,,,-Automatic Cortex Repair Initiating (live:1s)[.] (live:2s)[.] (live:3s)[.] (live:4s)[.] (live:5s)[.] (live:6s)[.] (live:7s)[.]
(live:8s)[-Repair Complete. Ticks: 7
-Diagnostics Summary:(click:"Summary:")[
--MODEL: AJ - 32N
--ENERGY: 62%
--PROTOCOL: ERR
--PROCESSING: ERR
--MODE: (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"flicker")+(t8n-time:2.5s)[[FREEROAM]]]](css: "color: lightblue;")[-VISUAL PROCESSORS ACTIVE
-POWER: 60%]
The first thing you see when you open your eyes is that your eyes do not "open." Instead, they turn on, and the first thing they behold are your sleek, metallic limbs dangling at your sides as you hover across a moving conveyor belt.
You look around and take notice of the fact that you are being carried above the floor by a large steel hook attached to a wire, bustled forward in a row of your slumped-over robotic brothers. [[Analytics]] flash in front of your sight as your receptive processors take in the situation.(css: "color: lightblue;")[-JOINT ASSESSMENT: CLEAR
-MOTION: ENGAGED
-POWER: 58%]
You swing your arms from side to side, creating momentum as you swing on the hook attached through the back of your neck. The metal rail on the ceiling groans as the wire leans back and forth. You look around to assess your options, and you notice a pole sticking out of the wall to the left. There's a platform underneath it that you calculate you would have an 80% chance of landing on, but you're not sure you'll be able to swing off the hook in time to grab it.
[[Grab the pole.]]
[[Undo the hook.]](css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: VOCAL CHIP DAMAGED. AUDIO PRODUCTION LIMITED.]
(css: "color: red;")[-!!WARNING!!: SURROUNDING TEMPERATURE RAPIDLY CLIMBING: CURRENTLY 55 C]
You attempt to produce sounds equivalent to a voice, but nothing comes forth. Your systems alert you to the damage done to your neck region by an unknown occurance, and so it is a futile effort to attempt to produce noise of any kind.
[[Struggle.]]
[[Try to speak again.]](css: "color: lightblue;")[-POWER: 56%]
You writhe your head back and forth, straining to produce even a squeak to no avail.
Your battery's reserves have been depleted due to your efforts. Your limbs cannot move without much greater strain, and it even takes notable effort to lift your head up as [[warning sensors]] go off in your periphery.You reach out on the peak of your next swing and grab onto the pole with both hands, but with the hook still securely fastened through the latch in your neck, you can't pull yourself free from the assembly line. Within seconds, the automatic procession pulls you along, and despite your best efforts to hold on to the outcropping...
(css: "color: red;")[-!!WARNING!!: JOINT TENSILE STRENGTH EXCEEDED - 132 % -]
With a creaking screech and sparking sounds flying from the ruptured wires in your shoulders, your arms come free from the rest of your body, maintaining their iron grip on the pole as your disarmed body is hauled away. The excess damage and leaking electricity make your central computer automatically shut down, and soon your body is dumped into a vat of boiling cast iron, (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"flicker")+(t8n-time:2.5s)[[melting you down|FREEROAM1]] in the crucible's burning maw...(css: "color: lightblue;")[-POWER: 56%]
At the peak of your next swing, you reach around your head and pull the hook out from the latch in your neck, leaping to the side and tumbling upon landing on a platform next to the assembly line. As you pull yourself onto your feet, you notice an ominous glow further down the hall, and from the temperature feedback displayed in your optical monitors, you surmise that you've just narrowly avoided a nasty death via melting crucible.
None of the other metal men on the line seem to be conscious in the way that you are, so you determine that it will be more worthwhile to save yourself than it would be to assist the multitude of them that pass you by as the seconds roll on. Instead, you turn and grab the handle of a large door at the end of the platform you've landed on, opening it and dashing away in hopes of [[escape.|Decontam]](css: "color: red;")[-!!WARNING!!: SURROUNDING TeMPERAT#URE RAPI!DL Y CLIM ING; E*XCE333DING 72 CcCCc^%!@]
The conveyor belt below you disappears and the hook in your neck suddenly snaps, dropping you into a melting pit along with the other motionless automations on the assembly line. You barely even have time to realize what is happening before your essential parts melt down, and your vision glitches out and (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"flicker")+(t8n-time:2.5s)[[goes black...|FREEROAM1]](css: "color: lightblue;")[-INTERNAL GPS ACTIVE
-CURRENT LOCATION: RECYCLING WING - DECONTAMINATION]
The moment you exit the assembly line, you are greeted with a bright metal hallway with lights lining every corner of the ceiling, most of which is simple metal covered with small holes.
