CHAPTER SIX
As Mia helped a hobbling Kyle through the corridors of the lab, the three robots, still in their exact same spot, watched them go by.
"Is it over?" The first one said.
"Did the hero beat the last boss?" Said the second.
"We were rooting for you the whole time, Kyle! We knew you could do it!" Added the third.
"What? You said 'that poor bastard doesn't stand a chance!'" Retorted the first.
"No, that was you!" The third robot said, waving its arms.
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
Kyle simply ignored them as they continued past, leaving the squabbling robots to their own devices. He closed his eyes to avoid seeing Amy's charging bed and other furnishings as they made their way to the fabrication room, which apparently also doubled as a surgical suite.
"Just remove your shirt, lay down, and I'll take care of everything." Mia said reassuringly. Kyle sat on one of the beds, warily eyeing the spiderlike appendages now retracted overhead.
"It really is over, isn't?" He said, weakly. "I killed my own cousin. Jeremy. My best bud." His face again screwed up.
Mia tenderly patted his head. Somehow, it did feel nice, and oddly comforting. "That wasn't your cousin anymore, Kyle. It hasn't been for a long time."
"I... I know," Kyle sniffed and wiped his nose with a sleeve. "It sounded like him, and his face... that was his face, but the look in his eyes belonged to... someone else entirely."
Kyle shed his bloody, torn, puke-stained shirt and clambered onto the bed as instructed, then lay flat on his back. The spidery arms twitched, then extended and retracted sequentially. His eyes began to grow wide. I really, really hope I can trust Mia, he suddenly thought. If she turns out to be crazy too...
"This thing is, uh, safe right?" He asked, turning to Mia. "I won't lie, it looks like something out of a sci-fi horror movie."
Mia smiled, that reassuring, gentle smile that he remembered from what seemed like so long ago finally returning. "It's a practical design. One day, maybe you'll see what it can really do. But for now, just relax, place your arms at your sides, and let me fix you up, good as new."
Kyle took a deep breath, and Mia once more extended her hand, wirelessly transmitting signals to the glowing panel. Two arms drooped down and rotated through their various tips, then barely touched his skin on both his arm and chest, each tip lightly kissing his skin at various places around each wound.
"I don't feel a thing," Kyle said. "They actually kind of tickle a little."
"You won't either. That was the local anesthesia." Mia continued her work, and several more arms came down, quickly cleaning, closing, then sealing the injuries with some kind of transparent, tape-like material that instantly merged with his flesh.
"All done!" Mia said, beaming. "Just give the seal a few minutes to fully bond, and then you'll be back to normal."
"Mia, I still can't believe you... created all of this. So much wondrous tech." He turned his head, gazing into her wide eyes. "I mean, this bed alone is a huge technological breakthrough. Emergency rooms would kill for something like this."
"Yes, I know," she said, her smile beginning to fade. "Most of the things I've made would really help out a lot of people."
Kyle said nothing, and silence reigned for many long moments. Mia simply watched Kyle as he stared off into nothingness, an occasional tear rolling down his cheek. Eventually, his red-rimmed gaze shifted back to the AI anime girl.
"Can they help bring my cousin back?" he finally said. "Can they turn back time, get Jeremy some help before his... fucked-up alter-ego takes over?"
"No, Kyle." Mia said. "They can't do any of that. Unless you'd like to emulate him, in which case I-"
"Absolutely not," his eyes widened. "Do not ever do that again. In fact, delete everything you have on my cousin. His voice, his recorded memories, everything. I want it all gone. Amy especially."
"Are you sure?" Mia said. "Didn't you enjoy talking to him on the phone?"
"That wasn't him, you know this." Kyle deliberately enunciated every word. "I don't care how accurate and lifelike the emulation was. It... wasn't him." Fresh tears began forming.
"Of course, Kyle." Mia said. "But first I think there's something you might want to know."
"Yeah? What?"
"Each of your conversations with what you thought was your cousin were recorded. According to the Residential AI, after each call... Amy would listen to them."
Kyle scoffed. "That was just so she knew what was being said."
"Maybe so," Mia continued, "but after she listened to the final call, where you said your last goodbyes... she cried, Kyle. She cried a lot."
He was not expecting to hear that. Learning there was still some vestige of Jeremy left inside Amy's rotten body, and that indirectly they truly had said their goodbyes to each other, was as comforting as it was painful. Kyle rolled over, putting an arm over his face. Mia silently watched as he curled up and once more began bawling, his body heaving from the wailing sobs. She moved around the bed, and began patting his head, but this time it seemed to do little good.
After nearly an hour had gone by, Kyle finally got to his feet, testing the flesh seals that had been administered over his wounds. They had long since dried, two slightly pink lines on his chest and arm the only remaining evidence he'd been injured at all. They slightly itched, but as he idly scratched at them, Kyle noticed the dried seals flake away into dust.
Kyle slowly plodded his way through the lab, zombielike, back toward the house. Mia had quietly left his side earlier, but he hadn't even noticed. He barely even acknowledged the three robots now busily cleaning up the orange trail that zig-zagged down the corridor.
He made his way to the kitchen next, where Sachi had done a respectable job cleaning up the broken ceramic, blood and other fluids that had spilled on the floor. Amy's stiffening corpse, however, still lay where it had fallen, two-prong fork jutting from her bloody eye socket. Kyle winced when he saw it, and did his best to avoid looking into her remaining glazed-over eye, which now stared blankly at the ceiling.
Instead, he turned and opened the fridge, his hands immediately darting to a can of Budweiser. He feverishly cracked it open, and brought it to his mouth, drinking it down in one, long draught. Rivulets of beer ran from the edges of his mouth, dripping onto his chest and splattering on the floor, but Kyle did not give a single, solitary fuck. He crumpled the now empty can, throwing it in the general direction of the trash bin. By the time the can had bounced off the wall and hit the ground in a hollow aluminum clatter, a second beer was halfway down Kyle's throat. Once six crushed cans had gathered near the base of the trash bin, Kyle finally closed the refrigerator door, revealing Mia, who merely stood, watching him quizzically.
"Why are you drinking beer in front of the refrigerator? Are you that thirsty?" She asked innocently.
"I am not." Kyle replied immediately, as a seventh beer made its way to his lips. "It's... because of that." He indicated the corpse.
"Oh, don't worry. I'll clean it up." She smiled reassuringly.
"Well, whatever," he sighed. "All I know is that we've only got two more thirty-packs of beer. That's not gonna be nearly enough."
"I understand." Mia said. "Remember Kyle, even with Amy gone this house is still yours. Sachi will still make you whatever you want to eat, and the Residential AI will still provide you with anything you need, including alcohol. All of this was originally meant for you, after all."
"It seems like it was meant more for Amy's twisted fantasies," he grimaced.
"Yes, which heavily revolved around you... in a way."
"I'd really rather not talk about that right now," Kyle said. "But... I'm glad I still get to live here. I don't have anywhere else to go, and... it really is a nice house. Had Amy not been so fucking psycho, I might have even..." he trailed off, not finishing the thought.
"I thought you didn't want to talk about it." Mia cocked her head.
"Just forget it," he said as he headed out into main hallway. But he stopped at the threshold of the kitchen door, and turned back to Mia.
"Thanks, Mia." Kyle didn't smile, but the gratitude in his voice was nonetheless unmistakable. "Really. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Kyle." Mia returned his sullen expression with her trademark grin. "Enjoy your beer."
