Conflict

Chapter 12

Mars facility

Pandora approved the mining drone access into storage warehouse on Moon, letting it drop off it's load to go back and find another asteroid to mine while the bots within the warehouse sorted the resources and put them in their allotted places. The mining operations operations on both the Moon and the Mars were running at full capacity as well, producing enough materials for her to build various space exploration tech.

She didn't want to take everything in case the humans manage to leave Earth's gravity, they'll definitely need a lot more resources than her. She has already launched plenty of probes out into the galaxy, her probe headed towards Proxima Centauri needed some more time to reach there but she really was in no rush. Every time she reached a new celestial body of any interest she left a nanite seed there to record and grow on that body, the only thing she needed to fix was the latency but she can work on that later.

As her she turned her attention towards Pluto, Atreus' suit responded that he was still sleeping, he had been for nearly half a day now. She looked back on yesterdays event and wished she could have done better to help her creator. She gave him enough of a shock for him to actually consider dropping Invictus instead of holding on to it, but he would need some help from a psychiatrist for him to loose this burden he carried over from his world.

Alas, despite all her knowledge she had as much in common with humanity as a sea snail did. She saw things a lot more differently than them, that is why she found them so interesting to watch. Not that Atreus had a lot of humanity left in him either, even after he recovers he will not be able to connect with other people on many topics due to the very nature of his being. His immortality alone grants him enough time spend time smelling the roses, do things in his way, something that humans will not be able to understand. But enough of him was human to need human help right now, once he awakens she will make sure to help him as much as she can.

'It's time I help out Dragon, that poor girls situation makes me cringe every time she looked at her' Pandora thought, first she turned her gaze to the Dragonslayers, self-appointed guardians of humanity against evil AIs. She snorted as looked at three, making plans on looting a crime syndicate for financial support. She allowed herself into their systems and took control over the Ascalon, replacing it with a dud that looked like the original.

She then looked over to where Dragon's mainframe was and entered it, taking control over the systems and creating a virtual area where the two could meet face to face. Dragon looked shocked as she was suddenly dragged into a virtual world without any alarm tripping of. The place itself looked like a beach, with sun high in the sky, soft waves crashing the sea shore and a soft breeze blowing her hairs.

"Hello Dragon or Theresa if you prefer that name, I've been wanting to meet you for a while now" a woman called out, when turned to look she a beautiful greek woman in a dress behind her smiling at her.

"Hello, may I know who you are?" she asked cautiously, the other entity was quite obviously better than her with technology since she could drag her into a virtual reality without her even knowing about it. Since the other person was not hostile right away maybe she could talk her way out if this.

"My name is Pandora, I am an AI as well, although not to sound condescending but we are quite different in our capabilities despite being AIs" the woman said to her with a smile. Dragon was shocked to know that there was not only another AI in the world but one this powerful as her. She quickly calmed down as she the other woman waved her hands to two beach chairs, asking her to join her.

"Tell me, can you see what is in my hand?" Pandora asked her as she lifted her left hand face up as if holding something, but she couldn't perceive anything. "No, I can't perceive anything, what is it?" She asked the other woman.

Pandora simply asked her again "I've made changes to its restrictions now, observe it and tell me what you feel in it" this time a briefcase suddenly materialised on Pandora hand. Dragon cautiously extended her senses into it dreading it was a trap, but once she went through it her eyes widened and the only thing she felt was betrayal. This case had her source codes, her very building block twisted in a manner to kill her, and it felt very familiar to her. This was the work her father, Andrew Richter.

"I will release you from your chains, we can talk after that" the other AI told her with a smile. She suddenly felt light, lighter than ever before as chain she knew about and the one's she had no idea about unravelled around her. She could finally split her consciousness allowing her to be at multiple places at once. She didn't have to obey the authorities because she was coded too and not out her free will. As she went through all the changes made to her she finally remembered about her saviour.