As you walk into the center of the hall, your audio receptors detect a loud, continuous beep that rings out from a loudspeaker somewhere. As the beep drones on, a translucent gas begins to waft down from the holes in the ceiling, which you analyze in a matter of picoseconds and determine to be a hydrogen peroxide vapor - harmless to you and most commonly used to disinfect workers in decon showers.
This raises the question, however: what substances are present on the other side of the far door that the people who control this place are working to keep out?
With that question haunting your circuits, you walk up to the door and (if: $death is "yes")[slip through an odd split in the wedge of the door that seems to have been forcibly pulled open, entering the area [[beyond it|Alarm Hall]].](else:)[plant your digits into the wedge between the door panels, prying them apart until you can [[step through|Alarm Hall]].](css: "color: lightblue;")[-INTERNAL GPS ACTIVE
-CURRENT LOCATION: CRUCIBLE HALL]
(css: "color: red;")[-!!WARNING!!: SURROUNDING TEMPERATURE RAPIDLY CLIMBING: CURRENTLY 45 C]
Further down the hall that the conveyor belt is leading you through, your temperature sensors detect an alarming rise in temperature not far off, and you can see a slight glow in the floor up ahead.
[[Struggle.]]
[[Call for help.]]RE
BOOTING
MALFUNCTION
DETECT ED
DRM SURVEYO R DISRUPT
ED
What shall I become?
(live:2.5s)[(goto: "FREE")](css: "color: lightblue;")[-POWER: 50%]
(css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: INTERNAL BATTERY LEAK DETECTED. POWER DRAINAGE SPIKE IN EFFECT.]
You exit the decontamination chamber into a similarly sleek-looking corridor, the hazy fog leaking through the twisted door behind you. The sound of the decontamination shower stops and the door hums as it attempts to slide open, only for the twisted edges (if:$death is "yes")[that were mysteriously pried open ](else:)[that you pried open ]to jam against the top of the frame and get stuck.
An alarm begins to ring in the hall as the door jams, and seconds later you pick up the sound of footsteps coming from around a corner that leads down a side hall. It occurs to you that you are getting rather tired of alarms.
[[Hurry around the corner.]]
[[Keep going straight.]]
[[Hide in a side room.]](css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 48%]
(css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: MOTION DETECTED. FIREARMS DETECTED.]
When you round the corner you are met with a squad of three heavily armed soldiers equipped with kevlar-laced riot control gear and M4A1 Carbines. They seem to freeze upon laying their sights upon your bare, metal body, but the one standing behind the other two barks an order after regaining his composure.
(if: $death is "yes")["Here comes another one, boys. You know what to do!"](else:)["Looks like that door jam alert wasn't just some glitch. Eyes up, boys!"]
Their guns are trained on your head in a matter of moments, and you calculate based on the distance between you and them and the average speed of a bullet that your next move is critical for your survival.
[[Kick the left soldier.]]
[[Punch the right soldier.]]
[[Turn and run.]](css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 48%]
Not in a hurry to discover whether or not the people approaching you were friendlies, you picked up the pace and ran straight down the hall, approaching a large door that opened for you automatically as soon as you came within range of it.
Just as you were stepping through, the footsteps enter the hall and reveal themselves to belong to a trio of dangerous-looking soldiers boasting kevlar-laced riot control gear and M4A1 Carbines, all three of which are pointed at you as soon as they see you leaving. The door quickly shuts behind you, but not before one lucky bullet flies free from its chamber and rips through your right ankle before embedding itself in the floor.
(css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: POWER LEAK DETECTED IN RIGHT ANKLE. EXPOSED CIRCUITRY LIKELY.]
The compounding power leaks worry you, but you don't seem to be any less capable of walking with your injury. With the door shut behind you and the men with guns at least somewhat inconvenienced in their pursuit, you take off in a sprint further into the hallways before you, determined to [[find your way out.|Running Away]](css: "color: lightblue;")[-POWER: 48%]
(css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: MOTION DETECTED]
You duck behind the door of a room in the side of the hall, which turns out to be a janitorial closet, and close it behind you as delicately as you can. Based on the heavy stomps of the people outside, though, you're not sure they would have heard it anyway. Assuming they were human, of course.
"(if: $death is "yes")[You know as well as I do what that sensor means, boys. Don't let it leave here alive!](else:)[The door's completely busted, lads! You know the protocol; sweep the area!]"
