Computer Fighters 2000 But The AI Is Self-Aware

We Just Killed A Man

Kevin awoke with a ringing in his ears to the sound of a blaring alarm. He peeled himself off the cool concrete floor and raised his head to look around. The smell of smoke hung heavy in the air, partially obscuring his surroundings. Coughing, he dragged himself to his feet and stumbled out into the hallway; glass crunched under his boots as he did. Once his vision cleared, his stomach hitched at the sight of blood coating the floor... and, yep, there were a bunch of dead bodies. No NPCs he recognized, but a lot of dead scientists nonetheless. He drew in a shaky breath and tried very hard not to throw up.
Wait. As memory of the resonance cascade flooded back into his head, panic rose in his chest. Neil and Ryan--those guys were in the chamber too, and they didn't have HEV suits. Are they...?
To his relief, he spotted Neil getting to his feet and dusting himself off nearby. A little further down the hall, Daxter Flaxter was saying something to Ryan--hopefully scolding him for jumping into the test chamber like that, but probably not, judging by the scientists' matching unnervingly wide grins. Neil frowned as he glanced around at the dead bodies scattered throughout the hall.
"Gee, Kevin, that was a big explosion you set off," he remarked as he and the other AI wandered over to stand at Kevin's side. "All these innocent people are dead now."
"It wasn't my fault!" he exclaimed. Then, with a twinge of trepidation: "...Was it?"
"Duh, of course this one's on you." Ah, and of course Spencer had survived the explosion too. The security guard AI approached with a casual stride, regarding the carnage with the same kind of disgust you'd direct at an unfashionable sweater. "None of this would've happened if you had a passport."
"Oh, come on, that would not have--" Kevin bit down the harsh remarks that were on his tongue and made another bid at reason. "What about you, Ryan? You just came out of a test tube--I bet you don't have a passport either, huh?"
"Guess again!" Ryan dug into the inner pocket of his labcoat and produced a creased and faded passport. Kevin's first thought was that it was stolen, but the photo on the passport matched the face grinning back at him (though maybe there were only so many NPC designs in this game). "Everyone here has a passport. Why, I can only imagine the terrible fate that might befall someone who doesn't have a passport!"
"See, Ryan knows what's up," Spencer put in.
"Alright, but you get that there's more important things than passports, right? Like--" Kevin turned to Daxter Flaxter, presumably the most experienced among them, for validation. "You agree with me, right, Dactyl Fanta?"
"Hey there, Kevin!" Daxter's head shook back and forth with a laminated paper wobbling sound effect. When he stabilized, he snapped his fingers and a passport materialized in his hand. "Everybody here's got a passport. It sounds to me like you're out of the loop!"
During this exchange, Neil had wandered off to investigate further down the hall. Now he ran back to the rest of the team, eyes wide and fearful.
"Guys, look out--we have company!"
Before Kevin could ask what kind of company, he got his answer. Neil was followed by a screeching beast with leathery wings and scales; its long hooked beak opened to breath a plume of scorching fire. The room immediately broke into screams as player and AI alike dove for cover. Spencer produced a skateboard from his inventory. When the beast swooped down at him he whacked it in the face and it exploded into a shower of viscous red and yellow pixels.
"What was that thing?!" Kevin yelled over the adrenaline pounding in his head. "And you--what did--what is that weapon? There is no way that's a normal skateboard!"
"Well, duh... this is my passport." As if on cue, a set of unfamiliar scientist NPCs who'd been standing by a control panel a little further down the hall suddenly burst into flame. Spencer jerked his head toward their bodies seconds before they despawned. "See those guys? They didn't have their passports."
"Golly!" Ryan exclaimed. "You'd better get yourself a passport, Kevin."
"Yeah, so I keep hearing," he muttered.
After checking to make sure his team (his team? Yeah, it seemed like these AI were his team, like it or not) were all okay, Kevin motioned for them to follow him. Studying the map of the facility as he went, he led them down the hall to the elevator. They just had to get to the surface, he figured, and then they'd be fine. Of course, that was assuming they did make it without getting killed and eaten by mutated creatures along the way. And judging by how many bodies littered the corridors, it looked like they were among a lucky few to have avoided that fate so far.
After a few minutes of navigating monster-infested halls, they came across a series of crackling red lasers which spanned across the hall, blocking the path. Kevin stopped in front of the laser system; the science team exchanged apprehensive glances.
"Looks like the laser system is out of wack," Daxter observed with a nod to the fried circuit boards that were supposed to hold the lasers in check.
"Yeah, no kidding," Kevin muttered. "Anybody know how to fix this kinda thing?"
"I can do it," Neil offered.
He stepped up, manifesting a screwdriver from his inventory, and began tinkering with the panel. But before he was finished with it, Ryan took a running leap and somersaulted through the laser network. Daxter followed close behind, letting out an energetic whoop as he charged headfirst through the lasers--clipping straight through them rather than bothering to dodge as his colleague had.
