The Birth of a New Generation (Saber)

[Mani4c]

The young woman nodded, looking at the Doctor, and then Bit with a friendly grin. "Yup! I'm ready when you are Ms. Bit!~"

1337 stifled a laugh at that, not out of malice, but simply how innocent the young woman was. "Ms. Bit? Wow kid, I don't think I've ever heard anyone be that formal or polite towards Bit before.~ Kind of endearing actually, considering most people are scared of her."

The young girl tilted her head at 1337's remark, walking over to Bit and just staring up at her. "...She's scary? I don't get it...like, your mask is all black and spiky, and you've got that odd voice, and you're super nice mister...mister...umm, what's your name?" The girl blushed a bit, feeling like a bit of a goof for not asking 1337 his name.

The masked hacker just laughed, sticking the few salvageable components from his failed experiment into his vest pocket before junking the rest and pulling his gloves off. "It's 1337 hon, and this, this is a look.~" 1337 gestured to himself, bringing attention to the very punk rock style he'd created. "Everybody knows who I am at a glance, that's why I dress like this. Bit...well, Bit's a little...intense, takes her job more seriously than anybody I'd ever met, and she can be kinda intimidating cause of it...personally, I like her because she's a bada-...erm, because she's tough and doesn't take any guff from people, even a crazy MF like me.~"

The girl looked back at Bit, then at 1337, before gently tugging on Bit's coat so she could lean down and listen to the girl's whispered message. "I think he likes you...like, likes you likes you. So don't be mad okay? I think he meant what he said as a compliment.~" The girl giggled softly and let go of Bit's coat, winking at the stern woman before bouncing on the balls of her feet and speaking in a normal volume again. "So! Let's  get this scanning thingie started!~ I wanna look around and see if I can make some music on these keyboards!~"

[Saber]

Bit knelt down as the girl told her that 1337 may have some hidden feelings for her, and sighed, rolling her eyes softly as she straightened and pushed her glasses up closer to her face "If you promise to behave, I will consider letting you look around. But if I say yes, you follow my rules, understood young lady?"

She gestured to the next room over, where a large platform, attached to multiple consoles and what appeared to be a 3D projector was sitting as the center piece of the entire room "This is the scanner. By standing on the center platform there, we will be able to register your code into the police station's secure server, so if anything were to happen to you, you would return right here, to this server. While you are in the server, your data is automatically updated every second. Once you leave the server doors, you will reawaken in the medical sector, to be debriefed on your status, and the status of whatever happened to you outside of the server, and its overall outcome. Of course, that is if you choose to become an officer of the law. Since you are a citizen, your information is saved here just in case a calamity strikes, and people are lost in the crossfire."

She walked over to the centermost console, and started to interface with the machine "This is also how we will be able to analyze your data, and make sure there are no long-term negative effects that could have been caused by your creation. Lilith, I will also require that you enter the scanner as well, to ensure nothing is wrong with you as well."

[Mani4c]

The girl grinned and walked into the scanner, listening to Bit's explanation with rapt attention. "Hmm, so if something happens to me, I just...wake up here, none the worse for wear?"

The Doctor nodded, "That's right young lady, though you'll obviously have blanks in places where you weren't being backed up, such as anything outside the server in between your last visit here."

The girl nodded again, stepping to the side when Lilith was told to step in with her. "Can this thing tell me what abilities I'm gonna have? I mean, I was born, not made, so shouldn't I grow like a human and get new skills and stuff?"

[Saber]

Bit paused and looked back from the console, streams of data flowing across her glasses as she looked at the girl "The scanner only tells us what we can see, not what develops. We won't know anything more unless we do scans in the future when new things develop."

[Mani4c]

The girl nodded when Bit explained how the scanner worked, her smile not faltering. "Oh, okay!~ Guess I'll learn as I go huh?" The Doctor smiled and looked at his own scanner readings, finding the girl's enthusiasm endearing. "Ah the wonders of a young mind, always searching for new things, and taking the unknown in stride!~ Oh to be young again."

