Writing Challenge (25/04-17)
So I found this in a folder when I was going through my computer, having totally forgotten I had written it as a challenge for myself. I don't know why I never posted it, but it might be because it's not even close to being finished.
I know a lot of you will be pretty frustrated when you've read it, and I'm sorry about that. It's just, I know I'm never going to be able to finish it, but I also feel it's a waste to have it laying there un-read and forgotten.
I hope you like it, and not flame me too hard when it ends. Trust me, if I knew how to continue it, I would!
Glitches
Sanji was staring into the screen of his computer, a cigarette in his mouth and a cup of strong coffee next to him. Everything should be as it was supposed to, the stats were all okay, yes there were still a few minor glitches and bugs here and there, but that was normal with the new update he'd just made. What he couldn't understand however was that the one glitch he knew was happening, wasn't showing up at all. How could that be possible?
He looked over at the chair next to him, his prototype and semi-sentient contraption that had won him several awards; was sitting there. And he would be lying if he said he wasn't proud of it, it had taken him years to build it, and he was still making updates for it, chasing that perfection. He let his eyes trail over all the wires connected everywhere frowning a little at them, he would need to figure out a way to cut down on them and make them more efficient soon. Then his eyes fell on it, and his frown deepened before he looked back at his screen again.
He stared at the coding, convinced that the problem had to be there somewhere, when he still couldn't find anything, he groaned for what was probably the hundredth time that day and raked his hand through his hair before sighing, "It doesn't seem to be interfering with any of your stats, so why is it happening now of all times?"
The robot turned his head towards him, "Fuck if I know, you're the genius here!"
"I know," he growled, "Fine, I'm gonna take you down to the lab and run some tests on it, it might be biological, though how that's possible I'm not sure yet."
"Sure," it shrugged, "-can you unplug me now then?"
"Yeah, just hang on a sec, I need to restart your system first." Sanji turned back to his screen again, and typed in a few quick hot-keys. The eyes of the robot next to him closed and his head fell down towards his chest.
Sanji stole a quick glance over at him, he was rather happy with his invention now, especially the design of it, he was sure that if you didn't know it was a robot you might mistake it for just another human; the personality still needed some work though.
After a few seconds it opened his eyes again and lifted his head, "I seriously hate it when you do that."
"Well we don't have a choice; you know the drill, after you've gotten a new system upgrade you need a restart or the new coding won't go into effect," he sighed, "How do the changes feel by the way?"
"Meh, they're fine," the robot shrugged, "-my sight is a bit sharper, and I think my reflexes have gotten quicker, but I can't say for sure until we test it."
"Good, I'll take you down to the gym after we're done at the lab then." Sanji nodded, a satisfied little smile tugged at his lips before he picked up his phone and looked at the clock; it was just past 9pm.
He looked thoughtfully at the screen for a moment before he shrugged and hit a speed-dial. If I'm lucky he might still be at the lab. It took a few rings before a slightly high-pitched, childish voice answered, "Hey Sanji, what's up?"
"Hey Chopper, are you still at the lab?"
"Yeah, I was just about to pack up though, why? Is something wrong?" The little guy sounded worried and a fond smile crossed Sanji's face at that; his young friend was always worrying about something.
"Well, there's nothing wrong with me, but something has happened to him, and I can't find anything wrong with his stats or coding, so I thought I'd bring him down and check if it might be something biological."
"What? But I didn't think he could get any biological deceases or anything."
"I know he shouldn't, but it looks like it might be," he took a drag from his cigarette, "Is it fine if I bring him down there now?"
"Oh, sure, I don't think doctorine has a problem with it either," the little guy sounded a bit apprehensive as he said it, and Sanji didn't blame him. Chopper's doctorine was an old lady called Doctor Kureha, a nasty old hag in Sanji's opinion, which was saying something as he had made it his policy to never talk badly about any woman, but she was one scary lady, and he wouldn't want to cross her, again. He shuddered at the mere thought of it.
"Oi, Dartboard Brow, we're going down to the lab or what?"
