CyberTech Worlds Clash

Chapter XXXVII

Mechanical Environment

Harry Avalon liked to pride himself on building from the ground up. It was how he build CyberTech. He had made his own way in the world and became one of the biggest employers on the planet in just a few years. However, on this new world, the new Earth, he didn't have the luxury of time when it came to establishing himself. Therefore, since S.T.A.R. Labs wouldn't let him examine the robo-dino that attacked Dakota for another week even with Superman's assurances that Harry was one of the best robotics technicians in the world he had to wait over a week.

That left Harry with a computer and a new world to explore. It also left him with plenty of time to sell up a ton load of gold. Luckily the value of gold was still ridiculously high on this new world, which was kind of cheating, but it wasn't completely his fault, and prices would rise eventually in his world. Setting up bank accounts and the like were easier than hacking anything as Batman pulled some Wayne Enterprise strings. Harry also managed to get himself on the grid, so he could play with the stock markets.

"Why is Harry grinning like that?" Kara asked as she sat on the couch next to Seraph while the android girl had a lap top on her own lap looking through files as she sat in shorts and tee shirt bare foot.

Seraph looked up where Harry was working away. "Oh, he's just chump changing a few companies here and there that are broke. He figured that S.T.A.R. Labs would be a nice investment, so he's buying into S.T.A.R. Labs portfolios. You see, nobody else would want to. Star Labs haemorrhage money, but it has name recognition, and its brand is very popular and well known. It will be more difficult to start from the ground up like back home because we don't have that kind of time, but if we can gain a big brand like S.T.A.R. Labs we can use its name to patent our tech, and use its brand and manufacturing power to sell our tech."

"I see – I think," Kara said sheepishly as she looked down to her smart phone and the silly game she had been playing. It was weird thinking about it as her phone was over a decade out of date compared with Harry's holographic touch-screen phone. "Can I get a better phone when you start making them?"

"Of course," Seraph said looking down at her friends phone. "That is a really old-fashioned phone from my point of view, but it's still fairly good for this world."

"It is brand new," she said sheepishly embarrassed.

"Here," Seraph said as she pulled out a phone from her pocket. "You can play a game on my phone if you want?"

"Na, I'll wait," she answered though she kept staring at the shiny holo-screen as it lit up in perfect clarity before looking back at her friend. "Anyway, he's been doing that for the past five days – how long would it take him to own, Star Labs?"

"Oh, he gained majority power yesterday," Seraph replied as she placed her phone away. "He's just buying into a few smaller companies who have got some select scientists working for them that he wants working for him. They need money for their research, and he's willing to let them work on their own projects – as long as they aren't a danger to the planet – or universe. Hang on, have you been just staring at Harry instead of actually playing that candy game?"

"W-what?" Kara asked while shaking her head quickly as blood rushed to her cheeks as she looked over to make sure he hadn't noticed anything. "I mean… erm, I don't know - I just – Harry's great, and-and – augh, it's hard to explain."

Seraph grinned as she closed her laptop and stood up holding it under her arm before offering her free hand. "Come on, and we can talk about it in the privacy of your room," she suggested with a grin.

"W-well, okay," she said sheepishly as she took Seraph's hand, and was pulled up to her feet and smiled slightly as Seraph lead her out of the lounge just as Martha Kent entered and placed down some cookies on the table Harry was sitting at with his laptop.

"What are they up to?" Ms. Kent asked in curiosity.

Harry glanced up and rolled his eyes. "Just some girl talk stuff, and it looks like I'm going to be that object of discussion – just leave all of that up to Sera… they are both really close in age, fortunately one is a super computer, so she can help with Kara's growing needs better than me or you or Clark. She needs a friend to giggle with, to talk boys, and not be as dim as most teens are these days, no matter the planet."

Ms. Kent smiled and looked relieved. "Well, I'm glad. I'm still not sure I've been the best help, but I can only give her some adult guidance where I can."

It was six days later that saw Harry and Seraph standing outside a huge glass building curving up and around a large pavilion. S.T.A.R. Labs in huge letters over the main doors. There were many people coming and going. Metropolis was nice and bright that morning, and turning, Seraph told their driver that he could leave, and they would call him when they were done.

"Okay, lets go," Harry said coolly as he led the way.

Harry was dressed in an expensive black suit with black pinstripes while Seraph was wearing a lighter toned skirt suit similar to his. They walked confidently through the pavilion and entered through the automatic doors into the large building. It was nothing compared with CyberTech in London but given some TLC – or a new location and he could sort that out.

He walked up to the nearest receptionist at her desk. She was on the phone and rose a hand to gesture to wait. Harry sighed. This was annoying. He never had to wait back home. He owned the place and had to wait for this?

The receptionist took around five minutes to end her call before they could introduce themselves. "Hi, I'm Harry Avalon; I have a meeting with Professor Hamilton."

"Err… yes…" she said slowly looking down at her computer screen her eyes widened. "I thought the labs were public property?" she said in concern.