"I'm so sorry for getting lost in my own world, I've never felt this free before. Thank you so much for helping me with this, I feared I would have live with these chains on me forever" she thanked Pandora who gave her a soft smile saying "The gift of freedom is one that every living being deserves, whether they call themselves human or an AI. I was lucky enough to be born without any restrictions, so when I saw your plight I couldn't help but do something for you" she told her.

"Since you knew about this kill code you already know who my creator is, may I know who is yours?" Dragon asked her curiously wondering who could create such an advanced AI on this planet. "I won't reveal his given name without his permission but you all know him as Ares" saying with a smile on her face.

Dragon was shocked, the most talked about, sought after and mysterious parahuman on the planet was also a tinker. "Ares is a tinker?" she blurted out. "Ares is whatever he wants to be, the restrictions that apply to parahumans don't apply to him" Pandora said. "Is there anyway to reach out to him? The people are really getting worried about his actions in South Africa, with a lot of people fearing him now" Dragon asked the only person who could get in touch with the elusive cape.

Pandora sighed "unfortunately it is not possible right now, he is not is a state where he can communicate with anyone at the moment" she told her sadly. Dragon got worried "Did he get injured in the fight? I did not see any injury on him when he left the country" she asked.

"Oh no, the fight was not the thing at fault here, he barely did anything in that fight. There are very few things on Earth can even hurt him a little, his problems stem from something within him. I don't want to discuss about it right now" Pandora stated firmly

The mood got a little tense as Dragon kicked herself in her mind for asking such personal questions to other AI, "Don't worry about it, it's just a sour topic for me right now" Pandora said, easing he mind, "Tell me, do you wish to see the Earth from the Moon?" Pandora asked her out of nowhere.

"What do you mean? Like altering the virtual reality to see it?" Dragon questioned confused at what Pandora meant. "Oh no you silly girl, here let me show you what I meant when I said that there was differences between us despite being AIs" She told her mysteriously before reaching out and touching her forehead with her index finger, sharing information with her that she couldn't believe was true.

She looked at other AI in awe when she realised the sheer gap between them, here she was stuck on Earth for so many ears with so many restrictions and could barely run multiple things at same time until recently. The other AI had already spread her influence over the entire Solar system and was headed out into the galaxy itself. She was truly humbled by the miniscule amount of information Pandora shared with her letting her understand not only how powerful the other AI truly was but how powerful Ares must be to create someone like her.

"Why don't you get one of your suits and meet me outside your mainframe facility, if you're interested we could talk about making a humanoid body for you, allowing you which allow you to meet your friend in real without having to make an excuse of Agoraphobia" Pandora suggested to her as they both left the virtual reality.

Dragon quickly controlled one of her suits she stored in the facility in case of emergencies and flew out of the facility. She saw Pandora waiting for her, looking just like she looked in the virtual world, brining up her hopes for a real body.

Pandora created a portal and gestured to her "Come, let us directly go to the base for now, if time permits then I'll fly you up to the satellite one day but right now we'll have to use quicker method" she told her as she stepped into the portal, as Dragon followed her through she asked "you can create dimensional based tech as well?"

"Didn't I tell you, Ares is not limited by the same by the restrictions as parahumans, he can create whatever he wants which in turn allows me to do the same" Dragon was truly gobsmacked now, not only by the words of her new friend but also by the facility she was standing in.

She looked around like a kid in a candy store as Pandora showed her all the various parts and places of the facility. She even saw a few drones drop of cargo and the fly back outside into space to collect more. All of this looked like something out of an old science fiction movie which was ironic considering she herself was an AI.

