C5: The Juno Project

I took a seat next to Crowley and clicked on my sunglasses.

"Please, connect me to Barry, Meg."

[Done.]

My glasses connected to the view of Barry's sunglasses, allowing me to speak to him.

[Connected to Barry]

"Oh hey, Barry. Where the hell are you?" I asked, gazing at the image formed.

He was wiping his hands with a black cloth. His hands were blood red. It was obvious. Motherfucker had just murdered someone.

"Hey, Boss Shark. Just doing my thing, you know. The truck's almost there." He said, turning around to face the massive dining trolleys on the side.

"That's where all the stuff is. Meg, hack the cameras when I walk into the palace. Make a virtual image of the waiter kid walking through the hallway and don't let them capture me going into the bathroom. Otherwise, I'll get fucked by Ghosts tomorrow."

[I got you, Barry.] Meg replied.

"Glad to see that you're doing well, at least," I replied with a sigh. "Be careful when you enter, Barry. Doom's here. Even you can't win a faceoff against that piece of shit."

"Doom? Gladly, I'll avoid any contact with that thing."

"Good. Talk to me again when you're inside." I clicked on the sunglasses once again, switching off the image of Barry's glasses and coming back to the Urchin Palace.

I nodded at the team who were eagerly waiting for a reply from me to consider the situation. They all nodded back in affirmation.

After that, we all went back to our normal behaviors before the Cyber Ops started noticing our sus act. I didn't take more than one shot of whiskey. Too risky to run when you're drunk.

Fuck up one step, and your head's rolling on the floor on your next.

Carry spoke to a few men who had approached her where she was seated. Gendy talked to some other buff guys and girls his size. Jenni and Blondie kept laughing with each other, probably gossiping about this and that.

Lyla was smoking a cigar, and me and Crowley were on the couch.

The clock was ticking.

Any time now, they would release Juno from its cage, revealing the bot to all of us. Any time now, the chaos will begin. Any time now, the first person to die would scream in pain as bullets drill through their body.

I didn't take my eyes away from the phone, waiting for the clock to hit 7.45.

"Seven forty-three…"

[Kim, I'm ready to engage. Shall I try a breakthrough? Or do we make a surprise?]

"Surprise, don't push it, Meg."

[Sure.]

The clock hit 7.44. My fingers automatically began to click with each other, my teeth nibbling on my lower lip on instinct. There's a reason why I love this job and hate it.

You can never exactly say how it goes. It just flows.

7.45.

"Dive, Meg. Work your wonders."

"*Ahem!*" There was a resounding cough that drew all of our attention to the center stage of the Urchin Palace, where a man, probably in his 40s, was standing in the middle.

"*If I can have your attention, please, everyone!*" He announced with a gentle smile. Everyone in the Urchin Palace went silent and stood up from their seats, setting their eyes on the center stage where the old man stood.

Then, he started his speech.

"Today, we're all gathered here for this grand opening of our Juno Project, an artificial intelligence that may be the fastest working AI to have ever existed. Juno…"

My eyes narrowed upon hearing this. "Can't be faster than you – can it, Meg?"

[Maybe, Kim. But not as strong as me.]

I felt relieved upon hearing this and felt my chest loosening.

"...as you can see, there are a lot of guys dressed in black suits around you. After that last time with the Meg Project, we cannot be too careful. With all these – fuckers, called 'Masterminds' crawling through the cities –"

Grandpa was certainly mad, and his harsh tone certainly felt personal. It was truly sad for me to bear the sight of him.

After all, he was gonna get robbed any minute from those fuckers.

"We should terminate all of them. And this lovely Juno will help us achieve that!"

Everyone began to clap, so I followed with a few indecent claps.

"I'm in." A voice message came through to me from Barry right at that moment, and I quickly switched on my voice too.

"Where?"

"The bathroom. Meg already fucked the cams. Are you gonna come now, or stay till you overpower the entire system?"

"Better in the dark," I replied to Barry, gazing around me to look for any suspicious eyes falling on me. Gladly, there was none.

"We're all listening." Gendy's voice came through from the side.

I quickly switched to Meg's view to take a quick glance at her endeavors with the new Juno. Her crimson shark body was deep diving into the green system of Juno, stealthy as a ghost.

[I'm reading a few codes, he may be fast, but I think this guy's easy to crack!] Meg added as she went in.

Everything was perfect. Everything was in line with the plan. And just like it was planned out, the old announcer decided to take out the system to showcase the AI to everyone there.

"And now… everybody, I present to you, Juno."

He raised his hand to the air, and green virtual lines began to draw in the space above us.

Everyone on the upper floors leaned against the rails, gazing down at the virtual image projected in the center. It was humongous, almost as big as the Urchin Palace itself. And Juno appeared to be a humanoid figure, tall, and entirely made out of a green body.

"Juno. The fastest AI to ever see the light of this world. Let me show you, for example…" The old man continued. "Put those bugs out, Jane."

Virtual red bugs began to appear around Juno in the form of small glittering red lights. There were hundreds of them surrounding Juno.

For Meg, it won't take a minute to eat them all, but the number would make it quite a problem.

"Juno, catch them." The old man ordered.

In a flash, Juno's projection disappeared along with all the glittering red dots with him. He reappeared the next second with a giant red orb in his hand. He had caught them all in a second.

"Wow, catching crimson bugs that fast. He's a killer."

"Imma buy that one if it's for sale."

The crowd began gossiping right after seeing Juno in action. I didn't take my eyes off the projected AI either. It interested me… and I asked myself, how fast would Meg go if she ate this motherfucker too?

"Babe, you in?" I asked Meg.

[I'm there. Nothing noticed me, Kim. Its senses are fragile. It almost feels like this is just a small fry.]

'Small fry?' I repeated the word, and it hit me right at that moment. 'Bait.'

I scratched my head, looked right above me as if a fly was fucking around with me in front of my face, and narrowed my eyes.

There he was. Dressed in his black cyber ops suit, wearing a gas mask with Virtual goggles on.

The invisible Ghost, standing upside down on the glass roof filled with little purple urchins floating all around. And between his hands, red lasers were connecting his fingers like a web.

"Everyone, get ready. They set the Cage up. Ghosts are here." I declared in a whisper.

"I'm ready." My entire team of Sharks replied, all at once.

"Meg, eat up."

The green lights around Juno turned crimson.

RAWR! An ear-bleeding roar resounded inside the palace, and the crimson shark leaped from the virtual sea of blood behind Juno, opening its massive jaws. The jaws shut. My glasses turned from blue to red.

There was blood in the waters now.

"ARGHHH!!!"

Screams resounded through the palace, and I clutched my hand. Suddenly, everything went dark.

///To be continued///

<W/N> Like the book? Drop a stone. Flood the comment sections. Shower me with reviews. See you in the pages, beasts.