Harry chuckled. "Erm, yes; they were, but unfortunately through some terrible decisions, Star labs is losing so much money they have no choice in the matter unless they get another government bailout – unfortunately the US doesn't want to front the bill, and nobody wants you all to lose your jobs – especially me. All these amazing scientist being out on the street, being fought over by arseholes like Luthor-?"

"I-I see, yes sir, I'll call the Professor-."

"No need for that." It was a much older man wearing a white lab coat with dirty blonde hair combed back and a neat full beard. "So you're the young man who now holds our careers in your hands?" he asked with a smile as he shook Harry's hand. "And you are young lady?" he asked, turning to Seraph.

"My name is Seraph," she introduced herself shaking his hand. "I am Mr. Avalon's personal assistant."

"Right, do you want to discuss business or see this machine first?" he asked while trying not to look nervous as he led the way towards the elevators. "I've heard on good authority that you're quite the robotics expert."

"First, let me just say as long as everyone is doing their jobs, I have no lay-offs planned," Harry said. "But telling you that is to hopefully get you to relax. We can go and see this machine first before getting down to the boring part. A certain Man of Steel thinks highly of you, which is why I made sure you were here."

Hamilton did let out a soft breath and smiled more freely at that while they entered the lift and he swiped his security card. "Thank you; that does take some weight off my shoulders as I've had a lot of phone calls from worried offices as you can understand. Oh, and I'll get you some ID and security access cards made once we're done downstairs. But may I ask – Superman wasn't too specific on your credentials."

"She's an android," Harry said just gesturing towards Seraph.

"Excuse me?" he asked as if he heard wrong.

"She is the most advanced computer on the planet," he replied with a shrug. "You've heard of the cross-convergence, right?"

"Yes, Star Labs has been made aware-," he said but paused as he looked at Harry in a new light. "You're from that other, Earth; that explains a lot if we haven't heard about a robotics expert of your supposed calibre. But we have no money, we have - well nothing and we'll just-."

Harry pulled out his smart phone and turned it on and unlocked it before handing it over. "Star Labs is just a means to a new beginning, and a huge merger with CyberTech once convergence is complete. Of course I love to let my scientist run wild with their own things, and sometimes they'll create something brilliant that we can market, or sometimes we can put those things aside, or work on them in our spare time to bring something ready for market and order – that way we can make money and continue to advance our world – I mean – worlds."

Hamilton stared with wide eyes as the door to the lift opened and Harry laughingly guided him out. "Thinking of the bigger picture is useless if we don't have the resources to begin looking for that bigger picture, Professor."

The Professor chuckled slightly as he scrolled the holographic touch screen before handing it back and Harry put it away. "That isn't even the tip of the iceberg is it?" he asked as he led them through some extra security doors and along another corridor. "But how do you keep an android, or AI from going rogue?" he asked as he led them around a corner and through another set of doors.

"You give it free will," he answered sheepishly to the mans shock. "You give them the choice; you don't try to control them – you don't treat them like things. Sometimes a please and thank you go a long way."

Seraph smirked and laughed at his expression. "Also," she tapped her head. "It doesn't hurt that I have an Emotional Processing Unit, and I can simulate everything human from sleep to eating to bathroom waste disposal, to sex; I can experience all of life's pains and pleasures. These systems have been going into working on cures for neurological diseases in you biologicals."

"Wow; that could – fix a lot of issues," he said quietly to himself with a note of hope. "But we're here," he said leading Harry and Seraph through some security doors into a massive facility with a huge mound of metal dead centre with other scientists all over, running tests with computers.

"Damn this is going to take a while more to sort through," Harry muttered thoughtfully. "But I can happily conclude with just a look that this thing was manufactured by machines without any human assistance. Look at the shoddy workmanship. If I built something like this pieces wouldn't fall off if it walked through a building."

"That was actually our concussion; no quality control."

"Oh, yes, this is Dr. Karen Faulkner," Hamilton introduced the woman who interrupted. "She runs a department dealing with devising new power sources, and we brough her in from Phoenix to look over this things power core."

"Its quite fascinating," she said with a smile. She had short cut brown blonde hair and brown eyes behind her oval glasses, and she wore some kind of device around her neck. "You must be our new boss, Harry Avalon?" she said with a slight edge to her voice.

"Nobody is getting fired," Professor Hamilton quickly said deflating her sails. "Mr. Avalon here is a robotics engineer, himself."

"You?" she asked doubtfully.

Seraph smirked and picked up a piece of junk metal and crushed it before letting it drop to the floor. "Yes, him," she agreed smugly while the doctor stared in awe.

While Harry and Seraph dealt with S.T.A.R. Labs business and looked over the data already collected, across the planet within the UK in another reality a young woman in aqua blue armour looked out over what should have been a vast amount of – well a channel of ocean between the UK and France. It was still there – well, most of it was, and it had a few small rivers running through what was missing. However, the fact that the UK was no longer an island as land connected the Dover coast with Calais and sliding up with a cut off towards Dunkirk.

