Colin's posts

Chloe didn't have time to ponder that, when she realised something.

After that serious push, things got easier.

A lot easier.

In fact, it was almost like that last part was a hail mary that... failed.

She was able to find where the corrupted areas were, and while they were very damaged, they were repairable.

But she needed to get the core ones up and running again. Quickly.

As she started to work, a pair of eyes were upon her. They were a bit in the shadows, and were deadly silent.

'...that damn robot...' they thought, before silently slinking off.

Meanwhile, when Chloe connected, she found the system in a right mess.

And it was getting worse and worse.

She needed to act fast, before things collapsed altogether.

She also noticed that something was actively trying to boot her off and disconnect her.

The man looked at her, and sighed.

"We don't know what's causing this." he said.

"Something is causing all of the functions connected to the computer system to systematically shut down." he told her.

"If you can figure out what it is, or where it's going to strike next, that would help." he went on.

"But we ultimately need to stop it, and quarantine it." he continued.

"If you can do ANY of those things, you'll be saving our bacon here."

Jake made a quick check, before nodding.

"Of course." he replied.

He then made his way to the door and used a special set of keys to unlock it.

"Opening system is fucked." he said.

"Have to do it manually." he told her.

"Please, go in." he went on.

"This place is starting to fall apart, I swear."

We need all the help we can get. Hal responded.

Whatever you think will make you more efficient. he finished.

He then leaned forward, and growled to himself.

"Son of a..." he muttered.

"I swear, if THIS is what brings us down..." he went on, trailing off and shaking his head.

"..." he was then silent, and composed himself as best he could.

Unfortunately, they didn't have time for extensive testing and searching at the moment.

His tech team was coming up with nothing, and getting firewalled at every avenue they took.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Hal repeated.

"Why now!? DAMN IT!" he yelled.

He then pulled out his cell, and texted his daughter.

Is Chloe finished? he sent.

The situation here is getting worse and worse by the second. he then added in the next message.

"....." Ryker was silent, before letting the magic within him take over, bulking out his body a little, and coating him a thin film of red.

"Heh." he chuckled darkly.

"All right, let's see how resilient this is." he muttered.

He then charged forward, and aimed a single punch at it.

Nothing special, nothing weird, he just wanted to see how fragile this was.

-A few months later-

Chloe had been there for a while, and it seemed things were running more smoothly than ever before.

Sometimes she needed maintenance, but it was always done in house.

Expect for this time.

She needed a bit of extensive work done on her, so she was offsite for it.

And everything seemed to be fine... until there seemed to be a system-wide alert on all the machines in the Unit.

"Damn it!" Hal cursed, as the message displayed on his machine.

"Of all times!"

Az watched as they walked off, and nodded.

"Got it!" he called back.

He then paused for a moment, as some gears in his mind started to turn.

"...nah." he mumbled.

"Couldn't be." he said.

Cain and Aedan had told him that Leo had been storing a project in their home for a bit. But that was unrelated.

...right?

"....blue?" Ryker muttered.

"Ah-hah. Excellent!" he said.

He then started to run for the blue light, trying to be as careful as he could, but also trying to be as fast as he could.

'The sooner that's destroyed, the better.' he thought.

'And the sooner that foolish mortal is taught a harsh lesson, the better.' the other entity inside him added.

"....well, he certainly IS a brilliant one." Azazel responded, looking Chloe up and down.

"Would never guess she's an android by looks alone." he commented.

"Anyway, I've probably held you up long enough." he then reasoned.

"I'll let you be on your way." he said, stepping aside.

"Welcome to the Unit, Chloe." he then told the android.

"Name's Azazel." he introduced himself.

"Ah, hello Chloe." Azazel replied.

"An Android, huh? Makes sense." he said.

"Can't sense anything close to a soul." he went on, before pausing.

"Actually, that's not entirely correct." he then clarified.

"There's.... something... there." he mumbled.

"But whatever. Never seen an android before." he told Chloe.

"Whatcha here for?" he asked.

About a few minutes later, they ran into someone else as he turned the corner.

It was Zeke's polar opposite... Azazel.

"Oh!" he said.

"Hello, Lunet." he greeted Lunet.

He then looked at Chloe.

"And hello to you as well." he greeted her.

"You're a new face." he commented.

"...and you aren't alive, are you?" he asked.

".........." Zeke was silent for a moment, almost stunned.

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped, closed it, and thought.

"You know what? That's a good point." he said.

"Makes sense, the more I think of it." he went on.

"Sorry for the trouble." he apologised to them.

"Have a good day, and welcome to the Unit." he finished, before just returning to the room he'd been in, shutting the door behind him.