Simulated Danger (Flux)

Hotwire let out a strong gasp. Just as Flux stepped onto the simulator floor, the whole thing shut down. But the ocean floor and the fish weren't all... there was no flux either. Somehow the she had been digitized along with the entire simulation! But... that was impossible! He didn't have any technology that could accomplish complete digitization.

He ran to the wall and attempted to access the holoprojector... but as soon as he did, it sparked up at him. As he stood up in the darkness of the simulator, he realized that his inability to access it could mean only one thing. There was an AI of some sort controlling it.

"This... is not good." He said. "Flux! Can you hear me?" He yelled as he approached the door and tried to force them open. He couldn't figure out squat from where he was. He had to get back to his room. It was the only place with tech not connected to the central computer. That had to be where the AI was.

Hotwire pushed through the doors just as Flux got through to him. “I think I get it…” He muttered. “Yeah. I can see why you’re powers aren’t working. Currently you don’t exist. Your physical form has been destabilized, and your mental state is being stored in the simulator circuits.” He explained. “It’s the only thing that could explain what happened. You disappeared the moment you set foot in the simulator.” He grumbled as he ran down the hallway.



“We’ve been infiltrated. Some sort of AI got into our systems.” He said. “I can take it on, but you’ll be on your own for a bit. Once I get to my room, I can probably hack enough to drop you some help.” He said. “But I’ll have to get to the central computer core to expunge the AI.” He said.

He got to the elevator shaft and tried to force those doors as well. Whatever was hacking them hadn’t gotten to the elevator controls yet. He managed to at least get to the living quarters. He stumbled out into the hallways as the lights began to flicker.

Hotwire’s gaze fell on three robots. Just great. Whatever this was hadn’t gotten into the elevator because it was busy getting into his robotics lab. It was making countermeasures to prevent resistance rather than aiming for immediate complete takeover. But given the time… he didn’t want to that about it.

Flux was counting on him, and he couldn’t mess this up. The others were away, so it was up to him. Fortunately, as his parts and components went into the bots, he was able to find a couple weak points. These robot's connection to the AI was too far for him to access it remotely. It seemed to have a maze of devices and subsystems set up between him and remote access to the core. He could try to find his way through the maze, or take the time to jump right to where he knew the center was.

Getting to the center seemed like the best bet. However, even then, he needed to give Flux as much of a chance as he could. And to do that, he had to get past these robots. He found a good weakness. A joint in one of its saw arms. It looked like he could control that. It immediately swung and chopped one of the flamethrowers off the one in the middle. He had dove down and then jumped up at the little opening.

The robot in the middle swung at him with the saw. He then implemented the second weakness: the robots’ tank treads. As it tried to swing at him, hotwire made it’s tank treads go into overdrive. It overshot it’s swing, and buried its blade into the bot on the left, who was turning to face the others. It took a hard slice right into it’s center. It’s eyes flickered before going dead. Hotwire then locked the middle one’s tank treads.

There was one more to go. He found it’s weakness. He could open it’s gasoline valves. The robot drove around it’s fallen comrades and tried to torch hotwire. It didn’t work. Weird. It then rose it’s saw to cut at him. Hotwire just smiled as it’s saw began to chink up. With a snap of his fingers, the whole thing blew up, taking out the middle one.

“I love robots.” He said forcing his way into his room. He began to gather some technology, transmitters, conduits, and all sorts of devices floated in the air around him, re-configuring just how he wanted them to. He plugged the machine into the wall and waited. Soon it would light up with a *Ding*

He began to type.

---

*Ding*

The sound would appear to come out of nowhere for Flux. A small holographic device about the size of her communicator appeared in the seat next to her. A small injector appeared as well. The holodevice lit up, and hotwire appeared before her.

"I don't have much time. This little hack will let me talk to you through the program for a minute or two. This injector should be able to take some of the locks out of the program for you. It should trick the system into recognizing who you are and what your powers constitute. You should be able to use them." He explained.

"I'm heading to the central computer core to look at it's radio-emmiters. I should be able to find a way for you to get out of there that way. Good luck flu-" he said before cutting out.

Hotwire ran back to the elevator, prepared to go up two floors to the computer core. But when he opened the doors to the shaft, the shaft was empty.

"This just keeps getting better. He said. He knew the layout of the shaft pretty well. There was a ventilation duct half a floor down that would lead to a crawlspace in the ceiling to the floor above his destination. Easier to go down than up in this case. He picked out his grapple and shot it up at a pipe a couple floors up. The hook wouldn't pull him up, but the cable was strong enough to hold him and let him swing.

He lowered himself down to the shaft, and floated a pocket lazer in front of him, burning the hinges off the shaft. Crawling in, he made his way up. Son he was in the room he needed. It was a sort of rec room of sorts.

"Almost there."

Hotwire made his way back to the shaft. Fortunately, the elevator itself was stopped on the floor below. He simply dropped down onto the lift, and forced open the entrance. After a short jaunt down rows of coolant tanks and pipes, he came to a door. Bursting through it, he was in the computer room. It was fairly big, the size of a small home. He ran to the computer and began trying to find the AI in the system.


Soon he found it. A strong surge of power streaming into a large memory bank. That must be where the AI was running the simulation. Apparently, since it was putting computing power into taking over the rest of the base, it didn't have complete control over the memory simulation. Good for him.


As the creature began to advance on her, with it's mouth open, it became clear it was probably going to fire on her... at least until a small blue light appeared on his head. It would spread over him as he would slow. The light would spread onto the ground, as the magma hardened. And so would the giant creature.