Disclaimer - I do not own Sonic or any other characters. They are property of SEGA and anything Sonic the hedgehog affiliated with it.
For those who like the book cover here is the image I commissioned; google it
/art/Commission-TimeCrisis2-307085714
Could artificial intelligence become sentient? Designed in such a way to go beyond its programming and gain awareness? Aware of emotions and other abilities only organic beings could experience? Was it possible under extreme and unreal circumstances? What type of action was there for someone or something, itching, writhing, to feel the electric touch of life? Nicole the Lynx, once compact, now had her own free movement within the city of New Mobotropolis as of late. She was in fact that AI...
She gave the impression that she had a personality because of her excellent programming, or so she told them. They did not know as much as they thought they knew about her. However, her friends considered her to have her own persona. With recent expansions, Nicole was omnipresent inside New Mobotropolis. Watching the citizens move about the city through cameras, shopping in stores, constructing new structures, observing the city bustling from a peripheral high on a hill a distance from the inner city.
All of New Mobotropolis was still fairly recent. Having a semblance of a normally operating city had all organic life still getting used to living in society, per se. The city was really a small community still. Adjusting after many years of destruction and threats from Eggman in the Knothole, which had been destroyed. She even created a holographic image of herself in recent times because she wanted to interact with the physical environment more. With the resources of New Mobotropolis, she now could preserve her holographic form for as long as she wanted. Though, today she remained mostly formless, not needing to show herself, watching the lives of people through the many cameras of the city. She was looking through a particular security camera in a break room in the castle right now, knowing one of her friends was about to enter.
All the while processing the conundrum that continued to elude her….
Sally entered the room, and she grabbed a glass cup out of a cabinet and got water from a water cooler. Then Sally spoke aloud in the room, knowing she would hear her. Telling her that after walking in the sun all day, she felt like her body was on fire. Nicole watched the slight contractions her body made as she began drinking the liquid.
With a large "Ahhhh!" her body would loosen and Nicole watched from the camera, wondering if she could ever experience it again…
Nicole materialized into the room, holding a neutral expression on her holographic face. Sally glanced over at Nicole without saying a word, and she got more water to drink. She then took a seat at one of the many tables to drink this time. Nicole remained quiet while Sally was drinking her water, knowing she would speak when she finished. Nicole looked at a counter she stood next to. She put her hand to it and squeezed it... hard...
She registered it and the software and nanites that concentrated the energy around her hologram, so she could touch physical objects, told her she connected with the object. She felt nothing….
Thought was all she could do now, ever since then...
She lifted her hand from the counter, staring blankly at her hand. Despite everything she'd known… all the knowledge and information she amassed over the life of her operation…
It was unlike anything she ever experienced…
She hadn't been able to classify it since it happened… it was like an illusion….
When she… felt…
For the first and only time ever since she existed….
Nicole ran a search on the Internet as Sally lounged in this break room sipping her drink. She looked for facts, information, and research about the chemical reactions that caused emotions. It was one of a few interconnecting topics that had her interest for a while now.
After the brief time she switched bodies with Sally, being back in her current form, circuitry and metal, all she could do was think, she could not understand… it… anymore…
Though she had experienced emotions temporarily, for the first time as well, she could only remember the experience. She could not remember how it… felt... only the thought of it...
It was a like a magic trick. It was mind-boggling. She could remember the memory of what happened, but couldn't feel it. The past few years of her work around the city had been distracting...
Sonic...
Something modified in her OS after she saw him… after she felt him…
Something in her changed…
When Sonic was in her presence, after her body switch with Sally, she could not focus on her task. What intrigued her most was that she did not mind. In all the years of her existence, she put no priority above her operating task, and as time went on, it became worse. It had never been the same since she saw him in Sally's body...
It'd gone on for some time now, and her unsettled thoughts had led her to this present moment where she had been making plans, following that day in the Knothole...
He affected her so much that when he came around; she allowed lenience on her endless task of running the city. As her awareness grew do that experience, she wanted a body in recent times...
It was all that ran through her CPU every day for the last few years. But she stopped processing as Sonic walked into the room. He walked past Sally, exchanging a brief greeting with her, and walked over to a pop machine. He deposited money into the machine and looked at her, staring at him with her usual neutral expression.
