07-01-2017, 08:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-02-2017, 01:39 AM by The Vision.)
The Vision gazed at the scene. The fog, as most fog did, fluctuated and billowed without order. However, because the Vision did not require rest, he had watched the fog as the others slept, and continued to do so while their human teammates bought provisions. If the Vision hadn't known any better, he would have said the fog was bounded by an invisible line. Perhaps it was harder to notice on ground level, but from the sky it was easy to see the fog almost recede when approaching a certain boundary.
He finished compiling the data of the previous day, creating data entries for the three team members that would join the two Avengers.
The Vision scowled. He was not pleased with the results. They seemed to be uncooperative, and reminded him of quite displeasing people. But Lysander seemed stubborn, albeit politely stubborn, so Vision concluded that convincing him to continue without the soldiers was not an efficient use of the android’s power.
It was then that he received a message from a concerned Mr. Jarvis. According to the loyal butler, another familiar face had appeared in the Omniverse. Vision scowled. As pleasant it ostensibly was to see someone from home, Moon Knight was an unhinged, mentally unstable individual, who was questionably in control of his actions and perhaps even aided by an often hostile divine entity. There was no evidence Khonshu was real, being an ancient Egyptian deity, but Moon Knight had demonstrated - multiple times - that he was capable of superhuman feats despite lacking superhuman abilities.
The second part of the message concerned Frisk, who had left the island many days ago to meet another of her old friends from home. Mrs. Dreemurr and Dr. Alphys accompanied her. Good. The Vision hardly knew Dr. Alphys, but he knew that not only would Mrs. Dreemurr protect her child with her life, she could do so with ease.
The Vision replied to Mr. Jarvis that he should monitor Moon Knight closely. If this was even the same Moon Knight that the pair knew, his arrival still merited caution.
> self.setvalue density 50000.000%
Shifting...
The Vision's body seemed to crystallize. His body began to fall very rapidly towards the ground. This was expected - he wished to descend rapidly, and he was two hundred meters in the air.
> t = value.time(ms)
> self.setvalue density (0.002850 - 0.000000005603t)%
Shifting...
Despite the perceivably low number, 0.002850% of his current weight approximated to his base weight. He became lighter and lighter by the millisecond, until he was only a fraction of his density. He was now floating approximately 5 meters from the ground.
He maintained his current density, staying just below the roofs of the nearby cottages. One of these cottages housed his three human teammates. It was also supposed to house Mr. Wright, but the cyborg was currently out-of-doors and leaning on a wall.
The Vision lowered himself gently, landing softly on the ground. "Good afternoon, Mr. Wright."
"Oh. Hey, Vis."
The Vision and Mr. Wright had not yet discussed the mission. Given the circumstances, the team had agreed to depart in the evening, to better identify the beacon of light. So they had noon to relax and prepare for the mission.
The Vision glanced at Mr. Wright.
"Query: what is your opinion of our new teammates?"
"You know what I think," Mr. Wright replied. His voice was low.
"Correction: my analyses are, at this time, mostly conjecture."
"Yeah, well," Mr. Wright shrugged, "I'm guessing you don't like them that much, either."
"They do seem to have a tendency to figuratively rub the wrong way," Vision nodded.
"It's more than that, Vis," Marcus sighed, "They hate us. They hate our 'kind.'"
"Correction: with all due respect, Mr. Wright, we are actually very different kinds of mechanical constructs-"
"We're both machines," Mr. Wright interrupted, "I think that's what counts."
The Vision was fully aware that the teammates were prejudiced against machines. It reminded him of his own prejudices against demonfolk. His own hatred derived from multiple personal experiences, especially the experiences with his ex-wife, who was very involved with the arcane. It took the death of a friend to rid him of that prejudice. Vision prayed it would take far less for the three soldiers to trust them.
“I believe their hatred for mechanical constructs are related to Darkshire’s previous association with Camelot.”
“Huh,” the Terminator commented, “I didn’t know that.”
“Darkshire was originally a colony of Camelot,” Vision explained, “Due to the war against the individual known as Diablo, Camelot deemed the colony too difficult to sustain and withdrew its support, leaving Darkshire to itself.”
