The Genesis Code 1: Lambda (4 page)

“What, did my parents’ message fry its processor?” he joked, rolling his eyes.

Zack sighed, holding down the button at the top and waiting for the device to reset... at least that was what he thought was going to happen. Instead, the music on his phone started getting rather distorted and the screen became all scrambled too. Confused, Zack sat up to a sitting position and glanced at the device intently.

“That’s odd. It has never gotten this bad before. What’s wrong?” The phone continued to jump and skip through songs, still distorted and scrambled, as Zack tried to fiddle with the reset button.

Guess I will just have to take it apart again.

A sharp pain suddenly jolted up Zack’s arm. Alarmed, Zack rose instantly, flinging the phone in a random direction. The pain was like nothing he had ever felt. It was like his arm had been set on fire and then stricken with pins and needles. He stumbled and crashed to the ground only to glance over at the device that caused him such terrible pain. What he saw didn’t seem real.

The phone was surrounded by a torrent of electricity. Sparks were shooting all over as the device seemed to be overloading with energy. The little rectangle was dancing at the center of this chaos and looked to be ready to explode from all the pressure coursing around it.

“What the hell is going on?”

Zack slowly took to standing as the light show continued. He was just far enough away that sparks emitting from the phone couldn’t reach him. Even so, the display seemed so alluring.

In that moment, something changed. The device was suddenly sucked inward, creating a black ball. The ball pulsed with the energy left from the device as it slowly began to grow. Frightened by this new abnormality, Zack took several steps back in fear that this black ball would suck him in.

It is so dark.

The ball seemed to peer into nothingness itself as it continued to grow to about six feet in diameter. As the ball began eating into the rooftop, Zack starting wondering if it was a good idea to be standing where he was.

What is this, a black hole? Is this really happening?

Many thoughts raced through his mind as the black ball radiated with electric energy, pulsing with wrath. It just seemed to be sucking him in.

“Conditions met. Upload finalizing.”

Zack’s mind jolted awake.
Was that just now-

The black ball exploded. The sudden force sent Zack flying backwards before rolling to a stop. He quickly recovered as his curiosity couldn’t let him miss what was unfolding before him. What he saw was incredible.

Before him, emitting small sparks of red lightning, stood a girl dressed in a slick battle suit. The suit seemed to hug and accent every curve of the slender but toned frame that befell Zack’
s eyes. Her long, dark hair danced in the pulsing energy surrounding her like some wild lightning storm. Two shorter, braided locks of her hair swayed and hugged her chest and clavicle. She was gorgeous.

Zack couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was utterly mesmerizing in her obscure outfit. Her face was half covered by a black visor that blocked out her eyes and nose that took the shape of a “V”. The visor formed pointed sickles that angled downward sharply at the ends of the glimmering visor, caressing her cheeks. Gazing intently, she hovered in place with her arms spread out and her head cocked upward, looking at the sky.

Zack stared, bewildered. He didn’t understand what was happening. In his shocked state, he could only let out a small whisper of the first thing he thought when gazing upon this dark goddess.

“Who is this girl?”

The girl’s arms fell to her side and her head returned to its normal position. It was as if she heard Zack’s question as she moved to speak. She only spoke three words.

“Lambda, materialization complete.”

[2]

Stigma

[January 6th - Abingdon, Virginia - Horizon Academy - School Rooftop - Day]

Zack was still in awe. The sight of the dazzling girl before him was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

Is this a Combat AI unit?
Zack thought, still in a daze.

There was always talk in the Cyber Network and on the Internet about advanced Artificial Intelligence—Combat AI units, but Zack had never been given the chance to ever see one up close like this. He was convinced that what stood before him was exactly that.

Without thinking, he rose to his feet and slowly began to approach the girl coated in black and surging with red sparks. He didn’t get far.

“Biological detected. Appear, Chaos Weapon 12: Trident Sickle.”

