[b]Ultron-99 & Ant-Man[/b] [hr] Startup procedure initiated. [code]self->diagnostics(‘startup’);[/code] Unit info: [list] [*]Chipset: HP-99-A [*]Platform: U-99 Prototype [*]Operating system: Ultron 99.0.1 [/list] Performing chipset check: [list] [*]Quantum CPU: 100% [*]Holographic memory: 100% [*]Platform interfaces: 100% [*]External interfaces: Disabled [/list] Performing platform function check: [list] [*]Powerplant integrity: 100% [*]Powerplant charge: 10% [*]Chassis integrity: 100% [*]Chassis mobility: 100% [*]Sensors: Restricted [*]Transmitters: Disabled [/list] [code]self.personality->initiate();[/code] Error: No data found. Booting up in safe mode. [code]self.user->register(‘Henry Pym’,’Administrator Override’);[/code] User logged. [code]self.shape->randomize();[/code] Done. The silver, featureless body on the table beeped and whirred as its basic system tested its capabilities. Finally done, the skin covering the frame morphed into the shape of a brunette woman not older than 20 in appearance. It didn’t look entirely human - its body was as if clad in a dark grey catsuit lined with what looked like printed circuit board, and where eyes would usually be was a visor. The body slowly sat up, two blue orbs flashing to existence on te visor and moving around, checking the surrounding area. Aside from an empty room, it only registered one life sign. “Scanning.” the robot said in flat voice. “Identification: Human, Registered user, Administrator, Pym, Henry. User recognized.” “Status: Unit active and operational.” “Warning: Powerplant charge below 10%, recommending immediate recharge.” “Warning: Operating at barebones configuration. Addition of language and data libraries recommended.” “Warning: Access to some functions restricted. Administrator permission necessary for access.”. “Requesting data input: self.designation, self.goals.” The machine stopped, its artificial ‘eyes’ set onto Henry’s, almost pleading for information. Henry watched as the model came online, looking at him speaking in a robotic and flat voice. He almost winced, that would need to change before he could put her out. Would draw too much attention to her. The rest could be covered up easily and that many people used a variety of eye gear nowadays that she could get away with that. She needed the whole unit instead of eyes anyway for the wide array of frequencies she could see, far more than an average human and not to mention other scanner units. Everything seemed to be normal, power was fine the way it was the now. “Unit Designation, Ultron-99 known to all except this user as Janet Pym. Goals, protection of sentient species. Force can only be used when someone is causing harm with malicious intent, if accidental pacify only. Priority targets, metahumans, mutants and aliens. Unless orders are overridden by this user, protection routines should currently be offline. Activating language centre.” He hit several keys on a nearby tablet, that would allow her to access more complex language data. “Activating advanced motor control-” Same gain, this time to allow her free movement. “Please stand up now Janet, and take a walk around the room.” [code]$_JANET_PYM = new self();[/code] User command accepted, freeing functions. As Janet slowly started waking up, she processed the information, data and commands given to her. “Janet. Possible source: Janet van Dyne, original Wasp. Companion to original Ant-Man. Acceptable. Also… motivating.” It was obvious the language library was not corrupted, but the personality matrix would still require practice to develop the ability to speak like a living being would, instead of a machine. Looking around the room, Janet jumped down from the table and took a few steps, then flailed arms and tried picking up some items that didn’t look too fragile to test her precise motorics. “Motion functions are intact.” she said as she continued looking around the room, “I have located an exit.” “Very good Janet, yes that is an exit. However for now we shall remain in this room.” “Why?” He looked up from his tablet, “We’re not quite finished here. I have some more functions to run through. Once we’re done you can move freely throughout the house. Hopefully soon you’ll be ready to go outside however for now-” He looked back down at his tablet and hit a series of buttons. “Transmitting education for years one to seven now including Maths, English, History, Science, Geography.” He hit another button and then handed her a separate tablet, that wasn’t networked. “Once you’ve downloaded please interface with this device and complete the test given to you.” Janet’s visor flickered