“I see the city’s luck hasn’t gotten any better,” Marcus smirked without humor, glancing at the greenish smoke still rising from the Darkshire city limits.
“Affirmative.”
The Vision closed his eyes, letting what little sunlight he could into the Solar Gem. It was a remarkable piece of Ultron technology that he was still unable to understand. Perhaps, one day, he’d spend some time focusing exactly on how it worked.
Then he remembered Skynet. The Vision was still unsettled by how it almost drove him into insanity, with such ease. Just its presence nearly made him kill an innocent child, to whom he had promised his protection. It was quite fortunate that the damage was recoverable, and that Frisk had largely forgiven him. His memory - which could easily fail him, due to how much Skynet had corrupted it - could not pinpoint exactly when he had downloaded the hostile AI.
Then his programs noted a potential connection between two entries in his personnel database and the series of events relating to the Skynet invasion.
“Mr. Wright.”
“Yeah?”
“Query: do you have traces of Skynet in your systems?”
Mr. Wright flinched. His expression betrayed him.
“I think it’s gone.”
“Perhaps. Query: was it deleted when we first met?”
Mr. Wright rubbed his eyes.
“You want the long answer, or the short one?”
“An efficient answer, please.”
“Short one, then,” Mr. Wright muttered, “...no.”
The Vision peered curiously at him.
“No, it wasn’t.”
The Vision blinked twice, but otherwise didn’t move.
“I’m sorry, Vis. I wish I warned you back then, but I didn’t even know that you were a supercomputer in there, and frankly-”
“Affirmative.” The Vision glared at Mr. Wright. “You should have warned me. Or, at the very least, explain yourself sooner. Of your own volition.”
Marcus frowned. “Well, how could I? We didn’t even meet again until after it attacked. And I was busy dealing with it in Coruscant.”
“Query: how could have Skynet breached my defenses by itself, Mr. Wright?”
The Terminator shifted his jaw. “Are you accusing me of hacking you?”
Vision turned to him apprehensively. “Captain Rogers seems to trust you, so I decided to do the same. Perhaps that was an incorrect choice.”
“That’s not fair, Vis,” Marcus snapped, temper bubbling beneath his synthetic skin, “Haven’t I done more than enough to prove myself?”
“You have worked with us on one mission, during which your brash actions resulted in the capture of yourself and a dear friend of mine.”
“Alright, listen to me.” Marcus shifted his weight. “You’re right. You probably got Skynet from me. And I’m sorry. But I’m a victim of Skynet too, and we’re both on this mission. For now, shouldn’t we just be working together?”
The Vision processed a reply, but the loading time was longer than expected. Before he could do so, someone from behind cleared his throat. Vision turned. Agent Ironheart stood before him, donning a pack and his gun. The other two were close behind, wearing similar gear.
“Are you ready?”
"Query: were we not to depart in the evening?”
“It’ll take two hours to get to the fog,” Ironheart replied, “It’ll be dark by the time we arrive.”
Vision and Mr. Wright looked at each other, their argument hanging in the air.
“Query: are you prepared for departure, Mr. Wright?”
Mr. Wright glanced from the soldiers to the Vision. “Yeah.”
“Alright then, bolthead,” Crimson nodded. “Stay frosty. There’s a bucketload of zombies and crap out there.”
They began loading the horses. Mr. Wright was unfamiliar with horseback riding, so he retrieved his mudbike. Despite Ironheart’s insistence that their horses would be just as fast as the vehicle, the Vision reminded Mr. Wright to drive slowly.
The rest of the preparations were done silently. The Secondary soldiers, though they carried provisions and much ammunition, along with other tools of survival, were still traveling quite light. Perhaps a little lighter than Vision would have felt comfortable with if he had a truly human body. Nevertheless, the hardened fighters seemed to be satisfied with their luggage.
Chains clanked loudly as the gate separated. The Vision floated level to Agent Ironheart on horseback.
“Let’s go,” Ironheart grumbled.
The horses set off on a gallop. The mudbike roared as Mr. Wright sped alongside. The Vision glanced one last time at the ruined gates of Darkshire before following them.
