Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 86

Will and Libbi stormed down the footpath, forming an imposing line. I'm imagining a slow-mo power walk of them both striding with fierceness, underplayed by a musical score, Will kitted out in his battle regalia of armour and double-holstered side-arms, Libbi affixed with lasers.

In reality you'd need to replace the armour with an old tattered t-shirt, the guns for stains, and the lasers with a shrill voice. Still, an impressive sight.

They stepped up to the boundary of the Schuvantz building. The defensive bots not patrolling the property stood no match for these two.

Will figuratively placed sun-glasses over his eyes before nodding to Libbi. She nodded in return. This was it, the big assault, the moment we've all been waiting for. It's so exciting. I'm sorry you've had to wade through all that other pre-manure-discharged-droppings just to get to the good stuff. But don't worry, I'm about to bring it, cheerleader style.

The teeny tiny puny weak gate would be no more than a speed bump. Will's strategy was to simply clamber up and over the long vertical columns and drop to the other side. He hadn't tried it out yet, but surely his character could perform that action. It worked in most point-and-click adventure games.

He latched onto a bar and gripped it tight. More slow motion here, perhaps even an extreme close-up of the fingers wrapping around the metal. His arms took some of his weight as he raised himself up onto his tippy toes. Then he dropped down. It wasn't that he didn't have the strength to lift his own weight, although I did hear a few conspiracy theories with diagrams of muscle mass and lift ratios and redacted reports suggesting the need for [redacted] boots or other [redacted] technology. No, the more pressing concern was the cheery Zelda theme, in all its midi goodness, blaring out from inside Will's armour.

"Hm," he said, staring at his personal screen.

"What is it?"

"Thirty minutes till my game. Or, there would have been."

Libbi fluttered closer. "Thanks for helping me, Will. It means a lot. So let's go."

The last sentence confused Will. It also made him think -- not a particularly elucidating avenue. His mind wandered along paths untaken, with occasional breaks to smell the aromatic gardenia and sweet roses that often pervade these types of mental images. Libbi's only clue that this was going on at all was Will's customary peer into the heavens and a general malaise of unresponsiveness, augmented on this occasion by a low shriek, like fingernails gently caressing a blackboard. It may seem unlikely that thinking alone can elicit a sound but remember, this is Will we're talking about; normal doesn't come into it.

"Err," he said, and I wouldn't have expected otherwise. "Go where? We're here, at Josef's. This is it, the big showdown."

"We can't just go in like this, unprepared," said Libbi.

"Then why are we here?"

"You came here. I have to stay within three metres, remember?"

"Oh," said Will.

"But we'll need a way in," said Libbi. "Once we do something else first."

"Yeah, I'll climb over the gate. Easy."

Libbi's camera tilted down his scrawny body and back up to his beady eyes.

"You don't think I can do it?" said Will. "I'll show you."

It was as if someone had told him he was hopeless at Large Steal Vehicle, or couldn't knock down a zombie from fifty feet with a standard sniper rifle. Blasphemy.

What came next was nothing short of extraordinary. There comes a time in one's life where we must take a stand and rise above the mediocre past. The triumphant future awaits only those brave souls who transgress their own doubts and break free from the constraining expectations of their society. This was not that time.