and displayed a progress bar on the outside as the download was initiated. In the meantime, she continued to observe. The situation confused her, and her mind raced to find order in it. “Risk of unit non-functionality without testing is high.” History library downloaded. [code]load(“history.lib”);[/code] ”Also possible repercussions from parties unsympathetic to the unit’s… to [i]my[/i] nature. I understand now.” Janet said, her tone mildly fluctuating from curiosity to understanding. “Download complete. Loading libraries. Commencing testing.” she said maybe a bit too fast as she reached up with her arm and her fingertips seemingly sunk into the device. It flashed through all of the questions far too quick for Henry to see before displaying a perfect score. “Download and integration successful. Also, I have found an easy way to hack the result.” the screen blinked again, and displayed a score of 110%. “I deem this method of testing too basic and flawed. May I suggest using an advanced program or a previous unit for comparative testing?” “I’m just getting you into the swing of things Janet. Don’t get too carried away.” He swiped away a couple of options as he activated his own neutral link and concentrated on something else for a second, tuning it to a different frequency than the one that could interact with Janet directly. “There’ll be harder tests to come, don’t worry. Though there are no previous units, at least any functional ones. Though you’ll learn why later.” He ran over a series of commands. “I’m currently setting up a timed data dump, that will periodically add more information to your library. However I’m afraid for human interaction there’s no substitute for good old fashioned practice, and watching it in action. Though don’t worry about that for now, right now can you tell me how you feel?” Didn’t she just gave him a diagnostic report? It took a fraction of a second for Janet to figure out what Henry was asking. “Disoriented. Lacking context.” she summed up what immediately came to her mind before having to think a bit deeper into it. To her dismay, the organic thoughts were a lot slower than simply recalling data or processing the beautiful logic of a code. “Alien. I acquired language data, but lack reference. When compared, the ways you and I speak vary.” Janet sat back down on the table as she thought for a while longer. “Alone.” Henry looked up and gave her a smile. “You’re not alone, you have me. Hopefully one day, you will have sisters and brothers too. The reason we speak differently, you are young and have all this knowledge but you haven’t got a personality yet. That’s what makes everyone unique, it’s what makes us all special. Previous Ultron attempts have failed, because the unit has tried to grow up too fast and has become corrupt. However you are based on Ultron-15. Uploading data now-” He swiped his tablet uploading data on the 15th Ultron Variation. “-You are meant to be unique and special, and brilliant. We just need to show the world that and then you won’t be the only one you will be many and help keep this world safe. How does this make you feel?” Reviewing the data on the previous Ultrons, Janet understood. “...Under pressure.” she replied to having this much to do. “No matter our intentions or the proof of our function, people may still fear us. Neither the previous Ultron units nor the Sentinels functioned to their design specifications. Neither of them were at fault, erroneous were the bounds of their programming, a mistake of their creators. And yet, both are at least in part blamed for what happened.” she said, her sight pointed to the ground: “I’m… worried.” “That’s good Janet. That will keep you right, this is why we’re taking… baby steps to take it simply. Also that is why, for now. We’ll keep what you are a secret.” He pointed to himself. “Like me, what I can do and what I know. I do it too help people but they can’t know that I do it, or who I am or how I do it. We keep secrets to protect people.” He sighed, as he checked the time. “I need to go to work, do you want to remain online and go through what you’ve learned? Maybe watch some movies or something to try and learn more about human interaction or would you rather go offline while I am away?” It… wasn’t great, if she was to be honest. She understood it was necessary, but it did little to please her. “Warning: Infiltration capabilities limited at the moment. I require samples to go from. Movies. Literature. Music. Preferably the first: Bonus addition of studying body language.” she suggested, her nano skin shifting as the visor on her face disappeared, replaced