He finished compiling the data of the previous day, creating data entries for the three team members that would join the two Avengers.
The Vision scowled. He was not pleased with the results. They seemed to be uncooperative, and reminded him of quite displeasing people. But Lysander seemed stubborn, albeit politely stubborn, so Vision concluded that convincing him to continue without the soldiers was not an efficient use of the android’s power.
It was then that he received a message from a concerned Mr. Jarvis. According to the loyal butler, another familiar face had appeared in the Omniverse. Vision scowled. As pleasant it ostensibly was to see someone from home, Moon Knight was an unhinged, mentally unstable individual, who was questionably in control of his actions and perhaps even aided by an often hostile divine entity. There was no evidence Khonshu was real, being an ancient Egyptian deity, but Moon Knight had demonstrated - multiple times - that he was capable of superhuman feats despite lacking superhuman abilities.
The second part of the message concerned Frisk, who had left the island many days ago to meet another of her old friends from home. Mrs. Dreemurr and Dr. Alphys accompanied her. Good. The Vision hardly knew Dr. Alphys, but he knew that not only would Mrs. Dreemurr protect her child with her life, she could do so with ease.
The Vision replied to Mr. Jarvis that he should monitor Moon Knight closely. If this was even the same Moon Knight that the pair knew, his arrival still merited caution.
> self.setvalue density 50000.000%
Shifting...
The Vision's body seemed to crystallize. His body began to fall very rapidly towards the ground. This was expected - he wished to descend rapidly, and he was two hundred meters in the air.
> t = value.time(ms)
> self.setvalue density (0.002850 - 0.000000005603t)%
Shifting...
Despite the perceivably low number, 0.002850% of his current weight approximated to his base weight. He became lighter and lighter by the millisecond, until he was only a fraction of his density. He was now floating approximately 5 meters from the ground.
He maintained his current density, staying just below the roofs of the nearby cottages. One of these cottages housed his three human teammates. It was also supposed to house Mr. Wright, but the cyborg was currently out-of-doors and leaning on a wall.
The Vision lowered himself gently, landing softly on the ground. "Good afternoon, Mr. Wright."
"Oh. Hey, Vis."
The Vision and Mr. Wright had not yet discussed the mission. Given the circumstances, the team had agreed to depart in the evening, to better identify the beacon of light. So they had noon to relax and prepare for the mission.
The Vision glanced at Mr. Wright.
"Query: what is your opinion of our new teammates?"
"You know what I think," Mr. Wright replied. His voice was low.
"Correction: my analyses are, at this time, mostly conjecture."
"Yeah, well," Mr. Wright shrugged, "I'm guessing you don't like them that much, either."
"They do seem to have a tendency to figuratively rub the wrong way," Vision nodded.
"It's more than that, Vis," Marcus sighed, "They hate us. They hate our 'kind.'"
"Correction: with all due respect, Mr. Wright, we are actually very different kinds of mechanical constructs-"
"We're both machines," Mr. Wright interrupted, "I think that's what counts."
The Vision was fully aware that the teammates were prejudiced against machines. It reminded him of his own prejudices against demonfolk. His own hatred derived from multiple personal experiences, especially the experiences with his ex-wife, who was very involved with the arcane. It took the death of a friend to rid him of that prejudice. Vision prayed it would take far less for the three soldiers to trust them.
“I believe their hatred for mechanical constructs are related to Darkshire’s previous association with Camelot.”
“Huh,” the Terminator commented, “I didn’t know that.”
“Darkshire was originally a colony of Camelot,” Vision explained, “Due to the war against the individual known as Diablo, Camelot deemed the colony too difficult to sustain and withdrew its support, leaving Darkshire to itself.”
“I see the city’s luck hasn’t gotten any better,” Marcus smirked without humor, glancing at the greenish smoke still rising from the Darkshire city limits.
“Affirmative.”
The Vision closed his eyes, letting what little sunlight he could into the Solar Gem. It was a remarkable piece of Ultron technology that he was still unable to understand. Perhaps, one day, he’d spend some time focusing exactly on how it worked.
