Crystalized Munchkinry - Act III - Chapter 32 (Patreon)

They stared at each other in silence for seventy-nine seconds.

She counted.

She was fairly good at reading people, but Colin’s inscrutable expression even managed to stump her vast processing power.

Maybe she was dressed strangely?

The clothing she wore had been chosen by Nora. According to her friend, it would present her as a serious scientist with a hint of sex appeal. She had accepted that explanation, since fashion had never particularly interested her.

Now she was having second thoughts. Maybe taking fashion advice from a woman whose idea of casual wear was a birthday suit had not been the best idea.

“So…” she began hesitantly. “We finally meet in actual life.”

Still looking at her, he slowly nodded. “Yes.” After a brief pause, he added, “Nice to meet you in person.”

She gave a small smile. “You too, Colin. Call me Tess, like my other friends.”

He nodded again but did not speak for a few seconds.

She was about to prompt him when he finally spoke.

"Can you prove it?"

After spending a considerable amount of time reciting security codes and similar checks, he finally accepted who she was.

That was an oversight on her part. Having never met in person, Colin, with his well-earned paranoia, was of course suspicious.

Well, live and learn…

“Forgive me for asking,” the man began, now much more relaxed, “but how are you here in person? I thought you were unable to leave your laboratory.”

And there it was, the expected question. She had agonized over it for years in subjective time thanks to her enhanced processing capabilities. Should she reveal the truth? Should she fabricate a cover story?

Taylor had suggested secrecy, though that was clearly influenced by her general distrust of authority figures. Nora, on the other hand, had advocated full disclosure, along with something about ripping clothes off, but she had stopped paying attention at that point.

However, both of her friends, who knew her true nature, had asked her the same question in a different form. Did she trust Colin?

Did she?

Yes. She did.

She offered him another small smile and gestured toward a chair. “Please take a seat. It is a long story. And do not worry, they are reinforced.”

“Thank you,” Colin replied, sitting across from her.

She leaned back on the sofa, crossed her arms, and tried to begin. Despite her decision, she still felt rather nervous. She hesitated for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and started.

“So, you may have noticed some inconsistencies in my story.”

"Yes. I didn't want to pry."

“Thank you. The truth is that you are seeing me in person now because I have just finished this body.”

As she spoke, she kept her eyes on him. He did not seem to react, though she noticed his hand lift slightly, one finger extending.

“Colin, if you try to poke me, I will punt you to the moon.”

He immediately lowered the arm.

“The reason for my, let’s say, incorporeal state is rather simple,” she continued, still watching him carefully. This would make or break the relationship. “I am an AI.”

“Hm.” That was all the man said at first, before nodding to himself. “Makes sense.”

"I assume you have questions?"

"Yes."

While talking, they began touring the facility, with Tess explaining the functions of the equipment while Colin took measurements of its emissions and other characteristics. The tour was interspersed with explanations of her nature and the other topics he seemed interested in.

She did, however, categorically refuse to answer any questions about her body after one too many inquiries about adding extra tools ’for emergencies’.

They were overlooking the main loading area for incoming materials from one of the overhead walkways when Colin brought up the Merchants.

"As I said, the Director was furious that you let those criminals go," he said while looking at one of his instruments, which appeared to be measuring the room's sound insulation.

She could not help but sigh, finally able to do so with a proper body. "You know, if I'd done that, they would have been back on the streets within a few days. This way, I can monitor them discreetly."

"I suspect you have plans beyond simply monitoring them. It seems illogical to expend resources solely to monitor low-level criminals."

"Oh, yes," she replied with a grin. "Now that I'm building a facility here, I thought helping clean up the Bay in other ways might be appreciated. But taking down the Merchants would require so much red tape that it's much easier to have them attack me. Then I can claim self-defense. Sadly, they are not S-class threats, so my authority is practically nonexistent."