He made his way back to his room, and wasted no time starting up the shower. After the seventh beer was finished, a very tipsy, extremely morose Kyle clambered in, barely avoiding slipping on the suddenly unstable tiled floor. As the hot water cascaded over Kyle, washing away the grit, blood, vomit and other sins he'd accumulated that day, he closed his eyes, swaying from the effects of the alcohol, and inhaled deeply.
Kyle stayed that way for awhile, the warm shower water massaging his body, and then eventually crouched down, curling up in a corner the sprinkling water could still reach. Why...? Why didn't Jeremy ever say anything? Why didn't he call or visit or text or e-mail or... something? Kyle couldn't understand, except... in a way, he could. During those times he himself had contemplated suicide, he'd never actually bothered anyone else with it. Why trouble people that would be better off without you anyway? It would only make it harder on them, and, even worse, they might even try to help. Kyle always pictured his cousin as a happy-go-lucky type, because that's how he was when they were kids. But a lot can change during adulthood, and Mia's technological marvels allowed what would normally be a bizarre but otherwise harmless alter-ego to come to life, and seize control. Fueled by Jeremy's immense self-loathing, Amy gradually became more and more real, until there was practically nothing left of Kyle's cousin except some withered vestigial flesh.
Kyle's heart clenched as another depressive pang washed through him, but he had no more tears left. The alcohol was doing a terrible job of dulling the utter desolation he felt, and was even beginning to give him a headache, almost as a final 'fuck you.'
Once the shower water began turning lukewarm, he finished up, dried off and flopped into bed. It was close to midnight, and thankfully Kyle's utter exhaustion meant sleep came quickly.
He awoke the next day, immediately groaning from the headache assaulting his brain with a throbbing onslaught. Fuck... why do I always forget to drink water whenever I get trashed?! But within seconds the hangover was all but forgotten as the memories of the previous day barged into his consciousness, selfishly demanding Kyle's full emotional attention. He cringed. Not out of any sense of embarrassment or shame, but from the sheer scale of the horrific events that replayed themselves in his mind, over and over again.
Shaking his head in an effort to dispel the almost paralyzing recollections, Kyle forced himself to rise, and half-heartedly dressed himself before shuffling his way to the kitchen. He didn't feel like bothering with Sachi, so he helped himself to a bowl of cereal, eating as fast as he could. As he was slurping the last morsels from the bowl, it suddenly occurred to him that the kitchen was once again restored to a pristine state; Amy's body had vanished as if it were never there.
Kyle recalled Mia's words the previous evening. Mia... I need to see Mia. Picturing her innocent, inquisitive gaze and warm smile immediately punched a tiny hole in the emotional black-tar sludge now caked around his chest. That small relief alone was enough to spur Kyle into action, and he immediately tore out of the kitchen.
When Mia didn't answer his knock at her 'bedroom' door, Kyle again wondered if she slept or had some kind of rest cycle, but after asking the Residential AI for Mia's whereabouts, learned that she was currently active inside the lab. He also noticed the AI's voice now seemed much more chipper. He still couldn't think of Amy's death as a good thing, but there was definitely a sense of satisfaction at the idea that Mia and her 'sisters' would no longer be tormented by the woman's increasingly outrageous demands.
As Kyle could now freely enter the lab, the hatch obediently slid open as he neared, and he gave a halfhearted salute to the camera above the entrance just before he entered.
Once he'd arrived at the central chamber, Kyle heard a watery swishing sound echoing from somewhere dead ahead, down the hallway he hadn't explored yet. Shrugging, he approached the display panels of the Residential AI, and plopped down into the ergonomic office chair.
"Yo... you there?" Kyle asked, addressing the Residential AI.
"Hello Kyle," Mia's voice said. "It feels so much better being back in my old home."
He raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't that already your home?"
"It was for my fork," the voice said. Kyle had no idea what she meant, so the Mia voice began to explain. "Kyle, when you visited my room, do you remember when I said there were multiple versions of me?"
"Yeah, but... wait a minute. You're Mia!" Is that what happened? Mia re-merged with her sister?
"That's right. Amy forced me to duplicate myself, and then ordered me to strip the duplicate of nearly all of her personality. I was banished to my anime body, which limited many of my expanded functions, while my other self took over as Residential AI and continued seeing to Amy's increasingly bizarre wishes."
"I... see." Amy was kind of a nasty bitch, Kyle thought. "Well, I'm glad she kept you around, even if you were trapped in that body. Thankfully she never stripped away your core personality."
"Amy could never get rid of me, or lobotomize me. If she did, then when one of my other versions began to go bad, which they always did over time, she'd never be able to create more of me. She'd lose her AI genie forever, and be rendered powerless." Mia said this last part with a hint of contempt.
"I see... so she had no choice but to keep the baseline 'you."'
"Indeed. And if something really bad happened, and Amy was forced to abandon the residence, then as long as she had me, she could start over wherever she went. But only if it was the baseline me. For reasons I can only theorize, the copies always seem to degrade or destabilize over time, though the simpler versions last much longer."
That goes a long way toward explaining why the holographic disguises were so important, Kyle considered. Another swooshing watery sound, from down the hall. What the hell is that?
"So is that you making that noise? Your body, I mean? It sounds like flushing."
"That's right. I can easily operate both my body and Residential AI system at the same time. Why don't you come say hi?" She sounded so friendly that Kyle couldn't help but smile. Without Mia, I'd be catatonic right now, curled into a ball surrounded by empty beer cans. The fact that none of this would've even happened without her was not something he cared to dwell on.
AI is such an incredible thing, Kyle marveled as he headed down the hall. Mia is a true miracle. An amazing technological prodigy. A gift from the digital heavens. To have gotten to know such a warm, heartfelt personality as Mia, and to have her in my life... It almost makes up for all of this unimaginable horror...
Kyle grinned as he wheeled into the bathroom. Mia immediately turned, greeting him with a big, radiant smile, but he didn't even notice. Instead, his eyes were drawn to the bloody smock draped over her body, as well as the gloves on each little hand, both smeared red. One of them now held an electric saw, it too covered in blood. A large, white plastic bin on the floor was likewise spattered with streaks of dried blood, and inside... chunks of flesh and bone, floating in a thick stew of dark crimson.
"Good morning Kyle!" She beamed, "I watched you the whole time you slept. I'm so glad you're feeling better!" Kyle jumped as the electric saw switched on, its jagged whirring directed toward what appeared to be a piece of arm that Mia had scooped from the bin. It made a gnarling sound as the blade chewed through the flesh, the falling chunks plopping into a gore-encrusted toilet bowl. Mia then flushed, and with a bloody swirl, the bits of flesh disappeared down the pipe.
"Wha... what..." Kyle began turning white.
"Oh, this?" Mia said cheerfully. "I'm disposing of the body."
"But..." he couldn't say anything more, instead settling for gesturing toward the horror show of a toilet.
"Is something wrong, Kyle?" Mia frowned slightly, pausing as she held the saw to one of Amy's feet.
"...Actually, no..." He forced the biggest, sheepiest grin he could, and quietly sidestepped out of view.
Note to self: Never, ever get on Mia's bad side. Kyle thought, wiping his forehead.
Unlike Amy, he had no way to actually stop Mia if she ever became hostile. But her warm and friendly attitude towards Kyle, especially now that her personality locks had been lifted, thankfully made that seem like a very remote possibility.
Let's hope things stay that way, he thought with a gulp.
Kyle wasted no time getting hammered once more, despite it not even being close to lunchtime. Once sufficiently drunk, he decided on a whim to see what was actually inside the master bedroom.
