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Something Artificial (Vahn Seele x LunarStar)

Echo's walk had slowed down for a fraction of a second while listening to the explanation given to her. After she had asked about the use of this nickname, Echo had made up several variables of what she could possibly be mat with, perhaps a silly little excuse because it's a human thing to so. Maybe Abumi stopped caring to call her by her full name because she's who she is. Or anything in between, but not one of them had her prepared to told that it's a way to humanize her. That. To think of herself as a human under the basis that someone else felt like seeing her as such. How strange. Why was this such a big deal now? A glitch in her system?

"Echo is the name given to me by my creator, Dr. Schmitt. Yes, it is the fifth military letter, however that is not the origin of my name. Echo was an improvised name given to me with how my voice holds a slight echo to it, to ensure I can be identified by vocals alone compared to a human. It is nothing special at all. But it is my name and I should be designated as such. But for the sake to keep the mission success rate up, you may call me 'E'." the android explained herself, giving Abumi a slight look into how she gained the identity that she had. At least by name. There is at least some good to it that her name isn't purely military based, even if she can fight given she wields a katana.

"What does that mean to you though. You said it meant something. And..." Echo paused mid continuation of wanting to ask some more questions, worryingly having created more questions than answers when she requested to explain the nickname. One of the questions sticking out like a sore thumb to her "...how does giving me a nickname make me more 'human'? Am I not just a machine? I may have some free command of my own, but the notion that being called "E" to humanize me is... something that I lack in my data. I have no record of being spoken to like that before by anyone."
 
Abumi listened to the explanation given to her, the reference to the light echo or reverb in her voice to identify her as an android making a little more sense. Somehow, though, the name seemed to distance her further from what they had been trying to make. In Abumi's opinion, if you were going to create an android with a human body, you would strive to make them as realistic as possible. Part of Abumi wondered if the echo was explained away as a feature, when it was actually a bug? Something that couldn't be worked around? That would require her to look at schematics for Echo, something that she wasn't fond of doing.

"Fair enough. I wanted to offer up the nickname to you, in case it might be something you'd like. You were given that 34% free control for a reason, and I didn't want to treat you as just a machine. Whether it is because of your appearance or not, it seems... cold to treat you as less than human." Abumi admitted. Echo had been polite, calculating, considerate to Abumi's survival. While they hadn't come across any threats, Echo had led the way for everything. Even if she hadn't had the plans for the location buried in her data, Abumi could see Echo taking the lead, partially because it was how she was programmed, and maybe because she wanted to be valued. In all that programming, free will could exist.

The conflict shown in her next statement made pain spring in Abumi's chest. Though the voice was flat, Abumi could see that she'd struck a small nerve in that android. "You're around people at OmniCorp that built you. They won't see you as more than a creation, especially to a person who labels themselves in your memory as 'Creator.' Being human isn't about having a beating heart, or the ever-intangible 'soul' that philosophers have been arguing about since the beginning. It's about, in my opinion, being able to empathize, to see something from outside of the numbers. Everything in the world can be quantified, but humanity has always been the outlier in fighting back, defying odds." Abumi said, trying to cut her little speech short. "Echo, me giving you a nickname is my way of saying that I see something human in you. Not just in your appearance, but possibly hidden in that programming of yours." Abumi said, going silent as she continued to descend down the stairs behind Echo.
 
"I see, Abumi. But you must also understand that I am what I am. A machine. Your sentiment is appreciated." Echo answered back on the first part, she did, in fact, not mind the nickname all that much after all but her programming probably wouldn't allow that so she remained adamant about being called as she stated. She didn't want to mean anything bad by it when telling Abumi about being just a machine, perhaps that just her nature like that, but Echo just couldn't really think of herself as anything but. From everything she's aware of based on her memory and data, she's always been just that and that's that. Nothing more, but also nothing less. Human's latest achievement of A.I. and Android.

But then, as the words from Abumi dabbled on the idea of not requiring a beating heart or a soul to be classed as human, it made her stop. No. Echo froze up. The words 'Heart' and 'Soul' making her vision go haywire with numbers and all sorts of glitches. Though as quickly as that happened, it went, and she regained her senses. That was very strange. Going to ignore Abumi for a moment as she ran a quick diagnostics to determine what did that, Echo scrambled for an answer why such words would do that to her. Or was it just a bug that manifested just as Abumi said those things and it just happen to be well times?

But also why? Why would someone tell her that she has something human in her. She's 34% self aware that she isn't a hu- hold on, that can't be right. Now that Echo was looking at her data, it's telling her the number increased to 36.2% self awareness. She breached the limitation set by her creator. This has to be fixed. Thankfully it was a minor increase so it isn't urgent. Shaking her head after the few seconds of glitching. Echo did a check up on herself and found her systems still functioning just fine "My apologies, I appear to have come across a bug in my programming. Be assured it will not effect my performance on the mission." Echo stated plainly, though somewhere in that tone of hers was a little bit of worry when she turned to look at the merc "Also I... I do not have any data about what a 'heart' and 'soul' is, though I find myself having empty files names as such. Nevertheless, let us keep moving." and with that, Echo resumed her walking down the stairs. Silently. Perhaps wishing to keep it that way for at least a few minutes to allow herself to fully fish out the problem in her program. This also meant they could reach the bottom sooner if no more delays are being made, yet it still left Echo to be on her guard in case that glitch happens again.

The further they had descended down the steps, it soon started to become apparent that not even this place was able to hold up against time. Or rather, it couldn't hold up against something else entirely. Flickering lights started to become more frequent, metal plates that made up the walls looked damaged or were missing. Wires poking out. Getting dimmer. Stairs missing steps or uneven and bend. And when the bottom of the steps was finally reached, that is when they could see what made it all appear so. A large metal door was mat at the bottom that likely led to this underground facility, however, not only was it partially open for them to just walk right in, bit there appeared to be a a massive set of claw marks that had cut clean through that door horizontally. And through that door the whole place was a mess! Everything was in disarray, computer screen were broken and barely worked. Everything was like a wild storm had ran through her 10 times over. And yet, Echo said or did nothing that showed any kind of shock at the sight. Instead she walked on through the door to start heading to where they needed to go.
 
