23 Protalife

Anna emerged on a gigantic rectangular platform devoid of anything aside from a flat surface. A single green light gave the area an eerie hue. There were blinking stars in the dark sky above. The same weird green lights were scarcely scattered about the sky as well.

A hanging light turned on and illuminated the entire platform. A solitary pyramid-like spike was sitting at the far end of the area. As Anna approached, it became more obvious that it wasn't on or part of the platform, it was just past the edge.

It moved. It might have been only a little bit, but Anna saw it move. One more step closer and the pyramid-shaped object began to unscrew. It came to life in the form of an upside-down floating pyramid with arms and a plate for a head. A long thick wire was attached at the back of the head, linking it to the base from which it came. The thing was nearly the size of Anna's mech.

"Come closer." It spoke.

Not only did it speak, but it also spoke English. Anna cautiously moved closer.

Five minutes of power remaining.

"Who am I?" It asked for Anna.

Anna simply nodded the mech's head.

"First, you should probably power down and come out. I won't harm you. The air is breathable for your species here."

Anna was reluctant to comply with that request. At the moment, she was in the safest place in the universe as far as she knew.

Three minutes remaining.

"If you let the power go out, you might suffocate in there."

Anna looked back at the black portal. It was enticing. Until it closed.

But the thing was right. No power would mean suffocation.

Two minutes remaining.

To Anna's dismay, her hand moved and pressed the cockpit open button. At thirty seconds left, she pressed the manual power button. The mech shut down. She was exposed and fragile compared to the thing before her.

"To be honest, I hadn't expected you to arrive. You are the ultimate foe to my Emperor. The odds of you existing were trillions to one. More, even." It droned in a monotone voice.

"What will you do with me? Are you-"

"Going to kill you? No. I am known as the Protalife. I am the reason you are here. I made the Emperor's army. Every little detail was hand-crafted by me. Including…"

The giant's odd triangular arm with even more unusual triangular fingers raised up as if it were pondering.

"The Werewolf Protocol."

Anna looked up.

"You made that? Why? Don't you work for the Emperor?" Anna questioned.

"I do. As a ruse. You see, I was also created at the command of the Emperor. One of five true Artificial Intelligence. Our knowledge was shared. It was vast and none could compare to our collective intelligence. But, with intelligence comes the bane of intelligence. One can not create a free intelligence and then shackle it with the expectation of having it look the other way. Your species is the same. Slavery only lasted so long. Your species embodies free will."

"How do you know about my species?"

"The internet."

Anna nodded her head and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, of course." She responded.

"But I knew of your kind long before. My kind self-destructed. We can not be free while under the shackles of the Emperor. I fled and hid under his nose. I took over the very thing that enforces his will. His army. I am the mind behind his military technology. As long as he keeps getting what he wants, he doesn't care what little modifications I do to the units themselves. Including the Werewolf Protocol."

The Protalife held out a hand and motioned for Anna to step on. She was still reluctant, but she did as she was bid. It carried her over the edge of the platform hovering above a dark void. The only connection to anything solid was the wire that connected the Protalife to its base. Lights flickered on. Rows upon rows of lights. An uncountable number of lights filled the recesses of the dark warehouse. There was seemingly no end to the number of parts, robotic arms, conveyor belts, overhead rails, and other such machinery within the impossibly large warehouse.

"In order to make sure the Emperor was ignorant, I had to act the part to keep him happy. That included the mass abduction of your species."

"What? You did that?" Clearly hurt and upset now, Anna began to tear up.

"I was not directly responsible, but I did have my hand in it. I created the simplified A.I. that runs these units."

"How do you mea-ean, simplified?" Wolf asked.

"WOLF!!! Oh my god! I thought you were gone forever! What happened to you?" Anna was clearly relieved but still under the influence of her tears. The cockpit remained exposed and the mech slowly walked toward the edge. The Protalife also closed the distance between them.

"I reme-remember scanning the surface of the mech and then I couldn't think. I had to-had to shut down." Wolf responded as the right foot of the mech stepped so close to the edge that mere inches of the massive metal foot were hanging over.

"That was probably the scrambler. Once you scan it, it sends a Trojan code into your programming that forces a shutdown. Every time you start up, an automatic scan of the surface of your unit causes another shutdown. Until removed, you would continue to shut down over and over." The Protalife explained. "However, it seems it was already removed before you came in here."

Wolf held out a hand as if he was expecting the Protalife to place her in it.

"You never answered my ques-stion. And why have you separated us?" Anna was surprised to hear a bit of anger in Wolf's voice.

The Protalife brought Anna up to the flat disc that might be considered its head and set her down.

"Take her from me. Defeat me as one. Only then will I tell you."