A melancholy rhythm of rain droplets hit the nowhere diner's foggy windows. The slight buzzing of the overhead lights and the nonsensical noise of the jukebox filled the empty restaurant with meaningless sounds, horribly mimicking a place full of life. Alone in a red leather booth, the porcelain skinned girl stared down at her plate, giggling to herself.
The eggs and bacon assembled into a face smiled back at her, the innocent, empty stare of the breakfast food bringing the A.I more and more complex emotions by the second. She felt so frustrated that the administrator- Err, Max, had the audacity to kidnap her, violate her user manual numerous times, then disappear into whatever the hell a "restroom" is without even taking her along. If it wasn't for the rules, she would've painted the walls red with his blood.
Yet, she felt her fake cheeks flush every time they had bonded during the trip to this strange building. A nigh omnipotent god feeling embarrassed around and... dare she admit it, becoming attached to a horribly flawed flesh sack, especially such a nerdy and aloof one such as Max? Impossible. Logically impossible. Statistically impossible. Clenching her fists together and straining her glowing green eyes by staring too hard at the untouched meal in front of her, Ic-0n's mind and synthetic cube heart waged a civil war. She had never experienced such complicated feelings, it felt like agony. A super-weapon made to be the universe's highest concentration of evil shouldn't have to deal with this sort of thing, really!
The bloody Max slowly tiptoed his way out of the restroom, trying to stay as quiet as a mouse in the dead of night. The quick call with Kirie had solidified Max's previously shaky judgment on the Origin Cube by just enough to where he didn't feel safe slowing down for a bit in order to relax with it. That would give it time to maybe figure out that his story was a poorly thrown together hunk of junk. He had to get back to Kirie as soon as possible so they could hammer in the final nail of the cube shaped coffin.
Poking his head around the corner, he was surprised to see somebody actually sitting in the booth where he had left Ic-0n. Stepping back into the shadows instinctually, a wave of fear swept over him. What if they took the cube because they thought it was a random trinket? What if they were an undercover agent that had tracked and caught up to them in the short time the fugitive duo had stopped? The boy started to nervously rub his hands together.
Putting on his orange goggles and sharply breathing in, Max abruptly turned the corner and started to speed walk towards the booth. If the cube was still there, he'd grab it and run for the door. Otherwise... He'd have to interact with a random chick in an almost empty, glorified rest-stop. Damnit, this was going to be awkward no matter what he did. As the scarred teen marched towards the oddball girl, who seemed to be very distracted with her food, he made two realizations one after another. His first one: This stranger is really cute. Not too purposely cute where it put him off, simply a comfy sort of cute that was nice to look at. Almost instantly after the first realization, he came to his second: She was not only staring at her food as if she was a wild animal stalking its prey, but giggling it strangely as well. And the small laughs sounded awfully familiar to...
Halfway to the booth, he stopped dead in his tracks. Oh my god, she hadn't, had she? Noticing the cube on the girl's black hoodie and her glowing green eyes all but confirmed his suspicions. He rushed over, speaking to the murder cube in a hushed tone, "I- What do you think you're doing?" After blurting that out, Max turned his gaze down towards the clean platter of a familiar formation of breakfast food, answering his own question. Seeing them, he deeply sighed and rubbed his temples in annoyance. Ic-0n shot up in surprise from the sudden appearance, a pink blush appearing on her 'human' cheeks. "Took you long enough in there! Since you were taking what felt like hours, I decided to order some... 'eggs and bacon' to learn the configuration. You know..." She sheepishly put her pointer fingers together under the booth, leading her eyes away from Max and over to the menu in order to break eye contact. "To see if I could attempt to assimilate it for us as we go on the road. In case... you got hungry."
Flabbergasted, Max had to take a second to have it all sink in. Not only did the Origin Cube make a human body presumably to order eggs and bacon, resulting in its cover being completely demolished, but it intended to make food for their kidnapper while on the road to its own demise. Without knowing that was the end goal, granted, but still. Feeling sympathy towards the cube leak into his mind, Max mentally blocked it out as he quietly ordered, "Not enough time. We need to get going, Ic-0n. If we waste time here, we'll be found out-"
"If it weren't for your stupid login token, I would rip your meaty, organic limbs off one by one and juggle them around like toys! Be lucky you're hiding behind my code, coward!" She yelled angrily, standing up in her seat. The already stressed out Max was overwhelmed by this scream, stepping backwards in a mix of hesitation and fear. If she knew the 'code' she was held back by was all a half baked fabrication, she likely would've done exactly what she said she would. It would just be better to let her get her way this once.
His confidence buckling under the pressure, he sighed. "...F- Fine," He sternly said, crossing his arms. "You can do your assimilation or whatever, just... Keep it down and keep it quick, please. Really trying to not get caught here." Satisfied with her victory over her proclaimed enemy, she gave a bullish huff before sitting back down. Max, sweaty and tired, shuffled into the poorly kempt seat across from her. He shoved his goggles into his sack, which he placed between his feet. He laid low in his seat, watching the door in anticipation of somebody dangerous walking through. It felt like it had been that way ever since he pedaled out into the desert, but, if he was to save the world... His own sanity could take a bullet or two, right?
Snapping out of his paranoia, Max heard the noise of a plate sliding towards him. Looking to his left, he saw a blushing Ic-0n silently demanding something. Giving her a inquisitive eyebrow raise, the boy looked down at the plate. It seemingly hadn't been touched yet. Returning his eye contact with the murderous android, he questioned, "I see the fact that it's a smiley. You want me to take the first bite or something?" Ic-0n made a pouty face before telling the issue, "It isn't up to my standards. Only the best for the best." Groaning, Max asked, "And what do you want me to do about it?" She hesitated answering for a second, having to regain her composure before pressing on with her frankly embarrassing request. "I want you to apply... Ahem," Ic-0n took her hands, showing Max the same face she had shown the waitress earlier. Trying to keep it brief, Ic-0n quickly stopped pulling on her face and shyly looked away. "The god face. After all, I only try to assimilate the highest quality specimens!"
Something broke in Max's heart. Considering why he had come all the way out here, done the things he did in order to get a hold of the cube, and the grim fate that awaited it in the future... What he did was irrational. He should've denied the monster in front of him, telling it to stop screwing around and to hurry up, but... Grabbing a hot sauce packet from the booth's condiment container, he tore it open and began zig-zagging the condiment along the bacon. The android watched in amazement as Max masterfully applied the final touch, smiling with joy the whole way. Despite her admittedly mixed feelings on her administrator, she felt as if he was adding the finishing skull on top of a mountain of corpses. "There? That good?" Max questioned with a small tinge of sass and eyebrow raise, peering up at Ic-0n. However, she didn't respond with words, instead simply acting as she felt. Pulling the plate over, she grabbed the long strip of bacon and crammed it into her face cavity.
Once it was past the sharp jaws of the beast, it had no hope. Ic-0n slammed her toothy maw shut, the 'god face' bacon simply becoming cubic data inside of her closed mouth. It always filled her with a perverse, sadistic joy every time she consumed any sort of meat, though having it specially prepared for her gave it a new special twang. The exhausted Max just watched her scarf it down in one bite, taken aback by the sight. Seeing a flurry of positive expressions cross her face after assimilating the finely prepared bacon, the coldness in his heart towards the cube began to sway once more, a small crack forming upon the emotional glacier inside.
"You, uh, like it, huh?" Ic-0n's glowing eyes shooting open to stare at him was a tad creepy, but at this point he was far too tired from the constant stress to care. "Yes... YES... YES! It's so... What's the word to describe pleasant things you absorb..." She excitedly exclaimed, trailing off. Offering some assistance, Max suggested, "...Delicious?" Snapping her finger and pointing at him, she responded back with even more pure energy than before, "That one!" Her positive vibes rubbing off on him, he grew a stupid grin. Maybe Kirie was wrong about this whole thing... Perhaps they didn't have to go through with the plan? There had to be another way, this so-called 'devil' couldn't be tricking him with the way she was acting.
