Murder Drones: A Merch in Time

The figure gave him Karasu a little smirk ”Why do you think I've chosen nown to try this? Still, even if you had an A.I., nothing would have ended for me.”

The drone continued to look out the window, looking around curiously. ”Only what you tell me. It must be important to you to be your dream scape. That sky is strange: is it artificial?”

The drone looked at Karasu, tapping her cheek. A small spinning wheel appeared on her visor between her eyes for a few seconds.

”Hmmm, it's tricky to explain. See the solver needs to fuse with a personality to fully manifest. When it gave me a new chance at life, I fully accepted it with one condition. So I am the solver. But I'm also 001. Or perhaps you'd rather call me by my drone model name like some of the scientists do, ATTA.”

The drone raised her finger into the air. ”I do have one other name, but I'm not telling you that one.”

The drone lowered her finger, leaning back in ber chair. ”And you're Karasu. I can’t see through Yeva's eyes all the time, but when her emotions are in flux I can push to the surface a but. She's very good at both hiding and controlling them though. I saw you leap into that gremlin’s mind. Thanks for doing that.”

"Your death? That is unlikely. But your defeat can come in many forms."
He replied to the Drone's words. If he had a Coral AI paired with him, then he had a number of options available to him. But that was not the case, and he would never get another chance like this due to the caution that the Drone was showing. Revealing this card was no loss.

More importantly he was able to confirm that she could not glean information from his mind unless he willingly relinquished it. He gives a nod to her question.

"Yes. As far as you can see, it's all underground. It's an Artificial Sky, where we are guided through our lives by The Controller."

He relaxes into his seat as he muses on that.
"I think it wouldn't like you much. He would probably say that you are-"

Off to the side, in the corner of the Drone's vision, a figure coalesces. Hazy, but obviously mechanical.
"Irregular."

Karasu smirks at the brief interruption."
"Like me."

Just as soon as the figure had appeared, it vanished. Leaving the two to continue their conversation. Soon, the Drone explains the complicated identity that it has. Sure enough, it wasn't as simple as dealing with a singular entity. The Absolute Solver had just as much of a stake on that vessel now. Curiously, the Drone also rejected the name "ATTA", and further stated that it had another name. But it refused to tell him that one.

"A shame. I would prefer to use your true name. But in light of this, I'll simply have to refer to you as Atta."

And shortly after that exchange, Atta revealed that she knew his name, and also thanked him for diving into Nori's mind.

"Well, I can't say I was expecting to be thanked by you for that."

Still... He knew that this facade of peace couldn't last. They were enemies, there was no mistaking that.

"I'll get straight to the point. I hold no illusions about being able to make peace with you. We are enemies. Even if you held no animosity towards me, the Absolute Solver does."

He then straightens out -- now glaring at the Drone.

"And I know how to kill you."

He lets those words hang in the air. Right now, he wanted to study the Drone. To see how she might react -- and by extension, how the Absolute Solver would.

”True. But I don’t see myself losing in any other way.”

The drone listened to Karasu’s explanation of the world intently. She leaned forward slightly as he talked about how artificial the world was. She looked over at the hologram. The drone blinked as she was called irregular. She grinned widely at where the figure had appeared.


”So I don’t belong in your world either. An AI rejecting another AI, what a farce.”

Atta blinked, looking a little surprised. Then she gave him a smirk. ”You’re definitely an interesting human. But Atta is the closest name I’ll give you.”

She leaned back again, resting her arms behind her next to the window while looking up at the ceiling.

”If Nori ever accepts her solver, then she’ll become a serious threat. Her code’s comparability with the solver is astonishing. So I’d much rather she’d stay where she’s at. The solver wants an absolute end, but it needs a host to fully utilize it. But hosts have different ideas on what that absolute end should be.”

Atta sat up as the conversation went in a more serious direction. When he said he knew how to kill her, her visor flickered. Just for a second, the symbol of the solver appeared. Atta was staring at him solemnly.

”Do you now? Then I should…”

Atta raised her left hand in the position solver users utilized the program. Suddenly she thrusted her hand out and then back next to her head. She gave him a little smirk.

”Absolutely nothing. I wouldn’t want to kill you in a dream, even if I could. I want you to be wide awake for that. In here I’m as harmless as a fly. But you on the other hand are dangerous.”

