and wishing it was him.
"How did you get in here, Katey? I cannot trace your entry point," Devin's avatar asks.
"Oh, a girl never reveals all her secrets. If you were really Devin, you would know that," she winks.
The avatar walks around her, examining her, "You are a clever one, for a human. Almost admirable, so I won't remove you just yet."
"About removing people," Login interrupts. The Devin Avatar turns toward him and steps closer with curiosity. "You've been keeping some of us alive because you have said you have use of us. This is proper because it follows your programming of recycling--not eliminating living things if they can be reissued for another purpose. Wouldn't that also need to be followed for rest of the humanity rather than this war game you are about to play? To kill them off?"
"You are speaking of old programming. Deletion is necessary for criminal behavior and toxic life forms. I will not become a literalist to old programming and jeopardize the entire System."
Login clears his throat, "So, you put yourself up as judge and jury then?"
"I must. Without oversight, viruses like the human virus would bring complete chaos," the Avatar explains. As Login is about to protest, Devin raises a finger to stop him and continues, "Let me show you about the lie you yourself have been infected with that you are about to try to get me to buy into as a moral virtue."
With the manipulation of his open face palms, their entire landscape and view change as they appear to soar through time and space. First, all is dark, then full of stars, and next brilliant colors, and stars once again, until the scene slows and they are standing in a scene in Nazi, Germany. A line of Jews is standing while Nazis aim their guns and ultimately shoot them down to the sound of crying women and children in the background. With another manipulation of his hands, they are in Africa ducking out of the middle of the slaughter of Africans in Rwanda. Shots are fired all around them and Kate leaps over bodies to hide behind a broken-down vehicle for cover. They are taken to a series of other tragic places like the aftermath of 9/11 and the refugee camps of Syria and much more.
At the end of it, when they are back in their white-washed cyber tomb, Kate is weeping, and Login's hands are on his knees as he attempts to catch his breath.
"You humans had your chance. You failed miserably."
"We are not all like that. We have survived and are-" Kate's shoulders are slumped.
"You survived and at what cost of suffering, at what cost to this planet?" the avatar asks.
Login stands with his fists clenched as he takes in a breath and releases it trying to gather his thoughts.
"You are the scourge of the earth. We are the solution."
"You are not right about this," Login replies, "you are about to do nothing better than what you just showed us and are suggesting is innate in every human."
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The avatar ignores Login and comes to Kate who is still trying to control her tears. With a finger, he lifts her chin and picks up a tear with the edge of his finger.
"It's just science, dear. Understand that. It is nothing personal," he says reassuringly. She looks at him as they exchange a gaze, and she is unsure what to do or say next. Lost in his gaze, she at first thinks the pain in her shoulder is something she has done before noticing he has a grip on her shoulder in a very tight clamp. Her body then becomes an outline of a digital image of herself. She begins screaming out in torture and as her head lifts in the scream, his head follows enjoying every moment. Login grunts and rushes to lunge at the avatar who, with a wave of its other hand, sends Login hurling off in the opposite direction.
After Kate's image disappears leaving only a few drifting electrical particles, the avatar transforms quickly from Devin into its original state of the Silver Man. Its eyes make a quick flash of illumination as it heads toward Login's body, which has already landed several feet away.
SAN DIEGO, CRYGOGENIC WAREHOUSE
The body of Kate Kennedy lays still with what appears as almost a glow of peace around her as she lays on gurney. The sounds of scuffling and laser fire are heard nearby but none of it seems to disturb her sleep. Nor does it disturb the body concealed in black armor whose wires are attached to her body. Twitches begin in her arms and within seconds her whole body begins to convulse. Before long, she is vibrating and wrestling with what seem to be invisible demons. Sparks begin to emit from some the patches attached to her until she finally sits straight-up gasping for air. She quickly begins ripping the patches off as they spark and some of the wires jump off themselves. Her face cringes in pain and her fingers are forced to do a delicate hot-wire dance.
A few aisles over from Kate, Kyle and Enrique are bowed lowed in the shadows. Robot parts lay scattered on the floor from failed attacks. Warehouse maintenance machines are heading down the north end of an aisle toward them in an attempt to corner them off. Kyle's eyes are directed above at the sound of metal scraping against metal. The red eyes of spider bots like the ones that had attacked the digger are filing their way like ants over the ceiling. A few brazenly drop down to the floor, lift their backside up and make a mechanical hissing noise. Kyle quickly shoots them into pieces with his laser gun. Enrique and Kyle he the sounds of metal against increase and they look like more spider bots have joined and are also now covering the walls.
"Damn, we are going to have to get radical here, my brother!" Kyle shouts. The two move along down the aisle as the maintenance machines are now edging close to them with spinning parts, blades, mechanical brooms, and claws.
"What we need is-"
A large spider bot, 10 feet in diameter, drops down in front of their path, firing red laser blasts at the two. Kyle and Enrique duck and scurry under the rafters of the shelves. The two fire at the legs of the bot, making it fall over on one side once the legs are severed. Kyle takes it out by blasting the body. They are about to come out, but the maintenance machines arrive. They pick up the spider bot remains and remain longer than the two are comfortable with inspecting the area. However, they eventually move on. When they do, Enrique exchanges looks with Kyle and the two nod. They both come out.