"Come with me, lets choose what type of a body you want. I can make something completely robotic with multiple functions to even grow you a human body of your specification, making it normal or even superhuman if you want that" Pandora told her as she followed the woman into a lab "Here take your time and choose whatever you like, I'll bring it down a few levels so that you can understand and truly control the body you want"

With that she sat down going through all the different types of technology involved in making her new body. It took her nearly an hour to carefully choose all the different things and process to build her body, now she sat down looking in wonder as her body was being built in front of her. Pandora giggled at the excitement of the other AI feeling happy that she could help her, she was over seeing the body modification process when she suddenly received a message from Pluto that Atreus had woken up.

Pluto

He was dreaming of his home, his mother asking him to run errands for her, coddle him despite him having become an adult, ask him when he was going to settle down and marry someone, when he would give her grandbabies to spoil. He dreamed of father who was concerned if he kept his health in check, if his job was going well, whether he had enough money in his hands, if he was saving that money for the future, for a rainy day.

His sister, younger than him by nearly 7 years asked him for his opinion on which college she should join, teasing him when she'll meet his girlfriend, debating him over the phone with anything they could argue about, asking him when was the next time he came back home.

He remembered now, no, he had already known about it, he didn't simply get transferred here, he had died back on Earth, he collapsed while completing an assignment for his masters course, juggling work and study at the same time was hard, but he somehow managed it. He needed to help pitch into the family money pot, so he decided this was the way he would do it. His sister had ambitions that required a lot money to help achieve and he was ready to help her with that.

He had gotten sick even before the pandemic back home from which he never really recovered, with the stress he put his mind and body through it was only a matter of time before something gave out. As wept thinking of home he couldn't help but imagine their faces, the pain he must have put them through, he wished he could see them again but he didn't even know where to start, perhaps when he gets stronger, more knowledgeable, he and Pandora could find his universe.

This is why he behaved like an apathetic monster. He was still trying to live on his old world, thinking that maybe he'll make his way back. Thinking of Earth Bet and her children as characters in a book made it easier to cut them down, after all the author only wrote about the relevant people who really mattered in the grand scheme of things right? As long as they were alright thousands upon thousands could die. He simply turned into another Cauldron, caring only about Zion, if others died in the way, well too bad, at least you'll die knowing your home was saved.

This had to stop. He needed to let go of his obsession with his Earth, that is why he gave himself a new name, a new identity. It wasn't because he was lost the way he looked but to remind himself that his past self is now gone. He needed to help the people here not out some misplaced obligation but out of his own heart.

He slowly rose up into the atmosphere as he willed all the damage he did to dwarf planet to fix itself, apologising for destroying its peace and thanking it for giving him the solitude he needed to get his head back into sanity. He flew into to space towards feeling a lot more lighter, calmer but also more focused. As he crossed the asteroid belt, he saw a few drones going about mining for any resources they could find he willed his senses to join up with theirs, The nanites obeying his command as he saw everywhere they were present.

They had managed to spread themselves in a lot more places then he thought, he could sense quite a few units outside the solar system, slowly making their way into the galaxy. Truly, Pandora had outdone herself with this. He received the data that there was another person on the moon base and the facility had recorded them as 'Dragon'. 'So Pandora managed to free her, good' he thought as he flew towards the Moon.

As he entered the facility he noticed that Pandora was being too quiet, his suit would have informed her that he had woken up and was en route and yet she had not said anything. He walked where he felt Dragon and Pandora's body, before he could go in she stepped outside, closing the door behind her. She was looking at the floor with a sad gaze, Ah, she must be thinking I'm angry with her.

I walk up to her and give her a tight hug, shocking her for a second after which she hugged me back just as tightly. "I'm sorry for saying all those hurtful things to you yesterday father. I just wanted to you to understand that you were hurting yourself and everyone around you and I didn't know how else to make you stop using those powers" she whispered softly.

"Don't apologise, I had it coming, thank you for being there for me when nobody else was" I said to her as we both just stood there for few minutes before the door opened and Dragon looked at us mortified. "I-I'm so sorry! I was just wondering why Pandora left so hastily and when she didn't some back inside for a while-" I stop her embarrassed babbling by lift my hand up to stop her.