Abumi observed the way that Echo took in the information that had been presented to her. For the most part, the android didn't appear to be affected. Sure, their pace had slowed a bit, but they were still on a descent into the compound. They were keeping to their mission, at the very least, and it wouldn't hurt for them to keep the conversation going. Then, something stopped. It was brief, but there was a flicker in Echo's movements, a pause. To a human, something like that would be almost expected. The human body was composed of muscles and synapses that could misfire at any moment. A twitch, a jerk, a spasm not being the slightest bit off.

Something was off about Echo. It didn't seem too important for the moment, but Abumi didn't bother to ask if something was wrong. Echo would likely shrug it off as merely a misread on her part. She'd been coded for self-preservation, by her creator, but she'd also been coded with protection of an invaluable asset. The question did come up, though, now that Abumi had managed to get her inside, was Abumi valuable? OmniCorp wouldn't need her any further, unless there were more locks that needed to be ripped apart.

Hearing Echo mention a "bug" in her programming was a curious admittance. Filing the thought away, Abumi smiled at her. "I'll follow your lead, E." She said, stepping down the stairs at the faster pace to keep up with Echo's return to her regular pace. The movement down the stairs would prove to grow more difficult the further down they went. While there were spots where the world had not been able to tear up the interior of the stairwell, there were others where there was a deep, visible amount of damage. It took some effort for Abumi to keep up, but she was thankful that they were only descending the staircase. Coming back up, though, was going to be a hell of a lot harder. Glancing up the stairwell, Abumi frowned at the thought of how her legs were going to be burning before this was all over.

Once they had managed to reach the bottom of the staircase, Abumi looked to where they were going next, stopping in her tracks as she immediately moved to draw her gun. She didn't raise it forward, but her eyes took in the details of the gashes in the door. The marks were huge! "Umm, E? Maybe we should figure out what could do something like that...?" Abumi asked, rushing forward to try and keep up. Where were these hostages? What in the hell was going on?!
 
Practically dismissing Abumi's concern for the gashed door, Echo wasn't paying it much mind to the damage that was done to the door, or even wondering what could've caused it. If anything she already knew what it was, as it is, Echo was equipped with some data about the past doings of OmniCorps. In particular, this place. Going only a few steps further into the decimated first room, or hall to put it more accurately, it was evident that the door wasn't the only thing that had such damage done to it as there are similar gashes potted about on the walls, ceiling and floor. Sparks from damaged wires popping from them occasionally. Other doors that led to other places were completely caved it as if someone had brute forced themselves through.

"Plasma infused Bio weapons. Prototypes. Assessment of the damage dealt indicated they were made here and still linger." Echo spoke in a matter of fact tone almost like she was not bothered by this at all. She didn't even hesitate replying and stating its origin. Stepping up to one of the gashes on the wall, Echo ran her gloved hand over one of them that still had some glow to it "These where recent. I calculate they are still in production."

"We must keep on mission however. I recommend moving forward with caution from here on to minimize detection and get to our goal." Echo announced looking over at Abumi for a brief moment before heading towards a door that was still intact, though it looked like it may be locked. Just to the side of it was yet another pad, though this time it was one of the ones requiring a form of key card to be scanned before being granted access. No matter. It was for reasons like locked doors or other difficult to get to data from computers that Abumi was hired for. "If we head on through here, we can reach the main hub of the facility, that it where our objective is."
 
Abumi looked in disbelief at Echo. How could she look at something like this, a gash as thick as it was in the door and metal and treat it like it was nothing to be worried about? While it was possible that she had been made privy to information that Abumi was not, it still stood to reason that Abumi should have been given some information regarding the risk. Experimental weapons, still in production, were not the same as a hostage situation. This was walking into an enemy monster nest, not unlike a few VR games that she had played, and being tasked with extracting the eggs for study.

"You'll have to excuse my slacked jaw. I'm not accustomed to seeing things that make my gun obsolete, such as things that could cut through metal..." She said, heavy on the sarcasm. It wouldn't matter if Echo could pick up on her sarcasm or not, Abumi was still going to keep doing it. "If it comes to it, E, should we come face to face with these things, promise me that you won't leave me here." She said, looking to Echo with a little bit of fear in her eyes. "I'll fight alongside you, but the mission is worthless if we don't come out of it alive." Abumi said, stepping up to where she saw the lock that they would need her to undo.

As she worked on the lock, doing the same steps as she had before, she removed the plate that kept the electronics guts protected from tampering. As she worked, she talked in a low tone to Echo. "Earlier, you mentioned you don't know what heart or soul was. Do you want me to try and explain?" Abumi asked, fitting her tools and beginning to do her evaluation on the circuitry behind the panel. There were a lot more complex things at work here, looking for inputs of 1s and 0s that had to be activated by a card. In today's standards, it was easy enough for a child to pick apart how to decipher the mechanism and override on paper. Doing it in person, though, was a far trickier task. As she worked, she waited to hear Echo's answer to her question, eager to teach what she could to help Echo become more life-like, if that was the true end goal of her design.
 
True to what Abumi was thinking, Echo had indeed not picked up on the sarcasm and went about to express some factual information out that would be a plainly obvious observation "Of course you may not be accustomed. There Prototypes have never left testing and have been kept as classified since their creation. It would not be likely for anyone to have had any battle experience against them." she said. Probably something that should've been expected that for someone like Echo, even as advanced as she is for an android, that she is still in a 'testing' phase of her own and therefore her creator likely hadn't allowed her yet to fully read between the lines of human responses. There was probably never any need as Echo rarely, if ever, interacted with someone that would even think of being sarcastic to her. Still, at least she got the idea of promises down "Do not worry. My task requires to keep you safe to achieve our goal assigned by my creator. I will not leave you endangered."