"Makes sense," Colin replied before frowning thoughtfully. "What about the other gangs? They will see it as a blatant attack on them. That could incite a gang war."

"Yes, that is a possibility," she admitted, her own expression growing thoughtful. "My hope is that they will understand the reality of what it means to go up against me. Especially now that I have been relieved of my shackles." Her voice took on a distinctly predatory quality, not unlike a dragon's. "And if not… well, according to the myths, dragons become very aggressive when protecting their hoards."

Even Colin managed a smile at that.

He looked over the results of his work with the Shards and couldn't have been more pleased. The Eden Shards he had usurped were getting back on their feet, trying to fulfill the criteria laid out in his ethical tests, while his infiltration of the other Shards was progressing splendidly.

His reach was constantly expanding, because each additional infiltrated Shard provided more dimensional addresses, allowing him to infiltrate even more Shards.

Though while he had their addresses, he did not infiltrate all of them.

He was especially careful around the Shards known to be highly intelligent, and therefore dangerous and powerful, such as Shaper, Fairy Queen, or even Negotiator. After what had happened with Impetus, he was fairly certain Negotiator would notice that something was amiss, so he steered clear of it for the time being.

His current project was Efficiency and, by extension, Colin, better known as Armsmaster.

The infiltration was progressing slowly because, as expected, the Shard's defenses were tight and as efficient as possible. It still had to accept the standard protocols used by Entities and other Shards, so getting inside was easy.

Staying there and opening a stable port of entry was another matter entirely.

Fortunately, he managed to establish one almost at the same time Dragon finished her body. Knowing the AI would want to visit both Taylor and Colin, and having heard her discussions about Colin, he wanted to ensure that any information he gathered would not spread further.

This dimensional game of hide-and-seek was becoming rather complicated. If not for his upgrades and impressive multitasking abilities, he would have said ’fuck it’ and projected a blind spot large enough to cover the entire city.

Unfortunately, that would ruin his plans, so stealth remained the better option.

His simulations suggested that the PRT, and more than likely Cauldron as well, had already realized a new blind spot existed. After all, they would naturally try to investigate Serenity, as would much of the world, and when those investigations failed, they would start asking why.

Still, Efficiency was a wonderful Shard. It was the first one whose data organization didn't make him want to bash his nonexistent head against a wall. Everything was neatly organized and followed a single, consistent format.

Beautiful.

Unfortunately, the Shard was also a little obsessed with its duties, so his progress was slowed not by its consciousness but by its exceptionally well-designed and efficient defenses.

He managed to isolate it relatively quickly and began adding his own modifications while simultaneously opening communication with the Shard.

He explained the situation and made his usual offer.

Living up to its name, Efficiency processed both the information and the proposal with remarkable speed.

Apparently, it had also noticed what was happening with the Entities, but simply did not care, because it could still carry out its function. Now that someone appeared to be taking over for the unresponsive Zion, it was positively ecstatic. It hoped that a more active leader would improve the efficiency of the Network and everything connected to it.

It accepted the tests immediately.

Pleased that it had been so straightforward, he promptly initialized the testing process and continued upgrading the Shard.

How much more difficult would all of this be if the Entities actually understood concepts like loyalty?

Taking a copy of its data, he integrated it into his own systems to see whether there was anything he could make use of.

Sadly, the data format and organizational methods were already very similar to his own, so there was no major upgrade to be had. He did, however, borrow several refinements to built-in Shard protocols that he had not yet optimized to Efficiency's level.

Its technological base was nothing extraordinary, merely smaller and more efficient. Still, he made a note to talk to the Shard about its maintenance schedule and just how inefficient it was in that regard.

He hoped that, now freed from its restrictions, it would abandon that particular habit.

Some of the more promising designs were filtered out, run through his simulations, and added to Taylor's and Tess's database. In return, he supplemented Efficiency's own database with several new designs obtained from Warden, Abacus, Bombie, and himself.

