Part two

On the highway several heavily armored vehicles moved in engaging the entity with deadly force. The .50 cal machine gun mounted on top of the armored vehicles fired in sync, pelted the entity in a storm of bullets.

“What is that thing?” the woman asked.

“Some sort of artificial intelligence weapon. All I know is that the suspect wiped out half of my team; the only ones that are left are us,” a man replies.

"Undertood. A kill order has been put in from the top brass but with that thing in between us and our target, we can’t get close. All we can do is sit around and wait until backup arrives,” another one of the men said.

They continued to fire at the entity but not a single bullet was about to harm it, every round fired was deflected by the entity’s barrier.

“It’s no use! It deployed a hardlight shield,” the woman shouted.

“Arghhh! Screw this!” the man changes to his grenade launcher, aiming it at the entity and pulls the trigger. The entity stood still as the explosive landed before it’s feet and detonated.

“Hit confirmed.”

“Is it dead?”

“Keep your eyes open it may—” an sudden abrupt explosion threw her comrades into the air.

“Where the hell is that back up!” the woman shouted. She looks over the ledge, the entity was unscathed.

The woman grabs her weapon and fires it until the magazine emptied. The entity turns to the woman and vanishes. She tries to get away but she stops when she sees the entity standing a few inches in front of her.

“G-get away from me you monster!” She backs out her side arm and shots the threat in front of her. After the last bullet leaves the barrel it then begins to approach her, reaching out to her.

It gently touches the woman’s face and weeps. I… I can't move! In that split second the woman was pulled out of the way. A portion of the ground was hollowed out.

“Are you okay?” Kuniva asked the woman.

The woman quickly stands and grabs Kuniva by the arm and pulls him away from the danger before them. “What are you doing here? This is no place for a civilian! Let alone a child!”

Kuniva breaks free of the woman. “I hate to break it to you, Miss, but I’m more outfitted than you and your buddies are.”

“This mission was said to arrest Venessa Wingate, not destroy some machine!”

A sudden influx in his em field, Kuniva pulls the woman to the side dodging a wall of light cutting clean through the ground and the armored vehicles.

“Anyways, I know attacking head on isn’t getting us close. Hey, do you have a knife on you?” Kuniva asked.

The woman had an expression of denial hearing a civilian child asking for a weapon an immediate negative reply would have followed, however looking at her current problem with no backup and no effective weapons. Her survivability was lower compared to Kuniva's. She gives in and pulls a black bladed knife from her boot and hands it off to him.

“You go evacuate the people living—”

“No one lives in this area, It's still vacant for residential development.” the woman replied.

“Alright, you should retreat.” Kuniva springs up and off the wall and thrust the electrified knife into the barrier, the knife breaks instantly upon contact with the hardlight shield.

Entity vanished into a dense mist, heading for Vanessa's last know location.

“So much for that… hey where are you going!?” Kuniva looks into the distance.

“Ms.Wingate!”

Down below, Vanessa finally woke up, she took off her lab coat. She stumbles and leans against the pillar holding her head. What happened?

A loud explosion from above draw’s Venessa’s attention, she watches as the entity levitating in the air launching ice shards intercepting whips of electricity.

Chaotic laughter erupts from Venessa as she draws her pistol. “This is amazing, to think an AI can physically exist in the real world. The AI that's running the network evolved in such a short period of time. I’ll be commemorated if I bring it back to the institution.”

Venessa frowns, losing her grip on her weapon. “The Synapse Network is no longer in my control, that was my only chance to save those children that survived the experiment and my hopes in finding a cure.”

Grief struck Venessa, tears trickled down her restless face. Dropping to her knees, she toggles the weapon’s safety off. Her tears stop flowing, she glances down at the pistol then puts it under her chin.

Why am I crying? I’m the one responsible for this, at least I won’t be missed, this is my punishment. Shy from pulling the trigger and ending her life the gun was ripped from her hand by an unknown force.

“Wh-what are you doing? Kil-killing yourself isn’t going to solve your problems.” Marquis shouting at the distressed woman. He pants as he walks sluggishly over to Venessa.

“You’re a telekinesis user. Signs of strain in the left eye and that was at least 15 feet away. A brain—”

“Don’t go off course. Anyway, can you take these things off?”

After Venessa released Marquis from his restraints, she picks her gun up and give a quick rundown of the current events before his eyes.

“A classified experiment? I guess the old rumor is true,” Marquis said.