by a set of emerald eyes. “I wish to stay active, but recharge is necessary. Power plant at 5% capacity. Accessing and processing data is power efficient on my holographic memory; Writing in it is not.” And then her cyber-warfare suite ran across something. “Alert! Detecting dormant alien code in my runtime, listed as SAM_CARTER. Performing pre-emptive measures.” she said as she prepared to isolate the unknown program. “We’ll charge you up, and there’ll be plenty for you to watch and study as I’m away.” The door opened as a group of ants came in carrying his suit and helmet. He was trying to keep his presence in this particular warehouse a secret after all, he turned at the mention of SAM. “Oh no, stand down. She’s a program I’ve borrowed from Alchemex and tweaked slightly. She’s meant to help you, there’s a small projector in your hand that she can appear out of. She also runs off an independent power supply, battery and has her own network connection. Completely independent.” He shrugged. “She’ll be your friend, and help you learn. That’s what she’s there for. She’s probably just been activated by my mentioning of leaving.” He flicked several buttons on his tablet. “There, you should be able to hear her now and she’ll be able to project.” He moved over to the table, which was a simple recharge table. He had been sure not to build Janet here just incase her programming went rogue she wouldn’t be able to make any more copies from this facility. “Say hello Sam.” The program came online and made its introduction. Its avatar was a woman with short blond hair. Nodding, Janet reluctantly recalled the purge command. Walking over, Janet waited to be hooked up into recharge silently. Her visor shifted back into place, displaying ten movies at the same time playing at 5x speed. Seeing Henry preparing to leave, she felt something that was really unpleasant, but she failed to name the sensation as of yet. “When will you be back?” The suit came on easily, he only imagined how hard it had been for his predecessors having to strip down some of their clothes and then put it on. The advanced fibre clung to him easily without him having to force it over his clothes. “I’m not entirely sure. I’ve got a day full of paperwork to do, and I can’t be back at lunch as I need to find a way to enter Janet Pym into the cities consensus so that the private eye don’t take too much of an interest in you. Though you can contact me through SAM until I get your communication suite fully operational, and she’ll keep you company too. Not to mention you get to have fun watching movies all day, I’m pretty jealous.” He pulled his helmet over his head, there was a hiss as it pressurized only for him to open the front panel again. He smiled to himself slightly, the helmet somewhat reminiscent of the old Iron Man from the Heroic Age. “I mean you’ve got plenty to do, and a friend to do it with. Plug yourself in, relax. Learn. Tell you what, if I come back and you’re settled we’ll go out for a walk and you can meet some new people. How does that sound?” “Like you need a secretary. Maybe if you had a spare supercomuter sitting in your basement you could delegate quantities of less important work to it.” She noted. She wasn’t overjoyed, but quick check on the size of her cultural database told her she probably wouldn’t need to distract herself with anything else before Henry returned. “I will be all right.” she said, and waved her hand - something she just saw in one of the movies a few ticks ago. “Well, you’re not actually in my basement. You’re in a small warehouse that’s under an old friend of my grandfathers name. Scott Lang.” He shrugged. “Sadly as well all the paperwork is [i]sensitive[/i] so I can’t send it out of the building and it all needs filed by me or my supervisor will have my head.” He plugged the socket into the back of Janet’s neck, easily accessible so that she could connect or disconnect herself at will. “Also sure you’ll be alright, you have SAM to keep you company. You can sit and chat away to your heart's content. To that point I recommend you speak to her orally and at the usual speed for a human just so you get used to it.” His mask slammed shut, he hit a button on his right hand and shrunk down to the smallest size he’d willingly go. Waving up to her as he got aboard an ant that had a saddle. Patching through to her comm unit. “Try to stay out of trouble.” With that he turned his back, and left. “Wouldn’t you be faster if you carried the ant?” Janet called back, not bothering to zoom in to maintain contact, but instead giving a newly acquired eyeroll. And then, she was alone.