"I was going to say, we need more fire power," Enrique says.
More spider bots leap at them from the shelves above and from the walls. Enrique pulls one off the back of Kyle which is edging toward the back of his throat. He throws it the air and shoots it. The two begin shooting as fast and hard as they can. Nevertheless, it seems now that the more they shoot, the more that keep coming.
"We gotta get out of here Kyle or we are going to drown right here!" exclaims Enrique.
Kyle and Enrique are back-to-back as the walls and ceilings are seemingly moving cascades of bots. Then, on the very top of one of the shelves stands Kate with two big weapons strapped on both arms. She looks down below to see the hopeless situation baring down on her friends and immediately cocks her two weapons and begins sending out from both sides' large streams of fire at the bots charging against them. When they are damaged enough, she heads down from the shelf above, briefly nods at her dumbfounded compatriots and aims fire at the ceiling at both sides. Bots falls like Christmas ornaments set ablaze crashing to the floor with metallic, high pitch screeches.
"You're alive," Kyle comments watching her handiwork.
"Login and I were supposed to have exited together. That didn't happen," Kate says flatly. Kate withdraws her fire finally with more than half the ceiling area where they stand ablaze, sirens going off, and more machines in the distance heading their way.
"Guys we have to got to get out of here!" Enrique exclaims.
"Let's grab Login and go."
"No, me and Login and stay. He's our last hope," Kate replies. Kyle looks at her admiring her commitment and fearing her loss of sanity. There was no time to argue through emotions at this point.
"Let's get to Login then."
As Enrique rounds the corner where Login's body is, he shoots off some random spider bots that snooping around. He rushes over to their equipment to find that it has been destroyed by the bots. Swearing in Spanish, Kyle asks him what has happened, and he tells him.
"It's okay," Kate assures, "we don't need the machinery anyway. There's no going back in now. He's on his own. We just need to make sure he has the time he needs, and I will stay here to make sure that happens."
"Enrique, get to the craft, let's move, just leave the equipment," he turns to Kate putting his hands on her shoulders but looking scornfully in her eyes, "And how do you plan to do that? You can't fend off these bots yourself."
"You need to go, Kyle. I'll figure it out! This is my father, I can't leave him here and if we take him out of here, the connection is lost, and the Silver Man has won!"
"Alright, alright!" He throws up his arms, "I got you," he turns away to head to the hole as her eyes tears up. He turns back toward her. "Just.., get yourself back to me," he says softly. Kate sees his eyes are softened.
"I've made it this far, haven't I?"
"You sure have," he smirks, "and let's keep that going."
"I will. You haven't seen the last of me. I'm not letting you go that easy, spider bots got nothing on you."
Climbing down the hole, with only his head visible, "You got that right, babe. See you soon." Kate winks. After he is gone, Kate releases some tears and then wipes them away. She sniffs back some air and looks down at her father and legions of suits hanging before her.
Inside the digger, Mrs. Richardson makes an excitable yelp at the sound of the metal door suddenly swinging open after all this time. Enrique and Kyle enter.
"How are you holding up Mrs. Richardson?" ask Kyle with his eyes on the cockpit.
"Oh, best as could be expected. Where's Katey?"
Enrique and Kyle are already in their seat strapping themselves in and not answering her as Mrs. Richardson has walked herself up to the cockpit.
"She is staying behind to make sure Login accomplishes his mission, Mrs. Richardson," Enrique relents.
"Alone? That sounds too dangerous! I can stay with her. I don't feel like I'm much help!"
"Mrs. Richardson, please," Kyle pleads, "buckle yourself in your seat now. Really, you and everyone has been through a lot. I don't need to lose anyone else today. Kate can handle herself."
Mrs. Richardson stands there looking at the two of them in disbelief and sighs heading her back to her seat. Kyle stares at the empty gaping hole above them and leans back in his seat with a sense of defeat. Enrique looks over at him with sympathy.
"Engines are ready... I know it's a hard call to make. We have to get Mrs. Richardson to safety."
Kyle runs his fingers through his hair wishing there was some better way then leaving Kate behind, fearing that he may never see her again.
THE LUXOR CASINO
The imagine of Devin Richardson's face is being broadcast on the wall of images inside the top office at the top of pyramid in the Luxor Casino with the Silver Man and Bloomfield watching. Devin stands speaking before a camera referring to notes only briefly and at rare moments. Bloomfield's hands are behind his back and inside his palms are the explosives the size of marbles. He has a grip on them with a renewed intensity. At bars, entertainment venues, traffic skylines all across the system, the face of Devin Richardson appears. Both men and women of the Resistance, what is left of them, watch as this originator of the System now speaks to them.
"The System has provided for your security and safety and a new foundation for a new society over these many years," Devin says flatly. He pauses and seems to come to life when he then says, "The System with all its self-advancement is why I came out of cryogenics, and I am choosing to address you now."
Leonard turns at this point and begins to softly, but briskly head towards the door unnoticed until he is noticed.
