The following day, Ms. Wakeman was sitting in front of her computer. She wasn't working on anything in particular at the moment. She was just staring at the screen saver thinking about the data Jenny revealed to her.
She thought to herself "This is some of the most fascinating information I've ever laid eyes on. I can see now that I made a very special daughter indeed. This goes so far beyond any expectation I ever had of her. In a little over a year and a half, she has managed to theorize about things that would take any normal human several lifetimes to think up. Most people never think about such things. Hold on, a transmission? I wonder who it is."
She then pressed the receive button on her keyboard. The screen saver ceased and she saw the last person she ever expected to appear on the screen.
"I wonder what the nearly forgotten Vile would want with me," Ms. Wakeman said with a slightly irritated tone.
"I expected this kind of greeting; yet another ungrateful citizen," Vile replied.
"I know you helped out with Sigma's defeat, but what do you expect from us after smashing a few humans to death with your ride armor's fists?" Ms. Wakeman asked.
"You know very well that I was just following orders," Vile retorted.
"I know that, but you do have a long history of terrible things you've done to people. I know you've been pardoned of your crimes, but I can't ignore the fact that you still did those things," Ms. Wakeman replied.
"Your so-called system of justice was on my side. If it was real justice, I would've been executed whether I helped or not. You were thinking more along the lines of you shouldn't speak to me or that I should be ignored by people as a whole. You weren't immediately thinking that I should die. I know I'm right. I'm waiting for you to lie," Vile explained.
"Actually…you are right," Ms. Wakeman confirmed with a surprised tone.
"You've been in the crime fighting business so long that you somehow forgot what it was like to have opinions like and average person does. You're forced to give the most socially acceptable opinion in order to have a good public face. It seems like you've been doing that for so long that you're original opinion has been obscured and you've tricked yourself into believing that that is your sincere opinion on the matter. People who don't have to worry about keeping appearances; the first thought that usually comes to their heads when someone commits an atrocity, is for that person to get all that he or she deserves. It's a primitive survival technique that basically says that the person is worried that if that criminal is allowed to go free without punishment, one day you or someone you care about could also possibly be hurt," Vile explained.
Ms. Wakeman's eyes widened some, and then she said "So that's what Jenny meant."
"Care to elaborate?" Vile asked.
"I…...really shouldn't tell you about her personal thoughts, but this actually concerns everyone, so I'll tell you as much as I can. She's been doing a lot of soul searching so to speak lately. She was talking about the same issue you were just talking about, but in a more complicated to understand wording. She's realizing more than most people ever do in their lifetimes just how primitive-natured we actually are, both humans and robots alike. What you just told me is an excellent example," Ms. Wakeman explained.
"She must be spending her time observing people and trying to figure out what makes them tick. She's nearing only ten years of age, and she's already thinking about these kinds of things. You've outdone yourself, and I bet you are just now realizing the extent of it all," Vile guessed.
"More or less, and I thank you for that compliment. I do take great pride in her. Well anyway, I don't have the power to judge or punish you, so I'll keep my opinions to myself for now. I know you called me for some other reason," Ms. Wakeman said.
"Yes, well, this call is about the fugitive Bamboo Pandemonium. At some point in the past seven months I became interested in finding his whereabouts because of how no one else seems to be able to find a trace of him. I happen to be one of the most efficient search and find reploids ever. My combat abilities come nowhere close. They used to use me for infiltration and spying missions when I began work as a Maverick Hunter. Eventually, they kept finding reasons to send me directly into battle, so that part of my past is mostly forgotten. I've used every trick in the book, and many of my own, and I'm drawing blanks. It's seems like he just ceased to exist or something. I've never known him to be so crafty. Then again, none of us really knew much about him at all. He was a strange one. He didn't talk much, and when he did, he mostly philosophized about things. He never gave much of his personal opinions about things either. I don't know how he operates, and I still can't figure out why he killed his own partners and saved that Misty girl. He's never given anyone a clue for them to understand what he's thinking. My only concrete guess is that he was probably waiting for a long time to find a reason to desert Sigma. I've already alerted many world leaders about my thoughts on this case, so I'm not singling you out. I just thought you should know since you have your daughter's help…you know…just in case you ever feel it necessary to pursue the case," Vile explained.
"Unless we have more information, there's nothing I can do about it right now, but the information you gave me is important to know. Thank you for your efforts. By the way, Mr. Vile, where exactly have you been? No one can locate you either," Ms. Wakeman pointed out.
"I knew you would ask that, just like everyone else did. It's really not that complicated. I'm simply not a people person. I've been a loner most of my life. I don't seriously see myself settling down in some city or town and I don't want to continue Maverick Hunter work even if I was allowed to be reinstated," Vile explained.
"Enjoying nature or something like that?" Ms. Wakeman asked.
"Something like that," Vile answered.
"You don't really seem to be what your name suggests," Ms. Wakeman said with a grin.
"Ah ha! That was very clever of you. I can also say that you seem nice enough. Until next time, Ms. Wakeman," Vile said.
As soon as the transmission ceased, Ms. Wakeman thought to herself "I really wonder what he looks like behind that mask of his."