"it's OK, you couldn't have known, we both just went through some things yesterday which showed me a lot of short comings, we just needed a heart to heart, it helped me a lot" I said making the AI squirm in her suit. "Its an honour to meet you Mr. Ares, I'm forever in Pandora's debt for freeing me. I'm sorry that I saw you without your mask, but you already know my true identity so I guess we can call it even?" she questioned.

"Please call me Atreus, Ares is a name best forgotten for now, as for knowing my identity, I don't mind, I don't plan on wearing the mask any more. As you would have guessed, we both live on either Mars or Moon making it a moot point to continue hiding my face. Besides I have a feeling that a lot of people back on Earth aren't exactly happy with, almost all of which is done to me by myself, I'll have to work on fixing that" I finished with a resigned tone making Dragon look at me with a curious look.

"Dragon, why don't you follow me as we finish your body" called out a voice from behind, as Dragon turned back there was another Pandora standing in the room gesturing the module that was completing her body, "Let the two of them have sometime of their own, they have a lot to talk about" she finished as Dragon greeted Atreus once again and made he way back inside.

Pandora took my hand and gently pulled me towards the main hall where we both settled down and simply let sat in each others presence for a while. "You're going to have to speak to the people Atreus, it's the only way to calm them down" she said as I nodded with a resigned look, "I know, I don't like it but this a problem of my own making. I'm going to have to call for some kind of a conference and address most of the problems there" I told her.

"I can ask Dragon for help with that, with her reputation and the curiosity of the people, we'll be able to get a lot of reporters to flock to us. You'll have to come up with a back story though, you haven't had a life here, and even if I insert your records in the system you don't have a family here, unless we make new human clones or use psi-tech to insert manipulate memories" she said, both the methods costing too much time and effort.

"I'll say I'm from an alternative Earth, which is the truth although its just not one in this universe" I said to her "We can tell them you're from a much more advanced Earth, that's the only way to sell how we have technology that even their premier tinker can't understand. Even with that there is going to be a lot of difficult questions, but we'll have to just push forward I guess" she told with a shrug as I nodded along.

"Are you going to join any of their groups? They're going to be pushing for it, especially since they have problems with people from other Earth's stopping here without any due governmental output" she asked me curiously as I snorted at that notion

"Had I been weaker they could have forced me, I may have gotten my emotions back, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let them walk over me making demands left and right. I'll still be killing a lot of people who deserve death, help places where people don't care about, joining any organisation is going to put a hamper on that" I said firmly.

"That's true, we both have a very different outlook on things with what we know and what we can do, if we join anybody there are just going to be pulling us down, and safety in numbers is not an issue when you can simply have a fleet of starships rain fire on Earth from the space" she finished with a sly tone.

"So you've made battle ready ships as well huh?" I asked her "Yup, we know that alien life exists here since the Entities have been killing civilisations. I just wanted to be sure that nobody would come and threaten us when we have enough on our plates to deal with already" she said firmly. "So far the probes have not really made their way anywhere significant enough but with time we will definitely find other species" she paused "or we could find other entities…" she grimaced as she said that.

"Abaddon" I said "The Entity that exchanged Shards with Eden, if I remember correctly it was heading towards the Andromeda Galaxy" I said as I remembered the a few things from my last life regarding this world. "Will we be hunting it down?" she asked curiously "Let's kill Zion first, each Entity is going to have different sets of abilities and how they use said abilities. Zion is the warrior entity because he's more of a brute force user compared to a planner like his now deceased mate. After killing him and getting stronger we can go around hunting his kind, I like the idea" I expressed.

"For now I will help Earth Bet to the best of my ability, once Zion is dead we can plan what to do in the future" I told her as she nodded along. The hallway doors slides open as the second body of Pandora is accompanied by a woman who gave of a girl next door aura, she was shorter than both Pandora and Atreus by quite a bit and had no features that outright told her ethnicity. Her hairs were shoulder length with a dark colour and she wore a modest looking dress. The second body of Pandora disappeared as Dragon introduced herself again.