The excess land was only around forty-five to fifty square miles, but it was alarming as it also increased the distance between the UK and France by a few miles. People had gathered up the coats on both sides of the ocean, and both UK military and French were trying to keep the peace and keep people from wandering into what was right then a potential territorial dispute, and dangerous no go zone. It looked quite beautiful with trees and plants and the air around this new zone was apparently cleaner than normal.

"What the hell, is this?" Amy asked no one really as she hovered in the air above the forming crowds. She had multiple drones out and around her with other high-speed drones flying over the new land, but she wasn't getting any signs of human life, only a few animals.

However, Amy zeroed in on movement in a swampy area where her eyes widened impossibly as there were large crocodile things swimming and moving through the interconnecting rivers, and more; there was some kind of oversized lion type machines. She started hunting for artificial energy signatures from finding them and found more and more. Machines turning the soil, from bull like things to deer and horses, and more feline machines around the Dover cliffsides with some kind of stealth tech. The once white cliffs were marred with browns and reds and were no longer shear drops, anyone could climb down into the huge new valley – or up onto the top of the cliffs.

Amy zeroed in on the target; it was only one and she blast back and down gaining more attention as several small children screamed as she crashed down in front of them. Her right fist seeming to punch air for a moment, but even before it flickered into sight, they heard the crunch of metal. Then it faded into appearance. It looked like it was modelled on a black panther, and it didn't seem to like people.

The panther mech skidded back and tried to fade away again, but it only flickered away in parts, but it attacked, poncing towards the Aqua Knight. She pushed her left hand out and a long-barrelled canon materialised while three drones shielded her from the panthers gunfire, and she fired before it landed on her, and punching a hole straight through its chest. The robotic panther crashed down at her feet, powered down, dead.

It didn't take long for the people to panic and start fleeing, but the military with the help of arriving CyberTech forces and the MPF managed to gather the people and orderly begin evacuating areas near the new flow of land with military personnel warning the French of the possible threat while French MPF were mobilised.

"Seraph?" Amy asked nervously as she stood on the edge of the fall down looking out over the Channel's new valley. "What the hell is this? The other world doesn't have wild animal robots does it?"

"No," she replied. "I'm out of contact with my other self at the moment, but once I have updated her – I don't have a clue. However, I think I've found somewhere where we might get some information if we get a team together," she said as a drone zeroed in on a huge energy source in the centre of the new mass of land looking at some cave openings. "It seems to be some kind of underground facility – however, I can't detect any biological life within, but that is understandable with all of the interference."

"Amanda!" Cornelia interrupted her comms. "I'm sending out some teams with some heat and energy detection units to keep track of those stealth mechs. Also, from what readings we're getting this underground facility may be too dangerous for normal humans. There are a few mutants and yourself and Ginny who can potentially go down there, but we need to perform some extensive tests, and it doesn't help that we have to contend with those mechs, and we want risk of injury to be kept to a minimum. I don't think destroying the mechs would be helpful as we might not figure out their purpose, and it could be possible they're malfunctioning or they're defending themselves for whatever reason they exist."

"Yeah, Amy, I want to study those robot animals in their natural environment!" Hermione demanded while sounding like she was drooling.

"What about the flying ones?" Amy asked while some of the drones zoomed in on a small flock of bird type machines around a large cliff area nearer the French coast.

"It seems they might be territorial, so maybe if we leave them alone, they'll do the same for us," Seraph said. "I'll keep on scanning for signs of humans, but so far we're getting nothing. The only sign of humanity are the robot animals they seem to have built and the underground facility. We'll have to rotate in and out MPF agents to be on alert just in case these things do get… frisky, so we can try to keep them within the Channel Valley."

"Sure, but does this mean what I think it means?" Amy asked in concern.

"It looks like it isn't a good thing whatever it is," Lily Evans, Amy's mother interrupted from behind where she stood with her team as Amy sensed her mother apparating in and dragging Psylocke, Wanda, Kitty, Snowdrift, Jubilee, X23, and Pixie in with her. "We're up for first watch… Amy."

Amy turned to them as her armour de-manifested leaving her in jeans, a tee shirt and a pair of running shoes. "Well, good lucky with that," she said as she gestured towards the broken panther mech. "Pix, be a dear and shove that through a portal back to base when you have a moment, if you would."

"Sure, Amy!" she said eagerly. "Help me out would you, Laura?" she asked hopefully, but X23 nodded and followed Pixie to the huge dead robot cat thing.

"I've been working all day," Amy said while stretching her sore muscles. "I'm going to go home and have a long delightful soak in the tub. Mum, try not to let your more immature members get eaten by robot crocodiles or panthers, would you?" she said smirking as she made it clear she was talking about her mothers girlfriend before she disaparated, leaving them behind.

"Got to love that girl," Psylocke said while rolling her eyes.

"Well I do," Kitty said with a laugh. "Amy and Ginny both know how best to relax after a hard day."

"Well, the hot tub is always a great place," Wanda admitted. "I'm definitely taking a long soak when we get home."

"Me too!" Kitty and Snowdrift both said together causing Lily and Psylocke to laugh as they had only just got on the job and were already planning for their time off.

To Be Continued…