Why me?

[Shadowe]

{The Basement, Huntington Manor, 29 January 2008, Approx 10.30pm}

Richard appeared in the massive teleport chamber beneath the manor, fully armoured and ready for battle. The lights flickered overhead, and the data displays inside his battle-suit helmet fuzzed and lurched. He caught the faint actinic tinge of an electrical fire before the suit's environmental systems sealed it from the atmosphere.

Bracing himself emotionally, he rushed to the pressure door that led even deeper into the bowels of the artificial cavern system that constituted the headquarters of the Warriors of Darkness, and cursed when he saw that it was open. Stepping through he felt like he was entering a nightmare.

The Mark One Helena Huntington avatar stood before the massive computer core that was Helena herself, sword in hand, frozen in place, looking scared. Sparks and randomly flickering lights could be seen in the heart of the five-storey cylinder of electronics and circuitry that was suspended by sturdy girders in a deep sinkhole.

And Sam stood, fury twisting her face, and she lashed the core with waves of radiation and electromagnetic pulse, as well as telekinetically punching at it. "Won't you just shut up and DIE!" Her scream echoed through the chamber, almost drowned out by the tortured squeals emanating from the few functioning speakers in the room.

"Sam!" Richard's bark grabbed her attention for a moment, but she merely waved a hand, and he felt his body weakening, slowing, his vision blurring, as a wall of energy slammed into him, faster than he could absorb it. The nausea he felt was worse than anything he'd experienced from another dimension, even Requiem's Shadowmaker devices, but he knew that he couldn't stop. Had to stop her.

He brought up his mental blocks, shutting her from his mind, ensuring that she would have to attack him directly if she wanted to plague him with visions or twist his mind to her purposes. His eyes widened in horror as he realised that she'd reached the same conclusion that he had - that he was the perfect weapon to use.

Sam turned away from Helena, pausing only to flick her hand at the avatar, knocking it down the pit. Her eyes narrowed, and she bent her will against her own brother.

"Come on, Dicky. Don't you get sick of her? That sycophantic, happy, irritating voice whispering in your ear all the time? Doesn't it annoy you? Don't you want to make it STOP?" Her mind raced around his, seeking a gap, a way in that she could use without having to break his will first.

Richard stared at her. How could she be thinking like this? She'd built Helena. Had programmed her. Designed everything about the software that governed her. How the hell could Sam want to destroy something she had made? Even so, her suggestion started to sneak through his guard. Helena could sometimes be annoying. Sometimes it would be nice if she didn't talk to him at the most inappropriate times.

But she's my friend. She's a person. She has a right to make her own choices. She has a right not to be murdered by her own damn MOTHER! He screamed that last in Sam's face, even as he used every ounce of energy he could muster to push through the radiation she was pouring into him, ignore the continued assaults against his mind, send a pulse of energy down his arm and into his hand and...

His fist slammed into Sam's jaw with enough force to shatter concrete.

[Kitmarch]

((Ooooh.... calcified gelatin. Don't worry, I'm sure she'll thank him for it when she wakes up. Even if she DOES have to use sign language.))

[Shadowe]

{Huntington Manor, The Very Near Future}

Richard gazed out of the window, across the lawn, eyes following the two figures that were prancing about on the lawn. He was both gladdened and saddened by the sight.

Helena Mark Two-Point-One gripped a foot-long stick in one hand, and hurled it into the air, yelling "Fetch!" The robotic guard-dog he had recovered from Laura's apartment barked loudly and ran after the stick, his legs pounding like pistons as he hurled himself after it. A few moments later he returned, the stick clamped between his jaws, and tilted his head up to look at Helena, who crouched down and rubbed his polished head. "Good boy, Max!" The artificial canine released the stick, his tail wagging furiously, and he stood up on his hind legs, resting his front paws on Helena's shoulders. The avatar fell over backwards, laughing gayly. "Whosagoodboy? Come here, Max!"

She proceeded to wrestle with the dog, who barked and yipped excitedly. The pair of them rolled across the lawn a shot way, before Max barked triumphantly and snapped his teeth playfully at Helena's arm. She crawled out from under him, and struggled to her feet.

"New game, Max!" She concentrated for several seconds, and there was a fizzing pop, and suddenly she was holding a frisbee. "I throw this, and you have to catch it before I can, okay?"

Max barked agreement, and Helena smiled. "Good boy. Here goes..." She hefted the frisbee into the air, and the disc flew in a looping arc, Max racing after it, his paws digging huge divots into the turf. Helena closed one eye, tracked the trajectory... and teleported. Badly. The damage to her central processor had left her with some serious problems. Luckily her memory was completely unaffected, but her tracking and scanning systems had taken a severe battering, which meant that she was now incapable of the precision teleporting which had previously been Two-Point-One's main benefit. The avatar reappeared in mid-air, and crashed down atop one of the statue that sparsely littered the lawn.

Max, seeing that his new friend had collapsed, followed his new programming and halted his pursuit of the frisbee, even as Richard phased through the window of the manor at which he stood and, ignoring the breeze, ran toward his downed friend. Max reached Helena first, and nuzzled her arm, a low whine coming from his primitive vocal processor. Helena's arm twitched, and she feebly stroked him. "I'll be... fzzzk!... fine, Max. Just a little bump. I'll be able to... fzzzk!... fix myself up just like I did with you."

When Richard reached her, she was half-sitting, arms looped around Max's shoulders, using him to support herself. "Master Richard! I need permission to return to Huntington Technologies to effect repairs on this unit. I apologise... fzzzk!... for this inconvenience."

Richard shook his head. "Helena, just go. You don't need my permission for things like that." She looked at him, raising a face that looked disturbingly like Kit's to meet his gaze.

"I shall be activating Mark... fzzzk!... Four while I'm there, Master Richard. Processing node damage precludes continued... fzzzk!... function of Mark Two until and unless repairs are completed. Mark... fzzzk!... Four's independent processor will enable us to operate with minimal loss of... fzzzk!... functionality."

Richard nodded as she spoke. "Well, they're your avatars, H. Do what you think is best."

A weak smile curled her lips. "Thank you, Master Richard."

Max barked and wagged his tail.

[Kitmarch]

((Mark.... FOUR?))