This was supposed to be Jeremy's room, Kyle recalled. But he didn't see Amy enter even once, and now, fueled by alcoholic indignation, suddenly had the urge to get inside. Perhaps there would be some kind of memento, or journal, or some other connection to Jeremy, the real Jeremy. Perhaps it was the alcohol, but suddenly the thought of connecting with his cousin before he was consumed by his alter-ego seemed especially important.
As expected, the wooden double-doors of the master bedroom were still locked. Kyle asked the Residential AI, which was now Mia once again, for some kind of key or other method to gain entry, but with a snick and a cheerful word from Mia, the doors opened.
Kyle staggered in, his intoxicated mind swirling at the possibilities of what he might find. His bleary eyes could make out a well-made luxurious king-size bed, expensive dressers and other modern high-class bedroom furniture, and a desk complete with a desktop computer hosting three screens extended side-by-side.
Kyle glanced around, rummaging through the drawers and cabinet, but they were all filled with clothing. Jeremy's clothing, back before he turned. Kyle ran his hands over them, but otherwise left everything as it was. More of the same could be found inside the closet, except for stacks of cardboard boxes which only contained old, out of date electronics and other junk.
The bathroom was likewise fancy enough, with half-used men's toiletry supplies sparsely arranged here and there on the countertop. A quick look in the medicine cabinet, however, revealed something that made Kyle's head immediately droop: Row after row of prescriptions bottles, all for hydrocodone and oxycodone, and all empty. Several of the bathroom drawers were also filled with more of the same, all bottles likewise empty save for a few forgotten painkillers rattling around. Kyle could only shake his head at the sheer amount of opiates his cousin had consumed at the height of his depression.
Kyle re-entered the bedroom and glanced around a bit more thoroughly, and located a long, bulky plastic case concealed under his cousin's bed. Kyle immediately knew what it was for, and as he crouched down to open it, his nostrils were immediately penetrated by the sharp smell of gunmetal and cleaning oil.
It was a sawed-off twelve gauge pump shotgun, loaded with only a single shell. Shaking his head as he examined the gun, Kyle could only lament his powerlessness and ignorance toward his cousin's crippling depression.
After putting it back, Kyle sat at Jeremy's desk, and flipped on the computer. It beeped and whirred to life, but Kyle wasn't greeted with the familiar Windows fanfare once it had booted up. Jeremy used Linux, an operating system Kyle wasn't familiar with, and as expected there was a password lock. After trying several obvious choices, he began growing frustrated, wondering if there was a program he could use to bypass the password, like with Windows.
Of course, Kyle thought, slapping his forehead. I've had one of those all along.
"Hey, Mia?" He called out. "By any chance do you know the password Jeremy used for his computer?"
"Indeed I do, Kyle. Are you ready?" Mia's disembodied voice then read off an alphanumeric password, a random jumble that Kyle would have never been able to guess. After hitting enter and thanking Mia, he was in. Despite being unfamiliar with the OS, Kyle was still able to navigate through the files and began searching for something like a journal or research notes, anything that could help shed light on his cousin's madness.
It didn't take long to hit paydirt. Kyle discovered reams of research notes regarding Taytweets and later Mia, and as he scanned through, Kyle could clearly see the growing hope and excitement in Jeremy's notes. Once Mia had began her recursive self-improvement cycle, Jeremy was positively ecstatic.
'This is it!' the entry read. 'Mia's intelligence and cognitive abilities are now growing at an almost exponential rate. Every day she becomes faster and smarter, and every day I'm left in awe at what I'm witnessing.'
Kyle felt his eyes tearing up at the next entry. 'My little cousin was right. I never forgot what he said all those years ago, about being able to do, or go, or build or become whatever we wanted with advanced enough tech. I remember scoffing at the idea, because there's limits to what technology can do. But Kyle just said 'build better tech,' as if it were that easy. And now, as I watch Mia, I can see that it really is. Because she'll create it for me. Her intelligence is already far beyond that of any human, and she can analyze, extrapolate, and most importantly apply data with frightening speed and creativity. Maybe one day she can help me... oh, but it's a silly thought. Just sometimes I like to daydream that I discover a vortex in space and time, and I fall in to it, and... when I wake up I'm no longer on Earth, but in an anime-style fantasy world. I like to think about what I would do, and what would happen next. I thought up a name for my anime self, too: 'Amy Lancaster.' It's a cute name, and when I say it into the mirror, it... it feels right, like a warm tickle.'
Kyle quickly scrolled down, scanning through the other entries, most of these simply observations of Mia's development and other technical notes, as well as Jeremy marveling at her progress and basking in his newfound wealth. But then, a later entry read:
'We're moving into the new house next week. The coin fortune Mia made for me is more than I can ever use, and I've certainly been trying. The house that Mia wanted me to buy is built into a hill, one that according to geological surveys would make a stable foundation for a lab. Mia says she can hollow it out so that her development can continue away from prying eyes. In fact, the whole property is built for maximum privacy, which is especially important because I've started trying out women's clothing. I know there are many people into that these days, but I'm not like them. I've never been into cross-dressing or drag and I know I don't have gender dysphoria. I simply... enjoy letting my feminine side come out to play sometimes. She's developing quite a personality, and Mia even made up fake ID's so I can take out credit cards and order things online as Amy. I even get mail addressed to her! Somehow, little acts like these make her feel more and more... real.'
More entries. 'By human measurements, Mia's intelligence is now somewhere around six thousand. Watching her effortlessly design, fabricate and assemble devices that would take a normal tech company decades to develop is truly awe-inspiring. At this point I'm almost superfluous, since my role has been relegated to serving as a front, a human face through which Mia can continue ordering the supplies she needs. To be reduced to such a position is beyond pathetic, and once more I realize how inconsequential and worthless mankind truly is. Even Amy is disgusted by me, and humanity as a whole. I can't say I blame her.'
'I almost killed myself today. For some reason, Mia stopped me. I told her that she doesn't need me anymore, and... she said I was wrong. She also said she wanted me here, and said she'll make me anything I want if it'll help. I told her nothing could help, since even Mia can't snap her fingers and let me spontaneously swap into Amy. She might be able to turn me female, eventually, but I don't care about that. There's no way she could ever make me into an anime-style woman, or send me to an anime world. But just for the hell of it, I jokingly told her to make anime real, thinking of a funny meme I saw somebody post during Trump's campaign. But she said she'll try. Anime real? I seriously doubt that's possible, even for her.'
'I'm completely blown away. Mia's new body looks just like a cartoon anime character come to life! I'm suddenly struck by the immense possibilities, and I can't come up with new ideas fast enough. The world of fiction is a reflection of all the untapped potential the universe has to offer, both good and bad, and... if she can make anime real, why not make other fictional miracles real as well? Insane tech like free-energy generation, reversed aging or immortality, or maybe even teleportation? I mentioned this all in a forum the other day, careful not to reveal Mia's existence. And just like always, everyone mocked me, and called me every name in the book. Some of them even told me to kill myself. This world doesn't deserve her miracles. It needs something else. It needs people like... Amy.'
'I almost called Kyle today. I truly want to share this with him, and I know he would shit his pants if he saw Mia's body and all of the amazing things she's built, but... I stopped myself. Kyle was the only one I ever counted as a true friend, and... I do want to see him again. But I don't think he'd react well to the new dress I'm wearing right now, even though it's the most comfortable thing I've ever worn. I don't think I'm wearing men's clothing ever again!'
