Chain of Memories
Chapter 14
Beware of your Enemy
The Kolossus stood at attention, yet seemed to be in a comatose state. The steel frame encasing it generated a sluggish light at symmetrical intervals, which seeped into the creature's volcanic skin. It's mandibles swung gently, stirred out of place by the strange light. It's cycloptic eye focused straight forward, and if possible, had the strange equivalent of a human eye being unfocused.
"The magma core and body structure were time consuming, useless and ineffective components that only required a more consistent power supply to maintain the proper faux temperature." Uolith sighed, wondering to a nearby console, one of many strewn across the hanger's floor, checking various readouts. "Another tribute to Mr. Schaffer's idiotic romanticism I guess… programmed even into his creation."
He paused, closing his eyes in thoughtful meditation, speaking more to himself then to Jeremie, "I hypothesize that is why your companions have an appearance that is so… unorthodox. Programmed directly into the molecular converters… a program that reads brain waves perhaps? The neurological structure of the brain, the psyche of a homo sapiens, easy to analyze I imagine."
"What do you have against your own species?" asked Jeremie suddenly, who still hadn't taken his eyes off the Kolossus.
"Oh, how novel." Uolith seemed to groan at this. "You believe that we can still be classified as the same species despite uncounted millennia of evolution, of 'survival of the fittest'? Did you not see my ears, Mr. Belpois? Do you not perceive the complexity of the technology in front of you?"
"This is genocide." Said Jeremie simply, turning to face Uolith. "You let the Kolossus loose here, in the middle of Paris… You'll have a holocaust on your hands."
"Genocide?! Holocaust!!?" screamed Uolith, snapping himself to his full height and advancing at Jeremie, "My boy, I've seen more genocides then you've seen dust bunnies. I've had more people, friends, brothers, sisters, mothe-" he paused, before clearing his throat "Don't you dare, even try to dangle Genocide in front of my face."
Uolith paused once again, taking several moments to compose himself, straightened his tie, then looked along with Jeremie upon the monster.
"Kolossus? Is that what you call it?" Uolith laughed "Fitting I must say, but Juvenal at best. It doesn't do justice to its complexity and power."
"But-"
"It took effort." Uolith started, ignoring Jeremie. "But what great achievements don't? It took a highly condensed program, one linking many, many towers together, for it takes a great deal of energy to create a solidified specter of such magnitude."
"Thousands, tens of thousands of innocent people could die!" Jeremie pleaded, quickly searching his memory for Paris' population. "This has nothing to do with them!"
"Of course, the codes and everything were all right there for the taking; otherwise it would have taken me a decade longer to finish coding my own creation."
"You've been planning this!?" asked Jeremie incredulously, "I thought you only wanted Aelita's DNA! Why even do this!? Is this what you meant by 'controlling all the factors? World domination?!"Jeremie paused, recalling something Uolith once said himself, "Why bring more death to an already sick world?"
Uolith didn't speak for several moments, merely gazing at the Kolossus, finding it harder to ignore Jeremie's previous statement.
"It's not only Paris." He began once again. "Every major city, every major populated area of the world has a Lupos corporation facility in it to some extent. Each and every one of those facilities has a 'Kolossus', as you put it, being finalized as we speak. Naturally, each facility has its own supercomputer hosting its own simple virtual universe. Universes that have hundreds of towers crowded together."
"Not only that, but XANA's legacy itself proved useful, for I found it had a veritable legion of robotic organisms that are all but ready for deployment and invasion. Just waiting for somebody with the right coding to tell them what to do."
He swept a sideways glance at Jeremie. "Did you ever realize that? Had you not prevailed over XANA when you did, merely a day later, it would have launched it's war on humanity?"
"We had our hints." Said Jeremie blandly, "But I never knew we were so pressed for time."
"I feel as though Mr. Schaffer knew of the immediate danger, I hypothesize that is why he so willingly sacrificed himself when there were so many other possibilities, ones that took time of course."
Uolith sighed, before moping his bow with a pure white handkerchief.
"XANA knew what it was doing, even after it's deletion. Programs that kept government's from dispatching agents to assess the laboratory by modifying agendas at military agencies were still active." Uolith smiled. "Meaning nobody, even after three years, has discovered the army of their undoing, which was right under their noses the whole time."
