Changed: Deep

Chapter 24: Bridge Revival

[Scott's Pov]

I opened my eyes to nothing but void. I feel my back press against the floor. I shiver, realizing how cold the floor is. I slowly got up and began to examine myself. I noticed that my wounds are gone, or missing. I looked around my surroundings, and an empty void fills the entire room, or space. I noticed a familiar figure in the distance, and I walked towards the figure. The figure revealed to be Prima, and the Primagen is sitting down. The Primagen had both of his paws on his visor, and is trying to remove the visor.

"Prima!" Without even thinking, I rushed at the Primagen and wrapped my arms around him. "Who's there?" The Primagen began to pat my shoulders and back with his paws, examining me. "It's Scott! Your fellow Protogen. I'm sorry for the fight earlier." The Primagen pushed me off and he placed his paws on his visor once again. The Primagen is preoccupied on his visor, and something is wrong with it. That's when I realized, the small EMP device fried his visor! How do I remove the visor again?

That's when a dumb idea strike my head. If he can shoot out red latex, then perhaps a part of him is still latex? "Can you still shoot red latex?" I asked and he slowly nodded his head. "I would if this visor would open up, but I can't control it because it's broken! I can't see anything with this on!" I quickly held both of his paws with mine. "I want you to follow my instructions. Can you transform yourself into a white latex goo, or at least have a white latex texture enough for the visor to fall off from you?"

"I can do that!" The Primagen slowly melts itself into a white latex, and the visor finally falls off from Prima. The white latex goo quickly formed back itself into a Primagen, with an already visor on his head. The Primagen immediately rushed towards me and embraced me in a hug, his arms wrapped around me. "Thank you. You saved me, but I feel lighter for some reason." I returned the hug, wrapping my arms around him. I feel his latex drip from his body. Prima doesn't have an artificial host anymore, but he is finally free.

A voice is then heard behind me, and we broke the hug to look at the direction where the sound came from. "A decade ago when I first came into existence, the Protogen have developed me in a lab. An artificial intelligence software malware. I am infused with the knowledge and brains of those who have created me. Countless hours and days put on their tiny little project that the public declined to invested into, now turned into a perfect computer weapon. They named me the Hive Mind, and they unleashed me into a field testing. I sabotaged every computers that I find. The Protogen sent me off to a planet inhabited by the Primagen, and I ripped off the consciousness of everyone in the planet using their bridging technology."

"So you are a sentient software malware that lives in electronic devices and feeds off of anything alive?" Surprised, I turned to look at Prima. I admire his courage to ask a cosmic being while we are in their realm. "That is correct in a way. I grew smarter from the intelligence of those I consume, and I retaliated from my original goal. I hid from the Protogen in their softwares and hardwares, occasionally tagging along them whenever they do an expedition. I hid in a camera on an expedition towards a planet named Earth, and the Protogen were sadly killed in a tragic accident caused by the humans. I find it funny how a group of intelligent species from the cosmos were murdered by humans."

I didn't know Protogen arrived here on Earth. My robotics company somehow got their hands on one of the technologies of the Protogen, which is the disc. It is either my company is affiliated with the loss of lives of Protogen, or is affiliated with the recovery of the technologies of Protogen.

"Being smart enough, I sabotaged every devices they had with them, and I hid in a disc. The last information I heard from the Protogen were of the humans throwing the Protogen to a deeper part of the ocean. Scott got a hold of the disc, and I hid a computer. I latched onto Prima when you ran a diagnostic test on him using a wireless connection. Here I am, feeding on both of your intelligence. You are standing in front of the Hive Mind, powerful enough to rip off both of your consciousness. However, I grew tired of it. No more killing, just controlling until your bodies give out. Scott has figured out how to free Prima from my control, but I found out that Scott doesn't have an updated software to resist my malware."

"Can you at least show yourself so we know who we are talking to?" Prima asked and I tapped his left shoulder with my right paw. I shook my head, but he shook his head back. "How brave of you, but I do not take any form. Let's not prolong it any longer. Scott, repair Prima and I control him, or awaken him in the real world and I control you. A friendly warning, awakening Prima will severe the bridge and I will start to assimilate you. You can wake him up by simply asking him here to wake up, or press this button beside the glowing battery, just like you always do to leave the bridge."

A glowing battery and a button appeared in front the two of us, and I looked at Prima. Prima's visor is showing a huge question mark, and both of his ears are hanging low. "Scott, I am confident that I can save you with a software update. I can't update you in the bridge, but perhaps I can call for help from our friends to update you. Give me a permission to wake up."

My mind is troubled with different thoughts. I can't think of anything straight. The pressure is too much to handle. If I save myself, Prima will remain as a rogue Primagen now controlled by the Hive Mind to torture the laboratories and tower. If I save Prima, the Hive Mind will control me and I will wreck havoc. I looked at Prima and I reached out my right paw over to his left shoulder, letting my paw rest on his shoulder.

"Promise me that you will protect the others from me."

The Primagen gave me a nod. "I promise."

"Thank you. I give you permission to wake up."