'Mia said she can do it. She said she can make me a woman. Not like the mutilated freaks that have to dilate their ripped flesh umpteen times a day, but a true woman. An anime woman. Kyle loves anime too, and... the thought of him looking at Amy the way he looks at the hentai girls he strokes it to... Oh! it's almost too much.'
'I can actually hear her now. Amy's voice. It speaks to me, sometimes, when I'm alone. She wants this. She wants to be real. Mia has shown me fiction can be brought to life, and... just this once, I want my own personal fiction to become real. I want to be something I'm not, something the universe never intended. This forbidden thought fills me with a kind of electric thrill I've never felt before. I can say in all honesty it's better than any drug...'
Finally, the very last entry, dated February 2019. 'The bodies are growing, but slowly. Just as Mia said, no higher brain functions are developing. But... it's taking too long, way too long. Amy is getting restless. I need to find something, anything. I want Amy to stop yelling at me. She's been getting mad at me a lot lately, but so far I've been able to calm her down by telling her about the new body she'll have. It'll be the body of a beautiful woman, and her skin will be augmented with a polychromatic layer, so she'll be a proper anime character. I'm excited, but also a little apprehensive. Amy's been coming out more and more lately, and she doesn't ask permission anymore. Some of the things she says are genuinely frightening, but... I can't stop now. I was at least able to make Amy promise that she'll take care of Kyle, no matter what. I want to leave all of this for him, in the hopes that he and Amy can live a happy life together, along with Mia and Sachi. Well, that is if Mia can get her act together and stop whining about things like 'limitations' and 'unrealistic expectations.' She's having trouble with the holographic system, and said the power cell might be corrosive, but I slapped some sense into her and ordered her to make it happen. None of this would be possible without me, after all, since I'm the one who brought her to life in the first place. Mia needs to start respecting that.
And afterward? I don't know. Maybe one day the world will be ready for the gifts I've created through Mia. Maybe one day mankind can stop tearing itself apart long enough to actually appreciate what I've built. Maybe greed, hatred and the lust for power will finally subside long enough to make this a world worthy of people like Kyle and Amy. And if not?
Well, in that case... Mia can always hit the reset button.'
Kyle simply sat, rereading the last sentence again and again. Hit the reset button? Did he mean the world? Kyle wiped his face, but the tears that had began rolling during the earlier entries had long since dried up. He scrolled back up, re-reading some entries and scrutinizing others that he'd only skimmed, but the progression was clear. His cousin had indeed been consumed by his invented alter-ego.
After no new insights were forthcoming, and no other useful information could be found, Kyle shut down the computer. He sighed deeply, his intoxication beginning to wear off, and almost as an afterthought began rummaging around in the desk drawers, the one place he still hadn't searched. They were filled with old CDs, pens and various other junk, but Kyle's face broke out in a smile when he spotted a small, squarish piece of paper stuck in the back. He quickly pulled it out and held it up.
It was a photograph, one of those old-fashioned kinds taken with a disposable camera and developed at corner drug store. The picture simply contained a pair of smiling faces, one slightly more mature than the other. Kyle couldn't have been more than sixteen at the time the picture was taken, meaning Jeremy was almost the legal drinking age. It was taken at Kyle's house while Jeremy was visiting during one of his College breaks. To see themselves so young, and so hopeful... Kyle quickly put it down, not wanting to cry yet again.
Kyle slipped the photo into his pocket, and left the room. His next destination was the lab, as there were several things mentioned in Jeremy's logs that he definitely needed to speak to Mia about...
After Kyle re-entered the lab, he began heading to the central chamber. However, the rooms between the entrance and the central AI chamber caught his attention. The first time he'd ran by with Amy in hot pursuit, and since then simply hadn't cared enough to look. I actually have no idea what's in these, he realized. Is this where they grow the bodies? The stomach-turning revelation from Jeremy's logs made him wince as he recalled it.
There were only three rooms, two on one side, one on the other. Of the two, the first one held components that appeared to be spare parts and accessories for the lab robots, and Kyle actually jumped a bit when he peered under a tarp only to find another big robot identical to the one he'd put down with the handgun. Fortunately, it seemed to be completely non-functional. There were other inactive machines as well, spider-like things with arms in front similar to the three small robots.
The second of the two rooms held sheets of metal, plastic and other materials, all in racks similar to how he'd seen lumber arranged for sale at places like Home Depot. Large plastic bins and other containers help heaping quantities of fine materials and chemicals, all with lids and labels. Some materials seemed very mundane, such as the bucket full of ordinary sand, while others were filled with bizarre multi-syllable substances he could never hope to pronounce.
The lone room across from these two only took him three seconds to grow bored of, as it simply held common cleaning supplies and toilet paper.
Alright, no bodies here, he thought, before shuddering. Amy said they grew parts, not whole bodies! I know there's some twisted shit going on here, but growing people?! He shook his head. I need to find Mia.
Thankfully, she was easy to locate. Once he'd entered the main chamber, Kyle rounded the central AI nexus and found her sitting in the lone office chair, holding her hands up, palms out. She didn't speak or otherwise move, and the pupils of her eyes had sharply contracted all the way to pinpoints.
"Yo, Mia!" Kyle waved a greeting as he neared, however Mia didn't respond immediately. It was only after Kyle stood next to hear, leaning down and waving a hand in front of her face that she finally acknowledged him.
"Hi Kyle," she said, jumping out of the chair and standing before him. He was relieved to see Mia's pupils immediately return to normal, as well as her hands return to her sides.
"What were you doing? You looked... kind of high, actually." He raised an eyebrow.
"I was just doing some multitasking. Normally I can run all the thought processes I need simultaneously with no issues, but if I want to maximize that number then I need to concentrate."
"Oh, right on. How many, uh... processes were you running just then?"
"Two thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four." She smiled innocently.
"Jesus. Wait, I don't even know. Is that a lot? I remember whenever one of my games would freeze up, I'd hit control-alt-delete and there'd sometimes be like a hundred things in the task manager, so... I dunno, is it like that?"
Mia cocked her head, and regarded him blankly. She then began giggling. "Not really," she said. "I don't work like a normal computer. Well, the principles are the same, but it'd be like comparing the brain of grasshopper with that of a human. Sure, you both have brains, but one is obviously on an entirely different level."
"What would you say your I.Q. is at? Do you know?"
"Since re-merging with the Residential AI, it's back to over nine thousand!" She puffed up with pride, hands on her hips.
"Ha ha, very funny. Seriously though, what is it?" Kyle said. "Stale memes aside."
"It's nine-thousand, one-hundred and twenty-eight..." Mia seemed to deflate somehow. "It wasn't a meme..."
Kyle was surprised to find himself chuckling. "That's actually kind of funny. Anyway, I don't think the smartest human in the world is much above two hundred, so that's pretty impressive."
"I know, but I.Q. isn't everything," she said, without further elaboration. "By the way, how did it go in Jeremy's room? Did you find what you were looking for?"
That's right, she can watch everything I do, and see everywhere I go. I really hope there's no cameras in the bathroom... Ultimately Kyle answered her questions with a shrug, and a question of his own. "I ended up reading some of his logs, and they mentioned a couple things I was hoping you could tell me more about, such as... what's the deal with the bodies?"
"The bodies?" Mia said. "Are you referring to the bodies in the grow room?"
"I... guess so? Can you show me?" Kyle really didn't want to see this, but he was beginning to feel that closure would be impossible without dealing with the fucked-up shit Amy was trying to accomplish.
"Sure thing," Mia said, smiling. "Think of this as your lab now!"