Giga-Watt was not the same as he used to be. Being the only villain that survived Sigma's tyranny made him appreciate the life that he had a whole lot more. There was also the fact that if X had not decided to look for him inside of Sigma's body, he likely would've died. He felt like he was in X's debt.
He agreed to help rebuild to gain his freedom. His understanding of the flow of electrical currents helped greatly improve the efficiency of power plants of both worlds. The only reason he was allowed to roam freely was because even if he fed off of the power plants, he would not be able to completely drain any of them nearly as easily as he used to, plus the amazing security that they all now have would complicated things for him. People felt like they had less to fear from him these days anyway.
One day, he was wandering around through a building marked for demolition. He wanted to see if there happened to be some old batteries lying around to snack on.
As he checked each room, he said "This world has changed so much in such a short time. I hardly even recognize it anymore. In some ways, I think that it should never have happened. It seems too good to be true. Wait; what is this?"
About ten seconds later, people from outside the building heard a terrible screaming coming from inside the building. A few seconds later, they saw a terrified screaming Giga-Watt flying out of one of the windows at high speed. Not a one of them had ever seen someone scream like that in their lives. He didn't stick around long enough for anyone to ask him. Now they were more than a little concerned. They didn't want to see whatever it was he saw so they also kept their distance from the building.
Jenny heard about what happened and headed on over to the police station. She quickly found the room that Giga-Watt was in. He was trying to explain to the officers what he saw, but they had a very difficult time trying to believe him. The only reason they believe he saw anything out of the ordinary at all was because of the witnesses seeing him flee the building screaming.
Giga-Watt looked up at Jenny, and then asked "XJ9? What on Earth are you doing here?"
As Jenny walked over to Giga-Watt, one of the officers said "You really don't need to be here for this sort of thing, ma'am."
"I want to be here. I understand people are having a difficult time believing you, Giga-Watt, but I have reason to believe that if you're this frightened, you definitely saw something. Please tell me. What did you see?" Jenny asked in a calm tone.
"All right. I was in that old apartment building…looking for batteries. You know, some people leave those kinds of things lying around when they move. I'm not starving. I just wanted an extra snack. I finally some batteries, but…they were…floating in the middle of the air. It was dark and hard to see them, so I made my body glow even brighter. I heard a garbled windy sounding voice saying 'Are these what you're looking for?' I looked up and noticed that something was holding the batteries in its right hand. I couldn't make it out well, but it looked humanoid with most of its features too dark to make out. Suddenly, it leaned forward, and when it did, its features were revealed. Its appearance was more terrifying than anything I ever imagined. This overwhelming need to escape with my life washed over me like a tidal wave and I flew away screaming like I never have," Giga-Watt explained with apparent fear still in his voice.
"Can you describe its features?" Jenny asked.
"It's difficult to explain. Where should I begin?" Giga-Watt asked himself.
"So it's just that wild, huh? I've been meaning to try something, but I've yet to have the opportunity to try. You don't have any USB ports, so I can't connect to you in that way, but I have a different idea in mind. I read somewhere that your people have the ability to read each other's minds by resonating with each other, so I thought I'd give it a try," Jenny suggested.
"Isn't that dangerous?" One of the officers asked.
"Don't worry. I don't mind. I won't even attempt it if she cannot emit a constant flow of matching energy with me. XJ9, I will show you the type of energy necessary to do this," Giga-Watt said.
Giga-Watt's body suddenly began emitting a white energy that appeared to be vibrating rapidly. Jenny closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Her joints buckled a few times, as if they were muscle spasms, and then the desired energy flow began emitting from her body.
As soon as she got it stable enough, Giga-Watt said "That's impressive. You are much more powerful than the time we fought. Okay. Now is the time," Giga-Watt said.
He showed Jenny the event from beginning to end, and as soon as she saw what she was looking for, she suddenly snapped out of their sync falling backwards with a scream. She trembled violently as she contemplated what she saw.
"Are you okay, Ms. Wakeman?" Another one of the officers asked.
As a few other people rushed into the room responding to the scream, Jenny asked "What…the hell…was that? You gotta be kidding me. That doesn't look like some prank or something conjured up. Hallucinations are usually never described…to be that terrible-looking. I know we've been hearing ghost stories lately, but damn. Whatever that was looked like it came straight out of hell."
"One of the other officers said nervously "You can't possibly mean that."
"I've never seen hell before, but that fucking thing looked way beyond any standard of terrible I've ever seen. Horror movies don't even scratch the surface of how terrifying that was. I don't even think the human conscious, or even robot or alien consciousness, is even capable of thinking that up," Jenny said while still trembling.
"That is exactly the feeling I got when I saw it. It looks like two or three different bodies were mutilated in the worst car crash ever, the pieces were then very poorly put back together into one body, cleaned up, and expected to operate normally somehow. It doesn't sound quite so scary until you notice the sort of…umm…a sort of…sinister…quality to it. Sinister sounds like a good word for it. It almost looks like its configuration was specifically intended to be as frightening as possible," Giga-Watt explained.
