I had a lovely day with the family today. Moving rocks for them in the morning, the subsequent lunch that followed, and finally a family gathering to celebrate my third sister's early graduation party from high school. It was really nice for everyone to get back together and have one last hurrah in the old house. Anyways that's why the chapter came out so late today.

Thanks for reading an enjoy.

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‘Before I go to the gym I should check out how I look in a mirror, wouldn’t want to freak anyone out.’ Spotting a bathroom I dash inside and lock the door behind me. I turn to face the mirror and am taken aback by how I look. While my face and skin looks normal I’ve forgotten to change the color of my eyes and they are still metallic in color, furthermore I have no hair or ears. ‘It was a really good idea to stop and check first, I might have gotten shot by the marines looking like this.’

I change my eyes to green, form blonde hair in a high and tight cut and finally add ears where they should be. Everything else looks fine but I add more definition to my body making it more muscular. Once that’s done I feel ready to head out and cause some confusion.

‘Everyone should know what I look like by now so they’ll just think I changed my outfit for whatever reason. It’ll be so much fun picking up random things and scaring the crap out of them.’

I leave the bathroom behind and head out for the gym. Along the way I see Agent White walking towards me. ‘Good the first victim.’ “Good morning Agent White."

His head jerks up as he hears my voice, “What are you doing here?” “I’m waiting for maintenance crew to come and fix something I detected here.” I point towards a wall panel, “Don’t let me keep you if you have somewhere you need to be.”

He nods and tries to walk through me, as others have done countless times before, only to bump off of me. His face slides from one emotion to another confusion, shock, and was that a hint of fear? “What –“ I interrupt him, “The problem seems to have fixed itself I’ll be going now.” I slide past, making sure not to touch him, and run off down the corridor.

I repeat similar actions all the way to the gym but I actually explain what’s going on after I prank them, unlike with Agent White. Most of them laughed it off, especially after I show them videos of other people’s reactions. I just thought of all the pranking as a kind of community service, after all the same routine for 6 months gets pretty dull.

I finally make it to the gym and immediately head towards the bench press as it is the most effective to find my lift capacity. I start with 300lbs and lift it easily so I increase it by 50lbs each time until I finally hit my limit at 700lbs. With that done I want to check my top speed so I jump to the track above the gym, it was only 10ft above me but I made it with ease.

I was able to get up to 65mph on the track and as an added bonus I didn’t seem to get fatigued even after 20 minutes of nonstop running. During that time I had also recreated my proto brain as I would have to leave the ship at some point and if the delay became greater it would be invaluable to have the proto brain already set up.

Done with testing the limits of this body for the moment I sat on the edge of the track. ‘Vahlen really outdid herself with this body. If I’m this strong I’m sure I’ll be able to protect her. Even though I’m grateful for this body I can’t help but compare it to the one I used to have. It only highlights how inhuman I really am now.’

I look down upon my hands and tighten them into fists. ‘It doesn’t really matter how much my body changes or what I become, as long as I can still feel emotion I’ll believe myself to be human.’

As I’ve been contemplating a group of marines has walked in and have gathered around the bench press. ‘Ah, I forgot to put all the weights back.’ I drop down to the ground floor and start walking over.

“Sorry guys I didn’t put away all the weights after I was done.” The group turns towards me and one of them scoffs, “If you’re going to lie at least tell a believable one.” ‘I haven’t had much contact with the marines over the past 6 months. Mainly because Cpt Green was right and they hate my guts for the simulations I created. This’ll be fun.’

“No really I can prove it.” “How?” I point at the bar, “I’ll just lift it in front of you.” Laughter can be heard from the group of marines, “buddy there is no way that’s possible.”

I grin slightly as I lay down on the bench, “Oh I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Now I’m kind of tired so I’ll only do ten sets.” I reach up and grab the bar, “Hey man we were only joking don’t try that you could really hurt-“ he trails off as I start lifting the bar up and down. Finishing my set I set the bar back in place and with a clang it settles into the groove.

As I sit up I’m met with stunned expressions, one of them walks over with a dazed look and tries to lift the bar. He fails to even lift it a cm and defeated he gives up.

“What’s your name?” One of them asks his voice full of awe. I smile, “my name’s Scott.”

I can almost see the gears turning in his head as he motions for the group to huddle up. I can hear whispers and muttering coming from the group. “Looks alike, same name, asshole, revenge.” I’m not sure I like the sound of the last one but let’s see how this plays out.

Coming to some consensus the group turns as one and walks towards me. “So you wouldn’t happen to be the AI that runs this ship?” Giving them my best cheeky smile I respond back, “Why yes that would be me.”

The group nods towards one another and without a word dashes in and lifts me over their heads. I don’t struggle at all as they carry me out of the gym and towards the marine section as I’m not quite sure I could break free without hurting them.

We make quite the spectacle running through the corridors and as we burst into the marine section quite a few curious faces are turned our way. The seemingly elected leader of the group strides forward and points back at me. “Everyone this right here is Scott the one that made all those hellish simulations. Now that he’s here why don’t we give him a warm welcome?”

The company of marines roars its approval while stampeding towards me. All I could think about was ‘Pride cometh before the fall’ as the wave of angry marines came ever closer.