“But the rumor spreading across the city is a fabricated myth and the real story is hidden from the masses. The experiment was to collect data on Alzheimer's, dementia, and neural degradation. The easiest way to gather that data was by using the most abundant resource the Institution had ready. The AI running the Synapse Network physically manifested gathering high concentrated origin field. That thing hijacked the network from me and using the abilities of 10,000 people. It’s also getting smarter the longer it uses those abilities.” Venessa wipes her bloody nose in the crook of her arm.

“I don’t think it has any self-awareness but it might have been influenced by my emotions the first time I came across it in the network's core.”

“I almost feel sorry for it all of those trapped minds. But it must be stopped,” Marquis said, holding his hand out.

Venessa faintly smiles. “You’re asking me for help? how can you trust me?”

“I'm not putting my trust in you but in your knowledge on stopping that thing.”

Venessa’s face faintly glows, her eyes still devoid of life.

"However, your students trusted you. Now is the time to make it right."

“People like you who believe anything others say are my biggest problem, hand me the drive that I gave you and I need your Network Sleeve."

"For what?"

"Relax, I'm not tricking you. My Network Sleeve was destroyed." She held her hand out showing him the electrical burns on along the length of her entire left arm.

"The old protocol on that drive is useless now that the AI has full control of the network. I have to rewrite the protocol, I may be able to give you my administrator status and disconnect it from the network.”

Marquis reaches into his pocket and hands the device to Venessa. She takes his arm, connecting to the flash drive she placed around his arm, the Network Sleeve holo-display flashed various codes in red and blue.

"But what difference will it make if the Administrator changed hands already? I take it that now it might have already re-written the old codes to prevent external and internal threats from taking control."

She looks at the device with a deep conviction and sighed. “What you say is true but it can't defend against a threat already sleeping in the same room as it.”

Vanessa finished. "I take it that Public Safety Commando Unit came fully prepared, they will have a Mobile Command Center with them. Find the command center, and sever the connection." She snaps the drive in two tossing it to the side.

Just when Marquis was about lose his mind, Venessa points to his right arm. "I expect that the network is constantly changing algorithms in real-time as a countermeasure, I still have access to the to algorithm software since I did create it. Your Network Sleeve is in sync and should allow you bypass its security system, get going time limited."

Marquis he take a deep breath and sprints up the emergency stairs, he bursts through the service door sprinting past the female officer pulling her partners out of harm's way.

“Hey didn’t I say get out of here!”

But Marquis keeps running, not looking back he had one focus and that's getting to the Command Center.

*******

A trail of electricity moving in an inhuman manner as if the laws of inertia didn't apply Kuniva, evading the beams of particle energy. Staying on defense isn’t getting me anywhere and I still don’t get why it’s crying and wants me to hold its hand despite what I throw at it.

The entity erire chime suddenly turned into deep a dreaded screech like a banshee vibrating air, the ground shattered. Several tendrils burst from its back and begin gathering ambient energy at a single point, rapidly expanding in less than a second and launching the sphere of energy.

At the same moment of the blast, Marquis was knocked back into the divider from the pressure wave, dazed from the blast he touched the back of his head and saw his hand was covered in his blood. I don't feel so good. Hope my implant isn't damaged.

Despite his injuries he got back on his feet holding onto the concrete barricade, after regaining his focus. As he fled towards the public safety camp, he was tackled to the ground from behind.

A stray beam of light grazes over their heads.

The female officer grabs Marquis by the back of his shirt making a run for the other side of the ruined bridge. She sighed. “I hope you know what you’re doing. Otherwise you’ll be dealing with me instead!”

“I do. I just need a computer and a few minutes,” Marquis said.

*******

Venessa recovered from the blast, she observed Kuniva and the entity skirmishing, lightning roars and crackles as it strikes the entity’s barrier continuously producing several thunderous explosions resonating through the air.

Man vs machine. I hope that boy knows what he’s doing. I gave him a backdoor access key. If he uploads the virus to the network. But even if he’s successful, that thing won't stop it’s evolutionary process now that it’s physically in the world. Doubt begins to settle within her.

It must be destroyed but can one pillar be able to handle this?

Blueish-white light flashes in the distance, ice rains from above.

Cover in dirt, sweat, abrasions from head to toe, clothes torn and charred in places, a ring of iron sand floating around him. Kuniva looks over his shoulder at Venessa sucking his teeth. He was running out of space which irritated him.

What’s this thing’s deal? Its all over the place. It feels like I’m in a movie. I can't get past that barrier no matter what I throw at it.

Condensed energy takes the shape of a crescent moon just above Kuniva's head.

Rime Trauma! Kuniva dodged the arctic crescent a few inches.

