Chapter 11: Predicament....

".....Kid, where are we going? You passed the turn for the slums like ten minutes ago...."

On Bubbles, a tired, exhausted Sam holds on to the copycat drone while Ben steers them to the destination.

"Old man, for the last time I told you we're going to the scrap yard. Why can't you understand that?" Ben was exasperated from all of the fighting, not to mention that his battery life was low.

"For what reason would we go to a scrapyard? There are no good parts to put your bot into, there are no places to lie low with our attire, not to mention weapons."

"You underestimate the scrapyard. There are a lot of good things people throw away, and a lot of good parts for Bubbles new body! Ain't that right Bubbles?" Ben asked the giant robot Bubbles but only gets beeps for an answer.

After a few more minutes they arrive at a junkyard. The landfill was vast and the literal mountains of trash held a vastitude of secrets under all of its 'junk'. Ben planted Bubbles behind one of the mountains and started scrounging around for the things he needed.

Once he came back to Sam, he was carrying an old eye bot back from the 2010s, an old dead black full face cybermask, and dirty black shirt. "I'll put Bubbles in this! And this will be my new mask after I fix it up while we lay low in Doc's place for a while."

Ben then pulled some cables and wires out of Bubbles old body and connected them to the eye bot. Once everything was done Bubbles was happily flying around in his new body. Ben nodded at his work and got to ripping out the cyberware in the Abzu bot that Bubbles used to reside in so he could sell it to Doc.

The subsequent parts were the auto-targeting system, perfect for people who suck at aiming and the lighting caller cyberware the Ben got Bubbles to use to vaporize everyone in their way.

"Alright old man let's head to Doc's place to lay low for a bit then we can head to the rich guy's vault for the nanosuits."

"Wait a minute, is this Doc's place safe?"

"I mean it is basically a run down shack that belongs in the slums. So does that count?"

"Sigh it'll do. Let's go"

…

After they arrive Ben calls out for Doc in his run down shack. "Oi! Doc, I have got business!" The shout echoed into the building

"Shut up you stupid fucking tin can! I can hear you loud and clear!" Doc came out of the operating room covered in blood, saw in hand. "What do you want?"

Ben takes out the lighting caller and auto-targeting cyberware he had been carrying and placed them on the table. Doc was astounded and immediately inspected the product he had been shown.

".....Where did you find this?"

"I took it off a dead bot and retrofitted the missing parts."

".....I see. How much do you want for them?"

Ben thought about it on the way here. The fact was that Ben was severely underpowered for his upcoming opponents and was guaranteed to get stomped when he did the heist with Sam. So he was going to need quite the amount of money.

"Fifty thousand dollars."

"Deal!" Doc was astounded at the discount he was getting. The two cyberware he just bought at 25% of the original price! Even though this was going to completely empty his pocket, Doc was still happy.

Ben on the other hand was spending money to survive, grow stronger, and eventually see his family again. So he didn't care for money as it was only a means to an end.

"Cool! Now I need some parts for some things, give me your catalog." He selected a few things on the holopad and handed it back to Doc.

"What the hell do you need thrusters for?"

"Speed." Ben stated.

Doc just shrugged and went to grab the merchandise. Ben turned to Sam to let him know about the current situation. "Sam, we'll have to stay for the day then we can begin our journey to Glasgow. In the meantime I will fix up our bodies so they're in top shape."

Sam nodded and Ben got to work for the next twenty four hours kitting out himself and repairing Sam.

….

Back with Annabel. She was currently in a meeting with Karen and Sir Evans. "Satoshi knows the location of the chip, we need to pull Ben out of there now or else he will get captured and we will lose the ST-00 chip!"

"Quiet down Annabel! I say forget about the chip, it pales in comparison to the Dharma frame that the Minutemen have a hold of." Then he turned to Karen. "Need I remind you that the Dharma frame can go 80262.0086436 kilometers an hour! That's twice the speed the Apollo 10 ship did around the moon, the moon for Christ sake! Don't even mention the fission batteries that thing has on board and the neural connection to the pilot."

Annabel continued arguing about the higher priority, between warning Ben and making sure the heist for the Dharma mech frame is successful. Karen shouted in anger, stopping the two from further foolishness.