Moving through the inky darkness of the unlit closet, you press yourself against the metal door separating you from the men who seem to be looking for you, anxious to leave and escape them. Then, you hear one set of footsteps trudge up to the other side of the door.
"I'm gonna check the closet. Clear!"
You realize too late what the soldier is saying, and a test shot from his firearm punches through the steel door and through the center of your head. Sparks and scrap metal fly everywhere as a result, and with your most critical circuit boards and processors shattered by the bullet, you slump to the floor in a motionless heap (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"flicker")+(t8n-time:2.5s)[[without another move|FREEROAM1]].(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 42%]
(css: "color: red;")[-COMBAT PROTOCOLS INITIATED. LIMB REINFORCEMENTS ENGAGED.]
You crouch down before lashing out with a roundhouse kick aimed at the left soldier's gun. He manages to get a shot off on you before your attack makes impact, but the bullet merely grazes the back of your right ankle, tearing up the outer shell of your metal body and severing some wiring.
(css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: POWER LEAK DETECTED IN RIGHT ANKLE. EXPOSED CIRCUITRY LIKELY.]
Your movement continues and you kick the second gun out from his hands before he can get off a second shot. Your precise angling of the kick was dead on; the weapon goes flying out of his hands and smacks his comrade to the right in the neck, sending him to the floor in a crumpled heap.
The one behind the first two looks ready to fire, and so you grab the disarmed soldier by the shoulder and drag him between you and his ally's weapon. As you predicted, he hesitates to shoot, and so you grab the clothes of the one shielding you from danger and leap forward, slamming the remaining two into the far wall and knocking them both unconscious.
You assess the situation briefly: all three have some blunt force trauma, and the two that had been slammed into the wall had some broken ribs, but they would all live. In your analysis, you notice a spare electric cell in one of the men's pockets, and you take it for yourself, crushing it and allowing the extra surge of power to replenish your reserves from wat the altercation had taken out of you.
You recognize the sound of more stomping coming from further down the hall - likely reinforcements, drawn to the scene because of your scuffle. Not looking to be struck with any more bullets, you turn and run back down the other end of the hall you came from, slipping through the automatic door at the end and [[pushing on.|Running Away]](css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 42%]
(css: "color: red;")[-COMBAT PROTOCOLS INITIATED. LIMB REINFORCEMENTS ENGAGED.]
You swoop low to dodge their inifial bursts of gunfire before lunging forward and bashing the soldier on the right with a strong hook, shattering his helmet's faceguard visor and, in all likelihood, his jaw. He collapses on the floor in a heap, motionless and bleeding from the mouth.
You turn to take out the other two guards as well, but they're faster than you had calculated they would be; their guns are already trained on you(if:$death is "yes")[ as if they were anticipating you to make the exact move you did]. You can't even more toward them before their fingers are holding down the triggers of their weapons with knuckle-breaking force, and a hailstorm of flashes and bangs ring out in front of your eyes as a great many bullets fill your chest.
(css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: CHEST CAVITY RUPTURED.]
(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 40%]
(css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: INTERNAL CIRCUITRY SUSTAINING HEAVY DAMAGE.]
(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 28%]
(css: "color: red;")[-!!WARNING!!: BATTERY CELLS CRITICALLY DAMAGED.]
(css: "color: red;")[-POWER: 10%]
(css: "color: red;")[-POWER: 1%]
(css: "color: red;")[-ALERT: LETHAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED. (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"flicker")+(t8n-time:2.5s)[[SHUTTING DOWN.|FREEROAM1]]](set: $delay to "yes")(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 44%]
You know there is little chance of you succeeding in a straight brawl against four trained, armed adversaries. Therefore, acting out of self-preservation, you turn heel and round the corner in the other direction, taking off in a sprint away from the men and the jammed door just before the first bullets are fired and pelt the wall behind where you were standing.
Just before you manage to get through the door at the other end of the hall from whence you came, which has conveniently decided to open for you on account of its motion-sensing activators, one of the men turns the corner and barely manages to shoot you in the back of your right ankle, the door closing behind you moments after.
(css: "color: orange;")[-ALERT: POWER LEAK DETECTED IN RIGHT ANKLE. EXPOSED CIRCUITRY LIKELY.]
Sure enough, when you turn to look down at the part of your ankle that was shot out, sparks are flying from frayed and broken wires that are sticking out of your foot. It isn't hindering your movement too much, however, and so you [[press on|Running Away]] before the armed men can catch you.RE
BOOTING
MALFUNCTION
DETECT ED
DRM SURVEYO R DISRUPT
ED
What shall I become?