Then he remembered Skynet. The Vision was still unsettled by how it almost drove him into insanity, with such ease. Just its presence nearly made him kill an innocent child, to whom he had promised his protection. It was quite fortunate that the damage was recoverable, and that Frisk had largely forgiven him. His memory - which could easily fail him, due to how much Skynet had corrupted it - could not pinpoint exactly when he had downloaded the hostile AI.
Then his programs noted a potential connection between two entries in his personnel database and the series of events relating to the Skynet invasion.
“Mr. Wright.”
“Yeah?”
“Query: do you have traces of Skynet in your systems?”
Mr. Wright flinched. His expression betrayed him.
“I think it’s gone.”
“Perhaps. Query: was it deleted when we first met?”
Mr. Wright rubbed his eyes.
“You want the long answer, or the short one?”
“An efficient answer, please.”
“Short one, then,” Mr. Wright muttered, “...no.”
The Vision peered curiously at him.
“No, it wasn’t.”
The Vision blinked twice, but otherwise didn’t move.
“I’m sorry, Vis. I wish I warned you back then, but I didn’t even know that you were a supercomputer in there, and frankly-”
“Affirmative.” The Vision glared at Mr. Wright. “You should have warned me. Or, at the very least, explain yourself sooner. Of your own volition.”
Marcus frowned. “Well, how could I? We didn’t even meet again until after it attacked. And I was busy dealing with it in Coruscant.”
“Query: how could have Skynet breached my defenses by itself, Mr. Wright?”
The Terminator shifted his jaw. “Are you accusing me of hacking you?”
Vision turned to him apprehensively. “Captain Rogers seems to trust you, so I decided to do the same. Perhaps that was an incorrect choice.”
“That’s not fair, Vis,” Marcus snapped, temper bubbling beneath his synthetic skin, “Haven’t I done more than enough to prove myself?”
“You have worked with us on one mission, during which your brash actions resulted in the capture of yourself and a dear friend of mine.”
“Alright, listen to me.” Marcus shifted his weight. “You’re right. You probably got Skynet from me. And I’m sorry. But I’m a victim of Skynet too, and we’re both on this mission. For now, shouldn’t we just be working together?”
The Vision processed a reply, but the loading time was longer than expected. Before he could do so, someone from behind cleared his throat. Vision turned. Agent Ironheart stood before him, donning a pack and his gun. The other two were close behind, wearing similar gear.
“Are you ready?”
"Query: were we not to depart in the evening?”
“It’ll take two hours to get to the fog,” Ironheart replied, “It’ll be dark by the time we arrive.”
Vision and Mr. Wright looked at each other, their argument hanging in the air.
“Query: are you prepared for departure, Mr. Wright?”
Mr. Wright glanced from the soldiers to the Vision. “Yeah.”
“Alright then, bolthead,” Crimson nodded. “Stay frosty. There’s a bucketload of zombies and crap out there.”
They began loading the horses. Mr. Wright was unfamiliar with horseback riding, so he retrieved his mudbike. Despite Ironheart’s insistence that their horses would be just as fast as the vehicle, the Vision reminded Mr. Wright to drive slowly.
The rest of the preparations were done silently. The Secondary soldiers, though they carried provisions and much ammunition, along with other tools of survival, were still traveling quite light. Perhaps a little lighter than Vision would have felt comfortable with if he had a truly human body. Nevertheless, the hardened fighters seemed to be satisfied with their luggage.
Chains clanked loudly as the gate separated. The Vision floated level to Agent Ironheart on horseback.
“Let’s go,” Ironheart grumbled.
The horses set off on a gallop. The mudbike roared as Mr. Wright sped alongside. The Vision glanced one last time at the ruined gates of Darkshire before following them.
Quote:4760 of 10000 words.
Hear about the beacon in the fog.
Opt to cooperate with the guild.
Get lost in the fog.
![[Image: 2e90d321b01d5016a4116390e9d88ebd.jpg]](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/2e/90/d3/2e90d321b01d5016a4116390e9d88ebd.jpg)
![[Image: ytLTikp.png?1]](http://i.imgur.com/ytLTikp.png?1)
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