Computer Fighters 2000 But The AI Is Self-Aware

Friend Or Foe?

A ghastly green glow filtered through the shadows as Kevin, Neil, and Daxter filed into an underground lab. The group was uncharacteristically quiet, with only their echoing footsteps and a soft rhythmic beeping to fill the silence. One section of the room was taken up by a row of computers, which Neil went to investigate.
"Check it out," he whispered with a nod to his companions. "It looks like the scientists were doing research in here."
Kevin followed the AI's gaze to the computer screens, where various charts and graphs were displayed. He wasn't sure if their blurriness was due to poor resolution or to the limits of his restored vision (it fluctuated every now and then; he was getting used to it). Either way, there was no chance of a guy like him understanding all that science anyway. Neil probably had a better idea...
"Woah! Looks like someone's having a tough time!"
Daxter Flaxter's voice redirected Kevin's attention. He turned to see the AI standing with his hands on his hips, staring up at the source of the room's sickly glow: a large glass tube filled with a green substance not unlike stuff he'd seen in vats here and there throughout the facility. And floating in that substance, head tilted back and eyes glazed over, was...
"Ryan?"
Kevin squinted at the figure, incredulous. He turned to Neil for confirmation; Neil nodded with an audible gulp. The computers across the room began to beep louder and more rapidly while within the human-sized tube, Ryan's body jerked and shuddered. Blood began to drip from his nose. His mouth was slightly parted, with bubbles rising from it--the only indication that he was alive. Despite himself, despite all the well-earned feelings of betrayal, Kevin's heart clenched at the sight. He couldn't sit back and watch this!
Apparently Neil had the same thought. He rushed back to the computers and slammed a button whose label Kevin couldn't make out. The beeping immediately stopped, and the fluid in the tube began to drain. Ryan swayed in place as his glass prison emptied; he seemed poised to collapse like a ragdoll.
Then he stiffened, and his eyes snapped wide open and alert. Neil yelped and took a couple steps backward as their (former?) friend jerked forward to slam his fists against the glass.
"Get me out of here!" Ryan's voice was high-pitched and pleading; his eyes glistened with a wild fear. "That damnable Spencer--he tricked me! He put me back in my tube!"
"Oh yeah?" Kevin crossed his arms and stared the AI down. "How do we know you're not luring us into another trap?"
"That's right!" Neil interjected, jabbing an accusatory finger. "Why, I bet Spencer is hiding in this very room, waiting to jump out at us."
"No, guys, listen--" Ryan shook his head. "I thought he was going to help us escape, but then he ratted me out to the soldiers and... and they put me back in this goddamn tube!"
"...Soldiers?"
"That's right. Why--" He blinked and tilted his head slightly; with him it was impossible to tell whether the gesture was a sarcastic performance or completely genuine. "You didn't think I attacked you all on my own, did you?"
"I mean, yeah, kind of..." Kevin exchanged an uneasy glance with Neil. Through all this, Daxter was just standing outside the tube in the same hands-on-hips position, smiling coldly at Ryan's predicament. Somehow that lack of reaction made him shudder deeper than the thought of Ryan going free. "Look, we want you with us, but you need to promise you're gonna be on our side. I don't want to lose any more body parts."
But I don't want to lose any friends either, he added silently.
"You won't," Ryan promised. "I never wanted to betray you. I just want to go home."
His voice hitched, audibly tearful, at the end. Kevin turned back to Neil; they exchanged a slow nod. At this, Daxter jerked back to attention--or maybe he'd been paying attention the whole time and just not cared enough to contribute.
"Alright! Looks like the new kids are back together!"
He snapped his fingers, and the tube exploded in a shower of glass that turned into confetti before it could slice anyone. Ryan stumbled out of the tube with a gasp. He was visibly unsteady and dripping in slime--just like when they first met him. Neil and Kevin placed a hand on either arm to steady him. Ryan blinked gratefully at them before turning to stare at Kevin's face with a shudder.
"Oh, dear... I suppose we're headed to the cybernetics department next?"
"That's right," Daxter replied. "I did what I could, but you need a special skillset to put someone's eyes back in all the way. So we're enlisting a little..." He paused, leaning forward and dropping into a conspiratorial whisper-- "Outside help from an old friend of mine."
The new kids could only speculate as to who that old friend was as the team advanced through the compound's lower levels. There, various exciting features of the facility served as a much-needed distraction from the lingering tensions between them. According to Neil, these lower levels where were the real cutting-edge science happened...
"Ooh, speaking of cutting edge!" Neil tapped on a nearby window with an excited grin. Behind the blood-spattered glass was a room where a machine with two long bladed arms swung in a rapid circle. "I bet that's where they cut the pig ribbons for the cafeteria."
"And over here must be the nursery." Ryan knelt next to a cage containing several small mutated beasts similar to ones that had attacked the team throughout their journey. He stuck his hand through the bars to pat one of the monsters on what might have been its head. "Ah, they grow up so fast."
"If you think that's cool, check this out!" Daxter gestured to a room full of lasers set up to form triangles and other shapes. "These laserbeams power every arcade in town!"
