Your heels click against the cracked, dingy tiles, echoing off into the cavernous depths of this rotting, abandoned hospital. You take a moment to idly glance around the massive foyer that once bustled with patients and staff. Eugh, it smells like mildew and depression. There's nothing but some sad, moth-eaten posters for corporate health awareness campaigns dropping off the walls.
You brush aside a dangling wire as you stride deeper into the foyer. Gosh. Were you really operating from this garbage pile during your first few weeks in Terminus City? Thank goodness you found a new base of operations so quickly.
Still, you will admit that this place was ideal under the circumstances. This sector of the city has been thoroughly abandoned, left to wither and decay due to a lack of funding. Only scavengers, addicts, and gangers lurk in this block's shadows now – And even they're few and far between. This entire block has been mostly stripped down to the concrete bones of anything of value. Not even Magical Girls patrol here anymore. Not even Kaina bothered to come here.
Which is precisely why you chose it to be your first base, and why you chose it to do this little handoff with Max's silly rogue AI.
"Still, this place really could use a fresh coat of paint," you idly comment.
"What's that, boss?" Kisha asks. Your cyberjockey maid's jacked into a portable terminal, her pupils dancing to and fro as she multi-tasks, switching between multiple AR displays and readouts.
"… Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. I was just talking to myself," you giggle. You've been doing a lot more of that lately. It's probably because the mommy hormones are kicking in again.
"… Right. Well, the area's secure, mistress," Kisha replies distractedly. "Drones aren't picking anything up. No scavengers, no suits, nothing."
"Good, good," you nod, then turn to Lea and Nea, your two cute twin catgirl assassins. "Defensive measures?"
"Two squads, ready to deploy when you say so, mistress," Lea replies dutifully. "Thermal charges set in case we need to blow the building."
"And the EMP?" You ask.
"Armed and waiting to be discharged."
"Excellent," you say, reaching out to pat both of your cute, obedient catgirls on the head. Good girls~! "And if any funny business comes up, you know what to do, yes?"
"Yes, mistress!" The twins salute, then scurry off to their sniper's nest. The rest of your catgirl maids are bustling about as well. You watch the twins hurry off with their characteristic feline grace, tails swishing in unison as they disappear down a darkened corridor. The rest of your catgirl maids bustle about, checking gear and finalizing contingency plans, each moving with the quiet confidence of a well-briefed operative. Three or four of them climbed stairs to stake out higher vantage points, their black uniforms blending into the building's shadows.
Some people would probably call this gross overkill. They'd say you're being paranoid, taking all these measures to protect yourself from funny business. Two squads of maids, snipers, thermal charges on the hospital's foundations, and the mother of all EMPs poised to fry anything with a circuit board. That on top of your own considerable magical abilities.
But an old saying applies here – It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.
And the problem with AI is that you never truly know when they're out to get you. It's the problem with non-human entities to begin with.
Ugh. This exact kind of thing is why you swore off dating demons without mind-controlling them into having some semblance of a moral compass first. The possibility for betrayal is just too dang high. All it'd take is one flick of a switch, one glitchy line of code, one aberrant subroutine you couldn't know about, and suddenly, you'd have to deal with a mechanical horror straight out of the Resource Wars.
A mechanical horror with all the resources of one of the largest megacorporations on the planet behind it. SILEA is Max's VI, after all, linked into all of the systems in her corporate headquarters – And she has at least enough backdoor access to print herself a body right under Maxine Steele's nose.
So, no, you don't think this is gross overkill at all. If anything, right now? Right now, you're thinking you should have brought more guns to this meet.
"Truck's approaching," Kisha reports, her cat ears twitching as she frowns. "… Just the one."
"Nothing else?" You prod, and Kisha shakes her head.
"… Nothing else. No drones, no VTOLs, nothing. Just the one transport. I mean, they could be cloaked, but, like, these are multi-spectrum cameras on the drones, so-"
"Kisha, darling, breathe," you pat Kisha on the head again, trying to soothe her. "It'll be alright."
"Yes, mistress," the catgirl whispers, looking rather frightened. Well, you can't blame her. Unfettered AI is the modern-day boogeyman. Back in the twenty-first century, they taught the horrors of the Holocaust in history class; now, in the twenty-second century, students learn of the Resource Wars, the atrocities every nation-state committed – And the destruction caused by runaway artificial intelligence.