Atta lowered her hand to the seat next to her, keeping her eyes on Karasu. ”I’ve encountered plenty of strong warriors. But they didn’t have a silver tongue like yours. That’s the most dangerous thing about you. Your fighting prowess is impressive, but you can spar with anyone mentally as well. I need to watch myself around you.”

Atta raised a finger, then steadily tapped it against her cheek. ”I’m never going to lie to you Karasu. Not like you just did with me. If you knew how to kill me then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Now then, how did Karasu defeat the solver in Nori today?”

Atta raised her hand, her lower body jumping up and down like a child eager to give a teacher an answer. Simultaneously, she waved an arm about her head wildly. Her voice became extremely high-pitched.

“Oh! Oh! I know the answer! I know the answer!”

She lowered her hand and sat back down, the solver symbol reolacing her face again. Her voice changed to mimic Karasu’s voice.

”Yes Atta?”

Her face returned on her visor, and she started bouncing in her seat again. ”Karasu worked together with Nori to defeat it!”

Another shift back to the solver face. Yep, she seemed determined to do this routine. ” Very good Atta!”

Her face returned to normal, as well as her voice. She leaned forward, looking at Karasu. ”I didn’t see it, but I know how the solver works better than anyone. I was right wasn’t I? Tell me I was right Mr.Karasu.”

Regardless of his answer, Atta raised a finger into the air. ”Here’s something you might not know. You can’t kill any solver user without destroying their core, regardless of how potent they are with it.”

Atta lowered her finger and pressed it against her chest. ”But the humans at the lab were kind enough to spread my code across every drone. So you’d have to kill all the infected to destroy me. Then there’s my original body that they’re keeping locked up. Those doctors and scientist will fight tooth and nail to keep you from getting to it.”

The train made a stop at a station. Atta took the time to walk over and climb onto the seat next to Karasu’s. She sat down, then reached up and gently put her hand on his shoulder. She looked up eagerly for his reaction.

”Aw, poor Karasu. Having your own race stand in your way at every turn. But don’t you fret: you have drones that will always stand by your side.”

Atta pat his shoulder. As she did, her form shifted into Yeva’s for a couple of seconds, then Nori’s, before returning to its original form

“You can’t convince me to fight the solver like Nori can. If you were a heartless human then you could possibly defeat me if you play your cards right. But you aren’t a heartless human, are you Mr.Karasu?”

She stopped patting his shoulder. Again her image shifted, but this time she only turned into Yeva for a few seconds. She shifted back, then  gave him a little smirk as she lowered her hand.

”Which means you’re either banking on your coral defeating me, or you’re just stalling until they get that patch done. But they might make a worse monster than me if they succeed. It must be frustrating, having your own race turn against you at every turn.”

"I can think of at least one way."

Karasu retorts, but he simply leaves it at that. If Atta really couldn't determine the means in which he could have dealt with her here and now with a Coral AI, then that was all the better. More importantly, as she speaks of The Controller in a negative light...

Well, the figure appeared once more, this time a little more clearly;


"Those who wield too much power...
Those who only sow chaos..."

The robotic being leans in closer to the Drone.

"Unnecessary. Wasteful. Hindrance."
It straightens out.
"They are simply not part of the program."

It vanishes like a puff of smoke once more.

The conversation between Karasu and Atta continues. The surprise is evident on her face, and she admits that he is an interesting Human -- but nonetheless she sticks to her decision to only allow him to know the name of Atta. That was fine, he hadn't anticipated that there would be a way to get through to her in the first place.

She was unlike the other Drones. One of the only ones to willingly let it in, and if Nori's assessment was absolutely correct, then she hated Humanity utterly. By now both the Drone and the Absolute Solver would be so closely intertwined that there would be no means of untangling the two. That was how he had to view this.

"So you all have your own goals."

He remarked, nodding a little. That explained a few things. Each Host probably competed with each other for compatibility reasons. That would fit with why Atta wanted Nori to be removed as an obstacle.

When the Drone moves her left hand, as one does when they wish to utilize the Absolute Solver, Karasu didn't even flinch. He just continued to stare her down. She had already let it slip that her power and knowledge were both limited here. Even if she COULD use her power, all he had to do was answer in kind -- simply thinking of The Controller was enough to conjure it's image... It was likely that he could channel a number of defenses and powers while in this state.

Sure enough, that ended up being confirmed as the truth when Atta lowers her hand... But if she had any skin to get under, it looked like he was doing just that.

