Post by Jakob on Feb 3, 2016 4:07:56 GMT -4
The creator has ascended, the creations have set off in all directions, going where none in this universe had gone before. Beyond the confines of the darkest reaches of space, new worlds have become accessible. It would be millennia before anyone besides the few hundred Stylus troopers discover this connection between worlds. It would be millennia before worlds collide, and bring with them all the glory, and all the terrors of new alien species.
The greatest creation- the completed one- sat outside his concrete house, smack-dab in the middle of a field several yards away from the closest residential road. In terms of placement, it was a very humble looking house. Rectangular, box-shaped, standing short at a single floor before a parapet covering a relatively flat rooftop.
On one side, rainwater poured from a short PVC pipe placement. It had rained earlier, and the rooftop was steadily draining of the contents.
The completed one, Jakob, flexed his armoured hands as if he had had them only recently. His body had been changed, reworked down to the molecular level. Though his synthetic body remained, his… heart… was vastly different. A living void of an entity that can store anything Jakob wanted.
The movement was no longer clunky and robotic. Jakob never really noticed how sluggish his movements were until posed with this new alternative. Every movement he made with his hands, he performed smoothly and precisely. Rarely, with his old hydraulics, he would accidentally apply more pressure than he wanted and end up breaking objects. No longer would that happen. His movements are too fluid now.
“Is this… how humans feel? I can get used to this,” Jakob’s synthetic face bore a smile, hidden under his suit’s helmet. Even his voice sounded less metallic. Rather, it sounded very similar to…
Shrieks of terror filled the early morning sky. Fluffy white clouds parted as a flying entity displaced the air around them. The XJ-9 unit’s response time was exceptional as always.
“What’s happening?” Jakob asked.
“Invasion. Not sure who, though,” The XJ-9 replied before soaring off.
The Earth had a solid relationship with the Cluster thanks to efforts by Vega’s family and especially Stylus, even despite controversy by those German robots. Despite that, Tremorton remained an unusually hot zone for disasters and the like. That suited Jakob just fine. He quickly got to his feet. An especially noticeable advantage to the new buildup was that he was a lot lighter on his feet. The void carried armaments and objects outside of known space, and as such was weightless on this side.
Because of his lighter mass, Jakob’s strides reached well over twice the length and speed as before. Before he was a sluggish tank. Now he can reach disasters on time to contribute.
It was not long before he finally reached the incident, however. The rocket boots of the XJ-9 unit, Champ, and the Silver Shell would always be faster than two feet, even with less weight to carry. At least there was still something left to fight.
The incident was a very typical alien invasion. Jakob’s armour plating shifted to form a hole into the void. From the void, Jakob produced his submachine gun. A custom piece with custom rounds that held a hard shell for piercing most armours, with a plasma effect for piercing all other armours.
The rounds splashed scalding plasma over the metallic armour suits of the aliens- rather large bipedal creatures with blue hides that almost equalled the Silver Shell in physical strength- at least, judging by how Silver Shell was slowly overpowering one in a test of strength. The XJ-9, being a clearly smarter fighter, maintained her distance and tore the aliens’ armour apart with her myriad of weaponry. Champ made quick jabs and slashes with his blade.
Jakob also kept his distance. He was not physically stronger than the Silver Shell- that hulking, Superman-shaped robot with humongous arms and legs, to say nothing about the hydraulics within. The aliens would easily send an android the size of the XJ-9 flying, let alone Jakob.
As more heroes arrived on the scene, the aliens slowly came to the realization that they bit off more than they could chew ever since the XJ-9 arrived. Those that were still alive, let alone conscious, called for surrender.
Jakob was all for accepting surrender. However, the XJ-9 seemed very annoyed.
“Because of you block-heads, I didn’t get to finish off my summer vacation in peace!” she bellowed, followed with an exasperated sigh.
“XJ-9,” Jakob called.
“I get that invasions are kind of the things you guys do, but seriously, give peace a chance!”
“Jenny?” the Silver Shell echoed Jakob.
“What?”
“They retreated. They’re not around to hear you,” Jakob explained.
All that remained were the bodies of those that were unconscious or dead.
“Fine, I’ll get ready for school, I guess,” the XJ-9 grumbled as her giant broom and dust pan gadget cleaned up the mess. She dumped them into a large dumpster as she left the area. The rest of the heroes dispersed. Among the heroes was Champ- who exchanged a friendly nod to the android.