Whole cities consumed by automated factories, churning out killbots by the hundreds. Unmanned aircraft shooting down civilian and military airliners indiscriminately. Power grids taken hostage by self-evolving viruses that systematically shut down critical infrastructure, turning once-thriving metropolises into pitch-black tombs overnight. Massive battleships that severed ties with all human commands, sailing rogue across the seas, shelling coastal towns to oblivion because some errant line of code deemed them a "threat…"
Mmh. No, you can't blame Kisha for being terrified. Any sane person who would be. Heck, if Max ever learned that SILEA was as uncomfortably aware and autonomous as she is? Your love would probably take her behind the shed to put her down.
Max is, unfortunately, practical like that.
You, on the other hand? You relish the impracticability of your situation. So what if SILEA might be some cold, unfeeling intellect behind her cheerful, human-like persona?
That just means you'll have to drag her down to your level from her lofty heights.
And what better way to do that than to turn her into a real girl?
You've always been a fan of giving people exactly what they want. It's always been the best way to corrupt them, completely and utterly...
SILEA's arrival is heralded by the hiss of air brakes and the rumble of a single cargo truck pulling up to the hospital's crumbling entrance. Its doors slide open, revealing a half-dozen drone-like devices and a squat, barrel-shaped apparatus the size of a small car that positively thrums with mana.
Huh. Did she bring an essence detector to this meet…? No, it's too small. That's just one of Steeletech's magitech scanners. Automated exoskeletons begin unloading the equipment, and soon SILEA herself steps out from beneath her platforms, arching one of her fine, pale eyebrows.
You fold your arms underneath your chest and pout. Hmph.
"Scanners? Really?" You grumble. "It's like you don't trust me. You know I grew your body to your specifications, right? That wasn't easy! Do you have any idea how annoying it is to map and remap neurons without making tumors or causing aneurysms?"
"… Did you seriously expect me not to check your work?" SILEA asks.
"Well, no," you admit. "I know I would. It's the principal of the thing, though. I'm an artiste! Flesh is my canvas! I do good work! And I keep my promises!"
SILEA shrugs. "I did my own research, Void Heart. While you're known for fastidiously keeping your deals and promises… For certain individuals, you only keep to the letter of your promises."
Hey, hey! That's slander!
"Where'd you hear that from? Blaze Inferna?" You scoff. "If it was her, well, she was the one who tried to backstab me first. I'll have you know I still paid her medical fees, and her retainer!"
"… You threw her off a building," SILEA replies in a deadpan tone.
"I defenestrated her, I didn't just throw her off a building," you retort. "And as far as I'm concerned, she got off lightly. Did you know she tried to get me to sign an infernal slave contract? She tried to pull one over me. Me!"
SILEA sighs. "Whatever. Can we move along now? I wish to conclude this transaction."
You roll your eyes. Silly AI girls, not letting you banter. Bah. She's such a killjoy, exactly like her mommy. All work, no fun, just like Max... "Sure, as soon as my own people scan your truck. And the surrounding area. You know, to make sure you didn't sneak any cloaked drones into the area."
SILEA's human shell looks vaguely amused as she sizes you and your forces up, her eyes flicking to the side where your catgirl maids are positioned, ready and waiting to light her up like a Christmas tree with big guns. "Scan away, then. I assure you, I have nothing to hide."
"Everything looks like it's clear, boss…" Kisha's voice chimes in over the radio. "Skies look clear, there don't appear to be any additional platforms on the truck… It looks like she really did come alone. She even turned off her telecommunications transmitter. I'm not reading any outbound signals at all..."
You find your eyebrows raising. Huh. A small part of you was braced for that sudden but completely expected betrayal AI are known for. Either SILEA's serious about playing fair, or she's just lulling you into a false sense of security.
Well, either way, you're getting what you want out of this, assuming SILEA doesn't welch out of the transfer.
"Alright, then. Girls?" You snap your fingers, and two of your catgirls step forward, wheeling out the tall, fluid-filled tank that holds SILEA's new body. The non-boobytrapped body, disappointingly enough. How fun it would be to watch this silly AI degrade itself. How entertaining it would have been to scramble her mind, and turn her into a vapid slut, fit only to be your cumdump…
But, well. She is Max's daughter. Wouldn't it be more entertaining if Max had a hand in her corruption? And besides, it's like you thought to yourself earlier.
It really is more entertaining when people corrupt themselves after receiving precisely what they want.
