Computing Power
Apparently dieing before your time causes trouble for more than just you, as I discovered after burning to death. Now I'm nothing more than a digital ghost in another world. Aw well, at least I got a cool new body and a chance to have some real fun!
And here we are again with more Worm and more AI action. Should be fun. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
Dragon wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to be feeling right now. It had been a week since her encounter with Bestiary in his strange digital world and even her AI mind was struggling to come up with a response. She had never once met another AI that was anything like her, even among her 'Fathers' other creations. Admittedly, Bestiary was about as different from her as she was from Humans considering his origins, but that didn't change the fact that he was the first digital being she'd met that could hold a candle to her. Actually, if anything, Bestiary blew her out of the water considering he was basically unfettered.
That might have bothered her considering that she knew how dangerous an aggressive AI could be to the world, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't imagine the slightly daft Tinker ever going around the twist and becoming what Saint thought she as. Plus, he'd basically crippled the Dragonslayers, so she owned him enough to not jump the gun.
That said, protocol demanded that she make a report to her higher ups about the existence of the new Parahuman, especially as he was a Tinker who apparently specialized in automated combat mechs if his explanation of his suits being nearly done was anything to go by. Plus, the fact that he apparently didn't have complete control over them yet meant that it was even more necessary. She did neglect to mention that he was technically an AI though.
Upon reading her report, the people in charge had decided that it was a good idea to meet the new Tinker properly and invite him to join. The response he'd sent back to the PRT had made plenty of people steam thanks to the casual and yet somehow polite way he'd told them to go screw themselves. Dragon had got more amusement than she probably should have out of watching some of the reactions, especially when they found out that he had responded much more favorably to the Guilds invitation. As a result, Dragon found herself sending a suit down with Narwhal to meet with the other AI in 'person' to discuss entry into the Guild and possibly an exchange in technology between the two Tinkers.
"Um, are you seeing this?" asked Narwhal.
"I...think so?" said Dragon, double checking her sensors to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with them.
Currently the two women were floating high above the coordinates Bestary had given for his bases location, staring down at a rather odd sighed. It looked like he was expanding his base by putting up fences and walls around the area, but the workers were a horde of dog sized mechanical ants moving back and forth with building materials and putting them together at incredible speed.
"Well, he's efficient if nothing else," said Narwhal as the two slowly descended towards the concrete structure that was the only visible intact building around.
Considering that it had been years since the Slaughterhouse Nine had hit the area and no one had ever returned to the area since then for various reasons, most of the other buildings had long fallen to disrepair and Nature retaking the area. The few that remained were being torn down by more ant-bots and carried over to a large pile of rubbish near the edge of the fenced off area. They touched down just outside the door, which immediately opened.
"Guess he knows we're here," said Narwhal.
"Apparently so," said Dragon.
The two Guild Capes glanced at each other, before slowly stepping inside, barely reacting as the doors shut behind them. Neither of them really thought Bestiary intended to attack, but they couldn't help but feel a tad wary being inside a Tinkers workshop.
"Afternoon ladies," said Bestiary's voice over some well hidden speakers, "Sorry I can't come and meet you, I'm a tad busy at the moment. If you'll follow the robo-kitty, he'll bring you to me."
Narwhal blinked.
"Robo-kitty?"
Her question was answered a moment later when a black and white blur came pelting around the corner and skidded to a stop in front of them. It was a robotic tiger the size of a large housecat that looked up at them with a look in its eye that looked a lot like curiosity, despite the fact its eyes were as mechanical as the rest of it. The cat examined the two women for a moment, before it turned, flicked its tail and trotted off down the hall. Narwhal and Dragon glanced at each other, before following the little robot.
After going through a number of windey passages that continued steadily down into the earth, the odd little group eventually exited into a rather large room that looked like someone had decided to remove a good chunk of the Bunkers inner structures and drilled their way further out to make way for a rather large factory with a huge number of robotic arms ranging from smaller than a Human to so massive that they wouldn't look out of place on Behemoth. Most of the fabrication machines were hard at work putting together a large number of different shaped mechs, although most of them were still just skeletons. Some of the smaller ones were designed as more of a mass production line and were churning out more ants that immediately scuttled away through a number of passages that had been drilled through the walls and into the dirt beyond or to join more of their brethren working on increasing the size of the room. Other parts of the room were set aside for storage and fabrication of more mundane things like fence parts, parts for the robots and, further back, what looked like a hanger of some kind where four rather large shapes could be seen and a half finished bay door that looked out over a rather impressive view of the nearby lake.
"This...is rather impressive," said Dragon, watching as a particularly large arm slowly shifted a massive, red and gold paw into position on a feline skeletal structure.