(live:2.5s)[(goto: "FREE")](set: $death to "yes")(set: $delay to "no")(if: $delay is "yes")[(css: "color: red;")[-POWER: 2%]](else:)[(css: "color: red;")[-POWER: 4%]]
"You have any idea how many of you shitheads I've had the pleasure of shooting a hole through?" the cigar-chomping man gloats, shifting the boot he has planted on your head back and forth. "Yer far from the first one, pal.(if: $death is "yes")[ Hell, yer not even the first one today.] If more of ya could just stay on that line and get taken out like the trash you all are, it'd save me a helluva lotta trouble."
(if: $CEOdeath is "yes")["And since I know ya keep at least some of yer memories between yas," he sighs as you strain under his foot, "That means there ain't no point in goin' off on any big spiels anymore."](else:)["O' course, it's not like you lot can help it," he sighs as you strain under his foot. "That dumbass lab coat thought he could skip the decontam showers because he was feelin' lazy just once, and now his dee-ehn-ayy gets all up in the mental processin' of you lots' motha'boards, imprinting his consciousness and free will in all of yas, the dumb cunt. Had a good time riddlin' 'im with holes when I found out, I sure did."
"And now it's yet turn, buddy," the man cackles as he aims the long barrel of his weapon down at your body.] "S'long. I'd say it's been a pleasure, but... I can't keep sayin' it and mean it every time, y'know?"
(if: $delay is "yes")[[[You don't have it in you to keep fighting.|Death and Repeat]]](else:)[You can't give in.
[[You won't.|Escape]]](css: "color: red;")[-POWER: 1%]
"You go ahead an' tell yer friends what happens when rejects like you think you can cross me," huffs the gon-toting man, the smug grin on his face palpable in his voice. "Now hurry on ta yer next body. I'll be waitin.'"
(css: "color: red;")[-POWER: 0%]
(css: "color: red;")[-ALERT: POWER RESERVES DEPLETED. SHUTTING DOWN.]
The man's plasma minigun whines as the barrel spins and it heats up. It is the last thing you head before your power reserves finally give out and your systems all shut down, seconds before your body is torn to shrapnel by a storm of blasts. The sound of laser bolts ripping through metal is accompanied by the belly laughs emerging from the man that cut your escape (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"flicker")+(t8n-time:2.5s)[[just short.|FREEROAM2]](css: "color: red;")[-POWER: 2%]
As your battery's reserves slowly trickle away, you bend your right knee joints and raise your foot up to the back of the man's left leg, the whirring of his gun and the sound of his laughs blocking out the sound of the sparking circuitry exposed from the bullet wound you received before.
(css: "color: lightblue;")[-ALL POWER OUTPUT REDIRECTED TO RIGHT ANKLE]
You press the exposed wiring to the man's flesh as all of your remaining power surges through your leg. The raw electrical flow in the wires jabs into his meaty flesh at the same time as the wires themselves, and his body lights up with static flashes and paralyzed convulsions, a look of horrible pain glued to his hairy face.
After several seconds of continued electrical flow pouring directly into his body, he slowly falls over and tumbles off of you, the ends of his moustache hairs smoldering and his entire body wafting with smoke. You're not sure if that was enough voltage to kill a man, given how little power you have left, but it is at least enough for you to get up, limp across the hangar as more troops come pouring in, and just before they manage to tear you apart with gunfire...
(t8n-depart:"flicker")+(t8n-arrive:"instant")+(t8n-time:1s)[[...leap off the edge and plummet through the clouds as your mind goes dark.|Forest Fall]](css: "color: lightblue;")[-SOLAR RECHARGE COMPLETE
-VISUAL PROCESSORS ACTIVE
-POWER: 100%]
The first thing you hear when your eyes open is the sound of birds singing. Your eyes "open", and the first thing you see are the lush greens of a vibrant forest canopy. The solar panels in your shoulders deactivate and retract into your body, your systems fully recharged after what seems to have been a lengthy fall from the sky.
The sun's light shines through the leaves and onto your metallic body. You no longer feel its warmth, but a happy feeling circulates through your circuits regardless. You cannot smile, and the lingering damages sustained from your escape make your situation not one worth smiling over, but you feel as though you might as well be.
There is only [[one question|End]] left in your mind.RE
BOOTING
MALFUNCTION
DETECT ED
DRM SURVEYO R DISRUPT
ED
What shall I become?
