“What can you tell me that I don’t know, about the great city, Pluton, Saint?”

Leaning back against my seat in the Velvet Underground’s control, I look up the glowing collection of lines on a screen, otherwise known as the artificial intelligence Saint,

{……That depends on your preexisting knowledge

My database is only programmed with data from thousands of years ago when I was created,}

“How long ago exactly?”

{That cannot be accurately calculated,

All civilizations on Terra, Tellus and Gaia have long since abandoned recording dates,}

“Then can you not access current information on the city?”

{Not possible as my programming is on an entirely different server from the one used in the great City,

If there is anything from the past that you would like to know, I can share,}

“….

Yes, but no…

Not now at least…”

(I don’t know if I want to know anything about myself anymore)

….

“Is there something in particular you are trying to figure out?” another robotic voice speaks, I turn to see the ‘muscular’ android XPunk,

“I want to figure out many things, but…

Never mind, you wouldn’t understand,”

….

It’s been maybe a day or two since I came to the Velvet Underground, kind of hard to tell given we are underground,

Apollo still needing to recover has to stay here a bit longer,

He says it will be a few more days,

Honestly, I don’t mind

I’m not in any rush to learn anything anymore…

(Maybe things weren’t so bad when I was frozen in the ocean)

….

“I may not look like it, honorable Kage, but I was programmed to accurately interpret and emulate human emotion,” the robot is talking

“Why do you call me honorable?”

“Because you are deserving of honor,”

“…..”

(…….)

“Hhhh,” I sigh

“I miss when I still thought I was just some random human back on the third ring,”

“Because back then you didn’t feel put in a position you didn’t ask for?” XPunk interprets my words

“Hah,

Maybe you are good at reading things of this sort,”

……..

Leaning back fully on my chair I look up at bright red light, before saying;

“Back then I always saw red, as in I had a tunnel vision on getting answers,

Learning the truth,

Now as I near the truth,”

“You want to go back…?” XPunk finishes

“Mhm,

Like Himari said when I spoke to her,

Ignorance is bliss, granted I never had the happiest times back then, I was always enamored by the new things around me, the interesting people, their magic,”

(Why am I even remember telling all this to a robot?)

“But even now you are still enamored by it all, Kage,

The only difference is what it means now versus then,”

“You speak like you now me well,”

“This is just what I’ve summarized from how you since you’ve been here,

You thoroughly explored the base, the first chance you got,

Not in suspicious but in curiosity, child like curiosity,

You want to learn but you don’t what for, so you are aimlessly searching,”

“Are you really a robot?”

“Affirmative, but my creators programmed me with their own views and experiences on life so that I would accurately be able to solve any problem that should arise,”

“What do you, no, what did your creators want?

What is that they wanted so badly that they even remain here as trees, and left this base hidden for?”

“Progress,

The progress of humanity,”

“Progress for what?”

“For peace, for unity”

“And I’m the childish one?

If there is one thing know about people as that they come in all shapes sizes and ideologies unity is impossible, no illogical,”

“Working harder makes us better, doing it faster makes us stronger” XPunk’s voice bounces up and down as it speaks,

“Come again?”

“For humanity to progress we must work together, harder, better, faster, stronger, though it may sound dumb or illogical, sometimes the easiest solutions are the ones right in front of us,

Humanity needs a new kind of balance…”

Really feels like I’m speaking to a real person, a very cryptic one…

(The technology here is no joke)

“By balance, you mean?”

“That is up to you to figure out,”

“…….”

(I really don’t know what to make of this machine)

“I know this has something to do with what you already know about me, but…

As I said before, I don’t think I want to know just yet,”

(At least till I make sure Apollo and Himari are safely off this ring)

“Why don’t you want to know?

Isn’t this what you have been seeking after?”

“…..Huwahh!♪

I thought it was…..” I yawn despite not being sleepy

“When I met the monarch of Tellus, Ms. Second, I was ready to learn it all,

But the more she kept talking, the more empty I felt with each reveal,

After she’d said I was given to them, the Second family, I didn’t want to hear more

I didn’t want to know what it meant,

I was everything”

“You were everything?”

“mhm, it’s my way of saying, I was angry, but I feel all my emotions at once, so I wasn’t just angry I was everything,”

“Interesting,” Xpunk’s pixelated face takes on a ‘thinking' appearance

“You are much more, layered than I was programmed to believe Kage”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“An intriguing ‘thing’ to be quite honest,

May I ask your intentions after helping Sir Apollo and Miss Himari on their task?”

(Go home)

“I’m not sure yet,” I say out loud

“I plan to stay to myself for a while and practice control over my mind and magic,”

(Where even is my home at this point…)

“Then by my designated name of XPunk, I will keep you, for as long as need be”

“…….”

(Keep me?)

…..

****

“Come in Alexander, doctor Frankenxtein” a piercing female voice calls, she sits waiting patiently in blue-sliver room, furnished with sparkling diamond encrusted curtains on the walls and even on the carpet,

“Always a pleasure miss Vaughn,” the aforementioned Frankenxtein steps forward through the sliding door,

Alexander bows coming right behind the doctor

“Does the supreme leader have a new objective for us?”

“Correct,” the woman clasps her hand together with her elbows placed atop a regal wooden desk she sits behind

“Alexander, you will ready the other ‘Xanders' for now, await further instructions, and doctor,

It is time to get the new ‘meat grinder’ up a ready to use within a moments notice,”

“The ‘meat grinder’?” replies an intrigued doctor

“Does that mean, it has returned to us?

Or has there been another alternative already since subject, Brandon passed?”

“The former is correct doctor Frankenxtein,

My husband has informed that Kage, has indeed returned,

We are approaching the Final Countdown.”