"Hmm?" he looked at the robot who was still sitting in its chair, raising an eyebrow at him, "Oh yeah, Chopper is still there, so he'll be able to help out with the testing."
The robot grunted an affirmative at that, and Sanji went over and unplugged all of the wires connected to him. "I really need to do something about all these wires," he sighed as he rolled them up and put them away in their respective boxes.
As the robot stood up, he rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms and feet. "I agree," he grunted, "I'm getting sick of us having to use more than 5 minutes just to get me hooked up to the machine every time."
"Couldn't agree with you more, I'll look around and see if anyone has any ideas sometime later this week," he nodded, "-right now though, we've got more pressing issues to deal with."
When everything was put away, and his robot had checked that everything worked like it should, they made their way down to the laboratory.
oOoOo
As Sanji opened the doors to the laboratory, he saw Chopper and another developer who worked there look over at him from across a table filled with charts; they had apparently been in a deep discussion about something before he'd entered it seemed.
He gave them both a nod, before he smiled at the other man, "Hey Law, how's your prototype coming along?"
"Oh, hey Sanji-ya," the guy scratched his neck, "I don't know man, the genetical engineering is going okay, but his energy level is still through the roof," he shrugged. "How 'bout yours?" he looked over at the robot that had just entered the room behind him, "Shit, what happened to him?"
"Yeah, that's kinda what we're here for," he shook his head, "-I have no idea, all his stats and coding are fine, except for the normal small glitches and stuff," he frowned at the robot beside him, "-it just started last night, and I haven't figured out what's wrong yet, so I think it might be some kind of biological agent that's lodged itself in him or something."
Law nodded, "Sounds like a good guess by the looks of it." He looked down on Chopper, "Thanks for the help Chopper-ya."
Chopper, who had been looking the robot beside Sanji, curiosity and awe shining in his eyes, shook his head, seemingly coming back to his senses, "Oh, yeah, sorry I couldn't be of any more help Law, maybe you should ask Doctorine about it?"
At that however Law visibly shuddered, "Nah I think I'll test out some of this stuff myself first."
"Okay," Chopper nodded in understanding before he turned to Sanji again, "Sanji, you can take Zoro with you to examination room 4, okay. I'll bring some equipment and we can start taking some samples from him there."
"Yeah sure," Sanji nodded before nudging his robot, "Come'on."
"I'll see you around Law," he nodded at the other man and they went off towards the examination rooms.
They'd barely turned the corner into the hallway however, before a mass of limbs wrapped itself around them, "Sanji! Zoro! It's been so long!"
"Hey Luffy," Sanji smiled faintly, "Why are you here?"
"Shishishi, Traffy brought me down to test a new drug on me, I don't know what it's supposed to do though." The younger boy, if you could call him that, grinned at them.
"Ah figures," Sanji sighed, before he turned his head back towards the main laboratory, "Oi Law! Your monkey has broken out of its cage again!" he shouted.
He heard some faint cursing coming from the lab before hurried footsteps rushed towards them.
"Luffy-ya let go off Sanji-ya and his prototype!" Law said sternly at the bundle of limbs that was still wrapped around them.
"But I don't want to!" the boy pouted at him.
Law shot him a smirk, "If you don't, you won't get any meat for a week."
Quick as a flash the boy dislodged himself from them and ran over to its owner, stopping right in front of him, still sporting the same pout on his face, acting more like a puppy than anything else at the moment, "You meanie! I haven't seen Sanji and Zoro in forever, and I just wanted to say hi."
Law sighed dejectedly, "You can say hi to someone without wrapping yourself around them like that!" he shot an apologetic look over at Sanji, "Sorry Sanji-ya."
"Nah don't mention it," Sanji shook his hand in front of himself, "I hope you find some kind of drug for him soon though."
"You and me both," he shook his head.
Sanji nudged his prototype again, "Come'on, we've got to get this shit checked out!"
oOoOo
As they entered the examination room, Sanji went straight over to the computers and booted up the systems, "Get yourself comfortable, this might take a while," he said to his robot, who was still standing by the door, a faint scowl on his face.