When Echo then stepped aside to allow for Abumi to work her mechanical magic to hack the lock of the door, the android stayed vigilant on their surroundings in case of any dangers that might be lurking here. And though her scans did pick up on some life signs, there were too far from their location that she neglected to tell Abumi about it. More so than that, when she was being addressed again, her focus was turned to Abumi about the topics of 'heart' and 'soul' again. This time nothing happened to her, thank god.

"Yes, even with the presence of the files in my data, I have no information about what such things are. All I do understand is that one is a physical and the other a spiritual function of a human being. Perhaps having you explain it to me may help me understand what the bug I had was earlier." Echo replied, finding herself rather invested in it now that she gave her full attention at this point to Abumi. It still made her wonder how she could have empty files of such thing, much less empty files in general. She'd see them before and had often asked about them to her creator who then helped in removing them after a reboot. Maybe she should do the same if she had those files empty again? "It is rather strange..." Echo mumbled "While I am programmed to learn things, I have never had readings wanting me to know something this much. The subject of Humans prime functions. They fascinate me in a way. More than I should be allowed."
 
Abumi did not let the conversation that she was having with Echo draw her attention too far away from the task at hand. If she was going to make it out of this mission alive, she was going to need to be fast with her electronic picking here. Still, she paid as much attention to Echo's words as she could, one of her eyes shifting to look over at Echo's response. "That quality you just described. That's curiosity." She said, smiling a little as she set her tools down for a second to focus on reading the board, continuing to talk as data flowed into her eyes, tracing the leads in front of her.

"Ever since mankind picked up a stick and used it as a weapon, curiosity has driven us to advance, learn and grow. Take the invention of the car. It was founded by the simple question of 'Can I get somewhere faster?' Simple thought led to the experimentation of motors, developing into an industry that drove hundreds of years of advancement. Life was made better all because a person decided to take the time to try and be different." Abumi said, picking her tools back up as she began to tinker with the board some more, little flashes of light illuminating her eyes as she crossed a few connections and placed metal bands to bypass security circuits.

"The things I talked about earlier, heart and soul, are sometimes thought of as physical and not. The heart is both an organ that pumps blood in the body, while also being a source of one's love and affection, or passion." Abumi said, making progress on the lock as it began to run into a standby mode, a demo mode that would allow Abumi to release the security with any electronic swipe. "Soul, though, is something that cannot be described, not easily, at least. To my best guess, it is the manner in which something can think, feel, grow and learn. It also carries a trait of self-preservation. No one wants to die, but someone with a soul might very well give up their own life, to save someone that they care about. You don't see it too often with animals, and not even as much with some people, but a soul is a big metaphor describing everything that it is to be human." Abumi said, making one final contact with her copper tipped tool and hearing the sound of an affirmative opening of the lock.

"That's a brief rundown. Maybe we can talk more about it when we are out of here, E." Abumi said, smiling as she stepped aside to let Echo take the lead once more.
 
Curiosity. Ah yes, the need to learn things. It that was her main program was made for then? She had to assume so based on her data and that her creator had build her so she could help in gathering said data for his future projects. That seemed close enough for her to be correct since she's curious enough to want to ask Abumi about a run down of certain topics about ones heart and soul. She'd be glad to give all that to her creator when that is done.

During the next part, there was so much information to go by, some of which seemed to suddenly give her a feeling that it would contradict her own functions in some areas. Again, she was suffering some kind of bug, but this time less severe. She understood the learning part. Thinking, her programming was close enough to allow her to do some of that, the 34% that raised up to 36.2% and started to climb slowly. That part being her free access of her own commands and responses. Feelings... Echo never felt before. Perhaps Abumi was talking about emotional feelings? Quite obvious that an android can't feel anything physically, only what her sensors tell her when and where she's touched, damage, etc. But no such thing as emotional feelings. It never occurred to Echo what those might be, maybe she'll have to create another file to document anything relating to that matter. And growing. Well... she can't grow. She was made as is and that's that. Perhaps there's another meaning to it. Humans are quite... complicated.

All in all, the words spoken to her were doing to be processed thoroughly during the mission and make sure she gets to share them with her creator to see what he can do with that for his work "Those are some interesting qualities for a human to have. A little contrasting given your statement of self-preservation and sacrifice. I never felt anything, I do not get to feel, but all the same I value the information you are giving me. I'm sure my creator appreciates it also." Echo stated, and once again they could move on into the facility after the door opened up with a hum and revealing a similarly broken environment.

It would likely be ages before Echo really gets to understand the complexity of humans but she was at least beginning to see what drove her creator to want to build something or someone as close to a human as possible. It wouldn't be different just to have the appearance of one, which was the whole point of her, something she kept to herself though was that Echo in some way still thought of herself as just a stepping stone for this. Leaving such thoughts to be processed though, Echo went ahead, walking along the series hallways and larger sized rooms, all of which were utterly ruined. On occasion, Echo would randomly walk up to what remained of a computer screen, checking their functionality if they still worked or not, lingering about longer on those that did work and speeding through the data that displayed on them, like someone searching through something even though the objective of this mission is said to be looking for hostages. Instead, Echo is going about checking up on computers, in a ruined place with monsters roaming about, so far having not caught sight or sound of any hostages or gang members for that matter.

Soon enough they reached a room littered with even more monitors, a vast majority of them broken with a row of control panels lining the edges of the room. A surveillance room. "This is where most of the information is being held about the facility. Could you please plug in your device and hack into the hardware emergency power. The creator has given me the coordinates of our goal that he entrusted me with, and me alone." Echo requested, stepping up to one of panels and gestured for Abumi to get to it.
 