"Hey! What are you guys--"
Neil clapped his hands in excitement. "Ooh, me next!"
"No!" Kevin held an arm out to block the scientist from advancing. "You're going to get the system back online and disable the lasers, alright? Not all of us can--"
He broke off as his eyes landed on Spencer sitting cross-legged, polishing his skateboard... with his head directly in the path of a laser. He raised his head to give Kevin a smug half-lidded smile, apparently quite unbothered by his predicament.
"Hey! Get over here!" Kevin darted forward and grabbed Spencer by the wrist, tugging him roughly away from the lasers. He shook the AI by the shoulders with a glare. "Listen, man, I don't like you very much, and I get the feeling you're not big on me either, but I don't want any deaths on my conscience!"
"I thought you already had deaths on your conscience," Ryan interjected from across the room.
"I told you, the resonance cascade was not my fault!"
"Chillax, bro," Spencer drawled. He took a puff of "sweet voice" and blew it in Kevin's face. "As if I'd get hurt by lasers. Those things are so cliché."
Neil looked up from the circuit board to flash Kevin a sympathetic smile as he coughed and waved the sweet purple smoke out of his eyes. "Hey, it's okay, Kevin. I believe you didn't mean to cause any of this."
"Thanks, Neil," he sighed, giving the AI a weary pat on the shoulder.
Once the laser system was disengaged, it wasn't much further to the elevator. The shaft was empty when they reached it, so he pressed the button. However, instead of summoning the elevator, a cable above their heads snapped and sent the elevator plummeting down with a team of scientists inside. Kevin blanched at the muffled sound of their quickly fading screams.
"Oh my god," Neil whispered. "You just killed those guys."
"I--I didn't--" He shook his head and leaned against the wall to steady himself. "That was not my fault. I didn't know they were there."
"Hey, cool your jets," said Daxter. "Taking a few innocent lives is nothing to get all worked up about."
"I'm pretty sure that's the exact kind of thing it's appropriate to get worked up about, actually."
"Dude, I can't believe you broke the elevator," Spencer put in. "Now we're gonna have to climb the ladder and I'm gonna get blisters on my hands. Man, this totally sucks nuts."
Kevin could have retorted that about an hour earlier Spencer had been saying elevators were conformist and that he was being a massive hypocrite. Instead he elected to bury his face in his hands to muffle a scream of frustration. Without missing a beat, the rest of the science team ducked into the elevator shaft and began making their way up the emergency ladder. Kevin reluctantly filed in behind them and tried very hard not to look down.
About halfway up the ladder, Ryan suddenly stopped. Kevin prodded his leg, but the AI was frozen in place and quivering slightly. Another glitch? No, upon closer inspection this looked more like a scripted event. Ryan's eyes were glazed over and a thin line of blood dribbled from his nose.
"I think..." he said slowly, "We're in danger."
"Took you this long to notice, huh?" But upon noticing how fast and shallow the AI was breathing, and how his hands trembled as they clutched the rusted ladder rungs, Kevin's exasperation gave way to sympathy. He reached up to give Ryan an assuring pat on the back. "Hey, you're gonna be okay. I believe in you guys--well, maybe not Spencer so much... and, okay, Daxter seems a little buggy... but I definitely believe in you and Neil. We're gonna make it out of here."
To his relief, Ryan smiled at that--and for the first time it actually looked like a normal human smile rather than a predator baring its fangs. "Thanks, man. Say, don't let the others get to you," he added with a nod to the rest of the team, who'd already reached the next floor and appeared to be pestering a guard. "I think it's really neat that you've taken so many innocent lives today."
Things didn't improve much on the second floor, but at least there were more surviving employees. Though his ragtag team of AIs were growing on him, it was nice to see some fresh faces. He came across a good-sized gathering of scientists and stood to address them while the rest of the team armed themselves in the other room.
"Okay, so, does anybody know the fastest way out here?"
While the group of scientists murmured amongst themselves, Spencer's voice rang out from the next room. "Check it out, bros, I'm gonna do a gnarly skateboard trick."
Kevin ducked just in time to avoid the skateboard soaring over his head, wheels spinning like razorblades. The instant the board came in contact with one of the gathered scientists, the whole crowd was instantly torn asunder. Swearing loudly, Kevin wiped a strand of viscera off his face and turned to glare at Spencer.
"Heh, too bad," the security guard remarked as he flipped the skateboard up and tucked it under his arm. "Those posers just couldn't take the heat...well, except for that one guy."
He gestured at one remaining scientist who was climbing to his feet and dusting himself off. This NPC appeared to have the same model as Daxter Flaxter, which caught Kevin off guard, though he supposed it wasn't too surprising given the nature of video games. But before anyone could say another word, Daxter spun around snapped his fingers. His double disintegrated on the spot.
"Dude! Why did you do that?"
"My clone," Daxter responded cheerfully. His visor flickered again; Kevin gritted his teeth and shuddered.