"Oh come'on don't look at me like that, we've gotta figure out what's wrong with you shithead."
The robot grumbled a short, "Fine," before it moved over to the chair next to the computers and sat down, "I don't understand him," he grumbled.
"You don't understand who?"
"Luffy," the robot said, still scowling, "Why does he act like that?"
"Ah, well," Sanji frowned as he thought about that for a few seconds, "I think it's a part of his personality to be honest, he was genetically modified when he was still an embryo, so that might have something to do with it too though," he walked over to the mass spectrometer and turned that on as well, "It's a part of what Law is trying to figure out about him, and if it's possible to tone down his hyperactivity."
"Tsc, if you ever try to make me become something like that, I'll kill you."
Sanji nodded, "No worries, I don't intend to, and if I ever do, count me as insane and kill me on the spot please."
"Gladly!" the robot grunted before he went back to scowling at the floor.
Sanji frowned at him again, but before he could do anything more, Chopper entered the room, holding vials of different sizes and a few books were stacked under his arm. "I didn't know what we'd need so I brought a bit of everything."
"Thanks Chopper, where do you think we should start?"
"Hmm, we'll need to take some samples of it, and maybe a few skin scrapings as well," he looked thoughtful for a moment, "What kind of skin have you used on him anyway?"
"The first time, I used regular PVC, but he had a lot of problems moving in it, so me and Law developed an artificial skin layer from a mix of completely broken down mice and pig DNA, and a few strands of human DNA." He looked at his prototype again, "It's the main reason I think it might be a biological problem, and not a coding-error now."
"Hmm, yeah you're right, that might be the cause," Chopper went over to one of the tables and placed the vials and books on it, "Still doesn't explain the colour and consistency though."
"No it doesn't," he shook his head, "As I said earlier, I think it might be a biological agent of some sort, but I just don't know where he would have gotten it from."
Chopper nodded as he picked up a tweezer, "True, the whole facility is supposed to be completely sterile so that none of the test subjects get infected by anything unless we give them something," he frowned, "You don't think you might have brought something in by accident though?"
"Don't think that's possible, we go through a thorough screening every time we enter the building, and I've never brought him out with me."
"Yeah that's true," Chopper looked over at the robot, who was still scowling, "He doesn't look very pleased at being here though. Is that a part of his personality coding?"
Sanji looked over at him too, "Sort of," he frowned again; by this rate he was going to get permanent wrinkles on his forehead with all the frowning he'd done over the past 24 hours. But something just felt off about him, he just couldn't put his finger on it yet, "-when I was still developing the basic coding for it, there was a glitch in the system that enabled him to learn behaviour from those around him, and well," he sighed, "-as he's mostly only in contact with me, he's mimicked my behaviour for the most part."
"For the most part?" Chopper looked curiously at him.
"Yeah, it seems like the glitch was a bit more complex than I had first anticipated, and he started developing a personality of his own, using mine as a type of basis for his own," he shrugged, "It hasn't been a huge problem yet, so I haven't tried too hard to fix it, only done some small edits to it now and then," he picked up a scalpel and moved over to his prototype, "There's one glitch I can't seem to fix though."
"There is?" Chopper took the tweezer and a vial over to where the still silent and scowling robot was sitting.
"Yeah, he's got a terrible sense of direction, he'll get lost on a straight line if I don't keep an eye on him," he sighed.
The robot shot him a glare at that, and Sanji raised an eyebrow at him, "So you were paying attention, I thought you'd gone into sleep mode."
"Like hell I could with you two talking over my head," the robot growled.
"Oi, don't scare our little lab-technician," he shot back as Chopper had jumped back from them, a startled look on his face.
The robot lowered his gaze to look at the younger guy, his eyes softening a little, "I'm sorry Chopper, I didn't mean to scare you," a gentle smile crossed his lips, "-are you okay?"
"Oh, uh, yeah," Chopper nodded and moved over to him again, though a little more cautiously than before.