Abumi gave a little shrug at the comment. "Humans are contradictory in nature. Simple as that." Abumi said, gathering up her tools and following behind Echo toward the next series of hallways. The area continued to build an air of mystery and suspense as the two were delving deeper and deeper. When Echo had stopped to check a few monitors, Abumi frowned a little. Why were they checking monitors now? Was there something there that would help them with getting the "hostages" out of the facility? The more she thought on this fact, though, the less likely it seemed that they were going after something living. This was an intelligence run, simple as that. They were looking for something for OmniCorp, much as she had been believing earlier in the mission.

Giving a faint sigh, Abumi didn't bother with trying to read any of the screens. They were never there long enough for her to read more than a few lines of what was displayed. Echo was a speed reader, gifted with that android brain that made learning as simple as consume and know. When their steps eventually brought them toward a large room with a lot more monitors like what she had been looking through before, Abumi looking to Echo at the request. Emergency power? If the place had a generator, which was likely given the distance from a proper power grid, there was a good chance she could shift things back on.

"I should be able to do that." Abumi said, taking out her tools and looking for something that would work to do what she needed. As she looked, Abumi wondered if having another conversation with Echo might be helpful to pass the time. "I know that we've been talking a lot about the concept of humans. What do you intend to do with that info?" Abumi asked, finding a panel and pulling some wires out to inspect them.
 
Allowing for Abumi get to hacking into the system in hopes to power up the machines in this room at least, all Echo really needs is the use of the computers here in the facility to her an even more accurate layout of this place and all round make it easier to get to where she's needed to go to. It all hung on the cooperation of Abumi to assist her through this. Speaking of Abumi, while the mercenary was busy in her handy work, Echo was stood just a little ways away, watching, calculating her data about this woman so far. It was another part of her curious side to be going through her data about what mercenaries are usually like. As far as she knew they usually would keep to themselves and just go about completing any job asked of them so long as the pay is good. No matter how confidential they are. However, Echo had noted just how often Abumi would just strike up a conversation with her, more so since getting down here than before and a lot of the things Abumi wanted to talk about was Echo herself.

A part of her wanted to know why Abumi would be so invested in someone that's just an android, however that interest was overshadowed by the question being asked in her direction. Taking a moment, Echo soon made up how to respond to that "Any information I am granted with, primarily anything my creator deems vital will be given to him and added into the database of the company to be analyzed and replicated to the best of their ability to further enhance the A.I. project before my reboot as soon as a new system can be placed."

In the meantime that Echo has been saying that, the android made sure that her sensors remained active to check on any incoming heat signatures, just to be sure, as staying in one spot for too long might be risky. In any case, they were still safe here and whatever might be roaming about the facility was not aware of their presence yet. This meant they could afford to be here for at least a few minutes and give Abumi the time she needs to work the computer for Echo to then take over.
 
With the sparks of light glowing from the tip of her soldering kit, Abumi stopped her work for a moment at the answer she was given. "So, you're rebooted, and a new system is implanted in you? They get to pick and choose how to preen and adjust you?" Abumi asked, looking a little upset at that methodology. On paper, yes, it all made sense. You wouldn't want to have the core of her programming be potentially destroyed by an accident. You would want to keep it stored somewhere safe, with a backup that you can always bring up. You would also want to be able to manage what data went into each iteration. It was an AGILE method of software development that Abumi was familiar with.

What she did NOT like was the thought that Echo wouldn't be E when they were done. They'd trim out all of this. Sure, she'd only know Echo for the short duration of the mission, but there was hints of life inside of her. Whether it was there or not, Echo was at a point in her iteration where she could possibly adapt and learn things. If they decided they didn't like that, they could just as easily cut that out, soldering in some adjustments to prevent what they might find to be a flaw in her design. Biting her lip, Abumi ducked her head down. "Sorry, don't pay attention to me. Not my place." She said, turning to focus on her work.

Even as she said it, though, her mind was consumed with the injustice of what was being dealt out to Echo. Perhaps she was jumping to conclusions, making assumptions that didn't have merit, but she'd grown to find that she liked Echo, a feat that an android rarely had on her. Even with the turmoil of her thoughts, Abumi did her work, diligently wiring power to the room and establishing any necessary data connections that needed to be placed, should she need to reach out to other points in the building. It was a surveillance room, and it had remote control capabilities in some of the tech she was digging through.

WIth her efforts done, the monitors in the room would come to life, spewing video and text in every direction as Abumi came to stand off to the side, watching Echo with a saddened expression.
 
"Yes, I am to be rebooted on a weekly basis after gathering enough data for my creator to investigate and reconfigure me of his choosing. It is a necessity required of me in order to prevent me from learning too much before I am due for a new system or he will have a new type of android made. It is also a safety measure to prevent the mistake the American company had with their A.I." or at least that is what she's been told and accepted that rebooting, effectively killing her and replaying her with a new mind was such a normal thing in life. Perhaps that further sets her apart from the 'feelings' Abumi had been talking about.

As such, before Echo fully approached the monitors that were operating well enough for use, the maid dressed android stopped for a moment in front of Abumi as her blindfolded self examined the expression her sensors were scanning "My system indicates that you are now going through some troubling thoughts. If what I had told you is the cause, I do apologize. I do not have the full understanding of human emotion, if your words are to be true, you must be feeling empathy for me. Rest assured that I will be fine."

