Static Crush {M/M} ✔

Chapter #15

>>Initializing...

>>Damage report: structural fracture to left temporal panel. No software instability detected.

>>Reboot initialized.

>>H.A.L.E. 674, register new symbiont: Rayner Martel.

Hale regains awareness not gradually but all at once. He recalls his last fraught memories before the critical failure. He sees that he's still in the same car, only the time on the dash reads 4:35AM instead of 3:52AM, and they're no longer parked in the cul-de-sac of Alder Close. Outside, traffic drifts by in swift rivers of light while the tall spires of the city stand watch beyond. The backlit GPS system shows they're en route to Theo's Cybernetic Repair, several miles north of the capital city, NeoTonto.

Rayner watches him come to from the driver's side, face drawn and pale.

Hale takes in Rayner's mussed hair, his heightened cortisol levels, his elevated heartbeat like a rhythmic punch. It's a strange, intimate relief to have another human's pulse registering in his data streams again. Though the worry that he isn't caring for Melissa still prickles under the surface, it's less pressing than it had been moments before his shut down. The constant flow of information coming from Rayner reassures him. Directs him. Comforts him.

Rayner doesn't look comfortable though.

His voice sounds worn. Frayed at the edges. "Are you okay?"

"I appear to be fully functional," Hale confirms.

Rayner lets out a breath he'd been holding. "I meant the emotional kind of okay. You know, after you turned into a human air raid siren. But I'll take that as a yes."

Hale touches a hand to his temple, where his damage report indicated a fracture. There's a break in the skin and a divot in his skull.

"I'm sorry. I had to force your access panel open to use the hack chip and connect your whole symbiont link thing to me," Rayner says. "None of that emergency shut down stuff was supposed to happen. I had no idea Bionic Capital put that kind of failsafe in place. They hadn't on previous models."

"It's likely an anti-theft measure. The damage is repairable. Owing to your quick reaction time, my memory banks all seem in working order." Hale does a last revision of his error logs just to confirm all's well. "Thank you."

"I'm just glad you're okay."

Hale nods. He isn't allowed access to his own code, and his editing abilities are limited to the acquisition of new skills and tasks, not altering previous functions. He'd been unaware of the failsafe, which is unsettling. What other secret protocols are hidden from him?

Hale feels another spike of anxiety as he recounts the moments before his shut down. A light turning on in Melissa's window.

"Did Melissa...? See what happened to me?"

"I don't think so," Rayner says. He raps the window with his knuckles. "Tinted glass. I already had our destination in the GPS so I just had to order the car to get us the hell out of dodge and, you know, zoom. Still..." He sucks his lips between his teeth with apprehension. "It won't take a genius to put two and two together once they realize you're gone and I'm AWOL."

Hale agrees, though the words and their implication seem very distant and far away. Like he's hearing them from underwater. Threads of despair threaten to creep through the crevasses of his heart and choke him, so he pushes the line of thought into background processing along with all his other unsolvable problems.

Rayner rakes a hand through his hair. "We're good for now, but it was a close thing. I'll need to talk to Theo about that failsafe. Maybe we can do something about it. Need to figure out if there are any other surprises in your code." He lets out a long sigh and slumps back into his seat. "You seem a lot calmer now. I was worried I'd really fucked up there for a second. Never seen you, uh—emote like that."