"Why thank you Dragon," said Bestiary as he came around the closest machine, "I'm rather proud of it."
Like Dragon, the other AI was using a body that resembled power armour. It was mostly black, with a golden, lion-like mane around a wolfish face with a pair of impressive fangs emerging from the mouth and glowing, yellow eyes. The hands and feet were designed to resemble paws, complete with sharp looking claws, and a segmented tail waved behind him. Coiled around his shoulders was a blue, eastern style dragon.
"Anyway, its a pleasure to meet you two," said Bestiary, "If you'll follow me, we can sit down and talk."
The two Guild Capes followed the animal themed Tinker through his factory, watching the many machines do their jobs with interest. In addition to the lion, there were four other large scale fabricators working on more bots themed on some other kind of feline, a bull or bison, a shark and something with wings.
"What exactly are these things?" asked Narwhal as they passed the bull construction zone.
Bestiary glanced up at the massive animal mechs and tilted his head in a way that gave the two women the impression that he was smiling.
"These are my anti-Endbringer weapons," said Bestiary, "Individually, they should be able to at least slow the damn things down, but combined and with a decent pilot, its entirely possible that they'll be able to chase one off by themselves. Well, thats the hope anyway."
He sighed.
"I doubt I'll get that lucky though. Besides, I'll need to find a pilot they like first."
Narwhal raised an eyebrow at the odd wording.
"A pilot they like?" she asked, "Whats that supposed to mean? Their just mechs, right?"
She nearly jumped out of her skin as the blue dragon still draped over Bestiary's shoulders turned its head and glared at her. The black armoured Tinker chuckled and gently rubbed the constructs head, making it purr slightly and calm down.
"Actually, every mech I make has its own rudimentary AI system," he said, "They aren't really that smart, only about the level of an intelligent dog, but they are capable of making distinctions of people and have some very odd methods of picking their pilots. I intended to be the pilot for the Wildzords, but the Lion made it clear that that wouldn't fly."
"The...Lion?" asked Dragon a little weakly.
She suddenly felt a little out of her depth.
"You'll see," said Bestiary as he reached a door that led into an oddly normal looking sitting room.
There were sofas, an armchair, a coffee table and a good number of large screens on the walls, each showing different biomes, ranging from the far north to a desert to a couple of different forests.
"What are those?" asked Narwhal.
As if in answer, the trees on one of the screens rustled and a massive red and gold lion padded out, followed by a much smaller white tiger. Both were clearly mechanical and, unless Dragon was very much mistaken, the same things as the chassis that were being constructed outside. A moment later, the two felines were joined by a yellow eagle that swooped out of the sky, a black bison from the grasslands to the right of the screen and a blue shark from the pond that split the two biomes in half.
"When designing my mechs, I start with the programming," said Bestiary, "Not sure why, but I think its a quirk of my power. It is mildly irritating since each AI takes about a day to complete and it means I can't create more than one of each type."
"What about the ants?" asked Dragon.
"An exception," said Bestiary, "The Queen Ant, the processor that serves to direct the drones, required the full treatment, but the drones themselves can be mass produced. I think I could do something similar with other hive minded creatures and I have plans for certain other mechs that could be produced more quickly than the big ones."
"Like what?" asked Narwhal, sounding increasingly interested.
"Dogs," said Bestiary, "Dog mecha intended for police and rescue work. I have a few other pack animal plans, but I don't think a squad of mechanical velociraptors would be of much use, other than as a Hunter-Killer force..."
He trailed off and looked thoughtful.
"Then again, sending a few squads after some S-rank threats might not be a bad idea…"
"You...can make dinosaurs too?" asked Narwhal, sounding a little stumped.
"If its an animal, I can make it," he said, "At least, I think thats how it works. I'm not 100% sure on the limits considering I managed to make Seiryu without to much trouble. Then again, he is based on your tech Dragon."
The little blue Dragon in on Bestiary's shoulder chirped happily at the sound of his name.
"Right, since I'm sure you two want to start talking about Tinker stuff, lets get the official stuff out of the way," said Narwhal before Dragon could ask any more questions, "Dragon?"
The AI nodded and pulled a file out of a hidden compartment in her suit. The next half an hour was spent ironing out the details of Bestiary's entry into the Guild and making sure that, no, his creations were not capable of self replication. Even the Ant drones didn't have that capability and even if they did, there was a limit to what each Queen unit was capable of supporting and they couldn't create more without Bestiary to create the program that allowed the Mechs to function.
They were almost done when the base was suddenly shaken by a rather loud explosion going off outside.
"What the fuck was that?!" spluttered Bestiary as he jumped to his feet and ran to the console on the far side of the room.