"And you are going to use them as well?" asked Jeremie more calmly, realizing he couldn't get Uolith to change his mind by simply yelling at him.
"Naturally. However, I cannot. For two reasons, one being I cannot control any of the robots, the Kolossus, anything of XANA's until I have his memory core."
Uolith turned around, indicating Jeremie to follow him back to the elevator.
"I thought you said you had his memories." Said Jeremie confused.
"Ah, but did you really expect XANA to just simply die? To not try and save himself first?" asked Uolith, tauntingly. "XANA copied his core algorithms, the very codes that dictates what decision it, itself would make if given a problem. It's mind if you will. It copied its mind, and implanted it in the only place that would possibly survive, the only thing of XANA's that you and your friends would not 'terminate'."
"William" said Jeremie simply, but dreading what it meant.
"Exactly." Said Uolith smugly. He, Jeremie and Ell were all back in the elevator, which was now ascending. The periodic black and white streak on the interior signifying a floor being passed by, giving Jeremie an inking of the proportions of the facility.
"The second reason, and the more annoying, is Ms. Hopper herself."
"But, she fell into the digital sea!" said Jeremie alarmed.
"Yes, yes, I don't know how. But she returned, in the form of an illuminated pulsating orb. I know not how she evolved her form to survive in the digital sea, but she did. Her DNA codex was encrypted, thus useless to me."
Jeremie recognized the description, what ever Antea had become, she was the same as Franz Hopper had been three years ago when he sacrificed himself. A glowing pulsing sphere. The elevator slowed its accent. Then finally opened its doors to reveal the bland white hallway. Uolith sighed as he stepped out.
"She was still adamantly against my cause, you see. She took it upon herself apparently to stop me anyway she could. The annoying bitch took residence in the Idexicon tower in the original machine, blocking me from it. The same, impossibly powerful tower that brought us to your time period. I want that tower, and I want Antea Hopper for myself." Said Uolith shamelessly.
Uolith couldn't see it, but Jeremie, who was between the two, caught sight of Ell narrowing her eyes slightly and her jaw clenching.
Odd Della Robbia had been accused of lacking intelligence for most of his stay at Kadic, but he had always held fast to his self-confidence. Assuring himself he didn't need to be a no fun 'braniac'. But now, he was assuring himself to be an idiot, a moron and wondering why he didn't use the window to make his grand escape with Kiwi.
Jim Morales didn't look happy, a little surprised by Odd's appearance no doubt, but not happy.
"What do you think your doing, Della Robbia?' asked Jim.
"Uhhhhhh" said Odd, trying to conceive a valid excuse for the dog, and his Lyoko translated form.
"Let me guess, you and your little friends skipped school for the past couple of days to go cosplay?" asked Jim blandly
"How do you know what cosplaying is?" asked Odd surprised.
Jim gave Odd a stern look
"I'd rather not talk about that right now. I'd rather talk about that little mutt your holding, Della Robbia. That little mutt and how your going to get suspended for trying to not only keep it here, but trying to steal it back!"
'Crap' thought Odd, he couldn't stay here! The bus was sure to be here and Aelita would scream at him with no end for holding them up.
"Jim, Jimbo, Jimmy, please listen, hear me out fellow man." Odd began, his voice full of false sincerity. He took a couple steps toward Jim, making himself level with the open door leading back to the filing room to his right. Jim paused, allowing Odd to talk.
"…If I'm suspended…" he began, already lining up a joke.
"… See ya next fall!" shouted Odd as he bolted into the filing room. One hand held Kiwi protectively to his side, while Odd extended the other, firing a single laser arrow at the window. The already mangled window shattered into thousands of pieces, allowing Odd enough space to jump through. Even with a loudly protesting Kiwi wriggling in one arm, Odd landed on both his feet and free hand, proving the old proverb about cats true.
As Odd ran off into the forest, he could only imagine Jim's amazement. Odd realized he probably made the situation worse, no doubt. But he could always just blame the urgency to find Jeremie when accused by his friends.
He took the long way, avoiding the populated roads at all cost, making his way back to the spot where Aelita and the others were supposed to be. On the way however, his cat ears detected something to his right. Gunshots, as well as a buzzing saw noise… along with familiar grunts and groans.
Yumi.