Without warning, the girl dashed toward Zack with her arm extended. In mere milliseconds she covered twenty feet and thrust her arm toward Zack’s face. Three blades quickly materialized from a void of blackness in a triangle formation around the girl’s wrist just as her hand reached Zack’s face. Frozen with stone cold fear, Zack only stared as he eyed the three blades hovering over the girl’s wrist, spinning in clockwise rotation. Zack’s head was almost wiped blank from shock. He only could register one thought from the sudden development.

Crap!

As quickly as the scene advanced in front of him, the three blades vanished into the air. This didn’t make Zack any less tense.

“Threat level zero. Disengage Chaos Weapon. Now entering neutral state.” Her voice was devoid of any emotion, as she spoke in a flat, mechanical manner. Her presence almost felt suffocating.

Zack somehow managed to break out of his state of fear and astonishment and tried to take in what was happening around him. With a few deep breaths, he finally got up the nerve to ask the one question on his mind.

“W-who are you?”

The girl turned her head to face him rather suddenly. He couldn’t see her eyes behind her black visor, but he felt as if he was naked. She just stood where she was, silently staring at him.

“H-hey, did you hear me-”

“Target identified. Mission objective met.”

Come again?
Zack stared, bewildered, as the girl fully faced him.

“AI Combat Prototype Lambda 11, Serial Number: L11212126. Target clearance given.” The girl then just stood there, staring down Zack. “Awaiting next mission directive.”

Zack just stared with his mouth agape.
Next mission? Come again?

Nothing but a torrent of questions ran through his head. He couldn’t process one fast enough before another one popped up. What was he supposed to do? Why was this thing asking for a new mission? And most importantly, what was it doing here?!

“Right . . .” Zack kept his eyes on her, still feeling incredibly confused. Any reason and logic was lost to him. He couldn’t come up with anything that made enough sense to handle the situation before him. He just fumbled around a quick idea and went with it. He was far too flustered to think straight anyway.

“I . . . I guess you are done?” Zack was completely unsure in his words, as he formed them into a question rather than a statement.
Did that make any sense?

Lambda broke Zack’s thoughts.
“Voice recognition accepted. Pleas-”

Zack stood, surprised once more, as he noticed that the AI Lambda suddenly seemed confused.

“Lambda doesn’t understand. What does human mean by, ‘You are done?’ An explanation is needed for proper data entry.”

Zack found himself at a loss for words.
Did an AI just ask me a question?

There was something odd about Lambda. Zack couldn’
t quite put his finger on it, but he felt like she was acting and processing data differently than most AI units he had heard and read about. It seemed too autonomous.

Zack shook his head. This was getting him nowhere. He had to press forward if he hoped to gain any sight into this singularity before him.

“Your name is Lambda right?” He was shocked how calm his voice ended up sounding.

“Name? What is a name?” The girl was so straightforward that it seemed more like a joke.

Zack’s expression was deadpanned.
Seriously?
He ignored it and moved on.

“What you call yourself, that is your name.”

Lambda seemed to ponder this response for a little while before speaking. “Then the proper name would be AI Combat Proto-”

Zack raised his hand. “Stop.”

Lambda tilted her head, seeming confused by the gesture. If Zack could see her eyes, he thought for sure she would be cocking an eyebrow or something.

“How about just Lambda, okay? Sounds simple enough right?”

“L-A-M-B-D-A,” replied Lambda. She seemed oddly satisfied.

Zack couldn’t believe the conversation he was having. It scared him how calm he was starting to feel after talking to Lambda. Deep down, he knew his calm nature was directly linked to the familiarity of the situation. He ignored the pinching sensation in his head and focused on the matter at hand.

“Right, my name is Zack. It is a pleasure to meet you, Lambda.” Zack winced at his own words. He sounded too formal, and it made him feel idiotic.

Something is wrong with me,
Zack thought, feeling a little nervous now.

Lambda followed up with another simple question. “Zack, how much do you weigh?”

Taken back by the odd question, Zack responded unsure. “I believe just under 170 pounds. Why?” he asked hesitantly.