Lilith's daughter tilted her head at that, her expression curious. "How...how old are you? You look barely older than Mama."

The Doctor laughed at that, his grin playful. "I have lived 12 lives by now. My first incarnation was created over 60 years ago. You see, I was more than just a scientific adviser, I was designed to map the digital world, and...later on, I volunteered for a test regarding whether an avatar could possibly survive fatal injury without it's data being backed up. And it worked...erm, sort of, when I'm injured, or my body breaks down, or even if I need to force it, my body "regenerates", my mind and knowledge stay...but I essentially reformat everything but my base framework and memory data, my personality code, my appearance, all of it, is shuffled around at random, creating a new avatar in it's place...but still me, in a sense."

Lilith piped up at this, "No wonder you take your cues from Dr. Who...were you like that before the regeneration thing, or...?"

"Nope, I looked completely different, but upon getting the regeneration program, I decided to be cheeky and model myself off of the Doctor, I've tweaked with it since then, so every time I regenerate, I'll move on to the next incarnation of the Doctor.~ It's quite interesting, and even better, because the data is technically accessible as a mod file, there's 11 more of me running around the world helping with scientific endeavors with various departments! I think #3 is actually in South America helping translate some hieroglyphs..."

[Saber]

Bit chuckled when the doctor explained how his code worked, and how many 'incarnations' there were of him in the world "No wonder you were able to hack my security protocols when you first arrived. Centuries of knowledge around the world; you likely had knowledge about the server's security protocols before you came to this room."

[Mani4c]

The Doctor chuckled, "Decades my dear, not centuries. I'm old, but not a fossil!~ As for that second bit...well, I believe #1 actually did help with the architecture of this server way back when...but I'll admit, it took me using some old infrastructure limitations to breach your security, that bluff about the power of my encryption was just to save face."

The British avatar blushed a bit, grinning sheepishly. "Your firewalls and custom programming are quite impressive my dear, I dear say that I've learned more than I've taught in my time watching you work."

The girl giggled within the server, "Hehe.~ That's really cool Doctor! I hope I can meet the other you's sometime.~" She then looked at Bit, her voice inquisitive and friendly. "How about you Bit? Where did you come from? You don't seem like you were built here, you're too...unique, you don't come off as manufactured by a police department."

[Saber]

Bit was silent when the girl asked her how she was made, actually taking her glasses off and setting them down on the console in front of her "My creation was...complicated. I was not made by the police, but I did come from their servers. The precinct's earlier years, before they updated their firmware, wasn't properly structured yet for the evolved internet world we know now, and there weren't many avatar officers just yet. One day, I just...emerged one day, and I was locked up for breaking into the police department for a time."

She paused for a moment, lamenting over her first days in the world "That didn't really stop me from moving around freely, however. I knew every security system and lockdown code in this server, and how to break through them. When I told them I was not there to be a threat, they mandated that I allow them to scan my code and look it over before deciding my fate. When they found trace elements of their own server copied in my code, and not viral code, they realized I really was not a threat, but I also had nowhere to go because of where I came from. So they gave me a choice: I could stay in a rogue avatar sanctuary, funded by the governemnt, but had to live a life of secrecy...Or, I could work for the police, and help them improve the everyday duties of officers, and even how to better combat viral threats. I was one of the reasons why police officers are mandated an avatar partner in addition to their human one, because they saw how beneficial it was to have someone fighting for us in another world."

[Mani4c]

The girl was silent for a moment, mulling over what Bit had said, before eventually looking at the R&D officer. "You're like me...an accident." Lilith looked at the girl, her expression pained at the rather harsh term her daughter had used...but the girl was smiling. "But, that's okay, isn't it? We're both trying to make the world better...well, I will be, even if it's not as a police officer, I want to make things, to help people be happy and safe."