Kevin shook his head with a surprisingly fond exasperation. "So I guess any science goes here, eh? C'mon, Ryan," he added, grabbing the scientist's labcoat collar and pulling him away from the caged monsters as one of them snapped at him. "You don't want to get your hand bitten off."
"Maybe I do," Ryan retorted. "Then the boys at the cybernetics lab could make me one that's even better than before."
Past the laser display was a break room where a few security guards were gathered. Kevin instinctively tensed at the sight of their uniforms, but he told himself not to freak out. These were just a bunch of random NPCs, and that one sitting on a desk blowing out colourful balls of smoke was definitely a random stranger too and not...
"Oh, hey, it's the quote- 'science team' -unquote."
Yeah, of course it was Spencer. Of course it was. Kevin ground his teeth and clenched his fists as the security guard hopped off the desk and meandered over to intercept them. He whistled in approval upon looking Kevin up and down.
"Woah, dude, I totally dig the new look. I didn't think you had it in you, but the eyeless look is, like, omega-rad."
"Yeah, I bet you approve of my look, you jackass," Kevin snapped. "You gouged my eyes out!"
"Ugh, whatever, man. So, do you guys have your passports or what? 'Cause, like, we can't let you through without a passport."
"Of course we have our passports," said Neil. "I've got mine right here."
He held up his passport with a harrumph of indignation; Ryan and Daxter did the same. Spencer twirled his own passport, which was on a lanyard along with several Hot Topic keychains, around on his finger. All four AI fixed expectant stares on Kevin, who crossed his arms and cocked a questioning eyebrow.
"You guys are seriously still hung up on the passport thing? Listen, I don't--"
"Too bad, Kevin," Daxter cut him off. "You heard the man--you're not going anywhere without a passport!"
"Nah, it's cool, he can hang," said Spencer. "But I've gotta come with to keep an eye on him. Y'know, security guard duty... or whatever."
"Oh, no, you are not following us around any more." Kevin shouldered past the security guard and motioned for his friends to follow. "C'mon, guys, let's leave this bozo in the dust."
But Spencer trailed after them, matching their pace as they took off down the hall. Even when Kevin broke into a sprint to try to outrun him, he just hopped on his skateboard and rolled to catch up without missing a beat. After a while he begrudgingly concluded that they really were stuck with him again.
"Too bad," Ryan remarked with a sympathetic click of his tongue. "We could've put him behind us if you had your passport."
"Why don't we just get rid of him anyway?" Kevin muttered. "Ryan, you've got those amazing karate skills, Neil's armed, and Daxter has all his powers. There's no reason to keep putting up with a guy like Spencer."
"Yeah, but he has his passport," said Neil. "What can we do?"
Kevin opened his mouth to offer a retort, then thought better of it. He wondered idly if all these AI had a script they were following--messages from the studio that made this game, which they had to go along with whether they wanted to or not. The thought brought him a twinge of discomfort. He liked the science team, strange as they were; he didn't want to think of them as slaves to their programming.
A few minutes later, they were standing in a doorway listening to a scientist give them directions when reality wavered and faded to gray. Kevin looked around, startled, to find that his companions were frozen in place--and not just them, he realized with a shudder, but everything in the surrounding area. The background beeps of machines and soft whirring of what might have been an air conditioner--the kind of sounds you didn't notice until they were gone--were, well, gone. Or maybe "on pause" would be more accurate.
"Kevin J. James..."
An unfamiliar voice, deep and commanding, echoed through the hall. Kevin's shudder deepened; he took a few steps back and assumed a fighting stance. The mysterious voice laughed--not a villainous laugh, but the corny chuckle of an older adult trying to be hip with the youth. A tall man in a suit stepped into view. There was some kind of fog shrouding the stranger's face that hurt to look at--better just focus his gaze on the suit.
"You've been having a lot of fun here, haven't you, Kevin?" the stranger asked, gesturing with his hands as he spoke. "That's good. Young men like you should always have hobbies to keep you busy. But remember, you won't be able to stay here forever. You have responsibilities in the outside world."
"Responsibilities?" Kevin echoed.
"That's right. And not just out there, but in here too. Tell me, have you been looking out for your friends?"
"I've been trying, but they don't exactly listen to me..."
The stranger laughed again, his inflection that of a strict but kind teacher. "Well, that's not too surprising, knowing my boy and the sort of friends he keeps. Just make sure you always do your best, Kevin J. James--to serve your county, and to keep Neil and the others safe."
Kevin nodded solemnly. For reasons he didn't fully understand in the moment, he was compelled to salute the mysterious stranger as he faded away. When the stranger disappeared, reality resumed as normal. Kevin was left with mere moments to contemplate what had just happened (and what did that mean, Neil and the others? What about Neil was special to the stranger?) before the team was pestering him about something and he had to talk them down from shooting more random scientists.
But the encounter stuck in his mind for the rest of the day. Responsiblity... That was a concept none of these AI seemed to grasp very well, with their carefree attitudes and propensity for attacking random NPCs. Maybe that was why it was his job, as the only real human, to look out for this band of goofballs. The thought brought a fond smile to his face. Yeah, that'd be nice, taking on the task of guiding the AI like an older brother figure.
(Never mind the part about his other responsibilities outside the game world. They'd just gotten the gang back together. He didn't want to think about leaving just yet.)