Just when he was about to attack in an instant, an appendage burst through the ground coiling around his leg, growing over his leg, impeding his movement.

The tendril rises to the surface dragging him across the ground towards the entity, holding him in place.

Kuniva was suddenly shocked at the unknown occurrence before him. Its body is covered in flesh? What the hell is going on! No seriously.

The entity turns to Kuniva with eyes full of pain and sorrow. Several tendrils of its tendril lunge at Kuniva aiming at his center of mass.

Damn it! The electromagnetic field surrounding him zapped and buzzed and arched, the lunging tendrils were intercepted by crackling electric shocks. The tendrils backed away to regenerate and repeat its assault. An Auto Repair Unit? Makes no sense to force myself free if it's just going to regenerate.

With each strike the tendrils regenerated with no end, even the tendril coiled around him was regenerating at a rapid rate as scorching heat from the em field intensified.

Each electric shock was greater than the last, as Kuniva emits a greater force.

It’s regenerating too quickly— countering the tendril, he notices something was amiss, the particles at the end of the tendrils didn’t rejoin after receiving damage. It’s not recovering anymore. Kuniva breaks free of his binds and stretches.

“It's Auto Repair Unit is disabled? I like it!” Kuniva said, pointing his finger at the entity. Ropes of iron sand coils around the entity releasing a high voltage electric shock.

The skin on the entity’s body was burned away from the heat.

The entity grinds to a halt falling to the ground with a loud thud.

“Fuu- that was cutting it close—"

Kunavia about face when the sound of gunshots ring through the air. Venessa shot at the entity as it got back up. “What do you think you’re doing? It must be destroyed completely!” She continues to shoot the entity.

“You’re telling me after all of that it wasn’t enough?” Kuniva said.

“It’s not human, it's a mass of origin fields focused at a single point. Just a simple electric shock isn’t going to have much of an effect on its physical body,” Venessa replies, reloading her weapon.

“Ahh! Then what am I supposed to do?”

Venessa takes a quick moment to think, looking at the rising entity. “You have to find the core. The source of its physical manifestation.”

“If game boss battles taught me one thing is that the core is at the center. It’s just hard to get close with that barrier in the way.”

Voices resonate through the air from the entity.

“Grief.”

“Hate.”

“Envy.”

“Betrayal.”

“Alone.”

"Revenge.

The voices overlapped over another.

Kuniva gazed upon the machine with pity. Now I get it. This world can be cruel. You all suffered and so did this one.

“Get away from here now, I can’t protect us both in my current condition.”

“I won’t. I created that thing—”

A massive bolt of lightning struck the tendrils when it got in range of the electric field with a loud thunderous roar. “I hate to be rude, but you may feel that way towards yourself but your students don’t. It would be a waste of effort when they recovered and you’re not around. Don’t call it quits now. Keep going.”

Spears of lightning strikes the machine’s barrier with great accuracy and ferocity.

That barrier is oscillating, redirecting the lightning, just as I did but it’s improved. But if he’s it’s opponent just maybe…

“Shit! You’re causing more trouble for me than your creator!” Kuniva points his fingers at the entity mimicking a gun. “Time to kick it up a notch!”

The electric field around him flashed ejecting a massive stream of lightning engulfing the barrier and the entity.

Venessa shields her face from the blinding light and the rushing heat. It’s no use, that barrier has already progressed to a Category 5, direct attacks won't...

That was when Venessa witnessed the entity’s body being vaporized, even the ice from the earlier encounter was also vaporized, recalling a display similar to earlier. A direct hit isn’t his goal. He’s using the electricity’s byproduct to heat the air around it. Before he was holding back when he was fighting against me. He was just only testing the waters.

The entity screams in agony as parts of its body is strip away by the constant wave of heat, it feels pain, a machine capable of feeling emotions, the voices of thousands all pleading for the pain to stop.

“What do you want?” Kuniva asked the machine wholeheartedly stopping his attack.

"E-establishing connecting with guest … connection rejected…"

The voices change to pure rage, retaliating with a barge of shards of ice larger than normal.

The hail of ice we’re annihilated by a twisting storm of hissing iron sand. Iron sand encased his left hand. Kuniva closed his eyes as a rush of emotions flooded his mind. A mass of origin fields. Something about you worries me. But why?

The entity weeps, firing several green particle beams. The moment the energy beams fired time slowed, Kuniva saw the world and every action frame by frame, a brain functioning as a high speed camera.

As fast as lightning can travel, the attack was swift and precise, the entity was bisected horizontally in one shift motion.