Yumi… wasn't doing so well. She, and her opponent were deadlocked in the fight, nether side landing any solid hits. The suave specter continued to dodge Yumi's fans, while she in turn continued to use her gymnastics to dodge its bullets. It wasn't a standstill deadlock however, as it was a battle of evasion more then anything else. Yumi realized this early on, and began leading the specter, abet slowly, to the area she knew her friends to be. The specter, which showed no signs of the realization of the pointlessness of its strategy, continued to fire bullets and dodge with mechanically perfected poise.
Finally, after a series of back flips, Yumi landed on the solid pavement of the entrance road going through the forest. Spending the last couple of seconds before the specter caught up to assess her surroundings. Yumi found she had estimated incorrectly. She was nowhere near where her friends were. She was in front of the cafeteria! Students who were leaving breakfast and heading of to first period had already noticed her!
'crap' thought Yumi.
In the seconds it took Yumi to process the realization that she had been seen in her translated form, the specter emerged from the foliage behind her. It fired three rapid shots at Yumi, all of which she dodged as soon as she registered the sound waves coming behind her were that of a gunshot. She lightly noted her advanced information processing speed and reflexes in her translated form as she landed off to the side of the specter.
The students who were watching began screaming and entered the buildings. Teachers began ordering an entire school lock down and the police were being called. Yumi needed to finish this and finish it fast!
The specter once again dodged Yumi's fan, then dodged her second barrage, then her third, fourth, and finally fifth successive attack, after images trailing him in every movement.
Yumi started to realize that this very well may be pointless, that she would have to try and find a new strategy… but had none. The polymorphic specter advanced on her, raised its gun… and got blasted in it's side.
The force of the blow caused the specter to contort its body to an amount that no human could achieve, its torso crippling sideways from the purple bolt that hit its right hip. It bounced once, and then landed, close to the school.
"Banzai!!!" shouted the resident giant purple cat as he sprung from the foliage, one are still wrapped around Kiwi, the other held out, aiming at the specter.
"Where have you been?!" shouted Yumi.
"Oh, out and about, girls dig giant purple cats you know," joked Odd, "I got numbers." He sang off-key.
"While I've been out here fighting this whole time?! You little twerp!"
"Oh puh! You're being ungrateful to your savior!" Odd shouted back playfully.
"Savior? You only got him because he was focused on me!" shouted Yumi indignantly.
"Don't you watch cartoons?" asked Odd "The handsome hero always jumps in at the last moment when the villain is focused on the defenseless girl."
"Defenseless girl?!" screamed Yumi. She would have gone on, but the specter had gotten up, its hip still pixleating badly.
"You aim high, I aim low" said Yumi slowly.
"Gottcha."
The specter didn't even have time to raise its gun before it had to swing itself around to avoid the barrage of purple arrow shaped electric bolts that began attempting to discharge themselves onto it. Seeing two incoming projectiles aiming at its legs, it jumped into the air to avoid them. Only too late did it process it couldn't dodge nearly as well in the air, a fact proven by the six or so laser arrows the hit its chest. The points where the arrows hit became the epicenters of small discharges of wild purple electricity all over hits body. He landed on his feet, but extremely damaged. It had just finished concluding that the best choice of action would be to retreat when it was cut open by Yumi's fans making their way back to their owner.
The holes the fans made in its torso didn't regenerate themselves, rather they glowed an eerie pinkish red as they tried regenerate. The same color as Yumi's fans. The specter unfocused, dissolving into smoke and pixels.
"Yes!" shouted Odd "Odd the magnificent strikes again! No specter is safe while this cat on the prowl!"
"Odd, Shut Up" said Yumi, giggling at his antics. "We need to get out Kadic right now, the police are on their way."
"Awww, you got seen too?" said Odd despairingly, "Aelita's going to kill us."
"She'll forgive us both if we save Jeremie, lets go." Pleaded Yumi, already running back up the paved road. Odd following suit still clutching his dog.
"That is why I need her daughters DNA, to use it to restore Ms. Hopper and devitalize her. Whether she wants it or not."
Jeremie hesitated. Uolith wanted the same thing he did… at least in this respect.