"Both are too important to lose. One has the ability to be the undisputed champ in large scale attack's and space battles. Not to mention that it can run for as long as the pilot is capable, but the ST-00 chip is just as important. That thing, unlike the fake soul preserver chip, is the real thing if the new information I have is anything to go by..."

Sir Evans was bewildered. "What do you mean?"

Karen looked solemnly at Sir Evans. "Sir Evans, no, Vaan, the soul preserver chip designed by Satoshi is a power grab of that I'm sure. However the ST-00 chip is something else entirely. The true name is the soul transfer chip, and it doesn't have the capability to birth sentience in an A.I, it wasn't designed to do so in the first place."

Karen looked on at the two. "It was designed to bring a son back from the grave for a weeping mother." She showed the information she found to Annabel and Vaan through a hologram.

[Benjamin Wilson, sixteen year old, dies from saving his mother and sister in an apartment fire.]

"That was ten years ago. do you understand the repercussions of allowing anyone to get their hands on this chip now?"

Vaan and Annabel were both bewildered now. "Are you telling me that Isabella Wilson recreated her son into an A.I construct?"

Karen shakes her head. "No. The boy known as Benjamin Wilson lives on as a soul entrapped in computer programming. Officially making him the first resurrected person in history and the first potential immortal of humans ever...."

Annabel looked skeptical at the accusation. "Are sure he isn't just a construct? And what do you mean by 'soul entrapped by computer programming'? Are you saying that Isabella Wilson found and trapped her son's soul in an operating chip just so that he would never die?"

Karen shakes her head. "She probably spent the entirety of Benjamins life scanning his body and brain secretly, finding his supposed soul in the process."

"Why do you keep coming back to the soul thing? Can't he just be a recreation based on her memory of her dead son? We have never been able to prove the existence of the soul anyway." Vaan asked.

Karen shook her head at Vaan's comment. "I know the soul exist, how else is someone supposed to go through cycle."

"Oh not this again!"

"Constructs are unstable and will have some basic thought process not installed so that they don't corrode themselves due to them being a copy. Ben however has a full thought process and has looked into the past. With my conversation with him, he seemed to be trying to catch up to the current times akin to a long time coma patient, he definitely knows about his death and yet he still hasn't deconstructed himself."

RING! RING! RIN-

An unknown woman's voice echoes into the room, alerting the three to her presence.

[Karen I need a report on the ST-00 chip and the Dharma job.]

"Your majesty, the job for Dharma is well on its way with the preparations being done as we speak. However I have received some unsatisfactory information on the ST-00 chip..."

[Such as?]

Karen looks at the two with her and then continues on. ".....The ST-00 chip is currently holding the first human to be resurrected and possibly be granted immortality, that being Isabella Wilson's son, Benjamin Wilson....."

[Where is the basis for this?]

"From our current information on the chip, we know that it is backed up thousands of times on Satoshi servers so I speculate every time Benjamin dies he is rerouted and taken back through another chip. Of course since the current chip holds the new experiences, the newest memories are....lost..."

[Why would Isabella torture her son through that?]

"It's just speculation your majesty, no need to get hold up on it. I'm just saying that if Benjamin were to rid himself of his prison, then we would have a literal spirit roaming the Earth. We can't let other people get hold of this, If we bring Benjamin to our side, we will go through a massive improvement in our forces since Benjamin would be a wandering soul on Earth and the net."

[….I see, keep watch over Wilson and make sure to look more into your....speculation, Karen. Don't forget that Dharma is the exact thing that Warrick needs to rid us of any footprint in England making him the new fear monger of Europe.]

Karen, Annabel, and Vaan nodded. "Don't worry, we will continue our plans for Dharma."

[Good. Then I will leave you three to it.]

Then the voice on the phone cut out, leaving Annabel, Karen, and Vaan left alone in the room. "Annabel you are to watch after Ben, Vaan you continue on with the Dharma extraction. Let's move out."

Only time would tell of the repercussions of this conversation....

…..

[Did you track down the chip, Mujihina?]

"Yes sir I have a good idea of where it is."

In a dark room illuminated by several computer monitors and net-diver chairs, sat one man. He was what could barely be defined as human as the black unknown cyberware replaced his body and his face was lost forever as a black and white jester mask replaced it.

[Good, subject 001 is of importance to emperor Satoshi. Do not fail.]

…."Yes master...."