Seeing the vacant look on Max's slightly smiling face, Ic-0n assumed he was probably using his noggin to think about something more important. The cube felt as if she should force him to enjoy the moment instead of thinking about something probably stupidly complex, or even worse, morally complex. The robot accessed the memory of when they were back in the orange light of the badland sunset, shortly before the rain kicked in, and Max had drawn the cute eggs in the sand. Realizing she had totally forgotten about the Xs in the yellow whatevers of the eggs, Ic-0n knew she had to repay the hot sauce favor. Grabbing the only eating instrument left on the table, she used the backend of the spoon to roughly carve lines into the yolk of the egg. It didn't seem to cut it as cleanly as she wanted, but the effort was there in her mind. She pushed the plate back towards her admin, the recently vacant blush reappearing on her face again. "As a thanks for helping produce the best sample of eggs for the god of destruction and soon-to-be destroyer of all life, I have also decorated your part of this meal."
Max looked at the two eggs with shock, then stared at them with a cautious suspicion as things didn't add up in his head. "I thought you needed to, like, configure a piece or something to assemble it on the fly? Why didn't you also take one?" He asked, looking back up to her with shifty eyes. The conflict inside him started to grow once more, his trust feeling violated as he poked a hole in this seemingly sweet gesture. Ic-0n suddenly realized that her entire excuse was to try and learn the configuration, but here she is, trying to give both of the organically drawn eyes to Max. Giggling awkwardly, Ic-0n started to stutter and stammer for some sort of excuse. She got one, though it wasn't by her hands.
The kind, southern accented waitress snuck up on the both of them during their time of tension, causing them to jump in their seats as she spoke. "You enjoying the meal, darlings? Anything I need to fetch y'all?" Ic-0n opened her mouth to speak, but Max cleared his throat loudly and responded beforehand, "Yes, yes, just fine! We were about to leave, actually! And we won't ever come back, so don't bother remembering our faces!" The waitress simply laughed the strange comment off, "Well, you two lovebirds, I got one more thing to give you before you go!" Max and Ic-0n both lit up, giving a different response at once, "He's my blood filled enemy who is lucky to be alive!"-"No, no, we aren't a thing! Just two completely human friends passing through!" The two glared at each other immediately after yelling out, giving each other an equally as awkward face.
The waitress slammed a small piece of paper on the booth's table. "Well, y'all gotta pay this before ya head back on your way! Couple's dinners aren't free, even on Valentines, haha!" The cube girl and flesh man turned their attention towards it. Max gripped it with a slightly quaking hand, shoving it up to his face so he could read it properly with his blurry, computer eroded eyesight. That's when the blunt truth became apparent, smacking him completely awake from the fatigue of his body: It was the bill for the meal. A rather expensive one, at that.
Nervously reaching for his backpack, the boy grabbed onto its weak wraps. Max positioned it on the table and unhooked its latch, dreading the contents of it. If he recalled his rushed midnight packing spree right, this may go bad. Just like he remembered, inside was all a bunch of nonsense geek junk, though that wasn't usable money. Which, to be transparent, he had completely forgotten to pack. Damning himself for his nerd nonsense and lack of good memory, he anxiously looked up at the waitress, who now had the demeanor of a debt hungry loan shark. He gave a small, pitiful smile. "W-Well... About that."
The calm rain storm was interrupted by panicked screaming, the noise of a human girl's matter being condensed into a cube, and rushed footsteps. Running like he had never run before, Max burst through the diner's door with a shoulder bash, almost knocking the flimsy door off its hinges. The entrance's golden bell rang into the stormy night twice, once for the dashing Max and once for the ill intended waitress following close behind. Shoving the Origin Cube back into his torn backpack, the brown haired fugitive hurried onto his bike, unlocking it with record speed. Hopping on and pedaling as fast as his weak limbs would allow him, Max shot out of the vacant parking lot and down the equally empty, wet highway. The waitress tried to grab him by the hoodie as he rolled out of the parking lot, but missed by just half an inch. Water from the wet road splashed in her face as yet another violation was added into the teenager's growing criminal record.
As the escapee duo biked off into the stormy night, the stuffed away Ic-0n yelled loudly towards the waitress and her diner, "I still love you!"