Jakob returned the nod, and suddenly found himself face-to-face with the Silver Shell.
“How do you do it?” Shell asked.
“Do what?” Jakob asked.
“That thing, where you talk to Jenny and it’s like, you don’t have a thing for her, but you’re friendly all the same.”
“A thing for her?” Jakob repeated. He quickly consulted his memory banks to refresh what that phrase meant, “Oh, I just don’t have a thing for her.”
Silver Shell appeared astounded. Jakob wondered if this conversation had a point. Part of him wanted to help out Shell with whatever problems the robot might be having, but most of him wanted to get back to lounging outside his home to relax before his first day on the job.
“Could you meet me at the Museum ruins?” Shell asked.
“Sure, why not?” Jakob replied, “I guess it is about time that area got cleaned up.”
Half an hour later, Jakob arrived at the ruins. They had since been fenced off, but the construction vehicles that had been brought along to do the job were all heavily damaged by another alien invasion.
The Silver Shell had just appeared from behind some piles of rubble. “Jakob, over here,”
“Alright, sure,” Jakob trusted Shell, or else he would have treated this whole ordeal as highly suspicious.
“Listen, I’m actually-“
“Sheldon Lee,” Jakob non-chalantly replied.
“Wh- WHAT?! I mean…” Clearly flustered, Shell forced himself to keep his voice down. “How did you know?”
“Thermal visor,” Jakob replied as he tapped his helmet, “Heat signature, human-shaped pilot in the torso chassis. Considered skills and interests of possible pilot candidates, considering obvious “thing” for the XJ-9 unit, as well as that unusual stunt at the thing called a “Sadie Hawkins Dance”, Sheldon Lee became the only likely pilot.”
“Oh… yeah…”
“Frankly, it’s a wonder the XJ-9 has yet to figure it ou-“
“Okay okay, I get it,” Sheldon hopped out of the Silver Shell exoskeleton. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“I was under the impression you were keeping a secret,” Jakob professionally replied, “It is not threatening to my allies, so I see no reason to disclose it without permission.”
Sheldon sighed in relief. “Thank the stars.”
“Not to sound rude,” Jakob continued, “But is this relevant to why we’re here?”
“Oh yeah,” Sheldon fumbled with his words a little. “Listen, I’ve been trying to-“
“Get hitched with the XJ-9,” Jakob finished, “I kno-“
“Don’t say it like that!” Sheldon panicked and waved his arms. “Let me finish!”
Jakob felt like someone was throwing a paradoxical statement at him.
“Anyway, Jenny’s been dating this guy from school,” Sheldon continued, “And the guy’s not even cool. He’s very quiet and professional, but he doesn’t really have any remarkable skills. I mean, he can’t even tell the difference between a Philips and a Robertson.”
“Is he visually appealing?” Jakob asked.
“NO!” Sheldon vehemently spat, “I mean… he’s not even a popular kid. He’s just average.”
“Is this her human friend, Brad?” Jakob asked.
“No,” Sheldon replied, “It’s no one you know. But I just don’t get what it is about the guy, but he talks to her just like how you talk to her.”
“Is there a problem with how I talk to someone?” Jakob asked, “I am trying to communicate effectively with allies and non-combatants- especially civilians.”
“No. I mean… You talk to her like… like…”
“Like we’re equals?” Jakob asked.
“Exactly, but… we’re not equals.” Sheldon sighed. “She’s a superhero, and you’re a military android. I’m just a nerd.”
“I’d say we’re pretty equal in different ways,” Jakob replied. At this point, he decided to shift a chunk of cement closer and sat down. Sheldon did the same, though the bent-up I-beam he sat on could not be moved. “One of my Stylus soldiers, his name’s Lewis, but we call him Cadaver.” Code names were pretty much useless at this point, considering every Stylus agent was out in the Multiverse. “He was a young kid. During down time, he’d hook up an old video game system- the only personal effect he brought with him from Canada.”
Sheldon glanced up with a confused expression. Stylus agents- from what Jakob had told others- were extremely professional, extremely nimble, and extremely deadly, and that’s when they’re only wearing civilian attire. Their lethality was unquestionably legendary when they wore their operations suits and pilot their mechanical exo-suits. A single Stylus agent, though more lightly armoured, was easily Jakob’s equal in sheer combat capability. And they’re only human with extremtly minor implants.