Sanji stared at his robot perplexed; this was a new side of him that he hadn't seen before. Was this because of the update or was it his personality coding that was evolving again? He shook his head; he would have to run a new diagnosis on it later. He was sure he'd double and tripled checked the coding though, and nothing had seemed out of the ordinary, so why were there so many new things he hadn't noticed before now? He shook his head, "You might as well go into sleep mode while we work though," he said to the robot who'd proceeded to start staring at the wall while he'd been lost in thought.
"This chair isn't exactly comfortable, Curly!"
Sanji raised an eyebrow at him again, "It's never stopped you before shithead."
"Well it does now," he grunted.
"Hmm, fine, go lay down on the examination table then," Sanji pointed at a cushioned table on the opposite side of the room, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"What is it, Sanji?" Chopper asked a little timidly.
"He got an update today," he said absentmindedly as he watched his robot walk over and lay down on the table.
"I thought that was a good thing?" Chopper said, looking confusedly at the robot and then up at Sanji.
"It usually is," he frowned, again, "-but there seems to have been a lot of bugs in this one," he clutched the bridge of his nose, "He's doing a lot of stuff I've not seen him do before, and he's definitely never complained about something being uncomfortable before either."
"Oh, but I thought you said all his stats and coding was fine."
Sanji nodded, "They were."
"Are you two going to get on with it, or am I going to have to lie here all night?" The robot sighed exasperated from the table.
Shaking his head again he looked down on the little lab-technician beside him, "Right, let's get started Chopper, or Kureha will have my head for keeping you occupied for too long,"
oOoOo
"This just doesn't make any sense," Sanji stared into the screen in front of him; a deep frown had been permanently etched onto his face now.
"I know," Chopper sighed from where he was peering into a microscope, several books lay open on the table next to him, "-but we've triple checked all the samples, and there's no doubt about it."
"Yeah, I know," Sanji took a deep drag from his cigarette, and leant back in his chair, "-but a mutation like this shouldn't be able to happen over night, right?"
"Well, there have been cases of semiconservative replications acting this rapidly before, but that's mostly been in viruses," Chopper frowned as well, "-but this isn't acting like any virus I've ever seen, and we've already established that it's harmless."
"True, it hasn't spread to any other part of him, and it hasn't interfered with his system either," he took a sip of his coffee, "-and it's not contagious at all either."
"Yeah that's true too," Chopper rubbed his eyes and looked up at the clock; it was nearing 3am, "I don't know what else we can do tonight though," he yawned, "-there haven't been any new replication forks for almost an hour, and we won't know if there will be any new mutations for at least another two or three."
Sanji peered over at the sleeping robot again, "Yeah you're right, it does look like it has stopped replicating for now," he rubbed his eyes as well, "Why don't we try get a few hours of shut eye, and continue the testing in the morning, we'll know more by then hopefully."
Chopper nodded, "Yeah," he looked over at the sleeping robot as well, "What are you going to do with him in the meantime? Put him in quarantine?"
"Nah, I'll let him sleep in here since we already know he's not contagious," he looked over at the other examination table, "I was thinking of doing the same actually, there's no use going home now anyway."
"Okay, but," Chopper looked at him, biting his lip, "You know Doctorine has said that no one is allowed to sleep down here, right?"
"I know," Sanji sighed; he really didn't want to get on the wrong side of Dr. Kureha again, but it wasn't like he was planning on sleeping more than a couple of hours anyway. "I'm sure it'll be fine Chopper, so don't worry about it, okay."
"Okay, if you're sure," Chopper jumped down from his chair and picked up his bag, before heading to the door, "I'll check in on you later then."
"Yeah, now go get some rest before Kureha beheads the both of us," he waved a hand at him, and the little guy trotted off.
"Oi Ero-Dev, I don't need you to watch over me, so piss off and go home already!"
"Tsc, how long have you been awake?" Sanji looked over at the robot who was still lying on the table with his eyes closed.
"Long enough," he opened his eyes and looked over at him, "So you still don't know what's wrong then?"