"Hey Nicole." he said, guzzling his drink with a stoic face.
Nicole spoke in a neutral tone, forming a smile on her holographic face. "Hello Sonic. How has your day been faring?"
Ever since the body switch with Sally, she wanted to recall the things she felt. But as hard as she tried, she could not "It's been cool, I..." Sonic glanced at the clock on the wall. His eyes widened in surprise. "I'm late!"
He downed his soda and dashed out of the room, taking a glance at Sally as he left the room. Nicole focused on him. She used processing power and took notice of subtleties about him. His facial muscles formed a frown as he looked at Sally. They had just recently broken up...
After her temporary body switch with Sally... she had her own... thoughts... now...
Soon though, Sally finally spoke rambling about Sonic. Nicole walked over and took a seat with her at the table. Sally knew Nicole couldn't understand what she was feeling, but she didn't care, and it was true. Nicole understood nothing Sally said when she talked about 'How she felt'. She talked about Sonic for a while and dismissed herself. She was late now too. After she left, Nicole looked at the glass Sally had drunk out of. She picked up the cup and squeezed it. The glass broke, but she felt nothing. Her thoughts remained curious, though, with the blank expression of her holographic face.
With a look at her unscathed hand, she moved each finger, and the hologram emulation software that projected her told her that region sixty-six of her hologram was moving. She wanted to feel emotions like organic's again. Just once more…
Hoping that if it was possible, she could make it permanent, as these last few years her thoughts were getting the better of her...
Every passing year, she became more preoccupied with wanting a body. So much so, she'd been taking actions to create an organic physical form. It all interconnected with what she had to do, so it was just another piece of the plan. Which luckily, now, she had the resources at her disposal to take the actions she needed. There was still minor confusion about life energy, or whatever you wanted to call it. The soul… life force…
Though she already had concrete information on that subject already…
Soon though, she became uninterested in the broken glass and dematerialized out of the room to continue her work of running the city today…
Later that night…
Most organic beings retired to sleep and, seeing as she didn't sleep, she kept operating throughout the night. It had been a busy day and although it had been so; she did not use her holographic self-most of this particular day. Solving most issues, she encountered remotely. It was not like that most days, though. Most days she was in her holographic form. She was sure tomorrow it would be busier. Her portable was with Sally in her room, and she had just retired to sleep. She did process how her relationship with Sally would change in the coming weeks…
She spent much time with Sally, since the days of the Knothole. Her friendship with her was close… she wondered if that would carry over…
Nicole re-materialized in a secret dungeon in Castle Acorn. A room filled with computers, medical equipment, beakers, chemicals and a large tank with greenish liquid. Inside the liquid, the body of a female lynx floated unconsciously. An oxygen mask wrapped around her face with a tube attached to it leading out of the tank to a machine providing oxygen. Also, wrapped in a harness on with its own tubes and wires leading out the tank. Brown fur, jet black hair, and black fur lines across its cheeks and down her nose. Its eyes closed, unmoving. Nicole finished typing on a computer and walked over to the tank to stare at her body.
Her body had grown to a more striking resemblance to her. Her body was close to the desired state of development. She would need to act soon…
She turned around and walked back over to one computer in the room to track the development of her body. She thought of being alive… to feel again…
This part of her plans had been in the works for some time now. The experience of physical sensation had blown her mind the brief time she had switched bodies with Sally. Every brief touch on Sally's body, the smallest breeze of air that moved across Sally's body, ingrained itself into Nicole's memory. Recorded memory of the incident was placed into a special folder on her SSD no one knew of…
She could not forget the memory while in Sally's body…
Though she could not currently feel or remember how it felt. It was driving her to think in ways she never had. With certainty, she decided that she wanted to achieve physical sensation again. And now that the city had the capacities she'd been waiting for, she was going full forward with her plans. As she tapped the keys on the computer's keyboard in this room, she had a blank face on her holographic form. She registered region sixty-six and sixty-seven were touching objects as she typed. She had motives she finally wanted to complete...
What is Nicole up to? Find out next time! Later.