The only agent Sheldon had met was a red-haired woman with a scar across the bridge of her nose and an urban camo-like tattoo circling her left eye. She was called Agent Mask. That day, she fended off an alien invasion on her own by utilizing her speed and agility to steal an invader’s weapon and wipe out the rest of the force. No one could add to the single scar on her otherwise flawless, chiseled face. As far as onlookers could see, it was a woman in yoga pants and a matching hoodie performing superhuman feats and slaughtering aliens that clearly did not expect such ferocity from an ordinary-looking human.
What was a soldier of Mask’s calibre doing with a video game console?
“The video game he played was what he called a “fighting game,” Jakob continued, “Two players were on a plane, and they utilized the different moves of their characters to try to defeat their opponent,”
“What does that have to do with Jenny?”
“It has nothing to do with XJ-9,” Jakob replied, “However, the characters in the video game were all very different. They had different physiques, different abilities, different moves. However, they were all equal. No one fighter was the most powerful.”
The android pointed an armoured finger at the lifeless Silver Shell suit. “You built that, and you pilot it with impressive skill- especially at your age.”
Sheldon opened his mouth to say something, prompting Jakob to stop for a moment. Sheldon closed his mouth once more, however. Jakob continued.
“How do you see XJ-9?” He asked, “Be perfectly honest. I will tell no one.”
“She’s just wonderful, a perfect robot.” Sheldon replied after a little hesitation, “She’s tall and she’s saved me many times now.”
“Hmm… I don’t know this boy that you speak of,” Jakob leaned back and crossed his arms, “but I imagine he is with her not because of what she is, but because of who she is.”
“Huh?”
“What is the function of dating, generally?”
“To get to know someone?”
“Key word: generally. What you said, that’s too specific. Dating is an escape, much like that fighting game. The XJ-9 is a teenager who desires social interaction to spice up her life in between the heroic feats she performs around the world.”
Something in Sheldon’s mind seemed to click. Jakob knew the boy was smart enough to build a space-grade exoskeleton, and spoke no further.
“I get it,” Sheldon finally replied, “She doesn’t want someone to idolize her.”
“Welp,” Jakob uncrossed his arms and stood up, “It’s about time I head to work.”
“Wait, what?” Sheldon’s question was left unanswered, for Jakob had already turned and left.
After a moment of silent contemplation, Sheldon suited up once more, and flew back home. He too had somewhere to be, and that somewhere was the beginning of the new school year.
The greatest creation- the completed one- sat outside his concrete house, smack-dab in the middle of a field several yards away from the closest residential road. In terms of placement, it was a very humble looking house. Rectangular, box-shaped, standing short at a single floor before a parapet covering a relatively flat rooftop.
On one side, rainwater poured from a short PVC pipe placement. It had rained earlier, and the rooftop was steadily draining of the contents.
The completed one, Jakob, flexed his armoured hands as if he had had them only recently. His body had been changed, reworked down to the molecular level. Though his synthetic body remained, his… heart… was vastly different. A living void of an entity that can store anything Jakob wanted.
The movement was no longer clunky and robotic. Jakob never really noticed how sluggish his movements were until posed with this new alternative. Every movement he made with his hands, he performed smoothly and precisely. Rarely, with his old hydraulics, he would accidentally apply more pressure than he wanted and end up breaking objects. No longer would that happen. His movements are too fluid now.
“Is this… how humans feel? I can get used to this,” Jakob’s synthetic face bore a smile, hidden under his suit’s helmet. Even his voice sounded less metallic. Rather, it sounded very similar to…
Shrieks of terror filled the early morning sky. Fluffy white clouds parted as a flying entity displaced the air around them. The XJ-9 unit’s response time was exceptional as always.
“What’s happening?” Jakob asked.
“Invasion. Not sure who, though,” The XJ-9 replied before soaring off.
The Earth had a solid relationship with the Cluster thanks to efforts by Vega’s family and especially Stylus, even despite controversy by those German robots. Despite that, Tremorton remained an unusually hot zone for disasters and the like. That suited Jakob just fine. He quickly got to his feet. An especially noticeable advantage to the new buildup was that he was a lot lighter on his feet. The void carried armaments and objects outside of known space, and as such was weightless on this side.
Because of his lighter mass, Jakob’s strides reached well over twice the length and speed as before. Before he was a sluggish tank. Now he can reach disasters on time to contribute.