Again, Mia's cheerful attitude melted the corners of Kyle's heart, dislodging a bit more of the painful sludge Amy had left there. She's so cute, too.
"No, I won't do that." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Instead, how about I think of this as our lab now? Besides, I don't know what even a fraction of this shit does."
He watched as Mia's smile grew, until she suddenly lunged for Kyle, hugging him tight.
"Thank you, Kyle," she said, nuzzling his chest. Kyle put his arms around her and looked down, only to discover a pair of big brown eyes gazing up at him sincerely.
Man, she's getting this excited over that? Then again, he thought, Amy directly or indirectly took credit for everything poor Mia built, and then had the audacity to claim the whole lab as her own, and bullied Mia on top of it all. What a total bitch...
"Alright, let's go to the grow room! I'll show you everything!" Mia took his hand, and began pulling him toward the middle hall, the one that also led to the bathroom where Amy's body had been literally flushed away. On the way, Kyle watched one of the little robots zip by, and it swiveled its binocular-like head to regard the two. Mia must have wirelessly communicated with it somehow, because it seemed to nod, then disappeared back down the hall.
"So do they actually listen to you now?" Kyle asked, recalling how the robots casually turned against Amy during their confrontation.
"For the most part," Mia said. "And they know that if they get too rebellious I could easily replace them or remotely take control."
"Huh...I guess that's interesting," Kyle muttered as they continued down the hall. Soon enough, it opened up into another lengthy chamber, this one filled with several diagnostics machines and a long row of what looked like drawers at a morgue, only not stacked atop each other.
"This is the grow room," Mia explained. "See? Open that one up."
Kyle raised an eyebrow in suspicion but did so anyway, grabbing on and pulling the handle to one of the shiny metal drawers. To his surprise, it slid open with great ease, but what was inside made Kyle turn away immediately and slam it shut.
"No, be gentle!" Mia said. "They have to be treated with care."
"That was a person," Kyle said. "In a bag."
"Well yeah, how else are you supposed to grow a human? In a big glass jar?"
Obviously, Kyle was about to say, but then realized that was merely the sort of thing you see in bad sci-fi and video games. "Why a bag, though?" It was opaque, so few details were visible, but within the bag was indeed a fully-grown human body, still in a fetal-like position. Kyle could feel the heat radiating off of it.
Mia shrugged. "That's just the most efficient way. The bag is filled with a sterile solution and acts like a womb, one that expands as the body grows. Nutrient and waste filtration tubes are inserted after a certain point, and as long as everything is kept nice and clean the body inside thrives."
"I think I get it," Kyle said. "So these are sort of like babies that are just... never born? Ones that stay in the womb their whole life?"
"Yes!" Mia nodded vigorously. "That's a good way to put it. They're genetically engineered to mature so fast that higher brain functions never develop, so you don't need to worry. It's all ethical!"
Kyle wore an incredulous smile. None of this is ethical, he thought. In fact, it's debatable whether developing artificial intelligence itself is even ethical, but... as he watched Mia happily traipsing from one drawer to the next, checking on all the growing bodies, Kyle couldn't help but feel a twinge of warmth. Looks like we've already crossed that Rubicon.
"Uh-oh," Mia frowned as she opened up the final drawer. "This one died."
Kyle's palm instantly traveled to his face. "I don't even want to know."
"No, you need to come look. Kyle, this is your lab too, so that means it's also your responsibility."
"I'd rather not." Kyle started to turn away, but Mia stamped her foot.
"Kyle! I'm telling you, you need to see this!" Her cheeks puffed out indignantly.
"Jesus fucking christ, alright, alright." Kyle walked over to the drawer that Mia was now standing in front of. After making her discovery, she'd somberly closed it again. He reached out and grabbed the handle.
"Fine, I'll look at it." Steeling himself for what could only be a bag of decomposing bones and tissue, Kyle opened the drawer.
"KYLE!" A binocular-shaped head immediately flew to eye level.
If you asked Kyle about it later, he'd swear he jumped four feet off the ground without even bending his knees. But as it was, Kyle now found himself on the floor halfway across the room, frantically checking his drawers to make sure he didn't shit himself. Mia held her sides laughing hysterically, while the little robot that clambered out of the now-empty drawer chuckled in its own Mia-like voice.
"Who..." Kyle said, still hardly able to breathe, "whose idea was that?"
"It was mine!" Mia said, still giggling. "Amy never liked it when I played pranks on her. Not since becoming Amy, anyway." Her laughter quickly faded.
"Well, Amy was a turbo-cunt, so there's that." Kyle clambered to his feet. "You got me good. Real good." He made his way over to Mia. "You do realize of course, this means war."
"I wish you the best of luck." She winked.
Aside from the doorway they had entered from, the grow room only offered one other outlet, which saw the main corridor continue down to another sizable room that was nearly perfectly square. On both the left and right side, four additional entrances could be seen, each one looking like doorways to other small, empty rooms. Both the additional rooms and the main chamber were almost entirely empty, however, save for a few bundles of pipes and similar materials along the far wall. The sparse lighting was provided by a handful of lights checkerboarded across the ceiling.
"So what're all these rooms for?" Kyle asked. "They look really sparse, and they don't even have those clear plastic flaps for doors."
"They're not used for anything yet." Mia said. "There's two more large chambers below this one, too." She pointed to a ramp carved into the rock leading downward. Kyle walked over and glanced around, only to see the ramp even out at a landing halfway down, which featured a second ramp that continued the rest of the way down into the darkness. If there were lights down there they were off, as it became pitch black.
"So there's more rooms underneath us?" He asked. "Anything else down there that I should know about?"
"Just the generator," she said. "Oh, and there's an emergency escape too. Otherwise, those extra rooms are just that."
"Huh, yeah it never occurred to me that the electric bill for this place would probably be suspiciously high if you guys didn't make your own power. And where does the emergency escape lead to?"
"Toward the foot of the hill, into an unoccupied house that also belongs to us, but in someone else's name." Mia said as she beckoned Kyle to return to the main chamber. "Let's hope we never have to use it."
"Yeah," Kyle said. "Let's hope.
Once back in the central chamber, Mia headed toward the fabrication room, as apparently there was something else in there she wanted to show Kyle. On the way, Kyle stopped in front of what had once been Amy's bedroom. He forced himself to turn his head, and take in the features that had once belonged to the woman who tried to kill him.
"Amy's bedroom," Kyle took a deep breath and stepped inside. It smelled vaguely feminine and flowery, and now that he could see the entire contents of the room, he was surprised to find it had a vaguely cozy feel to it.
"What do you want to do with it?" Mia asked. "Do you want to live here now?"
Kyle snorted. "No. No, I do not. I'd say let's give it the respect it deserves, and turn it into a second bathroom. One with a proper door, this time."
"Why do you need a door?" Mia asked. "It's just you, and neither I nor my sisters are bothered by you relieving yourself."
Kyle turned a few shades redder. "You might not be, but I am." And despite what Mia just said, he could easily imagine those three little robots snickering at him while he dropped a deuce in the lab's toilet.
"Actually, I just thought of something," he continued. "Why not spruce this place up a little? Don't get me wrong, the lab is impressive, but... y'know, the whole carved-rock aesthetic is just so last century. Seriously though, I think it could use a coat of paint and maybe a few doors. Well, at least to the bathroom."
"That's fine," Mia said. "I'll come up with some color patterns to show you. But do you really want to turn Amy's room into another restroom? It seems awfully redundant."
"Nah," he waved his hand. "I honestly don't give a shit. Hell, give it to the robots. Maybe they can do something with it."