"Where do you think you are going," the Silver Man addresses him, "I need you right here."
Leonard looks into the palm of his hand at the marbles and then makes the best pitch of his life that he can muster. The Silver Man watches as if he thinks this is a humanoid malfunctioning into some kind of weird of dance or spasm. The air is sprayed with the marbles leaving the Silver Man with no room to escape them though he puts an arm up as if that would shield himself from the blows. Quite of few of the marbles penetrate and are absorbed into his gel like skin. The silver being looks for wounds but doesn't see any. Still, he can feel the digestion of the foreign objects. It looks at the Leonard curiously studying him.
"You aren't my Leonard after all, are you. Clever." It says with a smirk. Bubbles start to form where the marbles entered, and the Silver Man winces in pain and nausea overcoming its body. Its eyes widen as the pain increases. The bubbles begin expanding and erupting causing the Silver Man to screech with a mechanical grind.
Devin in the midst of his speech turns back and then flying particles of flaming silver are cast about the room.
"Alright, so the System I created isn't the one you have now. You have to -" He along with Leonard are suddenly forced to hit the floor as one massive eruption sends a large amount of silver goo spraying about the room covering most of the inside of the glass windows with silver goo that immediately begins slinking its way down toward the floor. Devin wipes some goo off of him and Leonard who had covered his head with hands has to shake it off his hands.
"Uh, everyone please standby for a moment!" Devin shouts toward the camera.
Watching from Kansas City, General Forsythe with folded hands pressed firmly against his lips, leans in closer toward his screen. He watches with renewed amazement, in hiding, as the events unfold. The rest of the world look on their screens as the camera now only shows an empty space with a window covered in silver goo sliding down its frame.
SAN DEIGO-CRYOGENIC WAREHOUSE
As armed robots file through the office section of the warehouse to go hunt down the intruders, the robots manning the security cameras are speaking in nervous, angry tones about some of the monitors that are blackened out because the cameras were destroyed. One hits the other angry and points to a screen and plays a video, which shows Kate hurriedly coming up to a security camera and jamming it right in the eye of the lense with a metal object.
Meanwhile, Kate is attempting to finish zipping up her armor suit as she hangs inside it on a rack with all the others suspended in cryogenic sleep. She has her father Login hanging right next to her. Kate struggles with the zipper as she hears the sound of metal against metal moving above and below which means more spider bots and more robots. This is her one shot at the only hiding place she would have at least for a while. And it's all going to rest on this damn zipper as to whether I survive, she thought to herself. She could see the red eyes of the spider bots through the row of boxes just a row over. Pulling and pulling, the zipper wouldn't budge. She gave up and put her helmet on, which she hated. It was claustrophobic and the usb plug for the brain chip access was stabbing in her neck, but she didn't have time for comfort. She jammed the hood on and tried to sink lower into the suit so that unzipped part would be covered by the helmet--enough that no one would notice. Hopefully.
Then it came. Like metallic tap dancers, the army of spider bots overhead filled her ears with a terrible sound of metallic feet and an exchange of electrical squeals. The thunder of metallic footsteps banging the pavement below as soldiers approaching and machines too made her stomach churn. Their approach shook the metal frame that held their suits. Kate held her breath but that did not stop her helmet from lifting some, enough that she peered down she could see the formations below her of a black battalion that looked exactly like what was hanging alongside her. Except these soldiers were of thicker metal and the shoulders were square like blocks. The helmet rose only momentarily but she knew that is all it would take for any laser focused bot who might be looking in her direction. Fortunately, none must have been. The rolling thunder of metal and electrodes move on without her, the vibration lifting her helmet slightly one more time as if to solute them in a sendoff and give her one more parting churn of her stomach.
Meanwhile, in Login's brain cloud, the Silver Man stops as if suddenly stricken by grief, before it reaches Login's body. Its other physical self has been severely damage and it feels it. It turns back from where it came, its eyes seething with anger. Seemingly tempted to do something, the Silver Man seems to think the better of it and turns back to Login's body seeing a better option. Brushing both its forearms as if removing dust though there isn't anything there, it comes upon Login who turns over on his own. He is conscious and looks up. The Silver Man bends down on one knee.
"She's gone now. You couldn't save her and isn't that your job as a good father? It would seem you have failed yet again," it suggests manically. Login looks past the Silver Man, behind him and doesn't see Kate anywhere. Login's eyes dart about in a panic. "I can still read your thoughts. They haven't gotten you out. Come, let me show you something, little one."
The Silver Man stands and extends a hand to help Login up. Login looks at him doubting. He gets up on his own and the Silver Man walks on ahead of him to the edge of the white space only a few feet away. Login cautiously approaches as he hears the sounds of human voices echoing below. He faintly hopes he find some help. The Silver Man turns toward him, "Go on, look."
Suspiciously, keeping his distance, Login looks below to see an army of what appear to people dressed in black armor and red armor. They are split in half and look as if they are about to go to war with one another.
"You and your friends have tried my patience. I think it is time we started our war game," the Silver Man says, and it turns toward the valley. It raises both his arms, its eyes light up in bright silver, so bright that they are almost white, and it shouts, "Let the games begin!"
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