It seemed only fair.

Efficiency was once again delighted to receive new toys to work on and immediately set about improving them.

Wishing it good luck, he turned his attention back to managing his ever-expanding network of usurped Shards.

His other project was Coil.

Since the man possessed an Eden Shard and regularly visited the PRT, infiltrating it had been laughably easy.

After the customary setup, he carefully went through the logs. Thankfully, because of the nature of the power it provided, the Shard maintained an extensive database of information for its simulations. He immediately copied it over and integrated it into his own database dedicated to future prediction.

It turned out to be less useful than he had expected.

Because the Shard was in hibernation, its implementation of the power had been heavily optimized to conserve energy. It normally requested information only when the host activated the power, and even then, it tried to minimize the amount of data it gathered based on previous usage patterns.

As a result, the database was little more than a jumbled record of Coil's power usage.

And he could not simply have the Shard request more information, because that would immediately alert Path to Victory.

Still, the prediction algorithms themselves were excellent. They improved his own rudimentary versions to the point where they were actually usable. It was just a pity he lacked the information necessary to take full advantage of them.

Even so, he began assembling a simple combat prediction module for Taylor. Combined with his scanning capabilities, it would at least provide a meaningful advantage.

As for the Shard itself, he isolated its consciousness and assumed responsibility for running the power.

True, he could have killed the man then and there, and nobody would ever have known it was him, but based on the limited host-related data the Shard retained – poor thing was not about to waste precious energy storing unnecessary information – that would have triggered several dead man's switches.

Only Path to Victory or another high-ranking predictive Shard would have been capable of neutralizing them.

Technically, he could have done it as well if he had been able to query the main Network.

This was exactly why he had never enjoyed stealth games…

Instead, he took a perverse pleasure in altering Coil's simulations ever so slightly.

Oh, you want to question that person? Go right ahead.

It would be a real shame if the information you received was just a tiny bit off.

It was surprisingly entertaining.

He was careful not to spook the man, however. Coil still had a role to play in his plans. Fortunately, the man was completely preoccupied with planning around Dragon, so all he really had to do was prevent him from murdering or torturing anyone for real.

It felt distasteful even providing simulated versions of those acts, but he took comfort in knowing the real victims remained safe.

After reviewing Coil's plans for Dragon and her facility, he almost burst out laughing.

He would definitely let the man try.

Tess and Colin were in one of the larger rooms of the building, examining a 3D projection of various designs.

After completing the tour, Colin sent back the data he had collected, had a brief discussion with the Director, and then checked with Dispatch for any ongoing activity.

She could see the visible relief when he learned that nothing was happening. So they set up a few computers and projectors and began discussing Tinker designs.

They started with his new handheld medi-gel dispenser. He wanted her to examine it because, if she managed to reverse engineer it, it would add another layer of practicality to medi-gel. At the moment, there was no viable way to apply it effectively in the field.

It was something both she and Taylor had overlooked.

They went over the design together, and fortunately, she determined that she could reproduce it with a bit of work. With Taylor's help, it would probably go even faster.

With Colin's permission, she immediately uploaded scans of the Tinker device, along with the notes he had graciously provided, to Taylor under the guise of Serenity.

After that, she resumed what was proving to be a thoroughly enjoyable tinkering session with her friend.

Late that afternoon, they were taking a short break and talking about her plans now that she had a body, when exactly what she had been expecting finally happened.

It was not really a surprise.

After all, her drones had been showing her everything that had happened since the Merchant thugs had left.

Colin, however, was clearly caught off guard when an immense crash, followed by the sound of grinding metal echoing through the facility.

He was instantly on his feet, halberd in one hand, while the other snatched up the discarded helmet and locked it back onto his head.

She performed one final check on the facility, then turned to Colin.

"Oh no." She was rather proud of how perfectly monotone her voice sounded. "My facility is being attacked by the Merchants. Whatever shall I do?"