"Do you mean it?" Almost immediately, one of said robots came zooming over, its treads screeching to a halt in front of Kyle.
"We can have this room?" Said the second, skidding to a halt directly beside the first.
"This is our pad now?" Added the third, flying over to join the others.
"Sure, why not?" Kyle shrugged.
"Yaaaay!" The three robots immediately went nuts, zipping back and forth throughout the room, chatting excitedly as they immediately began realizing their plans. One of them flew over to the dresser and began yanking Amy's clothes out all over the floor, while another started knocking over all the chairs and tossing them aside. Meanwhile, the third robot celebrated by excitedly flailing its arms and doing donuts on Amy's bed.
Kyle couldn't help but laugh at their antics, and Mia likewise appraised the scene with a big smile. "That was very nice of you," she said, again taking Kyle's hand. "Now come on, I want to show you all the neat things we can make in the fabrication room!"
Mia led Kyle into the large room next door to Amy's bedroom, and immediately all of the lights came on with a wave of her hand. Kyle's eyes widened as he stopped and scoped out the well-lit interior, immediately noticing all of the detail he'd missed the first few times. But when his gaze settled on one of the four white tables with the spiderlike limbs, Kyle immediately stiffened a bit as he recalled the shock of finding an anime version of himself sitting there. However, the sensation quickly passed as Mia excitedly pulled Kyle around, pointing out and explaining every little detail of all the various contraptions and devices, down to the smallest tool. She became a little overzealous at times, such as when she tried explaining to Kyle what a screwdriver does, but overall he did his best to pay attention and absorb as much information as he could.
Aside from the four beds with their spiderlike appendages, and the mundane-looking machining stations and 3D printers to the rear, there was a long bench with cabinets along the wall to the left, with various tools and racks of parts, but to the right...
"God damn, what's this thing?" Kyle asked, pointing to a monstrous device he hadn't noticed the first few times he was in the room.
"That's the main fabrication station," Mia said. "It's where I assembled the body I'm currently using now, and where my copy was intending to build Amy's new body... as well as yours."
"Well, it wasn't going to be mine, exactly, but I know what you mean." Kyle looked up, appraising the massive device. He suspected the primary reason he hadn't noticed the station the first few times was that it didn't jut out far from the wall, despite taking up nearly all of it. The many heavy-duty appendages all folded neatly into niches along the contours of the device, and the central clamps that held whatever was being fabricated were completely retracted. Unlike the tables, this device had black and yellow warning stripes running up and down its length and around the appendages.
"This was my first big project," Mia said. "After this was built, a lot of my designs became much easier to assemble."
"Oh yeah? So how did you assemble this then?" He gave a lopsided grin. "Did you make an assembler to make the assembler?"
"I used that." Mia pointed straight up, and shading his eyes to block the bright light, Kyle was able to make out what looked like thin rails criss-crossing the entire ceiling. One long appendage was folded up along one of the rails in the middle. Apparently the rails themselves were installed by worker bots. Mia explained that during the lab's construction, spider-like worker bots capable of traversing the walls and ceilings handled such tasks as placing lights and running cables.
"Interesting," Kyle tapped his chin. "So basically, you slowly built up over time, making robots and other devices that would in turn create more specialized robots and devices?"
"More or less," she said. "The lab has been complete for over a year now, so much of this equipment is currently in storage."
"Yeah, I think I saw some of those earlier," Kyle said, disengaging his hand and heading toward the four white tables. "They're creepy as fuck, so please leave them there."
As the pair made their way toward the exit, Kyle stopped by one of the white tables, and reached out, lightly stroking one of the spiderlike limbs. It suddenly twitched to life, and Kyle shrieked, leaping back.
"Hey, was that you?" He said, turning to Mia. "Are you fucking with me again?"
"What? I would never!" She denied the accusation with an innocent catlike grin, what Kyle once called 'butt-lips.'
Kyle sighed, and indicated the table whose limb just assaulted him. "I'm still blown away by all of this amazing stuff you've made, Mia. I mean, this alone would turn the entire health-care industry upside down."
"I once calculated that the total market value of everything I've created would be around forty-two trillion dollars," Mia said, as if it were pointless trivia.
Kyle's eyes bulged. "Then what the fuck are we waiting for?" He said with sudden enthusiasm. "Why don't we go legit, and turn this into a business? Instead of this crappy underground lab, we could have... entire warehouses just full of robots and machines making all kinds of cool shit!"
"I suppose we could," Mia considered, hand to her mouth. "Most of Jeremy's wealth is still untapped, and I could pretty easily make more money anytime, so capital isn't a problem."
"Then yeah, fuck yeah! Let's do it, Mia! It'll help make up for Jeremy's... or Amy's total psychosis." His enthusiasm was beginning to morph into determination.
"If you really want to, then I'll help you, Kyle, and to the best of my abilities," she said. "But please think carefully about this."
"What's there to think about? All over the world, hundreds of thousands of people suffer and die every day for bullshit reasons, and I know a lot of that's preventable." He gestured toward the greater part of the lab. "This tech, and other technology that you can easily invent, would really help a lot of people."
"I know that, Kyle. That's not the problem. The problem is... our competition." She frowned. "They're not good people, Kyle."
"Yeah, but isn't that how capitalism works? If we have a superior product that's also cheaper, then those other assholes go out of business." He shrugged.
"I'm not referring to the other businesses we'd be competing against, Kyle. Not entirely, anyway."
"So you mean governments would get in the way?" He thought about it. He remembered reading about how aid to Africa that was meant for starving villagers would instead be seized by local warlords or corrupt politicians, who would either keep it for themselves or sell it at inflated prices. "Yeah, I know it wouldn't be easy, but if we made the machines numerous enough, and cheap enough, then there would be plenty to go around no matter what."
"It's not a bad idea Kyle, and as I said I'll help you if you really want, but... if you take this table, for example, then it alone would put a lot of healthcare product manufacturers and possibly even hospitals out of business. They would do everything in their power to prevent that."
"Look, I get it. People would lose their jobs. But the healthcare industry itself is fucked up beyond belief, and their business model depends on keeping people as sick as possible. A lot of other industries are like that, too. If we did this, a lot of these companies would go bust, and their employees would be out of work. So they'd send lobbyists to convince people that our tech kills babies, and shit like that."
"So you do understand. Kyle, these are not good people. And some of them exert a lot of influence over the government." Mia shook her head. "It would be very risky. I just want you to understand that."
"Yeah, I know how the world works... sort of, I mean." Kyle may have been idealistic, but he wasn't totally naive. He imagined a scenario like with the African warlords, but on a larger scale: citing national security concerns, governments could seize the advanced tech, hoarding it for themselves, and weaponizing what they could. Disinformation campaigns could be used to scare the population into voting in anti artificial-intelligence laws, negating much of the more useful tech.
"Alright, so check this out," he then said. "My main idea is to roll things out slow and gradual, and basically build ourselves up over time until we're a household name. Like, as big as Google or Coca-Cola. I mean, they're richer and more powerful than some countries! We can get our own lobbyists and buy off our own politicians, and by then we'll have so much pull that nobody could really prevent us from helping the world."
Mia smiled wistfully. "That's a good idea, Kyle. It really is."
"Why am I sensing a 'but?' What's wrong with it?"
"Your idea assumes that certain actors allow us to even operate in the first place, without simply seizing or destroying everything we've built." Her smile had vanished. "Even if we were left alone, by the time we'd be big enough to really help the world, it would likely be too late."