Jenny's gaze suddenly shifted to an officer to her left, and then she said "Let me guess. By the way you're looking at me, you want me to show you a video of it, don't you?"
The room suddenly quieted for a moment, and then the officer finally replied "Well…yes actually. The idea would be considered…standard procedure. We need to be on the same page as you, don't we?"
He was nervous by the way Jenny was looking at him.
A moment later, Jenny stood up and closed her eyes. She remained still for a moment.
She reopened her eyes, and then said "Everyone…I know this isn't an alien invasion and I know this isn't Sigma, but…"
Everyone else in the room was growing even more concerned with the look on Jenny's face and the way she suddenly trailed off and began staring into space.
One of the officers spoke up saying "I've grown to respect your opinions over time Jenny, but you can't seriously be saying you really believe in ghosts. Even if it is true…"
Jenny cut him off with a harsh near whispering tone saying "Listen to me, sir. Listen to me, everyone. I honestly don't know what the fuck to believe. I'm just scared right now. This isn't the same sacredness I get from fighting an enemy I don't think I can beat. This is much different. I've never felt…this…before. I don't even know if this ghost thing is even related for sure, but I feel like it could be. It's just…"
She trailed off again, but by the time she did, there was a wavering in her voice none of them had ever heard. They believed her when she said she was scared.
Giga-Watt then said "By the way you're talking about this…it sounds like you are scared of more than just this one little ghost sighting."
The wavering in Jenny's voice was strong as she said "First, my sensors allow me…to see into another dimension almost two years ago. I've been spending a lot of time using my advancements to sense other things I can't explain. I just…I really hope this doesn't turn into anything bad for us. If it does…"
"If it does…it could turn out to be bad for us all. I've never heard you speak like this. It sounds as if what you're telling us is that if is as bad as you fear…that we won't be able to depend on you at all," Giga-Watt said.
"That's just the problem. I don't know what it is. I have no clue at all. This isn't as simple as some energy distortion. For all we know, this could be a good thing. I hope…with everything I'm made of, that it is a good thing. Fear comes from not knowing, right? I…feel…like this is something: something…big. I don't even know that for sure. It's too complicated to figure out. It may be hard for you to picture, but for over a year now, a portion of my mind has been trying to calculate large numbers of complicated equations while trying to relate them to the complexities of real life. The number of equations keeps growing as time goes on. It's like it's trying to solve the mother of all puzzles. There are things about what I'm seeing that are scaring the crap out of me. Sometimes it seems like a great portion of it is pointing to some kind of upcoming event, but I don't know when. It's like trying to see into the future even though it seems impossible. I need to stop where I am with this. I'll show you guys the video, but I have to demand that this not be shown to the public yet. If I show this to the public, they're going to wanna know what I think about it. I'm afraid I might say something that will make them go into a panic. I don't believe this will serve to help them at all right now to show them. Look! I know I sound crazy, okay. I know it sounds like I'm just saying this shit because I'm so used to being in constant conflict. Ghosts? What the fuck? Are you kidding me? I saw what Giga-Watt just saw and I still have major trouble believing it. I want to believe it was just the world's best hologram prank thought up by some house hermit computer whiz," Jenny said in the same intense tone.
"Okay, now you're starting to sound more believable. I'm not talking about myself. I'm saying that the majority of people want to hear that you are at least trying to remain…down-to-earth. What you are telling us is going to make your sanity seem questionable, and that's mainly because, for most people, they feel as though it's just a bit too much for their minds to handle. The scale that you're thinking on right now is just too large for the average person to comprehend. It's a little too large even for me to comprehend. Either you have solid proof, or you're gonna have to take it really…really slowly when trying to get them to be on your page. Just some helpful advice," an officer explained.
Her voice waivered much less now and sounded more irritated as she responded "Yeah, I know. It's times like this I wish I could just plug my brain into everyone else's so they could see what I see."
"Yeah, but what if you ran into a human whose brain happens to be wired in such a way that you might catch something like a human equivalent of a computer virus. Since this issue has never come up, you would have no program designed to delete such a virus. I should've said something before you decided to do what you did with Giga-Watt," The same officer said.
Surprised, Jenny said "Wow! I never even thought of that as a possibility before; the part about humans giving robots viruses. Electrical signals are constantly flowing through your neurons, so I guess it is quite possible. How did you even come up with that? I bet my mom never even thought of that."
"I happened to see a movie long ago where some guy read some other guys mind, but after he did, his own mind never worked quite the same way again, as if he was infected," the officer answered.
"Well, I don't feel like anything has changed besides that mental image of that thing Giga-Watt saw," Jenny said.
"All right then. You win, Ms. Wakeman. We won't show this to the public just yet. It's not like they'd want to hear ghost stories right now anyway. We will keep this and a recording of this conversation in our files for later discussion amongst those strictly in this precinct. I'm hoping the government won't notice this and try to take a copy for themselves, but if they do, we won't have a choice but to give it to the higher authority. They usually don't do that to us, but anything involving you is a government matter. Does everyone else agree with this arrangement?" A female officer asked.
All the other officers, in unison, answered "Agreed."