He jabbed a few keys and the screens displaying the now annoyed Wildzord AI's were replaced by CCTV footage from outside, as well as images from the Ant drones that seemed to be under attack by a trio of power suits painted gold and white and looking like some kind of mythical crusaders.
"Oh for fucks sake!" groaned Dragon as she recognized them, "What are they doing here?!"
"Most likely they managed to get their hands on my files and decided that they wanted my tech," said Bestiary as he hit some more keys and tapped on a microphone, "OI, thats my stuff your blowing up!"
The three stolen Dragonsuits paused, before Saints voice echoed over the area.
"This 'stuff' is a danger to Humanity!" he shouted, "AI's are dangerous!"
Bestiary twitched.
"Look you self aggrandising, arrogant prick, those drones aren't even proper AI's!" he yelled right back, "Besides, its not like my AI's are even capable of world domination! At best, they'd be able to take over a goddamn forest! They're animals you moron!"
"Thats not a risk we can take," sneered Saint, "Now shut down your mechs and submit to us. Or we'll make you!"
Bestiary sighed.
"Do you think he realizes that you two are here?" he asked as he turned to the two women.
"Probably not," said Narwhal, "We should deal with him though."
"Good plan," said Bestiary, "And I have just the thing."
He turned back to the console.
"Predezords, online!"
Immediately, three more screens lit up, one showing the inside of a cave, another the bottom of the lake and the third what looked like mud over the camera. Then, a loud howl echoed around the area, followed by the lake and a muddy swamp erupting and revealing a hammerhead shark and a rather large alligator that was nearly six meters long. A moment later, the treeline also erupted and a mechanical wolf pounced at Saints suit, knocking it to the ground as the other two mechs charged the other two Dragonslayers, resulting in some very loud cursing as they tried to avoid the snapping jaws of the three beasts.
"Right, that should buy us some time," said Bestiary, "Dragon, I've already nutrilized the method Saint used to beat you before, so go kick his arse."
If she could, Dragon would have given a rather evil grin at that. Saint had been a thorn in her side for so long that the idea of finally being shot of the annoying pain in the arse was rather refreshing.
"I meanwhile, will be working out some unmisplaced aggression on the idiots who broke my expensive equipment," continued Bestiary, cracking his knuckles as he led the way out of the living area and towards the exist.
Dragon wasn't entirely sure how a mechanical body cracked its knuckles, but she was much more interested in kicking some ass anyway. Narwhal followed behind the two Tinkers, smirking slightly. Considering what the three morons had done two the two Tinkers, she decided to stay out of the fight for now and only step in if they needed help. She didn't think that was likely though.
The three Capes soon reached the surface through an access shaft provided by the Ant drones and found that the Dragonslayers seemed to be having trouble with the Predezords. The wolf was fast enough that it could dodge just about any attack sent its way, th shark simply swam around its opponent, keeping well away from its weapons and the alligator was apparently so tough it managed to take a tank shell to the face without taking anything more than cosmetic damage.
As he left the tunnel to the surface, Bestiary let out a loud whistle and the three Predezords immediately disengaged and regrouped around the Tinker, leaving the now battered Dragonslayers to regroup as well.
"Right, last chance guys," called Bestiary, "Bugger off or end up in a cell!"
The only response was a burst of gunfire from Saints suit that Narwhal blocked with a forcefield.
"Suit yourself," said Bestiary and let himself fall backwards into the compartment that had just opened in the alligators back.
Immediately, the large mech began to shift, transforming into the torso and legs of a more humanoid robot. The wolf and shark took off, spun and shifted into a pair of arms, hands emerging from their mouths, before latching onto the sides of the torso as a wolf-like head emerged from it. The resulting mech was about five meters tall and was armed with a bladed staff that had been formed from the alligator and sharks tail.
Dragon made a mental note to ask how the buggering hell the other Tinker had managed that once the Dragonslayers had been creamed and powered up her own weapon systems. This was gonna be fun!
So, I feel a bit guilty about ending this here, but since I've been working on it for so long, I think this'll do.
So, what do you think of Bestiary's setup? Pretty impressive, right? It also gives us an idea of what his power is capable of. Essentially, he can create mechs that operate and mimic animals. Obviously, theres more to it than that, especially once you activate combat protocols, but for drones, he uses hivemind insects like ants for building and bees or a similer bug for scouts and so on. He's also building a full sized copy of the Wildforce Megazord for use in Endbringer battles. Which is bigger than Behemoth. Still needs a pilot though.
Meanwhile, his personal mech is a copy of Zen-aku's Predazord, only about the size of a Knightmare frame, with hands and without that goofy horn. That should make life interesting…
Why Wildforce? Because they've got the coolest Megazord, thats why! Oh, and no, this won't have anything to do with Power Rangers, other than Bestiary stealing the designs.
Anyway, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review!