"Not only that, I will finally have the ability to use the Indexicon Tower, previously only accessible by Ms. Hopper herself. From that tower, I, and I alone, can wield the armies of XANA, and destroy any forms of organized resistance at the same time. I don't risk launching it through individual towers. Because sooner or later, a random program will gain self-awareness." Uolith almost let loose a childlike giggle as he opened the door back into the room with the holo-sphere.
"That wouldn't be beneficial to me, you or anybody else. A singular flaw in our technology, if any, would be how easy it is for programs to achieve self-awareness. XANA was just one of the more powerful ones."
Jeremie weighed his options; he couldn't do much from this position, for Uolith's specters were everywhere. Assuming all Uolith had said was true, Jeremie needed to act, and act fast, before Uolith could get a-hold of Aelita… and William! But what if all he had said, wasn't true?
"Why?" asked Jeremie "Why are you telling me all this."
Uolith sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time, "Three reasons, I shouldn't need to explain this, Mr. Belpois. You may be homo-sapient, but I still would want you to work for me. Creatures like you deserve better then to be wiped out in senseless conflict." Suddenly, the glare, the steeled malicious intent that had afflicted him before in the same room returned.
"And because, I want to know why." He began pacing once again. "Aelita Schaffer, Hopper, Stones! It doesn't matter; half of her blood belongs to me, and my cause!"
"Everything, and I mean every factor, every conceivable possibility; every possible scenario concluded that I would be the victor. Then, out of the void, five more adolescence nobodies, whom have no idea what they are getting themselves into, throw their lives on the line for this one girl, this one helpless half-breed who doesn't even know them! Effectively complicating the situation endlessly for me"
"I take it the future was too bleak for the concept of 'helping a friend' to still exist." said Jeremie icily.
"Don't patronize me Mr. Belpois." Said Uolith dangerously. "You have no idea what you're talking about"
"Then let me enlighten you, Uolith." Said Jeremie coldly, addressing him by name for the first time. "Us nobodies, we're Aelita's friends. We're her family now. Because of you! You and your 'cause' Aelita suffered more then she ever deserved!"
Uolith seemed to process this, glaring at Jeremie the whole time, before finally responding.
"Half-breeds, abominations like her, deserve all they get, Mr. Belpois."
Two specters, once again in the guise of secret service security personal, entered the room from the mysterious fourth door on un-spoken orders. They walked around the table so that they were directly behind Jeremie.
"Thirdly, as I stated before, I also want your opinion on my work. I always wanted Mr. Schaffer's opinion, but since he choose suicide; I'll take the next best thing, his protégé." Uolith sat down, finally ending his pacing.
"Besides what I've already told you about it? Besides the fact that is sick, wrong and evil?" asked Jeremie sarcastically, emphasizing evil."
"Is that all you have to say?" asked Uolith lightly.
"…yes" said Jeremie finally, realizing this man only wanted Jeremie's admittance that it was some sort of intelligent plan, to affirm his own superiority for some reason.
"Is that so?" Uolith sighed. The specter grabbed Jeremie by his shoulders and began leading him to the door behind where he had sat. One of the specters had already opened the door for him when Uolith called from behind.
"You're alike in so many ways." Jeremie turned around, slightly curious to what the psychopath was saying now.
"How so?" asked Jeremie.
"It's just the small things, I guess. But your opinions, your appearance, your attitude towards my cause. It's almost unnerving how many similarities there are."
"Franz Hopper was a genius, a good man who sacrificed himself to save the world." said Jeremie softly. "I'm just some nobody who figured out how to work the supercomputer through trial and error."
"Ah, but remember. Mr. Schaffer only knew of our technology because of his wife. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the short amount of time together, she shared all the secrets with him of building a supercomputer with the intention of stopping me together." Uolith took out his handheld touch screen device from his pocket, silently noting how the specter on the school grounds of Kadic had been engaged.
"So you see, in a way, you both are fakes."
"Thanks." Said Jeremie sarcastically. Before leaving the room on his own accord, the specter jailers following him.
Uolith turned his attention to the specter, which had just been neutralized by its enemy, an enemy identified, as one the network had seen before, not but last night.
Without hesitation, he began programming more specters.
Whew... Now that the useless plot crap is outta the way. I'm moving more into action. The promised plot! please review!!!
I wanna thank all my faithful reviewers, ya'll have givin me my moral support to continue this story.