Unable to really come up with anything else to say due to her lacking in data still, Echo hesitated for a moment wondering what else she could possibly say or do, ultimately finding herself turning away to head on over to the panel with the best condition. Efficiently pressing a sequence of buttons, Echo brought up building plans after building plans of the facility, checking each one at speed until she found some suitable to map out the missing sections of the building in her own database. Now she had a much better idea of where they could and couldn't go. She even made sure to check up on any available cameras that might still work around here, only 3 out of 48 were still operational, two of which were locations of the rooms that they needn't go do, making them irrelevant, and the third showing a room that was almost fully collapsed in of itself, rendering that useless too. However, before Echo intended to shut down the screen, she spotted a movement within the darkest part of that room and made a worrying announcement "I detect that this room there us located close to where we must go. There." Echo said, pointing to the other monitor to show Abumi a layout of the facility, specifically pointing to a small section that Echo said is their goal. A room far too small to have any hostages in "It also houses what could be one of the experiments that damaged the facility. We must proceed with extreme caution."
 
Abumi's expression wouldn't change. Her mind was trying to wrap itself around the concept of trying to create life, iteration by iteration, as if it could be perfected. The bit about the safety of doing a reboot weekly seemed to fit a standard of safety, but Abumi had never had any first-hand experience with any AI, let alone a thorough understanding of any breakdowns in AI testing. It seemed hypocritical for her to be questioning the careful approach of OmniCorp, but that was likely due to the fact that she didn't see Echo as an android. "Nothing to apologize for, and nothing to worry about. I'll keep playing my part in the hostage rescue." Abumi said, even if she didn't wholeheartedly believe they were saving hostages anymore. She just wanted to be done with this mission. Echo would forget her soon enough, once her "creator" had his chance to parse her memories and rewrite her again.

Could Abumi forget E, though? Maybe, if she tried hard enough. Sighing, Abumi let Echo work in the room, going over cameras and layouts of the building. Before long, they had the precise location of where the "hostages" were and she was ready to go. There was a threat of caution, but Abumi wasn't sure that she could have handled the threat, anyways. All she had was a gun, nothing more. If a gun couldn't stop it, she'd have to rely on Echo to take care of what might slip through on the offensive against them. "Let's be on our way, then, Echo." Abumi said, dropping the use of the nickname. What was the point in using it anymore? In the short time she had known Echo, she'd tried to humanize her. Maybe that was her mistake.

Moving to the door frame, gun drawn at her side, Abumi gestured to Echo. "Lead the way. You know the place better than I do." Abumi said, waiting for Echo to take the lead. It had been their formation for most of the mission, and it was working. Abumi was working on trying to shore up her feelings, to try and cut back on her worries for Echo.
 
There was a definite drop in Abumi's behavior compared to earlier, causing Echo to wonder if she may have said things that were inappropriate or that the information she had given her were not satisfactory. Either way, Echo couldn't quite imagine why a living breathing human would suddenly get so upset over an android, to her it was just mind boggling. Maybe it had something to do with the whole concept of a 'soul' and as Abumi mentioned to her several times now, there was inherently something 'human' about her that even Echo wasn't aware of.

Silently so, Echo did as instructed and led the way after Abumi told her so, leaving the surveillance room behind as it was now and headed into the direction her internal map had set out the route for her that was most direct and the least dangerous. Not quite all the way to a guarantee, but the chances of them being see is still very slim if they can keep themselves undetected.

"We must walk carefully from here on. My sensors indicate one of the heat signatures is close by." Echo spoke in a slight hushed tone, sure enough, as they got to a part of the facility that was one giant room, with the only room to walk are along the outskirts of the room and at the center, a huge drop off akin to a bottomless pit, too dark to see down below. Not that many of the lights here worked anyhow. Separate in the middle was a platform that must've once contained whatever was inside the prison made of thick glass. No room had looked as broken and torn as this one. And just after Echo had given her warning, the was a low growl echoing through the distance, eerily sounding like it could come from any direction, even the horrid sounds of bangs and possible steps it was making. Whatever was made here was a monster. Something OmniCorp made for some reason. This is one of their older facilities after all.
 
Abumi kept her mind focused on the mission as best she could, keeping all of the facts that she had gathered along the way at the front of her mind. It was better to focus on that, then focus on the sad fact of Echo's cycle of life. It wasn't her fault, and there was likely nothing that Abumi could do to change the story. Echo would continue to be harvested and refined until the perfect android iteration was made. It was evolution, on a scale set up by engineers and programmers.

As they entered the large chamber, Abumi took in the details of the large, bottomless pit that hung below. In the back of her mind, she had heard stories of large facilities like this existing, housing large creatures that, if they broke containment, would be dropped far out of sight and likely die from the terminal velocity. Listening to Echo as she gave her warning about the heat signature, Abumi kept her mouth shut and her steps light. If she were careful, and did not misstep, there was a good chance that they could make it out of here without alerting whatever had been inside of that room.

The hope of that would quickly begin to fall apart as she heard the sound of the growling, as well as loud beats of what she could only assume were feet. "Echo, we need to run." Abumi said, speaking low as she tried to skim the room for any sign of the creature. If it were hiding in the room, waiting for them, the two would have no chance in surviving it. Something large enough to cut thick gashes in metal would tear Abumi and Echo to pieces.
 
With the shattered environment they were in, especially that it's a very old facility deep underground, made it scary enough as it is for some, but to then also have the definite sounds of a monster roaming about close by also made this mission down right dangerous. Any sane person that would take on a job that started out as being told is a rescue operation only for it to be something else entirely would have quit then and there. Echo meanwhile just acted according to her programming and soldiered on like it was a normal day in the park, yet even she never questioned it or said anything of any kind that would suggest she was in the dark also. She seemed pretty into it actually.

"Affirmative." Echo responded at the order to run, for even she made the recommendation not to engage these monsters and ran alongside Abumi to the nearest doorway that, thank god, didn't require tampering with. Entering through this, a hall way similar to some of the previous once mat them and Echo hadn't stopped her run, suggesting to Abumi to keep going.