Sanji sighed, he wasn't in the mood to gibe with the robot now, "Not yet, no."
"Figures," the robot snorted, "So what? I'm just going to stay here and do nothing for the rest of the night then?"
"That's the plan, I don't want you wandering around the lab alone, especially now," he raked a hand through his hair, "So yeah, you're gonna stay here and do jack shit while I sleep for a few hours."
"Hmph, fine," the robot slumped his head back on the pillow, and stared up at the ceiling, "I still don't need a damn babysitter though!"
"Well tough shit, I'm not risking going for a drive now anyway," Sanji got up from his chair and swayed a little on the spot, he was definitely in desperate need of sleep at this point. When was the last time he'd slept anyways? Yesterday? The day before that? He seriously couldn't remember anymore. "If you're so desperate for something to do, why don't you be my damn alarm clock and wake me up in three hours?"
"Sure," the robot grunted and looked over at him again, his eyebrows slightly creased.
Is that concern in his eyes? Sanji frowned before he shook his head again, making his vision swim for a moment.
"Just go to sleep fucker, before you collapse on the damn floor."
"Mm, yeah," he steadied himself against the table for a second, waiting for the dizziness to fade a little so he could move again. "Fuck, feels like I've downed ten shots of vodka and a bottle of gin," he rubbed a hand over his forehead.
"You need me to carry you, princess?" the robot said sarcastically as he shot him a sly smirk.
"Fuck you!" Sanji shot his head up and glared at him. A moment later however he knew he shouldn't have done that, an icy cold feeling suddenly ran down from his head and into his body and he watched as in slow-motion how his vision slowly became darker and darker before everything went completely black.
oOoOo
"Oi Shit-Dev!"
Sanji heard someone talking to him from a distance away, but his mind felt hazy and sluggish.
"Oi fucker! It's been three hours already!"
He turned his head towards the voice, someone was talking to him, but it was hard to make out the words, "What?" he yawned sluggishly.
"Oh for crying out loud! Why are you always like this?"
Opening his eyes, bright light pierced his vision and he had to blink a few times. After a few moments his vision cleared and he saw his robot was standing over him, looking exasperated. "Oh it's you."
"Of course it's me bastard, you told me to wake you up after three hours," the robot growled, "-and it's been three hours now!"
"Ugh, fine," Sanji rolled over onto his back, "Is there any coffee left?"
"Yes," the robot held out a mug for him, steam rising from it and the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted from it, "Law came by with a thermos with it about 20 minutes ago, he said you'd want it when you woke up."
Sanji slowly sat up and took his mug, "Law came by?"
"Mhm."
"Hmm, he probably noticed I didn't go home then," he yawned again and rubbed his neck with his free hand, "Well at least it wasn't Kureha."
"No," the robot went over and sat down on his examination table again, smirking ever so slightly, "But Law told me to tell you she would most likely come by within the next hour."
"Fuck!" Sanji nearly chocked on his coffee at that before he hastily jumped off the table and hurried over to the computers, "Why didn't you tell me that right away?" There was a hint of panic in his voice as he quickly typed in a few commands on the keyboard.
"Um, you didn't exactly give me any time to mention it shithead, and I've told you now, so what's the problem?"
Sanji sighed, "Oh never mind, come over here and sit in the chair again," he waved a hand in the direction of the chair while his eyes were still glued to the screen, trying to make sense of what he was looking at, "We need to make it look like we've been working all night!"
"You might want to do something about that hair of yours then," the robot snorted as he made his way over to him.
"Don't tell me," Sanji shot his hand up and felt his hair; it was sticking out at odd angles, "-damn." Glancing hastily around the room his eyes landed on a sink in the far corner, it would have to do.
Rushing over to it, he rinsed his face and soaked his hair as quickly as he could, not bothering with soap or any other disinfectant, though he probably should have used that as well. If Dr. Kureha was indeed on her way there, not using soap would be the least of his problems anyway.
I'm so, so sorry it ends so abruptly! I really wish I knew how to continue it!