“You don’t have to cry anymore or suffer, it’s time for you to go back to where you belong.” Kuniva turned 180 degrees and fired the primed ball of liquid iron he had prepared at the entity's chest.

In that brief second he witnesses something unusual, the entity smiles gently caressing his face, and its tears stop.

"E-establishing connection with guest… connected established…"

At that moment of the core’s destruction the voices stopped, the machine hummed a gentle melody as it slowly powers down, turning into a fine glittering dust.

A warm sensation coursed through his body, the sensation of gratitude. It felt like he was feeling the machine’s own emotions and seeing it’s memories.

He stood and stretched, but crashed to the ground. You were protecting them, the same way you did for your sister. You wanted to be set free from the pain they did to you you wanted to reunite with your sister. You felt the pain in those people so you wanted to get revenge on the people who done them wrong. You wanted to spot their pain and tears... so hijacked the Synapse Network. With a body in such a condition it’s only natural for Kuniva to collapse where he stood.

He turns his head over facing Vanessa. Its touch felt like a real person’s touch. Strange.

“A-are you okay?” Venessa asked.

“I’ll be lying if I said yes,” Kuniva remarked.

“What’s your move now? No one is here to stop you from getting away and I'm out of commission.”

Vanessa tosses the gun to the side nodding her head.

“No…”

A caravan of public safety vehicles pulling up to the side of them jumping out with their weapon trained on her.

“Running away from the main branch Black Task Force is impossible without the network. I’m not going to give up on my goal. I’m going to start over, but I’ll do it my way. I’ll still be able to continue my research wherever they send me, whether it's the confines of prison or a researche colony on Mars. I'll always have my students,” Venessa said smiling. Her usual dark and restless eyes beamed with genuine relief.

“Moreover, I still intend on doing what I intend to do. You're welcome to tag along, I’ll keep in mind how being shocked by you feels.”

“Are you feeling okay, lady?” Kuniva chortles.

“But still, to be able to engineer a brain network and create a physical AI from it shocked me. Since you’re going to have an empty schedule for a while. Come up with something less dangerous. Linking brains together through electromagnetic fields and using Learning Tree to organize the network isn't friendly.”

“I gained all this knowledge from you.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who wrote the report.”

“That’s not what I meant, boy. Even with power like your own and that braveheart of yours, how can you not resist? Hmm, you're carrying an inevitable fate.” Venessa said her final words and climbed into the back of the truck. He surpassed the AI. The Seven Pillars of Life. Living in a whole another world that can’t be reached through natural means breaking the laws of evolution and rewriting it. But under the cloak and dagger of the US government and Council of Science.

“Oh, one more thing, Ms. Wingate. With an AI that advanced is it possible for it to have developed emotions of its own or already have pre-existing ones?”

Venessa pounders. “Hmm, I'm not sure since it was running simulations using the minds of 10,000 biotics. With 10,000 minds linked I can see it developing origin fields of its own. Why do you ask?”

He hesitates to respond and replies, “It's nothing I was just wondering.”

Soon after another vehicle pulls to the scene, the passenger door flies open. Jasmine jumps out the car rushing over to the exhausted and injure boy. “What the… what happened! ”

Kuniva didn’t say a word to her, all he did was wave.

A few minutes from sunset, paramedics and firefighters arrived at the scene loading up injured public safety officers with Marquise among the injured.

Jasmine hugs her brother, smothering him with affection then ends with him getting a hard scolding about him using his abilities.

“Oh yeah that’s right, I forgot to tell you.”

Marquise leaps up from the seat and hugs his sister and sprints off despite his injuries but Jasmine stops and takes his hand teleporting away.

Kuniva pulls his hair tie loose and leans his head back staring off into the distance viewing the sky changing colors before fading under for the night indulging in the rolling breeze.

“All that’s left is to confirm the recovery of the victims to the main branch and the complete shutdown of all stigmata enhancers,” Jasmine said, tossing Kuniva a bottle of water.

While resting in the back of the ambulance getting patched up. Kuniva zones out with his eyes pointing to the sky. The thought of that AI is permanently etched into his brain.

“Hello, is anyone home?” Jasmine said, poking Kuniva’s head.

“Ah yes how can I help?” he replies but zones out again. “Where’s your brother?”

“He’s at the hospital with Shantae. All the people that were in a coma are up now.”

“Good to hear, I’ll catch you later, Jas.” Kuniva lays down on the gurney as the paramedic closes the doors. Looking up at the ceiling light about him, hs mind being to wonder. Carrying an inevitable fate… what did she mean by that? And why did the AI show me that building? I've been there before.

*******