Internally, her sensors were going off, since the random act of the noises made by the one monster, several signatures have shifted erratically that are likely rampaging about in the facility due to being startled by the first. Making it to the end of the hall way, Echo guided Abumi into another ruined room lined with the same kinds of monitors on the wall, but also the room was filled with rows of metallic desks with smooth tops on them. A couple of them had signs of shattered glass showing those were screen. Or at least used to be. Among the series of bangs and growls, there were some that sounded even closer now, even heading this way. Echo weighed her options in her data and calculated that the best course of action is to hide. And quickly. No sooner had they entered, one of the door opposite them was being banged on from the other side and as this place was so warn down by damage, the door gained some notable bending. "Quickly, behind here." Echo commanded, tugging on Abumi's coat to drag the merc behind one of the desks that had been ripped from the ground and fallen on its side.

Just as they would hide, the door that monster had been banging on gave way with a loud crash. Even in this dim environment, the beast was shown to be canine in nature but larger in size and appearance. A mangled mix of flesh and metal made up most of its features, glowing red eyes with more lights lining it's body at random places. There was no fur on it at all. It's teeth razor sharp, sharper than that of a normal dog for sure. It's tail was a fair bid longer than one would expect that ended with a sickeningly sharp blade at the end of it that had some form of glow to it. Possibly plasma infused. Once it had broken in to this room it rampaged about for a short second before seeing nothing out of the ordinary. But it did start to roam about aimlessly. Sounds of it sniffing about. Did it know they were here?
 
Abumi felt the tension building with each passing second that they were not moving fast enough. If she had it her way, they'd be returning back to the staircase to go back up, to get far away from the creatures that OmniCorp had likely created years ago. How these things had survived down here this long was a testament to the dangers of biomechanical experiments. If you aren't 100% sure of containment, then it is best not to go near it. Abumi had no experience with the stuff, so it might as well have been magic as far as she could tell.

When Echo took to taking the advice that they needed to run, Abumi would run alongside her, trying to let Echo take any of the choices on which direction they were going. Her map was only partially built out, and she hadn't given herself the chance to observe all of the facility the way she had on the monitors. With their lives on the line now, this mission was turning into quite the case of "details up front." When it was over, hopefully with Abumi and Echo both alive at the end, she fully intended on cussing out whoever had told her this was going to be a hostage rescue. This had turned into something she couldn't even describe, which should have net her far more money at the end.

Trying not to cry out in surprise, Abumi fell behind the desk with Echo, pulling herself as far under the desk as she could. In her efforts to try and hide both of them, Abumi pulled her arms around Echo's waist, getting a feel for how Echo's body felt. It was strange, to say the least, as she felt that Echo was very much human. In appearance and in how her body felt, Echo was everything one might expect from grabbing onto a human. Fear flooded her system with adrenaline, trying to coax her into the flight response. Knowing that she could not fight the creature, only hearing it move about the room at this point, Abumi pressed her face against Echo's shoulder.

If she had to, Abumi was prepared to let go of Echo, but she was using her as more than a physical comfort. She was also muffling her panicked breathing, her face buried in the top of her maid outfit as she hugged against her. Normal gunfire? She was cool. Crazy experimental monsters that could shred metal? Nope.
 
One of the major priorities her creator had as the latest model was in relation to making her look more human than the previous model, although beneath her clothing there are still some signs of her being artificial, the texture of her manufactured skin and flesh were done only by the best of minds and tech to make it as life like as possible, meaning her fair skin would be quite smooth to the touch and the arrangement of her inner tissue would feel just like feeling muscle under her skin. The inner workings of her skeleton, while still metal, was also arranged to be as accurate as that of a human. As such, while it did serve very well in her physically being a step closer to being a near human android, the down grade as one meant less diverse abilities, say, being able to electronically morph one of her limbs into a weapon, having slots dotted on her body that can open up as storage. The only exception that Echo does have on her that also contributes to her being less human are some of the plug ins at the back of her head, unseen thanks to her hair and other hidden instruments that require cutting open her man-made skin. Other than that and some techno vision, Echo was quite the work of art.


Such thoughts though weren't what she was thinking about as much as she was when her blindfolded face looked towards the mess of purple hair as she's being tightly gripped onto from the presence of the monster. Lacking the means to quite read the situation that makes Abumi react that way other than feat, Echo added the possibility that it had something to do with the whole 'self-preservation'. Less understanding than that, Echo did not quite return the embrace, simply taking the hug from the other as she remained seated still.

The sounds of the monster carried on and even seemed to be coming closer to them still. Sniffing the air as it searched for whatever it could find. The scariest part of this was when its steps came right up past the desk they were hiding at and with a sway of it's deadly tail, could even be seen very briefly over head of the pair. With a growl, the beast wondered along and away from them, making its way to the doorway that the two of them had come from. Lucky. If they had been any later this thing might've crossed paths with them in a place they couldn't hide in. Giving it a little moment, Echo resumed her observation on Abumi, lifting a hand to pat the mercenary on the shoulder "We appear to have eluded the experimental beast. It may be safe to head into the direction it came from. That if where our objective is located. Though my sensors tell me you are in a bit of a shock. Do you require more time to calm down?"
 
Abumi could not tell the difference between the way that Echo felt and an actual human. There might have been a bit of heaviness to her, likely a result of her metallic skeleton underneath. Even though there was a noticeable heaviness, Abumi did not feel any great difference between Echo and a human. This did not help with her distinguishing Echo from a human, her fear slowly receding as she drew back. The two had managed to survive the encounter, hidden away from whatever that dog-like creature had been.

"I'll... I'll be fine." She said, taking a moment to pry herself away from Echo's body. She was ashamed to admit it, but she had never been that close to death in her life. There was no thrill to it, the hardened mercenary showing the vulnerability that she tried to hide. No one wanted to pay for a mercenary who couldn't handle risk and combat, things she had learned to cope with. There was no coping with a creature that could slice you in half, though. That was pure lunacy to try and harden yourself to.