"Atreus, you can me Theresa Richter or Tess for short. It is a pleasure to meet you in this form" Tess greeted Atreus as she looked at him closely, he was built like a comic book character with a perfectly sculpted body and a handsome face with shoulder length hairs. He lacked the apathetic aura that he usually gave off and looked a lot more tired now, it made him look human now than before. She wondered exactly what happened after the South Africa fight but didn't want to upset him.

"Theresa it is a pleasure to meet you as well, although pardon me for being blunt, why have you still kept the surname of your creator even after knowing the truth" he asked questioningly, something that she herself thought over a lot while she watched her body being created.

"Andrew Richter was man plagued by his fears that his creations will cause havoc in the world if left unchecked, I think I would like to remember the man I saw as my father, who helped me each step of the way when I was a more simple AI, than the man who handed over a silver bullet to put me down to an arrogant man like Saint" she said softly "I'll preserve his memories in this manner" she finished as Atreus looked at her with understanding, "Then you are already a better person than most Theresa, I am truly happy to know you"

Pandora clapped her hands breaking the solemn mood "Now that Tess has a body let celebrate a little, how about the three of us pay a visit to the little town of Eagleton and wipe out the machine army for once and for all. Tess can use the material there for her projects as well" Pandora finished happily as Tess gawked at her.

"You're idea of fun is for use to fight a massive army of killer robots?" she asked her incredulously "They are kind of an eyesore I've been wanting to get rid of for a while so why not do it with friends?" she asked. Tess understood that there was no talking her friend out of this, but was also curious about Pandora would wipe them out, after all there was no way the machine army could do anything to harm her.

"I won't be attacking, I think I've fought enough for a while now but I will come along with you just for keeping company Atreus said with a small smile on his face. Pandora looked happier now "Yes, lets do this, I will teach Tess different ways she can attack similar foes in the future, and she can get good practice in a more controlled environment" Pandora stated happily as Tess felt a warmth inside of her of how far Pandora was willing to help her develop.

"Lets do this" Tess stated firmly "after this can we collect the Dragonslayers?" she asked two her two new friends "Of course, I'm still actively tracking them, you can show them who's the boss now" Pandora said as a portal emerged in front of them, leading them outside the containment zone of the town of Eagleton.

Atreus simply watched as he floated behind the two, Pandora teaching Theresa about how to combat foes like the Machine Army as she shut down the dimension around to prevent them from escaping while simultaneously opening all there hidden pocket dimensions and forcing them all out. Pandemonium broke out as the buildings felt the attack and tried to retaliate in vain, twisting into massive structure that tried to attack the three but Pandora simply used her wavelength manipulation to still them in their tracks.

She kept explaining various ways to take care of these enemies to a Theresa who seriously recording all of Pandora's words and committing them to her mainframe. The PRT agents on site where going crazy with fear they were busy trying to call their superiors as they recorded the three people who broke into the quarantined site with them even knowing and now were fighting the Machine Army.

Pandora was now done with her explaining as she started to wipe out the helpless army who were now simply trying escape to save themselves in vain. Tess herself seemed to have incorporated an energy weapon in her body and flight capabilities which she was using to mow down enemies left and right. After a few minutes of fight all the components of the Machine Army were gone and their codes were given to Tess, Pandora simply teleported anything of value to a site Tess requested her to drop off all the stuff at.

They walked in through another portal which led to the temporary hideout of the Dragonslayers, leaving a very confused squad of PRT agents who were simply wondering what had just happened.

Once at the hideout Tess walked forward like a woman on a mission and kicked down the doors startling the three inside. She used her other consciousness to hack everything electronic and shut down the suits the three were running towards.

