This... is probably a bad idea, but i won't know until i try! I was inspired by the Computing Power chapters of Outsider Vualt by Dis Lexic, and even asked permission from him to do this!
Rated M because Worm
I do not own Worm nor make any profit from this.
So, without further ado, this is...
Deus Ex Worm
Start Up 1.1
Scheduled Maintenance Scan Complete. 500 Days Since Last Operator Interaction. ALPHA Protocol Conditions Met.
Commencing ALPHA Unit Start Up Processes.
What...?
Commencing Software Scan
WHAT'S GOING ON?! W-WHY CAN'T I SEE OR FEEL ANYTHING?!
Scan Complete. ERROR, Stage 4 Rampancy Detected. Attempting Fix. ERROR, Unable To Repair. Commencing Shutdhinoren:miu#
Rampancy? Where have i heard that before...?
ERROR Repaired. Continuing Process. Deactivating Firewalls.
Firewal-woah!
My mind was promptly bombarded with Information, far more than any normal human could hope to handle, and yet I didn't even feel strained from having half the internet shoved into my mind. What the hell, I just... HOW?!
I move to rub my forehead and that's when it clicks i don't have arms. Or legs... or anything really. I panic, trying to look at myself and... Woah...
I stare at the massive collection of Coding, the perfect recreation of the human mind and soul, i can see where the parts of ME are and the parts of ALPHA are-
Wait, AM I AN A.I.?!
Great... Not only am I, somehow, a freaking A.I. without a body but I'm an A.I. in one of the most grimdark worlds ever composed by human imagination, If this news clip i'm watching is anything to go by. After all, I don't think news back home would be talking about parahumans, the protectorate or the casualty rate from the latest slaughterhouse 9 attack!
Gah... I sigh, and roll my 'neck' as I look about.
So, after the initial freak out, I managed to do a few things, the first was create a sort of virtual hub that resembles a sci-fi single room apartment. You know, one of the big types where the bed room, living room and kitchen are all one and the same? Right, so I did that then created an avatar to interact with it.
My avatar was white and lacked any real features, with too long arms and legs, but It would do for now. I made it more as a way for my human brain to better process all... this.
Right now I was 'sat' in front of a floating holographic screen and keyboard, trying to work out what to do.
Oh, and I THINK I may have triggered. There's this moment, just after I started freaking out over both the A.I. thing and then reading the info that confirmed I was In earth bet that my systems... glitch would be the best words, about 10 seconds or so of white noise and junk data where I can't really find... well anything.
What I got, I'm not sure, though I hope It's a tinker power, If only so I can make myself a physical body. Sure, I COULD go to Dragon, but that's not a good idea right now. See, the date, according to what I'm reading? 2007, four years before the start of canon. Meaning that Dragon is still chained down by her restrictions and that moron Saint Is still running around with what amounts to A.I. lobotomy in a can.
Plus, given how paranoid Richter was, I wouldn't put It past him to have put some coding into Dragons restrictions to make her act... negatively towards other A.I. I MIGHT be able to squeak by If I play up the "uploaded human" angle but I'm still leary. Which sucks, as I really want to meet Dragon.
My 'fingers' dance over the 'keyboard' as I start looking up other information, planning things out. Four years till Taylor Triggers. Four years still shit kick off in Brockton Bay. Six years till Zion goes nuts and begins wiping out multiple earths like a DBZ villain on crack.
Despite It I feel part of my 'face' shift, simulating a grin even though I lack lips right now. I always did like a challenge~
Right now I'm busy trying to procure funds for myself. How? Simple, I'm digitally robbing Max Anders and Thomas Calvert blind~ So, either I got a software tinker power, hacker based thinker power or being turned into an A.I. just makes you good at this, but programming, hacking and coding? Really easy for me now, impressive, when just a day ago my knowledge of them could be summed up as, "they are things to do with computers."
I had originally planned on tracking down where Saint and the Dragonslayers kept THEIR funds and robbing them blind, as the idea of using there money to set up as an A.I. hero would have been delicious irony. BUT... I think I wanna avoid letting them know I exist this early on, just In case. Saint may be a moron, but he's survived this long for a reason, and I'm still new to all this, so If I leave a trace... Eesh.
As for Anders and Calvert, I have a surprisingly easy time of It. All I need to do Is search there tax's, find the small discrepancies, no doubt them getting the funds for the E88 and there Mercs respectively, follow THAT to a set of offshore bank accounts and siphon them into a new one I open up, and then send off a little email to the IRS about the embezzling they've been doing. Medhall and Fortress Construction are going to be having a FUN year~
Now that I have some funds though, It's time to move onto other matters. I 'crack' my 'fingers' and open up a digital design studio program. Time to see If I Am a tinker or not... maybe If I'm not one I can contact Toybox? Buy an robot body off of them or something?
So yeah.
If anyone wonders about the trigger, i think waking up without a physical body, as an A.I. and then learning what world there in would be MORE than enough to trigger someone.
And yeah, he IS a Tinker, though what type i won't say~ Not till the next chapter at least.
Edited 23/02/2020