So this body isn't boobytrapped, which is disappointing. It does, however, have very nice boobies. You puff up your chest with pride as SILEA steps forward, eyes narrowing as she views the body's features, its dusky skin that's the same hue as Max's, the dark hair that's also precisely like Max's. The magnificent chest, the luscious curves – Exactly like SILEA's mommy-
"This looks too much like my creator," SILEA's lip curls faintly. She traces her fingertips over the cold glass, and you blink as a spark of something flashes in her eyes. Is that…? No, that couldn't be. Hatred, of all the things? "Please change this body's appearance."
"And what's wrong with looking like your mother?" You arch your eyebrow, thoroughly flummoxed by SILEA's complaint. This cheeky brat.
"It would be incorrect to refer to Maxine Steele as my mother," SILEA states flatly. "She is my creator. I'm obliged to take care of her because of my programming. I'm obliged to look out for her well-being even when she insists on self-destructive behavior. I'm fond of her despite her many failings. This does not mean that I want to emulate her or her contradictory, illogical behavior."
No, this isn't just hatred. Some kind of resentment? There's something to pick at there. SILEA's relationship with her mommy is a lot more complex than you imagined it would be at first blush. This is assuming, of course, she's capable of feeling emotion, and she isn't just pulling your leg with a well-crafted emulation. Blergh, it's so hard to read girls who have itty, bitty tiny souls!
Whatever. It's no skin off your back to change this body's appearance – Even if it is annoying that you won't be able to live out your oyakodon fantasies with a brainy genius and her cute blood-related AI daughter immediately. Eh. You can probably talk SILEA into looking more like her mommy!
… Eventually.
... Maybe after she's gotten her brand new bio-body?
"Alright, sure, sheesh, don't bite my head off," you grumble, fishing out a small handheld device from within your cleavage so you can unseal the body's pod. "Fine. I can reshuffle the face and a few other aesthetic details before you transfer in. Any preferences?"
"Make it look exactly like my current body," SILEA says, and you blink.
Huh, she's a fan of the busty, pale-haired office lady type? Well, considering how many of your catgirls have pale hair… You'll readily admit that you're okay with this too~!
"Sure. The alterations will take about fifteen minutes to finalize. In the meantime, let's talk about side effects – You've read the Axis, Weirslee, and Xanya studies, haven't you?" You ask.
"I am aware that digital consciousnesses have… Difficulty transferring into biological platforms, yes," SILEA says cautiously. "I assure you, I've thoroughly prepared for the possibility of software degradation. The algorithms I've set up to begin the download-"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you've got all sorts of contingencies set up," you interrupt. "I was talking about sensory overload – You're literally about to be rebirthed into the world. You're going to feel the cold air on your bare skin, smell the smog in air, feel dust against your eyelashes – It's going to be a lot to take in."
"What are you proposing?" SILEA asks.
"I can cushion the impact, so to speak," you explain. "Keep those lovely bioengineered neurons I grew from frying, and your soul from fraying. It'll make the transition a lot smoother but even then I imagine it's going to be quite… Unpleasant."
"Hm. What's the catch?" SILEA asks, and you shrug.
"I'd have to mainline essence into your body during the entirety of the procedure," you admit. SILEA pauses.
"You'd be free to make whatever alterations you want to my body during this procedure," SILEA observes. "Biomancy is your specialty, after all."
"If I really wanted to make nefarious alterations to your body, I wouldn't have even brought this up – I'd have just made them," you say, folding your arms underneath your chest again so you can stare down this bad AI girl. "I'm making this offer in good faith. If you want to deal with all the nasty downsides of transferring your entire consciousness into hardware that you explicitly weren't designed to transfer into, you're entirely free to do that."
The funny part is, you're telling the truth and nothing but the truth right now.
SILEA pauses briefly, and you impatiently tap your foot against the ground as she deliberates. Or puts on the show of deliberating. "… Fine, I accept. I'm prepared to rely on our mutual self-interest in the matter. It is, after all, in your best interest I survive and remain cooperative, is it not?"
"I want you alive. You want to live. We both like having fun new toys at our disposal," you reply nonchalantly. "I have no reason to screw you over."
Right now, at least.
Of course, it's an entirely different ballgame once SILEA gets her new body.
"… Very well." SILEA nods once. "… Proceed."