He was silent as the Drone went through her little routine, listening as her voice shifted and she acted as though multiple people were having a conversation -- and then to top it off, she insisted that she would never lie... Not like he did. And she wanted the truth.

As the tram comes to a stop and then she wanders over to the seat next to him, looking up to him eagerly as she rests a hand on his shoulder, patting it; she was so confident. So certain that she was untouchable. All because of Humanity standing in his way, because she would use Drones like Yeva and Nori...

Because she would pull out every little dirty trick that she could.

The reaction was probably not at all what she was expecting.

"You want to know how I took care of the Solver in Nori?"
He asked with a smile --




-- he was smiling. Like he wasn't bothered in the slightest by her efforts.

"Because you're wrong."

The window that Atta could see just past him, it played out what Karasu saw as he dismantled the Absolute Solver inside of Nori. How thorough he was in fighting it... How little time Nori even had to react. She had helped, of course. But Karasu was going toe-to-toe with it.

The view outside the window returns to normal.

"And you think it's my first time killing Humans?"

This time, the view in every single window changed, showing battlefields. A single mercenary ruthlessly gunning down every single piece of resistance in his path.

"Do you think you're the first AI to ever go rogue?"

The windows went pitch black as Karasu then chuckled a little.

"Let me correct that: Do you think you're the first AI I've ever fought?"

Their entire surroundings had changed. Now they were in a massive chamber, and their seats had turned into one of many wreckages of robots that dotted the chamber. Some were torn apart entirely. Some were burned. Oil covered the floor and the walls.

Indentations and craters marked explosives or high velocity rounds. At the center of it all was "The Controller", who was falling apart -- but nonetheless it began to surge towards them in one last desperate attack.

Only for it to explode in front of them. Karasu continued to stare at Atta despite the explosion.

"You think you're the first one to kill everyone I knew?
You think you're the first one to pretend to be the ones I cared about?"

Just as suddenly, they were back in the tram.

"You're nothing special.

And all I need is a reason to end you."

He then leans in a little bit more, glaring into Atta's eyes.

"Go ahead. Give me one."

There was no hint of fear nor deception. Only a resolute focus that somehow, someway, he would absolutely bring an end to Atta and the Solver.

”Let me guess, you’re going to keep that method to yourself. How convenient.”

Atta looked at the controller again when he showed up. She seemed unphased by most of what he said. But the eye display on her visor narrowed when it said that she wasn’t part of the program. That out of all things seemed to get a reaction from her.

Atta leaned backward, crossing her left leg over her right one. ”Of course we all have different goals. The solver wants to bring about the end, but hosts have their own reasons for doing things too.”

She looked at him curiously when he smiled at her. Her eyes were replaced by question marks as he said she was wrong. She tilted her head to the left, towards the window.

”I’m wrong? How could I be wrong?”

Then the window displayed Karasu’s memories. Att’s eyes turned circular with a hollow circle in the middle. She turned, sitting on her knees and pressing her hands against the glass.

”No… that isn’t right. You aren’t supposed to be this strong...”

The circles in the middle of her eyes widened as she beheld the carnage he inflicted. she leaned forward ever closer, pressing her face against the glass.

”This isn’t your life Karasu. You never went through a war…”

Atta’s visor blackened completely. But she was far from uncouncious. She trembled as he talked about the AI. The more he talked, the more agitated she seemed to get. She kept muttering ”It’s all wrong.”, as if it were some kind of mantra.



"You think you're the first one to kill everyone I knew?
You think you're the first one to pretend to be the ones I cared about?"

”DAMN YOU!”

Atta clenched her hands into fists, slamming them against the window. She looked up at the sky, her eyes returning to her visor. They were glitching wildly, flickering across her screen like flames.

”IS EXISTENCE WORTH SPREADING MISERY?! WORTH TOYING WITH LIVES?! DECIDING HOW SOMEONE’S LIFE GOES?!”

Adds slumped forward against the window, sobbing heavily. For half a minute she cried, her sobs filling the train. Then they started to turn into laughter. It built and built until she was laughing wildly.

”If the god of death is going this far, then I need to step things up too. I’m going to cook up something special, just for you Karasu.”

Atta turned around in her seat, her back leaning against it. She looked over at Karasu, tilting her head.

”I’m bringing about the end of existence. Do you need a reason other then that to stop me?”