The Doctor smiled, looking over at Bit...and noticing that 1337 was staring at the bespectacled woman as well, his mask's eye projectors oddly lacking any kind of symbol or expression, until finally, the hacker turned back to his station, oddly...mournful looking, almost depressed. 'I'll have to talk with him later, we still don't know much about him, aside from how he was caught in a gang shootout and wounded while Justicar patrolled the Red-Light.'

The girl didn't notice 1337's depression, her voice upbeat, "So...maybe I can work with you while Momma's at her job? I'd like to learn about these things, and you're really nice and smart.~"

[Saber]

Bit placed her glasses back on the bridge of her nose, glancing over at the girl with an intrigued expression "If that is what you want, and that is what your mother agrees to, then I will teach you. But I am a very stern teacher; I have strict rules, I only reward success, mistakes will earn heavy lecturing, and you will be cleaning your own messes. As long as you understand that, and that my methods are not personal, then I will teach you what I know."

She turned back toward the console, the code streaming through the glasses as she began to interface again "All that aside, let's begin your code analysis, shall we?"

[Mani4c]

The girl nodded and smiled, holding her mother's hand and giving Bit a thumb's up. "Okay!~ And...thanks Bit, I hope we can work together and make great things!"

With that, the Doctor nodded and tapped out a series of commands into the scanner terminal's settings program, ensuring that every bit of code belonging the two women inside of the scanner would be looked over. "I've set it for the most in depth scan we can provide bit, it's awaiting your authorization code to begin."

[Saber]

Bit nodded and watched as Lilith and the girl both approached the scanner at once. She punched in some code, and the chamber divided into two separate chambers "I'm sorry Lilith. But for us to receive an accurate scan, you cannot both be in the same chamber. The chambers will be transparent, so you can keep watch over each other while the scan is in progress. Just let me know when you're ready, and I will initiate the scan."

Once everyone was in place, Bit entered the authorization code, and the two were suspended in their own chambers, as a light flowed over them, and worked through their code like an X-Ray. Bit was giving Lilith's code a look over, to be sure nothing was wrong with the mother "Everything seems to be in order on my end. Doctor, how is the child's code?"

[Mani4c]

Lilith looked at Bit, a small flicker of panic washing over her features when the chambers split, but then the young girl simply knocked on the wall dividing them, bringing Lilith's attention to her. The girl smiled, floating in the air and waving at her mother, showing her that she was okay.

That was all that Lilith needed to see, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to get her nerves under control. Part of her protectiveness was instinct, something hard coded in her viral data that urged her to shield her child from EVERYTHING, and the loss of Viral only made her more anxious about her daughter's safety. 'But you're not the only one who loves her...Mani4c and the others are always there for you, even Bit is, in her own way...trust them...' The data vampire sighed and just let the scanner wash over her, her clock-rate settling a bit as she slowly calmed down.

Meanwhile, the Doctor was intently scanning The girl's code, and what he saw was equal parts facinating and...disturbing. Her code was incredibly active, even for a developing avatar, and over 85% of it was pure viral coding. That wasn't the worrisome part however, what was worrying was just how quickly the girl's code was changing, it was splitting, fusing, arranging itself into billions, trillions of combinations, only for more than half of those combinations to split apart again, seemingly due to a lack of stability or effectiveness.

"Bit...this girl's code is...by the maker...take a look!" The Doctor linked the scan data to Bit, his voice filled with...not concern, but surprise. "This girl's code is evolving in real time! The energy levels she's putting out are immense, equal to Viral during the war, if not MORE, this girl...this girl is something we've never seen before. All of those avatars and viruses that Ouroboros fed to Viral's body; do you think that Viral's code density is why she's so mutable?"