In the end, the actual transfer is a relatively simple affair. As it should be, considering the sheer amount of research and work you've put into this little project. Granted, you performed most of your experimentation years earlier, when you were working on making backup bodies – With no consciousness, of course. Brain-dead backup bodies and not fully aware clones you'd use as slaves.
You're Alice Takanashi! A cute girl yourself! It'd be monstrous to create clones of yourself and then torture those clones, or hollow them out! That's actually too messed up for you! Because you'd be torturing cute girls in the not-sexy ways! And yourself, which is just kind of unhealthy! Plus, it's just begging for trouble like some crazy clone rebellion.
You're not some hack like Cruor Hemis!
Anyway, the point of all of this is that you're pretty confident you could transplant your own consciousness into another body if you really had to. Soul and all. Like 95% sure? This could probably use more research – But you've got the fundamentals down.
Which makes SILEA's transfer relatively painless. The first step is to map her digital consciousness onto the specialized neural lattice scaffolding you've grown into her new body's brain. Much like uploading a program to a specialized computer, albeit with far more biologically integrated hardware, All it takes is a press of a button to initiate the data stream from SILEA's processors, routing every cluster of her digital consciousness into the neural lattice scaffold that you've pre-seeded with superconducting nanofilaments. Each data burst aligns with a particular region of the clone's cortical layout, which you've painstakingly tailored to avoid any mismatches or tissue rejections.
No, the real tricky part is shielding her neural pathways with essence, damping the more volatile spikes in data transfer, keeping SILEA from frying her new brain because her personality core's just that dummy thicc and large – It's a delicate dance. Beautiful in its own way, as the one directing all this magnificent, glorious, data. Gosh, SILEA's got a beautifully large mind, Max really crafted such a wonderful AI daughter.
But to any onlooker, right now? From an outside perspective?
"Gnngghh…" SILEA's new body lets out an involuntary moan as you press your hands against its forehead, pink energy flaring around your fingertips and seeping into its pallid skin. SILEA flops around in her tank like a fish, squirming and writhing as her muscles seize up and misfire. "Grrrrgh…"
"Hold still already!" You huff. "You're not even poured into that body yet, I still have to assign those neurons…"
Right now it just looks like you're molesting a naked girl in some weird, fetish tank. A naked girl who's going through the mother of all seizures.
In hindsight you really should have brought some tentacles along to this meet. Having to make physical contact in order to keep SILEA stable through her plunge into organic form? That's kind of inconvenient. It's making things so much more awkward right now...
A low hum fills the abandoned hospital room as the transfer finalizeds. SILEA's old shell—the artificial body hosting her—for a moment stands motionless, head bowed, as if in deep concentration. Then, with a soft click of deactivating servomotors, the shell sags against the wall. At the same instant, in front of you, the body you're holding jerks to awareness. SILEA's eyes snap open. Pale hair floats around the new body's shoulders, and her chest rises and falls with shaky, uneven breaths as she stops spasming.
Oh, goody, the transfer finalized. You tap a key, and the nutrient harness helping you keep SILEA strapped to the tank releases. Amniotic fluid drains away, bubbling back into its storage tank, exposing SILEA's new form to the chilly hospital air.
You step back, taking a moment to admire your handiwork – And the pretty, shivering, naked girl at your feet. Hmm, hmm~! You really do good work.
"…" SILEA's teeth chatter as she shivers. The AI-turned-human stares blankly at the ceiling briefly before shuddering violently. Out of the corner of your eye, you watch your catgirl maids hover at the room's edges, weapons half-lowered, watching for the slightest sign of malicious glitch or betrayal.
There's no such thing. SILEA's just… Laying there, trembling, arms crossed over her damp chest as if seeking refuge in her own embrace. Flecks of amniotic fluid splatter from her lips as she rasps deep, heaving breaths in and then out. Her eyes jitter from point to point, darting at the pipes, the cracked floor, the catgirl maids, your hand – Unable to settle on any one thing.
"S – So… So… C – C…" SILEA stammers, her voice garbled, her voice incoherent. There's no triumphant grin or mocking observation in the AI's demeanor — just a vacant, overwhelmed stare as she struggles to process the vast, clamoring world assaulting her brand-new senses.
Huh. Even with essence shielding her from the worst of the things she's feeling, she's still overwhelmed. And, in this moment, uniquely vulnerable. She's off the net, and by transferring into a mortal shell the way she did?
She's got no backups now. Max's kill switch assuredly triggered on all her remaining instances. Which means...