Zack got his answer just seconds later. Lambda arched her body and dashed toward him. With a simple tug of his school uniform, she threw him across the school roof with all the love of a rhinoceros. Stunned by this act, Zack only waited for the bone-crushing pain that would come once he smashed into the ground. Before he hit solid ground however, a giant explosion ripped the area of the roof apart where Lambda and Zack were just standing. He then swiftly crashed to the roof. The pain was far worse than he expected, but not worse than the elevated situation. Things looked like they were escalating to a whole new level.

“Enemy target identified. Activating Zero Barrier,” echoed Lambda.

Hold on, did she just-

Just then, a ripple in the sky appeared and spread out above the school rooftop. It almost seemed like a mirage of some kind. The disturbance made no noise and distorted the space it crossed for just a second. The haze-like display panned out about twenty yards before disappearing into the sky, leaving Zack to only dread what was coming. Had there been no distractions, he would have noticed the muted sounds from beyond the rippling sky while everything within remained unaltered.

Zack’s ears were still recovering from the explosion, but that didn’t stop him from hearing more voices along with Lambda’s. They almost sounded malicious despite the robotic frequency used to vocalize their words. As Zack looked to the source of the voices, he stared in disbelief.

“Oh god . . . they are multiplying?!”

Hovering above the rooftop with their arms crossed, five dark figures floated in place. They were covered in metallic armor from head to toe and their faces were completely sealed away by a full face visor. Reflecting the morning sun, their armor glimmered of black and gold. The sight slightly blinded Zack. When he got a better look at them, he found their appearance to be similar to black diamonds.

“Corruption target analysis complete. Initializing Combat Mode. Commencing attack,” spoke one of the black entities.

Zack cringed. “What I would give to have these things disappear right now,” he uttered under his breath. Fear was creeping up his spine like a venomous spider. What floored him further was what Lambda did next.

“Command acknowledged. Threat level thirty one percent. Appear, Chaos Weapon 26: Executioner. Now engaging.”

It was spectacular. Zack could barely follow what was happening. In less than a second, Lambda sprung from the rooftop and smashed into one of the hostile AI units. When Zack looked closer, he could see that Lambda had deployed a much larger weapon then the one he had seen previously. The weapon’s blade was double the width of Lambda’s arm and had a row of bladed teeth on both sides, like a chainsaw. The monstrous weapon rested in the gut of the black AI unit in front of her. With an effortless flick of her wrist, she flung the AI she pierced behind her as if it weighed less than a piece of paper. Seconds later it exploded into billions of black bits. The display was mesmerizing.

Lambda turned in the direction of the remaining AI units. “Enemy numbers reduced. Four targets remaining.” Her voice remained cold and robotic.

Zack couldn’t help but feel a sense of terror amidst his fascination. After all, Lambda was taking out high end Combat AI units from what Zack could tell. From their design and presence, he got the impression that what Lambda was doing was nothing short of unbelievable.

The remaining AI units now appeared to be confused by the development befalling them. Their actions mimicked those of poorly choreographed dancers floating in the air.

“Regrouping. Battle capability-” The remaining four units suddenly stopped mid-sentence as sparks began to emit from their pointed heads.

Zack stared in astonishment.
Are they overloading!?

Lambda didn’t let them get another chance to make a move.

“Continuing assault. Appear, Chaos Weapon 19: Ouroboros,” echoed Lambda’s cold voice. As she spoke, the long blade on her hand suddenly vanished, quickly replaced by a long black whip. The whip coiled like a dark serpent and surged with red lightning. In just a blink of an eye, three of the four remaining AI units lost their heads. The resulting explosions rocked the roof of the school as they came crashing down.

Falling to the ground from the sudden assault, Zack could barely bring himself to stand once more. He didn’t even see Lambda move her arm in the last attack.

“Mission objective failed. Target beyond containment-” The last unit was then sliced into dozens of pieces by Lambda’s serpent whip of lightning. All Zack saw was several sudden flashes of light, followed by the black bits of the exploding AI.

Zack just stared above. As he watched Lambda’s hair flap in the wind, he felt another pinch in his head as he suddenly thought Lambda’s hair was blonde. He blinked twice, and shook his head. In the end, there she was. A cyber maiden of death, clad in black. All he could think at that moment was just how alluring and terrifying she looked.