[Saber]

Bit swiped Lilith's code to the side and let the girl's code up on her own display, and even her eyes widened by how complex and fluctuating rapidly "...I am so glad I installed that dynamic reset array in the scanner...This...This changes everything. With how complex her code is developing and adjusting, and at such an alarming rate. There's no telling where these changes may take her...There's no doubt about it, this child is a pure product of the events during the Abraxas war...Not just Viral and Lilith, but everything that they were linked to."

Bit shut down the scanner and allowed Lilith to reunite with her daughter, spinning in her chair and pushing her glasses up while looking at the two "Lilith. I would like to prescribe a routine scanning regimen and development program for your daughter. I will teach her as I promised, but to ensure that nothing will go wrong during her growth, I want to keep her here to test and make sure she is perfectly healthy...I won't sugarcoat it, I have no idea how she may turn out years from now. With how rapidly her code is breaking apart and rearranging itself, she could very well age like a human...I just want to make sure that if there's anything we might be able to do to prevent anything bad that from happening, sooner, or later, that we will be ready for it."

[Mani4c]

Lilith's eyes widened at hearing just how rapidly her Daughter was changing, looking at the girl, who was simply smiling at hearing how impressive her code was. "Oooh! Thank you Bit! Maybe this means I can shapeshift like Momma can, oh, or maybe I'll have all these cool powers once my code settles!~"

The girl was beaming brightly, not a fear in the world. It was unnerving really, Avatars "aged" MUCH faster than a person, a side effect of their processes running at millions of times faster than a human's metabolism. She could age like some kind of inverted Benjamin Button, or mutate horribly painful, cancerous glitches of flesh...and she was excited, as if she knew that things would be fine no matter what.

Lilith would normally write it off as just childish ignorance...but this girl wasn't ignorant like a child, and certainly not stupid to the point of obliviousness. She just...seemed to know that she was fine, or she held a great amount of faith. Whatever the reason for her blithe disregard for the potential horrors her insanely mutable code could bring, Lilith wasn't taking a single chance on her safety. "Alright Bit, so, what? Daily Scans until her code calms down...if it calms down?"

Meanwhile, the girl had quickly grown bored of the anxiety and questions, hearing what Bit said about her mutating code but not worrying one iota about it. She soon wandered over to a code reading station that was running a series of complex algorithms, reading the data at lightning speed.

The girl stared at the code lines, following the minute lines of light as they traced along the program...but then she noticed something, a pattern. The lights moved in a set order, their speeds carefully changing in accordance with some unseen variable...and it interested her. "Maybe...what if I...hm, well, first let's save the scan's place so it doesn't get lost if I mess up.~"

The girl's fingers hovered over the holographic keyboard, her head turning to see if anyone was looking, which, at the moment, was not the case. She then quickly turned back and saved the program's place, even making a second save and putting it in a different folder if things got REALLY bad...and then she began altering scanning patterns, having them move in new orders and timings, until it began to resemble a musical arrangement.

"Then, I'd have to change the file from text to audio...maybe, ah, a .Wav file is pretty easy!~" The girl kept fiddling with the program, altering the file-type and fine tuning whatever idea had popped into her head, until finally it was done...just in time for 1337 to grab her shoulder and out her. "Hey kid! Not that I'm against new ways of making code, but what the hell are you doing with that? You shifted the scans around and changed the filetype!"


The girl froze, and Lilith turned to look at her, her voice becoming a bit stern and commanding. "Young lady! what did Ms. Bit tell you?"

[Saber]

Bit was silent for a moment when Lilith asked her about the scans, and for how long they would need to be done for "At least once a day, more if anything sudden happens that changes in her code or in what she can do. The future is so undetermined, that I can't see how long it may take for these scans to be needed."

When she heard 1337 catch the girl in the act of messing with a text file in one of the consoles, and Lilith's lecturing of her daughter messing with things without permission,Bit turned around and stood up. Pushing her glasses up close to her face, she walked over to the console with a calm, but silent pace, the only sound coming from her being the clicking of her heels on the floor "Lets not jump to conclusions. I want to see what she's done for myself."