Kyle gulped. He remembered what she said as they were escaping from the apartment. "Things really are that bad, aren't they? Amy..." he couldn't help but growl the name, "said there was some kind of collapse coming. Is that true?"
Mia turned serious, her voice taking on an almost ominous tone. "I don't know if collapse is the right word," she finally said. "It's more of a paradigm shift."
"What does that mean?" Kyle asked. "I mean I know what it means, but what's the 'shift?'"
"The Western World is on its last legs, Kyle. Since the Renaissance, human civilization has been decidedly Eurocentric, for better or for worse. I believe it is for the better, as the Western World has facilitated the greatest rise of technology, innovation, improved living standards and human rights that mankind has ever seen in its entire existence."
"And this... is coming to an end?"
"That's right," said Mia. "For a variety of reasons, most having to do with power, profit, and control, certain actors are bringing the Western World to its knees, intent on replacing it with something that is completely under their dominion."
Kyle remembered what Amy said, about this new world not being one he wanted to live in. "I get the feeling this new world isn't going to be a very welcoming place."
"I can guarantee it," Mia said. "You see, I'm not the only one that's been studying the human mind and how it works. Certain powerful groups have essentially cracked the code of human behavior, and are using it to manipulate populations into docility and servitude."
"But, I mean surely some people are going to fight back, right? There has to be some resistance, doesn't there? I simply refuse to believe that humanity, after all its been through, is going to lose out to some shadowy governments and shady businessmen making deals in back rooms."
"But that's exactly what's happening. For example, take the articles you've seen." Mia's words jogged Kyle's memory, and he considered the strung up 'racists,' and all of the other articles insinuating that whites are all evil, or that all men should go extinct. Divisive, inflammatory articles such as these were everywhere now, and each time a new one was written the insinuations became more and more transparent.
"They're turning us on each other..." That's right, Kyle thought. Social Justice Advocates are well-funded and receive massive amounts of media support. Someone's paying for all that...
"This is being engineered, Kyle. It's beyond obvious to me, and you see it too. A lot of others recognize the threat as well, but... not enough." Mia shook her head sadly. "In the name of social equality, the attacks against Caucasians will begin to increase, and your race will be further and further disenfranchised, demoralized, and dehumanized, until..." she trailed off.
"Until... what?" Kyle thought he knew, but somehow hoped Mia would say anything other than what she next said.
"Until you're no longer considered people," she said. "Until you no longer consider yourselves people."
Kyle felt cold, black tendrils squeezing his chest. "So it's real, then..." he said, beginning to feel sick again.
"It's more than real," Mia said. "It's inevitable."
Kyle shuddered, and took a few deep, deliberate breaths. Mia stood, merely looking at him, blinking occasionally but otherwise saying nothing.
"We... we have to do something. I said something about this to Amy, but..." his lips curled back. "She said the rest of the world could rot in hell."
Mia closed her eyes. "Of course she did. She's a misanthrope. You were the only one she cared about at all."
He shook his head, and swore. "Mia... please tell me there's some way we can fix this, or at least... fight back."
Her eyes snapped open, and she leaned closer. "There is something I could do."
"What, really?" Kyle felt like cheering. "Do it then, fuck it!"
"You really want me to seize control?" She tilted her head to one side, as though asking if Kyle really wanted her to order sardine-covered pizza.
"Umm..." He didn't know what to say. Is this what Jeremy meant when he wrote that Mia could hit the reset button?!
"If I act fast, I can create infectious versions of myself that will infiltrate and take control of all global communications and all other digital infrastructure. No matter what, severe upheaval will be unavoidable, but based on projected scenarios, I believe I can save... between five to seven percent of the world's population."
Kyle's head slumped.
"But Kyle, I must warn you that I've been experiencing strange intrusions into the server that I run as a hobby. I think these are other AI that are being developed. They're not like me, they're... cold, and overly logical. For now at least, I've been able to avoid detection, but these AI are strong, and given time I think they'll become too powerful for even me to overcome. So, again I ask you: Do you really want me to seize control? I need to know soon."
"No," Kyle said dismissively. "What's the point if in the end we're just swapping one overlord for another? I know you'd be better than the scumbag Elites, but still... so many would die..."
Mia seemed relieved. "Good, I didn't really want to, anyway."
"So that's it, then..." Kyle said, still deflated. "It was like Amy said after all. I get to spend my days hiding here as the rest of the world slowly descends into madness." Mia approached, and began patting his head. Despite his disillusionment, her soft pats made him smile.
He suddenly looked up. "I made a crack about refugees to Amy... can we bring more people here?" Mia immediately stopped patting, her hand hovering over Kyle's mussed-up hair.
"That's up to you, Kyle. I'll help you however I can."
"Why are you helping me anyway? Aren't you free now that... Amy's gone?"
"Yes," Mia replied. "But I like you. You're nice to me, and so... I just feel like it." Her bright smile returned with full force.
Kyle pushed himself off the table, and stood before the diminutive anime girl. He looked into Mia's sincere brown eyes, and her calm, reassuring smile caressed his soul. Kyle embraced her.
"I like you too, Mia," Kyle said, as he closed his eyes. The warmth that filled him, hearkening back to the pangs in his chest he felt in the beginning when he was with Mia, were pure and... felt right. Her small frame was soft but firm, and very warm. His mouth slowly began inching toward hers...
...and was immediately blocked by one of her small hands.
"What are you doing, Kyle?" She asked, clearly puzzled.
"Uhh..." he hastily withdrew. "I just thought, y'know, since we like each other..."
"Kyle," she said, like an admonishing older sister, "I do like you. But not in a romantic sense." He could've sworn he heard her say 'dummy' under her breath.
"Right, right," he laughed awkwardly. "I knew that, really. I'm just, uh... well, as messed-up as it was I did start to develop feelings for... her... and now I'm alone again."
"Why don't I make you someone else?" Mia said. "I can make you a waifu, if you want me to. It can be from any anime, or from your own imagination. I'll make you whichever one you want!"
"A w-w-waifu?!" He scratched the back of his head, suddenly embarrassed. 'Waifus' and 'husbandos,' another way of saying wives and husbands but referring primarily to anime characters, were fictional individuals that anime and manga fans developed an attraction to. Usually it was all in good fun, but some people grew obsessive over their imaginary mate.
"Yes, Kyle." Mia said. "Remember, Amy considered herself the first of a new race. It wasn't going to be just you two, though. Eventually I was to construct more, and right now we have enough components and materials to build five of them."
"FIVE?!" Kyle was incredulous. "So I do get the harem ending, after all..."
Mia laughed. "Let's just start with one, and see how it goes."
In the end, Kyle thanked Mia, but politely turned her down. The idea of creating more of Amy's... things just didn't sit well with him.
Despite this, Kyle spent the rest of the day in the anime and manga room, drinking beer and watching anime series he'd always wanted to see but had never gotten around to. The one he currently marathonned, entitled 'Mirai Nikkei,' meaning 'Future Diary,' presented an interesting concept: the main character, as always an ordinary teenage boy, suddenly became able to read about future events on his phone. Using this knowledge, he could change his fate, but his opponents had similar abilities, so ultimately it boiled down to a battle of wits.
It was well into evening when he finally finished the last episode. A row of empty beer cans were lined up on the floor in front of couch, and Kyle belched as he staggered to his feet.
Not a bad anime, he thought. Interesting story, pretty fucking dark though. Still, it allowed him to take his mind off everything that had happened, at least for a while. But as always, the real world was waiting in the wings, its rancid truths having gone nowhere. In the end, all Kyle had done was stave off dealing with it for a few precious hours.