It was not long before he finally reached the incident, however. The rocket boots of the XJ-9 unit, Champ, and the Silver Shell would always be faster than two feet, even with less weight to carry. At least there was still something left to fight.
The incident was a very typical alien invasion. Jakob’s armour plating shifted to form a hole into the void. From the void, Jakob produced his submachine gun. A custom piece with custom rounds that held a hard shell for piercing most armours, with a plasma effect for piercing all other armours.
The rounds splashed scalding plasma over the metallic armour suits of the aliens- rather large bipedal creatures with blue hides that almost equalled the Silver Shell in physical strength- at least, judging by how Silver Shell was slowly overpowering one in a test of strength. The XJ-9, being a clearly smarter fighter, maintained her distance and tore the aliens’ armour apart with her myriad of weaponry. Champ made quick jabs and slashes with his blade.
Jakob also kept his distance. He was not physically stronger than the Silver Shell- that hulking, Superman-shaped robot with humongous arms and legs, to say nothing about the hydraulics within. The aliens would easily send an android the size of the XJ-9 flying, let alone Jakob.
As more heroes arrived on the scene, the aliens slowly came to the realization that they bit off more than they could chew ever since the XJ-9 arrived. Those that were still alive, let alone conscious, called for surrender.
Jakob was all for accepting surrender. However, the XJ-9 seemed very annoyed.
“Because of you block-heads, I didn’t get to finish off my summer vacation in peace!” she bellowed, followed with an exasperated sigh.
“XJ-9,” Jakob called.
“I get that invasions are kind of the things you guys do, but seriously, give peace a chance!”
“Jenny?” the Silver Shell echoed Jakob.
“What?”
“They retreated. They’re not around to hear you,” Jakob explained.
All that remained were the bodies of those that were unconscious or dead.
“Fine, I’ll get ready for school, I guess,” the XJ-9 grumbled as her giant broom and dust pan gadget cleaned up the mess. She dumped them into a large dumpster as she left the area. The rest of the heroes dispersed. Among the heroes was Champ- who exchanged a friendly nod to the android.
Jakob returned the nod, and suddenly found himself face-to-face with the Silver Shell.
“How do you do it?” Shell asked.
“Do what?” Jakob asked.
“That thing, where you talk to Jenny and it’s like, you don’t have a thing for her, but you’re friendly all the same.”
“A thing for her?” Jakob repeated. He quickly consulted his memory banks to refresh what that phrase meant, “Oh, I just don’t have a thing for her.”
Silver Shell appeared astounded. Jakob wondered if this conversation had a point. Part of him wanted to help out Shell with whatever problems the robot might be having, but most of him wanted to get back to lounging outside his home to relax before his first day on the job.
“Could you meet me at the Museum ruins?” Shell asked.
“Sure, why not?” Jakob replied, “I guess it is about time that area got cleaned up.”
Half an hour later, Jakob arrived at the ruins. They had since been fenced off, but the construction vehicles that had been brought along to do the job were all heavily damaged by another alien invasion.
The Silver Shell had just appeared from behind some piles of rubble. “Jakob, over here,”
“Alright, sure,” Jakob trusted Shell, or else he would have treated this whole ordeal as highly suspicious.
“Listen, I’m actually-“
“Sheldon Lee,” Jakob non-chalantly replied.
“Wh- WHAT?! I mean…” Clearly flustered, Shell forced himself to keep his voice down. “How did you know?”
“Thermal visor,” Jakob replied as he tapped his helmet, “Heat signature, human-shaped pilot in the torso chassis. Considered skills and interests of possible pilot candidates, considering obvious “thing” for the XJ-9 unit, as well as that unusual stunt at the thing called a “Sadie Hawkins Dance”, Sheldon Lee became the only likely pilot.”
“Oh… yeah…”
“Frankly, it’s a wonder the XJ-9 has yet to figure it ou-“
“Okay okay, I get it,” Sheldon hopped out of the Silver Shell exoskeleton. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“I was under the impression you were keeping a secret,” Jakob professionally replied, “It is not threatening to my allies, so I see no reason to disclose it without permission.”
Sheldon sighed in relief. “Thank the stars.”
“Not to sound rude,” Jakob continued, “But is this relevant to why we’re here?”
“Oh yeah,” Sheldon fumbled with his words a little. “Listen, I’ve been trying to-“
“Get hitched with the XJ-9,” Jakob finished, “I kno-“
“Don’t say it like that!” Sheldon panicked and waved his arms. “Let me finish!”