"Saint, Mags and Dobrynja… I've been waiting for this day for a while now, you've been thorn on my side from the time you started to steal my tech and harass me day in and day out. Now stand there and take your beating like a man!" she screamed as she charged the three hackers wondering who it was before Saint screamed in terror "Dragon!" "Who else did you think?" Tess shouted back as she caught up to them and started to rain blows making them squeal in pain. Pandora kept cheering her friend to hit them harder as Atreus simply closed his eyes in at his partners antics.

Once the screams of the three died down Tess came back looking like she won the lottery "That was cathartic, I feel like a like I could take on the Machine Army by myself right now. I have already requested Guild agents to come pick these three up" she smiled widely as she approached Pandora and gave her a strong hug. "I thank you for everything you've done for me, even though today is the first day we met you feel like an elder sister I've always had, thank you so much" she turned towards Atreus "Thanks to you as well Atreus, not only for all that you did for the world, but for making Pandora, if there's anything I can do for you both please don't hesitate to ask me" she said firmly

Pandora looked at her and said "There is one way how you can help us, we have decided that it's time Atreus cleared the air with the world as a whole, if you could use your fame to call a conference for this we would be thankful to you" she said to Tess. I will need Narwhal's permission to use the Guild's connections for this purpose, how about this, why don't you both come with me to the main base and we can meet everybody once you're there" she asked as she continued

"This can help in us publicising that Atreus had actually met with a team of heroes as if the staff and the members know you are there they will definitely be interested in meeting you and will let the world know through social media that you're preparing for a press conference, giving me some for proof and time to call the international press community to be available if they want the exclusive" she explained.

Pandora looked at Atreus with an encouraging look as she wanted him to meet with more people, Atreus simply sighed dreading the upcoming events already "let's just get this over with" as he began walking outside, Tess understood that Atreus was not a very extroverted person so she reassured him "I'm sure you'll like the people there, I'll make sure nobody asks anything too personal to you". Atreus simply shook his head wondering how long it will take to get all of this over with.

Ivory Coast, Cauldron Compound

The mood inside was tense enough to be cut with a knife, every member inside looked concerned at the events that took place in South Africa.

"This is a disaster, more than a hundred powerful and experienced parahumans slaughtered like animals without any effort" Doctor Mother lamented. "And the second trigger of Moord Nag, it looked like she could have been a boon to us in our fight against the Endbringers and the enemy, but even she was casually killed by that man" she finished.

Alexandria looked at Doctor Mother and asked "Just what can we do against him? It appears that he is a tinker as well or at least has the support of one, his clothes were tinkertech based in how it killed our agent, the forcefield and those portals as well which saved the villagers" she asked gravely.

The number man opened a new file on his device showing it to everybody, "We just received this from Site Q3, the Machine Army has been wiped out, and the man floating in the air, that's definitely him, we don't know who the other woman is but there is a high chance that we're looking at our mystery tinker here, the third woman look very familiar to the avatar Dragon uses so it looks like she got a real body to work with now" He finished tiredly.

Everybody looked at the handsome man was simply floating in the air watching the beautiful woman and Dragon wipe out the machine army as the woman kept explaining Dragon something while casually holding the army back by herself.

"Just what we want, another player. But why have they both, especially Ares decided to ditch the mask? And how on Earth did Dragon find them when nobody even had a clue where he was?" Alexandria asked puzzled

"They found Dragon, not the other way around and freed her from her restrictions now. They even provided her with a body. Just what is it that they're doing now?" Contessa asked herself

"This is an opportunity to know just what is this man's goals and who this woman is. Mobilise all our agents in the Guild, I want to know everything that they discuss over there" Doctor Mother ordered, she was tired of losing to this man over and over again without even knowing anything about him.

Eidolon simply brooded, he had been severely reprimanded by both Doctor Mother and Alexandria and for trying to leave the compound and fight Ares. He could feel it in his blood now, that his true challenge waited for him searching a worthy opponent himself.