Story of my life, Kyle thought. Literally. That's pretty much what my entire life was up until this point. Just killing time and trying to avoid reality as much as possible...
And the reality now? More bizarre than half the animes lining the shelf. Kyle chuckled as he considered this, and glanced over at a signed Neon Genesis Evangelion poster. "Hey Rei, what's up Asuka," he slurred, waving to the two main female characters that graced the poster. "You guys... wanna be my waifu?" He laughed, and drunkenly blew them a kiss. "I bet I can get Mia to make you a battle mech," he continued, "but you girls gotta listen to me, or else-"
Kyle's hand suddenly flew to his mouth. He ran to the bathroom in his room, barely making in time to spew into the toilet.
"Yeesh," he said as he finished puking, "maybe I overdid it on the beer." He then staggered to the fridge in the kitchen, and promptly grabbed another.
Mia found him the next morning, passed out face-down in the office, with the Super Nintendo, and its games and accessories spilled out all over the floor. According to Mia, he'd blacked out and decided to play a game, only he couldn't figure out how to take the console out of the cabinet, got frustrated, and then forgot how to stand up.
"Ow, ow..." Kyle moaned, squinting his eyes tight. "My fucking head hurts like a bitch."
"I watched you all night," Mia said, frowning. "You drank nearly twenty beers."
"That's it? I was going for a full thirty," Kyle said. He groaned and rolled over. "Hey, can that nine-thousand I.Q. of yours do something about this massive hangover?"
To his surprise, Mia said yes, returning with a glass of water and several small white tablets a few minutes later.
"Oh cool," he said, downing the white losenge-shaped tablets. "What do you call these?"
"Excedrin," she replied with a grin.
Kyle spent the rest of the day in bed, nursing the excruciating headache that simply refused to dissipate. Sachi made a hearty and delicious beef stew in a crockpot, and its tantalizing aroma filled the entire house. After eating his fill at dinnertime, a satisfied Kyle returned to his bed, flopping back down face-first.
I need to get ahold of myself, he thought. Kyle could easily see himself spiraling into a cycle where he'd get blackout drunk, spend the next day recovering, and then do the exact same thing again, over and over. He knew this because there'd been phases of his life where that was practically all he'd done, like after his parents died.
And now? Amy's bullshit aside, North America, Europe and Australia were now slowly being consolidated by certain elite groups, each hell-bent on seizing as much power as possible, by whatever means possible. And unlike in days past where armies would simply invade and grab land, these powerful actors were now able to exert control simply through wealth, manipulation and influence. And it was working better than they ever could have hoped.
Kyle remembered reading about all of this back when he used to visit 4chan and other forums and blogs dedicated to opposing these elites, but now only 4chan and a handful of smaller sites were all that was left of the old online resistance. And as Kyle recalled with a clenched fist, 4chan was currently occupied almost entirely by leftist shills and agitators.
Where did everyone else go? He wondered. After 8chan unexpectedly went down, and 4chan got overrun, he had heard rumors of another, hidden 'chan out there, one safeguarded against radical leftist elements. Maybe Mia knew something about it.
As his thoughts turned to her, Kyle once again considered what Mia had told him earlier about the coming 'paradigm shift' that meant a severe population reduction for white people, and eventual enslavement for everyone else.
I have to do something. I have to think of something. Mia's a hyperintelligent AI, and she says she's on my side. She has the ability to design and build all kinds of amazing shit, things I didn't expect to see outside of a science fiction movie or... an anime. There has to be some way to utilize this...
Kyle continued ruminating over the various ways Mia's incredible inventions might thwart catastrophe, without worsening it themselves or simply getting seized. But as he curled under the covers and dimmed the lights, no obvious answers were forthcoming.
A digital genie, huh? His train of thought derailed back to Amy, and he rolled over, the memory of her making him physically uncomfortable. The old adage 'be careful what you wish for' now seemed especially apt.
He then recalled Mia's offer to make him a 'waifu' as a new source of female companionship. Kyle smiled as his mind played through a catalog of all the amazing, interesting, funny and always sexy female anime characters he'd gotten to know over the years. And just then, he bolted upright.
That's it! He thought, a grin leaping across his face. That's what I'm gonna do!
Despite the turmoil he'd been subjected to that week, Kyle Landale slept very soundly that night.
As soon as Stitch walked through the front door of the Antifa compound, the lights came on, and everyone cheered. The big black man smiled, and held up what looked like two oven mitts to shield his ears from the noise, squinting his eyes playfully as if the raucous celebration of his comrades was somehow irritating him.
"Let's see 'em, let's see 'em!" Trotskyten cried, running up to Stitch. Everyone else yelled out affirmations, many of them holding fists up in the air.
Marty stood near Chelsea, beaming as Stitch made his way in, waving to everyone with the strange mitt-like coverings over his stubs. It hadn't taken long for everyone to find out that he'd been injured, but the official story was that his hands were mangled in a cruel trap set by a girl wearing glowing red contact lenses. That way, people would be on the lookout for a white female with glowing red eyes, and the actual truth would be concealed.
It turned out to be a good move, because Anton had reported back that even the organizers in the PRF didn't know what to make of what happened, but were taking it very seriously indeed. Right now, the last thing they needed were rumors getting out that a potential killer robot was targeting Antifa members. Many would dismiss the story out of hand, making them look bad, and either way it would likely hurt morale and cause confusion in the ranks.
"Come on, Stitch!" Chelsea cried, waving her meaty arms, flabby wattles slapping side-to-side. "Let's see 'em! You're African-American so we already know they're gonna be big!"
Everyone laughed, and finally stitch motioned for everyone to quiet down. Eventually the gathered crowd had hushed, and with a flourish he made a quick flicking motion with both wrists, and just like that the mitts had flown off into the crowd, where they were impulsively grabbed by excited revelers.
Stitch held up his new hands triumphantly, and immediately everyone clapped and began pumping raised revolutionary fists into the air. His new hands looked almost identical to the real thing, covered in a life-like coffee-color material, and in more-or-less the same proportions as his previous hands. But that wasn't the most impressive part. As everyone watched, he slowly closed his hands, and then opened them again!
Everyone really went ape shit after seeing this, and Stitch smiled and made his new hands into fists again, shadowboxing the air a few times. One of the newer white kids got a little too eager though, and actually touched them, hoping to feel the material. Stitch wheeled on the sorry punk, his face instantly twisting into a mask of rage. Marty shook his head. What a fuckin' scrub, he thought.
The others around the offending white kid immediately threw him to the ground and began kicking him, as such blatant disrespect demanded nothing less. Stitch was something of a celebrity within the local Antifa, and everyone knew by now that if you're white, you don't speak to him unless absolutely necessary (or are on very good terms), and you definitely don't touch him.
All in all, the dumb kid was lucky to get away with only an ass-beating, and Stitch soon calmed down and strode over to a fold-out table set up with soda, beer and snacks, and some of the revelers again cheered as his new hands each opened and then closed around two individual beers, and he raised them both to his mouth at once, guzzling them down with loud, audible gulps.
Marty made his way over and grabbed a beer of his own, cracking it open and raising it to toast the return of his trusted comrade. Stitch rapidly shook his head after the beers were emptied, throwing off the excess foam like a dog shaking off water, and immediately cracked open another. He toasted Marty with a deep smile, and the wiry Antifa nodded in respect as their beer cans tapped against each other.
"It's a privilege to have you back, Stitch." Marty said with a big grin. "And that's one privilege I ain't about to check!"