Jakob felt like someone was throwing a paradoxical statement at him.
“Anyway, Jenny’s been dating this guy from school,” Sheldon continued, “And the guy’s not even cool. He’s very quiet and professional, but he doesn’t really have any remarkable skills. I mean, he can’t even tell the difference between a Philips and a Robertson.”
“Is he visually appealing?” Jakob asked.
“NO!” Sheldon vehemently spat, “I mean… he’s not even a popular kid. He’s just average.”
“Is this her human friend, Brad?” Jakob asked.
“No,” Sheldon replied, “It’s no one you know. But I just don’t get what it is about the guy, but he talks to her just like how you talk to her.”
“Is there a problem with how I talk to someone?” Jakob asked, “I am trying to communicate effectively with allies and non-combatants- especially civilians.”
“No. I mean… You talk to her like… like…”
“Like we’re equals?” Jakob asked.
“Exactly, but… we’re not equals.” Sheldon sighed. “She’s a superhero, and you’re a military android. I’m just a nerd.”
“I’d say we’re pretty equal in different ways,” Jakob replied. At this point, he decided to shift a chunk of cement closer and sat down. Sheldon did the same, though the bent-up I-beam he sat on could not be moved. “One of my Stylus soldiers, his name’s Lewis, but we call him Cadaver.” Code names were pretty much useless at this point, considering every Stylus agent was out in the Multiverse. “He was a young kid. During down time, he’d hook up an old video game system- the only personal effect he brought with him from Canada.”
Sheldon glanced up with a confused expression. Stylus agents- from what Jakob had told others- were extremely professional, extremely nimble, and extremely deadly, and that’s when they’re only wearing civilian attire. Their lethality was unquestionably legendary when they wore their operations suits and pilot their mechanical exo-suits. A single Stylus agent, though more lightly armoured, was easily Jakob’s equal in sheer combat capability. And they’re only human with extremtly minor implants.
The only agent Sheldon had met was a red-haired woman with a scar across the bridge of her nose and an urban camo-like tattoo circling her left eye. She was called Agent Mask. That day, she fended off an alien invasion on her own by utilizing her speed and agility to steal an invader’s weapon and wipe out the rest of the force. No one could add to the single scar on her otherwise flawless, chiseled face. As far as onlookers could see, it was a woman in yoga pants and a matching hoodie performing superhuman feats and slaughtering aliens that clearly did not expect such ferocity from an ordinary-looking human.
What was a soldier of Mask’s calibre doing with a video game console?
“The video game he played was what he called a “fighting game,” Jakob continued, “Two players were on a plane, and they utilized the different moves of their characters to try to defeat their opponent,”
“What does that have to do with Jenny?”
“It has nothing to do with XJ-9,” Jakob replied, “However, the characters in the video game were all very different. They had different physiques, different abilities, different moves. However, they were all equal. No one fighter was the most powerful.”
The android pointed an armoured finger at the lifeless Silver Shell suit. “You built that, and you pilot it with impressive skill- especially at your age.”
Sheldon opened his mouth to say something, prompting Jakob to stop for a moment. Sheldon closed his mouth once more, however. Jakob continued.
“How do you see XJ-9?” He asked, “Be perfectly honest. I will tell no one.”
“She’s just wonderful, a perfect robot.” Sheldon replied after a little hesitation, “She’s tall and she’s saved me many times now.”
“Hmm… I don’t know this boy that you speak of,” Jakob leaned back and crossed his arms, “but I imagine he is with her not because of what she is, but because of who she is.”
“Huh?”
“What is the function of dating, generally?”
“To get to know someone?”
“Key word: generally. What you said, that’s too specific. Dating is an escape, much like that fighting game. The XJ-9 is a teenager who desires social interaction to spice up her life in between the heroic feats she performs around the world.”
Something in Sheldon’s mind seemed to click. Jakob knew the boy was smart enough to build a space-grade exoskeleton, and spoke no further.
“I get it,” Sheldon finally replied, “She doesn’t want someone to idolize her.”
“Welp,” Jakob uncrossed his arms and stood up, “It’s about time I head to work.”
“Wait, what?” Sheldon’s question was left unanswered, for Jakob had already turned and left.
After a moment of silent contemplation, Sheldon suited up once more, and flew back home. He too had somewhere to be, and that somewhere was the beginning of the new school year.