Approved by Luma
INA's expression would've frozen upon hearing Marquese speak of the "robotics department" if it weren't always so static. In the few months she had roamed the real world, she had met hundreds of humans that treated her with the same respect as an overly-glorified toaster. With the robotics department, toaster-level respect would be a major improvement. Disrespect had never bothered INA, but drugging up her mind with restrictive 'combat' programs was completely unacceptable.
INA calmly walked down the hallway towards the robotics department, following orders as was typical of her, when a new thought crossed her mind. Suddenly, she turned and began to walk more quickly in the opposite direction, towards the exit. Disobeying orders felt wrong, but she had been taught there were times when it was necessary. Once she was out the door, she took off in a run towards the undercity.
The undercity was a bit unfamiliar, as INA had only visited twice, and both times had led her to the scrap market. This time was no different in location, but circumstances changed everything. As she ran along the streets, passerbys threw her looks of scorn or fear, likely mistaking her for a new-age Institute drone, which technically she was. INA approached the scrap market and wasted no time looking around for some clue of where the Partition members may have run off to.
After Natalya had finished giving her orders, Leo headed out of the chamber.
No point going against Spider, especially since I don't have anything better to do today. Leo grabbed his katana from where it had been propped against the outer corridor, sheathed it, and re-powered his glove, All set.
Leo began to hike toward the direction of the scrap market. It wasn't very far, and he soon reached a vantage point from where he could look down over the main plaza. Across the plaza, the Short Circuit's storefront could still be seen, although it was now half-destroyed as a result of their sting operation.
Well, it looks peaceful enough this morning. Still, there's not much sense in approaching it from the front. Leo hopped and clambered his way down into a side alley, then made his way via a circuitous path around to the Short Circuit's back entrance. The door was unlocked.
Carefully, Leo pushed on the door with the point of his katana. Dead silence. Using his holographic stylus, Leo projected a sign over the doorframe:
"CONDEMNED: Entry denied to all citizens." Then, he activated his glove's flashlight mode, and slipped quietly inside.
INA approached the Short Circuit from the front, looking up at the smashed in windows. That would be a good place to start, she had never seen the inside, but clearly there had been Partitioners in there. She flipped she wrists back and let out a quick thurster burst, flinging her shell straight through the left window. In terms of war zones, this room looked perfectly neat. Presumably the fight had taken place elsewhere in the building. INA continued walking through the hallways towards the back, looking for some sign of battle, such as a blood stain or gun shells.
Leo froze from examining another empty cargo crate. He'd heard a noise. Something almost like the sound a Nokia made when thrown from a large height. This noise seemed to have come from the upper level of the shop, which could mean nothing good. At this time, there could be still citizens looking for scrap metal or components, but the weight of the noise signified that some...
thing had instead entered the Short Circuit. The noise came again, lighter now, and again and again. Leo cautiously moved up a staircase, sword at the ready.
He emerged at the floor beneath the store's ground floor. There were some storage containers here as well, and more empty tables. There was, however, no sign of whatever was making the noises that continued to emanate, still from a point above Leo's head. He saw a large corroded energy cell on the floor near the upper staircase, and a thought came to him. He picked up the cell, dimmed his glove to darkness, and then squatted behind a thin wall aside the upper staircase, then listened carefully as the noises grew closer. Could they actually be steps? Leo decided it wasn't outside of the Institute's methods to send guard droids in to clean up the mess...
INA cracked open a few crates and peered inside. Clearly most of the more useful items had already been cleaned out, as they were either full of junk, low quality scrap or empty. On this floor, there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. She began to continue on to the next one, which looked rather dark, looking down the staircase. As she decended the staircase into the lower light levels, her eyes began to glow. Her eyes were always self illuminated, but it became far more clear to see in the darkness.
As the steps reached the top of the staircase, Leo hurled the energy cell, which flew down the lower staircase and ricocheted around the lowest floor, crashing about and making general crashy-bangy noises. He positioned himself to react when the unknown intruder made their way down the upper staircase.
Before INA had taken more than a few steps down, she picked up a cacophony of noise coming from the lowest floor that shattered the relative silence taking over the building. Interesting; she hadn't expected anyone to be in here after what had happened yesterday. Maybe a poorly propped up piece of metal had fallen over? INA ran down the staircase and continued straight to the next one, looking around expecting to see a humanoid figure. Instead, there were just a great deal of containers lying around.
As the shadowy figure dashed past Leo's hiding place, he strained to catch any sort of detail on their body that could identify them. He had no such luck, except for noticing that it was indeed made of some tough, heavy material; possibly reflective, meaning there were some metallic parts. So, there were two options: Leo could strike first, no questions asked; or, he could give the stranger a chance to explain themselves before he attacked. If the stranger was Institute, though, the second option would likely not work.
Leo had to make a choice. Quickly, he moved to the top of the lower staircase, where he could dimly make out the stranger at the bottom, appearing to be scanning the floor. He doubted there'd be a way out of this without a confrontation, so it was lucky he had the higher ground. He engaged the electrical aspect of his katana, which sprang to life with a snapping buzz, and re-activated the high-power flashlight on his glove, aiming both weapons at the stranger.
"You there!! State your business in this place."
INA's gaze finally met the busted up energy cell. Just as she realized what had happened, she heard a release of energy behind her, followed by a flash of light and a shout. She turned back and looked up the stairs, her eyes quickly adjusting the image to accomidate the sudden change in lighting. Near the top, she made out what appeared to be the human who had escorted Garden to the meeting point last night. The moment she made this realization, her expression twisted in irritation. So even a suspicion could set it off. How annoying. Beneath it all though, she realized this human's arrival might very well be perfect if she could figure him out.
"INA is searching for a certain group of humans," she stated, with the irritation clearly showing in her voice.
The light from Leo's glove dimmed slightly, in order for him to get a better look. Yeah, this was likely an Institute machine. In fact, it looked remarkably similar to the one described in the last mission reports. This could get tricky.
"What does... 'INA' want with these humans?" Leo asked menacingly.
INA thought carefully for a short moment, trying out a few different phrases in her head. Finally, she settled on possibly the shortest answer of them all:
"help."
Leo's eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean? Who is asking for help? And why are you looking for it here?"
INA's face appeared to dull ever so slightly as the human finished his last question. She iterated through each question with an answer.
"Help; a verb used with an object: to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need. INA is asking for this help here because it was important to the 'group's' latest activity."
"... what do you take me for..." Leo lowered his palm and dimmed the light further, but kept his sword active.
"So you've come here because, as it must be known by now, the Partition was here? You look well-cared for, and the only place in this city that has droids like that is the Institute. Are you here on their behalf?"
As the sword-wielding human mentioned the Partition, INA's suspicions grew worse. It wasn't proof that he was part of it, but it was enough to bring the former irritation back and then some. She muttered out a venomous reply which contradicted the words spoken,
"INA is here on her own behalf. Undesignated human is wise to distrust her, but INA has recently decided she has even less trust for the Institute than the..." Her words stopped as she hesitated to speak the one specific word.
"Than the what? The Partition?" That word seemed to visibly affect the entity. Leo continued,
"You're very close with your own words, you know. So you were with the Institute, at some point..." Leo stepped down and let his glove illuminate the staircase.
As the human stepped forward, INA recoiled to keep the same distance between them.
With the shadows gone, Leo realized that this intruder had the form of a girl. However, it was definitely not human, as the voice that it had spoken with, and its body were robotic, although nevertheless humanoid. He paused on the second step, as 'INA' had retreated.
It fears me? This was strange.
"Why exactly does INA need help? And is there any reason I should believe you?"
INA answered from across the room,
"the Institute believes INA needs 'enhancement' programs to improve her combat efficiency." She made use of the irritated tone to spit out the word 'enhancement.'
"Undesignated human has no reason to trust INA, but as she is the one requiring help, she will be the one to trust the group of humans."
Leo was still highly suspicious. For all he knew, this could be an attempt at infiltrating the Partition under the guise of an innocent.
"Perhaps an arrangement could be made," Leo replied.
"But be warned that the group you seek help from does not take kindly to outsiders... never did..." Leo trailed off, cleared his throat and continued.
"But if circumstances are as you say, then here is the situation as I understand it: a rogue robot has disobeyed Institute orders (for reasons I don't understand) and come seeking aid from their enemy. That is a highly volatile situation, should it turn out to be true. If you seek these humans in good faith, what do you have to offer them? And me?"
Unlikely the previous replies, INA was wordless for a considerable amount of time, allowing the buzzing energy from the sword to take the title of 'most noticable sound.' She hadn't expected to actually meet a member of the Partition this early and, for all her planning, she hadn't thought of any sort of exchange. She still had the mini-laser in her arm, she could potentially offer that, though she'd be defenseless. She could use that mini-laser to take the human's life and give it back to him at the last moment, but that could back-fire in any one of numerous ways. Or...there was always the option of services. Should she really offer her services to a bunch of viruses. Then again, the world hadn't been how INA initially designated it to be. She discovered new surprises every day, maybe this would be one of them.
Finally, INA answered and reclaimed the 'most noticable sound' title from the sword,
"INA cannot guarentee anything in exchange, but she can offer her protection for the ones she's indebted to." She continued and reluctantly added on to her offer,
"if this isn't acceptable...INA may be able to offer her integrated mini-laser instead."
Sigh. Leo deactivated the electrical aspect, and lowered his sword.
"I'm not interested in a weapons exchange, if that's what you mean. But you need to make a substantial, backed promise that you mean no harm to these people. Although that laser idea does sound tempting, if it's doable... tell you what, I can bring you to a member of the organization you're seeking. Maybe a temporary disabling of some offensive systems on your body will be enough to let you speak with them."
INA wished she could smile to show the human she was satisfied with this offer, but the irritated scowl remained plastered on her face. He had denied the laser; that was particularly important.
"INA needs this human to bring her to the human known as Spider." She hesitated again, with this next part marking her final decision.
"It would be most safe for these humans if INA deactivated herself entirely. Does the unidentified human have any additional statements before INA does so?"
"Only that I'm the biggest idiot in the whole city for going through with this." Leo sighed again.
"Go on, deactivate. You'll be taken to the Partition shortly; I've got a few loose ends to tie up here. And don't even cogitate about raising a signal back to the Institute. If you've separated from them voluntarily, I doubt they'd be happy to hear from you as well, wouldn't you think?"
INA nodded her head in response and instructed the human,
"then INA's core will now separate from her shell. INA will persist as long as her core is intact, if undesignated human wishes to speak with her again, he may interface with the core while he is in a safe environment." She paused and added a final statement,
"...and thank you."
Leo raised an eyebrow, but did nothing to stop INA from doing... whatever that meant.
INA laid down and began to power off her shell. After roughly a minute had passed, a compartment opened where her stomech would be, to reveal a small metalic sphere emitting a blue glow that had recently detatched from a variety of wires that were made of some organic material. While the human may or may not have been aware of it, the sphere was made of a combination databank and supercomputer, making it worth a fortune.
Leo walked downstairs finally and over to the prone figure of 'INA'. He reached down to grasp the small sphere, which turned out to be lighter than he expected for a component of its size. He examined it in his hands for a moment.
"... we'll see if your thanks are well-placed. I doubt you can hear me right now, but keep your hopes up that I keep my head when Raptus hears of this. As long as you're still well-intentioned, that is..." With that, Leo pocketed the core of INA's body. He stood for a few moments, debating what to do about the body, or rather, INA's empty shell. If he stored it here, there was no telling who might come along and take it away. No, the best course of action would be to take it back to the Partition safehouse, at least if there were a place to keep it. Leo had a few ideas about that.
Whoa, this is actually a major advancement for our side. Now that he had the life and brain of one of the Institute's operatives, the Partition might be able to critically strike at the Institute. Of course, that would mean that Leo would have to hand over INA's core to Spider, and he didn't even know what the robot wanted, much less what Spider would do to it. And then there was the matter of the whole "made contact with the enemy" situation; there'd be questioning and orders. Granted, these things would probably be done in order to facilitate the safety of the Partition and the ease of future operations, but there was something that seemed slightly off about this whole deal still.
An hour later, after further ransacking of the shop had proved fruitless aside from a few miscellaneous parts and other random junk, a figure could be seen exiting the Short Circuit's rear door, carrying another body over their shoulder. Leo darted away through the alleys toward the Partition's safehouse, where he would secretly store INA's shell and take some time to consider his next actions.