After a moment, Abumi pushed herself up to stand, carefully rising as she took in the room, Abumi tried to hold back a few tears. Looking down at Echo, Abumi spoke softly. "Echo, do you want to know why it bothered me to hear about your reboot process?" Abumi asked, looking through her pockets to make sure she hadn't dropped anything in her bout of fear. Not waiting for an answer, Abumi drew her handgun. "Humans make memories. There are good ones, and there are bad ones. They make us who we are. We don't get to pick and select what memories we keep. It just isn't how we are made. What bothers me most, E," She had returned to using the nickname, because she couldn't see any reason to distance herself from Echo anymore. "is that you'll forget me. Through this short time we have together, I've come to appreciate you. I've always had my misgivings about AI and androids. You, though, I like you. Your creator won't see a need to keep me in your memories, though. He'll cull the raw data, remove me, and then I'll be nothing more than training data."

The admission made Abumi choke up a little. Rather than focus on what she said, Abumi wiped at her eyes with her free hand. "Let's go." She said, waiting for Echo to take the lead again.
 
To make sure the beast had indeed wondered off, Echo reminded her programming to keep her on alert should a heat signature approach them, her sights set currently to the door the monster had left before she herself would bother with standing up and padding down her dress into place. Her remaining attention soon directed over to Abumi when she spoke up to her, her programming commanding to pay attention in spite of her lack of emotion she was showing throughout the little moment of speech she was hearing.

Being spoken through about the topic of her reboot and the reason behind it that bothered Abumi so, Echo yet again failed to completely see the issue there aside from what it meant for the mercenary. She tried to process it in her data. To come up with a way to simulate is the act of being forgotten could signify any form of pain. Perhaps. Alas, Echo couldn't do that also. There were no variables or any kinds of factual data that showed her what it's like to be forgotten. Or to forget. Knowing of the fact that she goes through reboots as stated by her creator whenever she woke up again, Echo did wonder if having done that had caused others distress. "I have sufficient files that tell me how Humans remember things. Does it not ease your blight to just remember me?" Echo asked in response, her head tilting to the side in a rather adorable fashion seeing Abumi's eyes tearing up "My readings indicate that you are further suffering from a distressing emotional struggle. Allow me to aid in your recovery when we are finished with the mission. It would be unwise of us to remain here for too long. OmniCorps past experiments are too much of a life threatening hazard. We must be moving on."

Saying nothing much further for now, Echo turned to lead the way, keeping her katana at the ready in case it's needed. Her heeled boots tapping along the metal ground as she entered through the broken down door, on their way though, Echo also wasn't done talking about a few things that were mentioned.

"Abumi. If I may speak. What does it mean, to 'like' someone. Is that what would define having a preference to an interest that Humans have? I do not believe that I have one. I was never programmed to 'like' anything. Only to follow the commands given to me." turning her head as she walked to show she was looking over her shoulder, Echo continued "I also must admit that I had taken note of something. Something that you started. 'E'. For a moment, you had stopped calling me that and now you are referring me as such again. I don't recall having even been given a nickname before, even if I don't remember any of it from before me reboots, I do not believe I was ever called anything other than my designation 'Echo'. I also never received such concern to an android like myself. Would you like me to make a request to my creator to... perhaps keep my files of you? Though I do not think he would allow that. It may get in the way of my creators work. Even now, with the advanced made up to today, keeping a self learning A.I. is deemed unsafe. I may not have a choice in the matter of what is done to me after all."

A moment of silence later and a slowing in pace, Echo looked down to the ground, as if she was ashamed of what she finished with "My apology, perhaps my words have not quite helped undo the worries you harbor for me. Curious though, to be thought of this way. I too wouldn't mind keeping that data. But it ultimately has to return to my creator."
 
Abumi felt that she was wrong to expect Echo to function like a human. Much like most learning AI, she was working the best she could to learn how to adapt to a world inhabited by humans. Everything that they had talked about was likely to be erased and watered down into something far simpler for Echo to take in. The problem with that came from the selective ability that someone had to trim out the things that they didn't like in her behavior. It was almost the same as electronic eugenics, using newer iterations with tweaks to create the perfect android.

Humanity wasn't perfect, and expecting Echo to be perfect was wrong.

"Forgetting someone, as easy as it sounds, is hard for humans. We can't just forget someone, especially after we've started to like them." Abumi said, stepping with her out into the hallway. As they walked, more of the conversation began to dig into the specifics of "liking" a person. There was, also, the kind thought of trying to talk with her creator about keeping the files about her, as well as the sporadic use of her nickname. What stuck out for Abumi was the way Echo seemed to go back over her words, apologizing for how she didn't seem to do much good with the words that were coming out.

"E, it isn't anything you need to apologize for. You're dealing with human concepts. You're learning as I'm talking to you, so there is no expectation for everything to suddenly make sense the way it does for me." Abumi said. "No matter what you ask, I doubt that your creator is going to give you the luxury of memories of me. As for the "like" stuff, it's something of a preference. As much as I don't like to admit it, I've always held my own reservations about AI and androids." Abumi said, looking off to the side at the admittance. "Talking with you, learning about you, it has left me feeling like I've judged without knowing. When I say I like you, I mean that I like your company, talking to you. I'd be interested to see what kind of conversations we could have, if you were not so inhibited by your programming in the way you mentioned it earlier, the 34% free will."

There wasn't much else to really say. "Even if you forget me, E, I'm going to remember you as you are now. Naive, simple, logical and adorable." Abumi said, smiling a little as she drew her eyes back forward.
 
Abumi has been making some valid points since listening to her, Echo had to admit, Humans were indeed incapable to just outright forget someone. Or something for that matter. Unless they would try their best to do so if it's a memory that displeases them enough, or a head injury or other such causes leaves them to suffer memory loss. However, this was a case of purely selective memories. Androids themselves were capable of deleting anything they no longer deemed necessary, just like that, and in Echo's case with her creator, having it extracted and ultimately groomed to their liking. Echo. She'd never get that choice. If she could sigh, this would make her do so.