She stood over the girl, looking at the file. The code was rearranged, for sure, and it had a new format. "...A .Wav file? And moving all of the code around like this, what outcome were you looking to achieve by doing this, little one?" She waited silently, her arms folded behind her back, and waiting for a reply, with a neutral gaze.

[Mani4c]

The girl blushed softly and clasped her hands together in front of her, swallowing a lump in her throat. "W-well, I noticed the musical tones in the scan, and I figured that maybe converting the file to an audio format and constructing the scan's pattern, I could turn it into a musical piece?"

1337 looked at the scan, tilting his head. "Hm, mind if I play it?" The girl nodded, smiling sheepishly, "I tried something simple, a chiptune, but if I practice enough I could probably make it work in reverse, hide messages in music or even video files."

1337 nodded and hit the scanner's activation key, the lights on the scanner began to scroll, rapidly flitting between various parts of the arranged program and providing an unintended light show to go with the song, a rather up tempo chiptune piece. "Huh, not bad hon, I like the song.~"

The girl blushed and smiled at the compliment, looking at her feet in embarrassment and partly to avoid a glare from Bit that she was anticipating. 

[Saber]

Bit watched as 1337 played the chiptune file, and just stood there like a statue, her eyes switching between the file and the audio file. Seeming to be deep in thought, she started to scratch her chin "...In all of my years working for the NPD, I never thought to scramble my records into a different file type to create music. Normally, I do not approve of such acts, I prefer to keep most of my data in line."

She left a minor pause, not only to think over her next comments, but also to slightly leave the girl in suspense. "However...A skill like this could be useful in sending coded messages to trusted colleagues across the seas, and even in our very nation." She pushed her glasses up once again and was not glaring, but rather smiling at the girl with a glint of possibility belying her gaze "Child, you have a gift for creativity, not only in art, but in science as well. I would like to help you cultivate that skill, not just for the NPD to benefit, but also for your own possible future. In fact, I already have some lab assignments for you in mind for your first lessons under my tutelage."

[Mani4c]

The girl looked rather nervous as Bit critiqued her work, especially when she went silent after she talked about not normally approving of what she had done.

But, as the science officer began to explain how her little trick could be used to help the NPD, and that she was impressed by the girl's creativity, her nervous expression became a very, very happy grin. "O-Of course! I'd love to learn how to use my talents to help people! Um, i-is it okay Momma!?~"

Lilith closed her eyes, her lips curling into a smile despite herself. "Heh...well, as long as you're being supervised, I can't say it'd be too dangerous..." Lilith opened her eyes and looked at Bit, her tone becoming serious, "All I ask is that you double check with me if anything volatile or potentially sentient gets involved, alright Bit? I know you and the others are as safe as possible, but accidents still happen."

1337 interjected at that, clapping a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Hey, anything goes after this little ball of sunshine and I'll break my size 12 boots off in their ass Lilith. She's like a less pyromania afflicted me when I was a wee script kiddie.~"

The girl giggled and looked at 1337, smiling brightly at him. "Hey, just cause I like building things doesn't mean I'm against a lightshow.~ Uncle Mani4c's fireworks were really neat when he showed them to me in the speeder here.~"

[Saber]

Bit gave Lilith a nod of approval, understanding the viral mother's terms for her teaching the girl how to use her creative skills in a scientific method "Of course. I may like to push my own experiments to extreme levels, but I will keep things in a more reserved manner when I am mentoring or supervising someone's growth in this department."

She turned to the girl and had a more serious, if not wise demeanor as she addressed Lilith's daughter "Now then. As your first assignment. I will have a copy of random text documents made for your next visit. Your task will be to reorganize the files into a .wav file, and orchestrate them into proper files that can be mistaken for music. Once you've finished all of the files, we will review your work, and see how they can be linked together with a cypher so anyone with the cypher can translate the messages."