A little further on they came across a scientist slumped against a wall, giant insects gnawing at their head. Kevin hung back, stomach roiling at the sight, while his teammates gathered around to investigate. He couldn't tell whether the NPC was supposed to be dead or not...
"Woah, check it out!" Daxter pressed the side of his visor and tilted his head back as though he were raising a pair of sunglasses. "Stay away from those flesh-eating hornets."
"Hey, uh... do you think that person's still alive? Because if they are then we should probably help them, right?"
"Don't worry, gentlemen, I'll take care of it."
Ryan stepped up and delivered a martial arts kick to the scientist's head. The splattering noises from the insects were almost but not quite loud enough to obscure the snap of the NPC's neck breaking. Their head lolled to the side as the insects despawned into globs of fluid.
"Nice shot, Ryan," said Neil, grinning and clapping his colleague on the shoulder.
"God, you guys are sick," Kevin muttered. He took a deep breath and struggled to remember that this was still just a game--a narrative he was ostensibly supposed to have control over. These weren't real lives his cohorts were ending left and right...
"Look alive, new kids!" Daxter interjected. "Here comes Frankenstein!"
They turned to see a stitched-together humanoid monster shambling down the hall toward them at a startlingly fast clip. Neil and Ryan grabbed each other and screamed.
"Holy shit," Kevin practically yelped. "What kind of experiments are you people running here?"
"Don't worry about it," Neil told him. "Just get rid of that thing!"
"Never mind getting rid of it--" He grabbed a gun off the floor and fired a few shots at the monster to slow it down. "We've gotta get out of here!"
One further scuffle with mutated creatures, a whole lot of running, and several more not-entirely-accidental murders later, the team came out to a docking bay over a large pool filled with an ambiguous dark liquid. The moment they entered the room, Spencer was sitting on a barrel and looking bored.
"So, like, when are we gonna get to the surface? This whole place is totally wack."
"We'll get there when we get there, okay? You probably know your way around here better than I do."
But as much as he hated to say it, the troublesome security guard had the right idea by stopping to sit down. Now that they weren't actively scrambling for their lives, the adrenaline was wearing off fast. Kevin realized just how worn out he was; his legs ached and his clothes were plastered with sweat beneath the HEV suit. Turning to his team of AI, he asked, "Hey, why don't we all rest for a while?" and slumped to the ground without waiting for an answer.
Luckily, it seemed the whole team was in agreement. Neil knelt down and rummaged through his inventory; he pulled out some sodas they'd collected from a vending machine earlier and pressed one into Kevin's hand.
"Here, have a lemonade. It'll give you powers."
"Powers, huh?" Whatever that means... I'll take it.
Kevin raised the bottle in a half-hearted toast. Neil, Ryan, and Daxter mimicked the gesture enthusiastically while Spencer rolled his eyes and looked away. After a few sips of the sugary beverage, his energy was replenished enough that he could sit up and talk to the team.
"So, does anyone here have family--or, y'know, people you'd like to see again when this is over?"
"Well, I did have a few girlfriends back in the day," said Daxter. "But none of them could keep up with me, so that's all in the past now."
"I have a dog," said Neil. "Well, she officially belongs to the whole crew, but I named her."
"Cool. What'd you call her?"
"Rocky. I designed her to be the perfect dog--she's unkillable and everything."
"What about you, Kevin?" Ryan asked, leaning forward with his eyebrows raised and his hand poised on his chin. "I thought I saw a photo of someone when we passed by your locker."
"Oh, yeah..." Kevin blushed slightly, then harder upon the realization that he was genuinely flustered to be discussing this with a bunch of AI. "That's my girlfriend. We're not seriously committed or anything, but I like her a lot, so..."
From his position atop the barrel, Spencer exhaled a stream of teal smoke bubbles. "Oh, yeah, I saw that photo. She looks like a basic bitch. I bet she, like, goes to Starbucks and gets whatever's popular."
Rather than engage with that remark, Kevin pointedly ignored Spencer and decided to change the topic. "So, Neil--you haven't killed anyone yet, right?"
"Not that I know of."
"Well, do you think you'd be able to if that's what it came down to? You know, since morality is apparently out the window."
"Sure, probably." He picked up one of several guns the team had found (read: stolen) along the way and aimed it at the ceiling. "Like this, right?"
He fired, sending a shower of debris raining down on their heads. Kevin cursed under his breath and ducked to avoid a falling chunk of plaster, while Ryan clapped politely at the display.
"Good form, Neil, but maybe don't do that unless the situation calls for it." He glanced at Daxter, whose body was flickering slightly. "You okay, Pastor Trantor?"
Daxter's form resolidified with his grin unwavering. "Hey there, Kevin!"
Kevin's lips twitched into a cautious smile. Looking between his team members, he got the feeling that this experience was either going to be not so bad after all, or worse than he possibly could have imagined. Either way, it looked like they were in it for the long haul... and it was going to be a wild ride.