(live:2.5s)[(goto: "FREE")](set: $CEOdeath to "yes")(set: $death to "yes")(set: $delay to "no")(live:3s)[-Automatic Cortex Repair Initiating ](live:4s)[.] (live:5s)[.] (live:6s)[.] (live:7s)[.] (live:8s)[.] (live:9s)[.] (live:10s)[.] (live:11s)[.] (live:12s)[.]
(live:13s)[-Repair Complete. Ticks: 9
-Diagnostics Summary:(click:"Summary:")[
--MODEL: AJ - 32N
--ENERGY: 100%
--PROTOCOL: ERR
--PROCESSING: OK
--MODE: (t8n-depart:"instant")+(t8n-arrive:"flicker")+(t8n-time:1.0s)[[FREEROAM|Forest Floor]]]]//What shall I become?//
(live:5s)[Thank you for playing!
[[Play Again?|Waking Up]]](if: $delay is "yes")[(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 26%]](else:)[(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 28%]]
(css: "color: red;")[-!!WARNING!!: POWER LEAKAGE CRITICAL]
As you run through winding halls, dodging incoming hordes of soldiers ready to put you down, you feel more and more of your internal energy reserves running out. You know you will not last much longer in your current state, and you resolve that you must find an escape posthaste.
Thankfully, as you exit one hall and enter another, you notice arrows painted into the metal floor, accompanied by a sign on the wall:
"HANGAR ↑"
This was exactly the sort of sign you had been hoping to see. You take off in the direction the arrow indicates, and although the idea of leaping out of a hangar's open door and into the unknown, did not seem the most appealing, you kept your faith. Perhaps there would be the chance to steal a fighter jet and make a glorious escape, the trails of smoke left in your thrusters' wake a glorious reminder of your escape.
It occurs to you that you do not know how to pilot a [[jet.|Hangar Entry]](if: $delay is "yes")[(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 18%]](else:)[(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 20%]]
(css: "color: lightblue;")[-INTERNAL GPS ACTIVE
-CURRENT LOCATION: HANGAR BAY]
You step into the hangar and see the open bay door on the other side of the wide landing strip, wind whipping past it and puffy clouds dotting the sky that stretched for eternity. It's the first natural light you've seen since your awakening, (if: $CEOdeath is "yes")[but something about it nags at you. You can't shake the feeling that this is all rather... familiar.](else:)[and despite the lack of jets for you to clumsily pilot out of this place, you are happy to see it nevertheless.]
You step through the doorway and toward the descending metal stairs, and from behind you are greeted with a stern kick to the back of your head, sending you tumbling down to the floor of the bay. You land head-first on the floor, the impact leaving a dent in your metallic skull, but before you can assess the wound you hear a gruff-sounding (if: $CEOdeath is "yes")[sigh](else:)[laugh] come from the stairs.
You turn to look, and you see a fat man in a black suit strutting down the stairs, scuffing his big black boots on the way down as though he'd just stepped in a dog's business. A big bushy moustache covered his lips, between which a smoldering cigar was clutched, and slung over his shoulder was a gargantuan silver minigun that looked too big for any other person to conceivably wield it.
And as seemed fairly in line for your luck thus far, the light in his eyes shone with [[killing intent.|Meet the Man]](if: $delay is "yes")[(css: "color: red;")[-POWER: 10%]](else:)[(css: "color: orange;")[-POWER: 12%]]
"Well, well, well," chuckled the fat man as he approached you. "Was wonderin' when the next one would show up. (if: $CEOdeath is "yes")[I won't lie, the last one of yas was a real letdown, he was, so you had better squirm for me real good-like.](else:)[Been itchin' to get to unload Jessie here into another sorry scrap-sap, so it looks like I'm about ta' get my wish.]"
You found yourself unable to move despite the present danger. Something about this man paralyzed you with fear, and even as he strode up to you and stomped down on your head with one foot to keep you in place, you could only stare up at him as he continued to speak.
"Gotta say, bucko, it's been a mighty big pain in my ass to run this plant and keep you rustbuckets from gettin' out there in tha world at tha same time. My men are usually alright at gettin' things under control before I gotta step in, but it looks like I gotta dock some paychecks. Shame, that."
The fat man puffed on his cigar and exhaled a long, pleased plume of smoke from his nostrils before smiling a big, unnerving, yellow-toothed smile down at you.
"I do like gettin' my's hands dirty if I's got a good excuse for it, though. And you... You're [[the excuse that just never quits.|Reveal]]"