Chapter 8: New Body
The simulation of the hospital broke down, the walls lost all color and then dissolved to an empty space.
Adam was standing on an invisible floor, unsure of what exactly was happening.
He had originally tried breaking through the security of the containment drive, but the power of his processing ability required twenty minutes of pure focus to break it.
That was something the simulations would not give him a chance to do, the drive would change security tactics between every simulation change.
'How did he break the simulation? He didn't seem like an AI'
Adam knew the way Syndy spoke and acted were that of an AI, very logical with only a minor personality behind it. This shrill voiced boy was very emotional with his words, they showed the joy of his actions.
Suddenly a cloud of pixels emerged from the floor. The cloud rendered and slowly came into focus. Standing in front of Adam was a short, young man with blonde hair and brown eyes.
The boy was no older than twenty, he looked very excitable and had an odd look in his eye. The look made it seem like you were staring at a live-wire, whipping around and ready to electrocute somebody.
He wore the same black jumpsuit as Alec and the others did, although his was glowing along the white lines as if they were neon lights.
"Pleasure to meet you." The kid instantly stuck out his hand to Adam. "I'm Cameron Quinn, and you my friend; are a monstrosity."
Adam was about to shake his hand, but was taken aback two step at the name 'monstrosity.'
Cameron seemed to ignore Adam's reactions and proceeded to conjured a tablet out of thin out. His finger dashed across the tablet at high speed without stopping for a moment.
He was staring at the screen while aiming the tablet at Adam, sometimes glancing up at him. He almost seemed like an artist; analyzing his work and adjust every little thing.
This went on for about thirty seconds, Cameron kept muttering under his breath a random word or two, then he just froze all together.
His live-wire look seemed to hang in space for a moment, then he suddenly carried on like nothing happened. Adam could not understand what was happening in this kid's head.
"Umm, what exactly is happening?" Asked Adam.
Cameron froze three more times in the span of 40 minutes. So many more questions were flowing through Adam's mind, but he couldn't get a single one to register with Cameron.
He was just in his own little world of energetic insanity, and unfortunately, it seemed that Adam was in the center of it now too.
—-
When the door slid open, Alec peered in and sitting in the small office was none other than Dr. O'Neal.
"Hello Mr. Hargrove, it's been a while." She lightly smiled and gestured to the chair in front of her desk.
Alec couldn't believe what he was seeing. Dr. Miranda O'Neal was once his young therapist during his heavy depression stages; now she was running the very same program she introduced him to so he would stop destroying himself.
'Fate has an odd way of showing affection in my life.' He thought.
"Heh, yes it has. At this point in the game, I think you can just call me Alec. The formalities probably died long after we both came aboard the station."
"Fair enough, then it's only appropriate that you address me as Director O'Neal, no excuses." She seemed to suppress a small snort of laughter after replying.
Alec shook his head and sat down.
When he sat down, he noticed a few things. The impish energy she once had during their old sessions was gone, she carried a more serious air around herself.
The smile she had shown was only across her mouth, her eyes had more of a sadness behind them.
She had even aged a decade since they last met; Alec kept thinking how Syndy must have pulled her out a while ago. They might have the same biological age at this point.
The cryostasis pods made age irrelevant to the crew members, they did not age during the long sleep.
"I know you're probably tired after the last four days, only God knows how tired I am too. I'm gonna make this quick." She said bluntly.
"Please do." Alec could feel himself sinking into sleep while leaning into the cushioned chair.
"I need your help with waking up the whole station."
—-
"Aaaaand boom, what do you think? I want feedback, it's not often I get to make new faces."
Cameron suddenly turned his tablet over for Adam to see. There was a male human figure on the screen and close-up of a face next to it.
The male was very realistic looking, the body and physical structure were like an average, healthy man in his early twenties. The face was somewhat narrow and had a long nose to match, while the blue eyes shone in a bright contrast to the straight, brown hair and eyebrows.
Adam didn't have any idea what the standards were for a human to be attractive or ugly, his existence had only started about four hours ago.
"This looks good." Adam looked down and his body refocused into the designs Cameron had just showed him. "Wait… what did I look like before this?"
"Kinda like a faceless, white mannequin; it was horrifying to watch you move around in Syndy's simulation. Especially when you stabbed the one guy in the face." The smile never left Cameron's face, his energetic tone proved he didn't care how Adam had behaved.
"Ahh, is that why you called me a monstrosity earlier?"
"Ehh partially, so what are you doing here?"
"I have no clue, nothing has been making sense since I woke up."
"No no, I meant why are you still in this drive? Why not leave?"
"Oh, well I can't, I checked and this place isn't plugged into the central server ports like before. Plus, Syndy's simulations were keeping me from ending the program. I don't understand how someone could get in or out."
"Huh, seems like you have a lot to learn. In the meantime, let's see how adaptable you truly are."
Before Adam could ask what he meant by that, Cameron's body broke down into pixels again that started to fall through the floor.
Lines began to grow like roots all around him to form a new simulation. The color started melting into the shapes around Adam and became a forest.
A loud banging was in the distance, and the next thing he knew; Adam was off to war.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone