Upgrades and Understanding(Mani4c)

[Prythian]

There was a sensation of time having passed for Masamune. A brief break, to be sure, from the snippets of memory Masamune had accessed. It was swiftly broken by a buzzing sound.

It was a bee of some kind, with a sickly green glow on its stinger. There was a crunching sound as the distance between the two increased, backing away... but the virus was having none of it, zipping closer. Suddenly, there was another swirl of data, code attempting to put itself together, and the bee, lunging forwards, was caught in it. The data seemed almost to choke, nearly breaking apart, glitching here and there, the blocks of it breaking apart and connecting again... before just slamming together into an amorphous mass, turning black. Slowly the blocks raised themselves up, red lines visible between them, into a vaguely humanoid shape. "...you..." The voice was raspy as it came out of the mass. "...you are... like me? ...AUGMENT?"

A quick data search... "Yes." A feminine voice replied. "I... am AUGMENT. I... am..." A name, desperately searched for, and a single word latched onto from the data files. "...Amplify. You?" "...In... te... grate... You... are you strong?" As the voice got more and more use, it grew stronger, more confident. "...We will see." And it lunged forward much like the bee had, breaking apart. A rush of black and red, a swarm of data latching onto every part... "Now... use your weapons."

"...I have none. My programs... power up others. I am... an energy gatherer."

"Worthless..." A disgusting feeling came next, as if skin was literally crawling off, and the mass of data returned to its humanoid shape. "...My power... I must be of use... find the strongest... make them stronger..." Almost involuntarily, sight focused on Integrate's feet, as they pulled themselves apart and into wheels. "...goodbye... sister..." And with that, the wheels spun, and the viral avatar flew off into the distance, sand kicking up behind it.

[Mani4c]

Masamune observed the scene, watching Integrate be born from a virus, quickly becoming sentient. "Hmm, how appropriate, a little reprobate like you was born from an insect." Masamune looked on as Integrate asked if Amp was an AUGMENT avatar, after Amp said yes, he fused with her in an effort to gauge her power.

Masamune's anger flared up as Integrate dismissed Amp as a weakling and left her alone. "You worm, if I get the chance I shall repay you for this injustice a thousand fold." Masamune sighed as Darkness began to intrude again, signaling a new memory. "Onto the next crime against decency I suppose..."

[Prythian]

The next few memories were actually almost blurred together, skipping through various parts of Amplify's existence. Throughout it, a theme came up; sheer enjoyment out of seeing other people, as Amplify saw it, attempt to imitate her emotions. This is what Masamune had needed to know. Despite her taunting and teasing people causing them to get outraged or sad, it never even occurred to her that they were at all comparable to her. Then she ran into Justicar.

Amazement when he tossed back her teasing. Interest when he explained bits of himself. Mixed emotions... mixed? A quick analysis of the personality matrix left the emotions at such percentages as 55% desire, 40% interesting, 25% amazement... and even 15%... something unnamed. Infatuation? Perhaps... That was when the decision was made. She would go with him. She would stay by him. He was what mattered here... to her. And as such...

He must be hers.

[Mani4c]

Masamune watched Amp's memories flicker by, slowly coming to a realization, "She's a literally incapable of seeing other people's emotions as anything like hers. She can only understand her own emotions!" When Amp's memories reached her first meeting with Justicar, he was hit by a massive wave of emotions. "So...that's how you feel about Justicar. But, do you wish to own him, or do you wish to have him reciprocate your feelings? I'll need to examine this further." Like clockwork, the darkness started to intrude again, Masamune felt a pang of dread. "I fear that the next memory will be what got us into this mess..."

[Prythian]

The next memory was fragmented, interspersed with various powerful emotions. Anger... fear... desire... but most notably, when Justicar cursed her, despair and sorrow. Grief, almost like a physical pain... but soon reassurance came from that. After all... if Justicar didn't remember it... then it was like it never happened. There was still a chance for Justicar to feel the same way... or as close as any of these other avatars could. An image of two avatars... bound together by threads...

That's when it faded, the entire memories having been gone through. It was sheer luck, of course, that Masamune had touched on the most important memories in shaping what had happened.

[Mani4c]

Masamune's eyes snapped open and he sat up, he was lying on the floor of his store, "Urgh, damn it all..." "Sensei!" Masamune turned and saw the student standing over him. "Is Amp secure?" The man nodded, "Yes, the scan just finished, but there was an area of her code that we couldn't scan." Masamune struggled to his feet, "It's that portion of her amplification program isn't it?" The man nodded, "Yes, it's too garbled to make out, but the scan did reveal an interesting detail. When she tried to absorb her own orbs directly, it caused actual physical damage, despite her armor being made to negate that risk." 

Masamune bent down to pick up Frozen Torrent, "That would explain her injuries when she was having that meltdown." He started walking upstairs, speaking to his student as he did. "Is she stabilized?" The man nodded, "Yes, I've also cinched her wrists, not enough to injure her. But it's enough to keep her from hurting herself." Masamune opened the door at the top of the stairs and walked inside, he looked over and saw Amp laying on the maintenance table with her wrists locked down, she was still in shutdown mode for the moment. "Wake her, and put her in a sitting position as well." "Yes Sensei, anything else?" "A tray of herbal tea, and something to eat as well, she'll be weak after that." The man nodded and started the process for waking Amp up, he moved Amp into a sitting position, gave Masamune a short bow and left to get the tea.

Masamune undid the straps on Amp's wrists before sitting across the room from Amp, Frozen Torrent strapped to his back. As Amp began to awaken he raised his hand, "Welcome back to the world of the living, Are you feeling better?" Masamune's voice had an obvious tinge of worry to it.

[Prythian]

Amplify's eyes somewhat unfocused as she came back to reality. "...Feedback loop between personality matrix and amplification program... stronger than previous loops, must've been the upgrades that Noxus formatted into it..." Her eyes focused once more. "...topped out at... 378.6% anger..." She glanced at Masamune. "...My head is killing me. There is... temporary damage to my personality matrix. Nearly permanent." She held up one arm, pulling back the sleeves to reveal deep-red, nasty-looking burns underneath. "...it would've taken a massive amount of energy to do this. So. I cannot examine my most recent memories for danger of falling back into the loop." Her eyes sharpened. "You WILL tell me what happened."

[Mani4c]

Masamune nodded, "I'm just glad that you didn't fry yourself. Anyway, you and I were discussing the...incident with Justicar, I had warned you about his past...how he had been betrayed before, and that what you did risked him losing his mind. And that because of his wolf spirit, he would eventually figure out what had occurred." Masamune was having a much better time controlling his temper. "I recommended telling him the truth, and you offered and alternative, and then...I let my temper get the better of me, I accused you of wanting to kill the other souls, and because of that...you lost control of your anger. You tried to literally cut part of your own code out, I had to put you into shutdown temporarily so that we could stabilize you."

Masamune shifted in his seat, "Do you have any other questions?" 

[Prythian]

"It's that damned amplification program." Despite her words, Amplify had no anger in her voice now. It was just resignation. "It's integrated into my personality matrix, or at least part of them run through each other. Feedback loops are... less common now than I once had them, but still a significant danger. Had this one gone on much longer, I would've likely had permanent damage done to my anger circuits, and I'm not sure what would've happened." She, of course, had no idea that Masamune had seen her memories... and, notably, that very first feedback loop at the start of her creation. "Normally they don't increase that quickly. The improvements to the energy-amplification..." She shook her head. "...Maybe get the technicians to set up some emergency shutdowns or overrides next time they modify my code. In the past I've had enough time to find something else to break out of the loop before it reaches that high."

Her eyes turned back onto Masamune. "But I would never kill one of Justicar's souls. That's tantamount to permanently harming him. Everything I've done was to avoid that, because I need him. He helps with... this. He changes my emotions enough and avoids the negative ones. Very little feedback loop danger... and then, only positive emotions."

[Mani4c]

Masamune nodded, "There's...something else, I had to force my way through your integrated firewall to stop that feedback loop, but I put my own energy into it. The results were...messy, I was knocked out as well, and I think that some of your memory data was downloaded into me by mistake. I've seen what happened to you, including your birth." Masamune stopped speaking so Amplify could digest this news. He had an odd expression on his face as well, it was a mixture of pity and regret, he hadn't meant to pry into her past. And as a result he felt guilty.

[Prythian]

Amplify waved a hand. "There's nothing important about those memory files." Her tone had gone almost completely dismissive. "If I were you, I'd delete them. They're only taking up valuable space you could use for something else." Her voice was almost entirely sincere, too; she fully believed that there was nothing important in whatever files she had ended up sharing with Masamune. "There don't seem to be any notable gaps in any of my older memories, so I can only assume you copied them rather than downloading them entirely. Which is good; they may be unimportant, but they're still mine, and belong to me. Either way, though, I'd ignore whatever you saw. Actually..." Her expression went thoughtful for a bit. "If you're lucky, it probably did give you a glimpse at my brother. If you're helping Noxus, it might be good for you to know what he looks like yourself. Now..." She held out a hand. "...my weapon, please."

[Mani4c]

Masamune opened his mouth, wanting to tell Amp just what he had seen, but ultimately decided against it. She was still in a delicate state at the moment. "Very well." Masamune stood and walked over to Amp, handing her Frozen Torrent. Just then his assistant walked back into the room, holding a tray with several dumplings and a complete tea set, including an ornate tea pot made out of jade with a woodcut design on the side. "Oh, I seem to have taken too long, my apologies." Masamune waved a hand, "Nonsense, there's always time for a good cup of tea, Amp could stand to relax a bit after all that's happened."

The assistant nodded and walked up to the two avatars, setting up a small table and carefully placing the tray onto the table. "Ahh, what tea did you make?" "We had some of that Nutcracker Sweet left over from Christmas. I figured that pairng it with some of those dumplings you make would be a good idea." Masamune smiled, "Not the meat dumplings I hope." "No, no, it's the Hanami dango(Here's what those look like.) that you made when you helped plant those Sakura trees while we visted the Japanese server." Masamune laughed, "Ah yes, that was a nice trip, we should go more often. Oh my, listen to me babble. I'll serve you your tea Amp, it's a bit sweet, but we have some sugar or milk to add in. It should help you recuperate a bit faster." Masamune's assistant spoke up, just realizing something. "Sensei, are you sure that she's even able to eat? Most avatars can't mimic eating like you and I can." "She's a rouge avatar, she should be alright. Do you want to try a sip first Amp?"

[Prythian]

Amplify gave a little bit of a twisted smile. "Not a function I ended up with." She remarked. "Nothing even remotely approximating a human's sense of taste, nor any ability to consume things in that matter. Trust me, I know my code well enough. Of course, it's not without its advantages; I have my own special senses. You, for example, wouldn't know what gathering and channeling raw energy feels like..." She gave a little bit of a shrug. "I'll recuperate enough on my own. If anyone asks what happened when I get back to the Library, I'll tell them the truth: I had a bad episode with a feedback loop. That said..." She glanced at the student, and then back at Masamune. "I did come here for a reason, initially. I suppose it can wait until you've had your tea..."

[Mani4c]

Masamune removed his helmet, revealing his face, he had dark grey eyes and Black hair which was turning grey at the temples. He also had a scar running down the left side of his face starting at the middle of his brow and ending dead center on his left cheek. "Now you know why I took to wearing a helmet, Specter may have died because of me but that son of a bitch was tough." Masamune poured himself a cup of tea and took a sip, he set the cup back down and looked at Amp. "What do you need?"

[Prythian]

"...Frozen Torrent is nice. And it may belong to me." Amplify murmured, almost half to herself, staring at the shimmer of its blade. "...but it isn't mine." She emphasized, turning back to Masamune. "Most avatars have their weaponry built into them, or a program they can activate. That's not possible with Frozen Torrent. If someone gets it away from me in combat, I am lost. If I get ambushed at a time where I don't have it, I am screwed. So I want you to..." She hesitated a moment, but only just. "...to bind it to me. Two halves of a program, one in the weapon, one in me... that allows me to call it to me. Since I'm not sure parts of its code would work compressed, I was thinking you could make it somehow propel itself through the air to me when I summon it."

[Mani4c]

Masamune repressed an urge to laugh, "What, like a broomstick?" His assistant rolled his eyes at the mental image. "I'd certianly hope that it's propelled grip first, or else you'll run the risk of skewering yourself." "You certainly never cease to come up with the most interesting upgrades, but I'll be happy to provide you with an upgrade, but...it would require me rooting around in your code. I'll need your permission before I can work on it. I can also upgrade the battery on it as well, if you go into a feedback loop again it will absorb any orbs that you make, I can also alter your armor to avoid any overloads."

[Prythian]

Amp shook her head. "I knew this would require you alter pieces of my code. I came here with that in mind from the beginning. However, as much as I need to consider a failsafe on feedback loops, if it activated at the wrong time, disaster could strike. Besides..." She gave a small smile. "I need the orbs where I can use them, even if I am in the middle of an emotional loop. What if that emotion is, say, will to survive? Or perhaps concern, what if Justicar is in a situation that only I can help with? The orbs do no good if I cannot take or keep them out of the naginata's battery. Until the amplification program is understood well enough to disentangle it with my personality matrix... and trust me, I have at least one technician working on that back at the Library, and I wouldn't be surprised if Noxus had others doing so behind my back... then I'm going to have to ask that that part of my code, at least, you not touch. Just what's necessary to allow me to call Frozen Torrent to me."

[Mani4c]

Masamune nodded, "Very well, I understand." Masamune finished his tea and walked over to the maintenance table and gently adjusted it so Amp was Laying flat. "I'm going to have to put you under for this, are you okay with that?"

[Prythian]

Amplify nodded, now silent. There was only one thing on her mind now... binding the code of Frozen Torrent to her. Much like Justicar... it was hers, and she needed it, so it would be bound to her in a way that couldn't be broken without breaking her. That was all that was her concern at this point. When she woke up... it would be, without any argument, hers, and hers alone...

((END))