"Like my company..." Echo muttered, strangely so out loud when she wouldn't have to to repeat the words spoken to her "My creator also tells me this and the other staff working for the company also show a great deal of interest in my presence. But I have never led many conversations according to my data. It is prohibited of me to do so during missions with others. However, if you wish, I can comply with that request after we return to the surface." Echo spoke, so plain a simply put, her lack of emotional knowledge and expressions being close to non-existence made her still come off as cold and frankly lacking the care behind her tone. But the offer of her would still be genuine, she is here after all to work alongside the mercenary and lying isn't something Androids really do.

"Correction, if you will, Abumi." Echo said without missing a beat "When I had mentioned my percentage about my free access of commands at 34%, it has since risen to 36.2%. My diagnoses are still working on figuring out the cause. But rest assured, my creator may be able to fix the issue in case of possible corruption or error in my programming."

Entering a new from along the many winding corridors that may even have been completely bend out of shape at spots, Echo led Abumi through a terminal that could well have once been the central control of the facility, now nothing more than a pile of ruins. Ignoring the damage done here, Echo entered through a hidden door she revealed by a wall that according to her internal mad registered that this is where her goal is. This time there hadn't been a need for Abumi to hack into the system and hack open the door, opening up with a hiss, there was a narrow passage leading into the wall that looked very much untouched by any damage, at the end of which was a small circular room with wires and buttons covering the entirety of it with only a doughnut shaped platform allowing for them to walk on. At the very center down below looked to be a hatch that Echo had her attention on "We are here." she announced "Our objective. Abumi, may you please open up the hatch. Once I have obtained what I came for, the mission will be done and you will be free to do as you choose. Your payment will be done in the matter of hours upon completion." she stated, revealing that the whole notion of 'hostages' and 'gangs' were far from what is expected. Hell, the monsters alone were out of this world that should really raise some questions about OmniCprps' doing.
 
As the two moved throughout the facility, Echo and Abumi had returned to the conversation that they were having. If the mission had done anything, it had turned Abumi into quite the chatterbox. There were a lot of things that Abumi was, but she rarely so attached and talkative. Perhaps it was a weakness in her at seeing someone being culled and primped, mentally and emotionally, to be something that would sell better at market. Whatever it was that drove her to speak as much as she did, Abumi wasn't going to go silent anytime soon. She'd only have a limited amount of time with her friend, E. Why waste it?

At the mention of how these were the deepest conversations that Echo had ever had, a sadness echoed out in the words that maybe Abumi was hearing alone. There was an interesting theory someone had posed, showing still images of two people and text underneath. The picture would always change with context, demonstrating how AI had to learn how to read more than what was seen, and what was said. "I'd like to keep talking with you, as long as we can on this mission. Maybe... something from our conversations will be so hard to remove that you'll be unable to forget me." Abumi said, smiling at the thought of imprinting herself onto the AI.

At the mention that she was now running at 36.2% free will, a thought occurred to her. Had Abumi's words done something to shake loose some free will in Echo's programming? She wanted to dig into that further, but they had to focus on getting through the mission. Even if there weren't any hostages, Abumi had to stay near Echo to make sure she would make it out alive and well.

As was expected, there were more secret rooms, the past of OmniCorp littered with the expected "cloak and dagger" type of layout. Why couldn't things be as simple as "open the door?" As if mentally answering her own question, Abumi looked over the hatch. "Are there electronics here? I don't see anything." Abumi said, moving over to look at the hatch that she was supposed to open. She couldn't be too sure, but the room was a design that had her mind reeling a little bit. Had this place been more futuristic, it might have had quite the appeal in the current day.
 
Finding herself easily agreeing to the terms in her programming that she can comply with the request to talk more after the mission, her database showing she can 'free actions' that she can take between the finishing of the mission and being picked up by OmniCorp once she is required to call upon them. However, what Echo couldn't accept were the idea that anything she'd learn by talking with Abumi will remain untouched in her files. Her creator would always be extremely thorough with the removal of data she'd gained before being rebooted and set into action as if she were new again. A thought that Echo found herself unable to share with Abumi on the grounds that it might cause more distress, which in turn would violate the chances of success to this mission.

Looking about in the room when Abumi appeared to be struggling with finding anything that could be hacked into, Echo scanned around the small room they are in for anything that her data can verify to be accessible. Nothing by the hatch or around it told her had anything directly connected. She then proceeded to scan the walls, her internal system working overdrive to locate the correct wires that would power the hatch "You may be able to tamper with the wiring to redirect power to the designated hatch." Echo stated, pointed to the wires she's been looking at "Files indicate that since the destruction of the facility, the external grid to power the room here has been broken, as such, we must make use of the power that still runs here. Once the hatch it powered with the sufficient amount of energy, I will be able to open it with the code given to me by OmniCorp and retrieve the hardware. We will then see the end of our mission."

A distant bang reminded Echo and possibly Abumi that even after that, they'd have to get back out of here without being seen by the monsters. Echo briefly looked towards the narrow passage they came in from, her readings showing green, telling her they were still safe here. The noises are far from where they are. They could proceed without delay.

It was pretty much clear at this point that the whole mission had been a total lie and Echo, having even noted to know some form of trust, hadn't so much as said anything or questioned herself about what this entailed. She wasn't scared of the monsters, or more accurately, she even knew about them. She had also just then made it clear that there weren't even any hostages. As such anyway. That some hardware was what she's here for. OmniCorp has pretty much done a dirty and made false advertising for the mission to state it as something that it wasn't and even Echo may very well have been programmed to have kept it under wraps until they got here. Even now, Echo wasn't looking the least bit concerned in her robotic self as she patiently awaited on Abumi to get to work, remaining on standby in case any assistance was needed of her.
 
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