An alarm they heard before started to roar, notifying all participants to prepare for transport to another virtual arena. Someone activated a challenger for the seventh round, overseen by Zude, the full-metal CEO.
Each participant used the occasion to check on each other, especially the Drums, who shared information about their current predicament. They even left the others to take the lead on the order just so they could talk a bit more. After much deliberation, they made the same decision—" We stay with them."
Marc wanted to use the occasion to look at Anna's C.T.D. better, but it was missing even now. To make matters worse for her, the management made a big announcement about her situation, blasting on all speakers how the girl and her C.T.D. fought and lost to Patient 7 and Medusa. She then received from management a claw-like gun, which the girl immediately recognized. With that it was confirmed, that Half was taken out of commission, leaving only their claw weapon behind for their partner to defend themselves.
The rest of the competitors also learned something new: Even if a C.T.D. is eliminated, if the patient can still carry on their feet, they will be forced to continue playing, no matter what. And the presence or absence of the C.T.Ds made a lot of difference in the contents, as the final scores of the round showed. Anna came last place, and as such had installed into her the crumbs of the prosthetics selection, a two-piece left arm, with no rotative joints. She could lift it up and down, had very limited left-right shoulder movement, and no fingers, only a sharp knife instead of a palm.
-" This is just a fucking old spear", Anna remarked, slowly grasping the point of it. Small tears dripped down her cheek and a feeling of breathlessness made her squirmy and uneasy. The leaderboard needed some culling by this point, and she was the perfect first candidate for it.
—-
As for the rest, Savan came in sixth place and while their new right arm was more mobile than what Anna was forced to install, it was a bit heavier than their left limb, which made the clopy lose balance from time to time. Marc and Angie tied for first place, but the boy used his status to avoid any operation done on him, and the girl remembered how exposed she actually was from her previous fights.
She requested the doctors to replace her upper back and shoulders with something more durable and malleable. Her new enhancement could retract or extend, and form from her neck down to her waist a sort of poncho made from extremely tough aluminium.
Syna, Allan, Chirani, and Billy each also got limb replacements, with the first three getting new arms that worked like the flesh ones, while the last got sharp-edge legs that made it very difficult for him to walk around on; his wooden face sketched no picture of his reactions to the this, as his partner sat him back on his ornamental spot on his shoulder. Serviceman then took a sharp glance at his competitors, with a keen focus on Angie and Vivar.
-----
Soon enough, the cubes hovered above them, slowly landing to pick them up. Syna and Angie let Vivar know that they found out about their mutual friend and advised him to tell the rest about it. " Also, mister, just tell us if we can really trust her". The hacker added a question as well.
Syna -" Just to let all of you know, three interviews were done in the city, one with someone claiming to be Diaz Cid, the former champion. What do you think about this, Vivar?"
Angie and Savan thought it was probably fake, Marc abstained and Vivar understood her concern, but he was firmly convinced that he was the real Diaz, so the knight replied with his own question for the hacker.
Vivar - "What is more difficult to do with our current technology, copy a human consciousness, transfer it, or suppress and mold it?"
Syna bit her lip, as she never thought of putting the problem from that perspective, but now that she knew on what to redirect her attention:
-" On a scale? Copying is very difficult, probably impossible to do it now without damage to both the copy and original mind; the transfer from a brain to a synthetic one is a middle option, probably expensive and a slow process, but still possible; and the last option is the fastest, easiest, and…cheapest", Syna replied with sorrow in her voice.
Vivar -" I understand your predicament. I advise you to stop thinking about it until Sovereign finishes its scan of the footage. Until then, try to get Ingress to understand you as well and make them work with you. I can promise this, as an ally, they will be indispensable".
-----
The programmed nights of the Playground caught them once again, this time with less shouting, less pouting, and more thinking. Tension grew inside each of the separated groups, and neither knew how to handle it or even wanted to. Anna became overly paranoid, keeping a distance from the others, unsure on what plans they might concoct. She saw them whispering…talking among themselves;
Savan tried a few times to cheer her up, but the girl slapped away each attempt. Besides the fear, her resentment of Savan's people made her even more aggressive towards the clopy, but the anxiety forced her to keep it to a minimum.
The latest attempt, though, drove Anna to her limits, but she didn't snap with anger and vitriol, instead, only contempt and malice spewed from her tongue:
Anna -" Why don't you get it clone? You and your kind are just poor imitations, created only so you can't complain, to just put that artificial smile plastered over your face to good use. All I… we wanted was just to leave this city and their stupid people and just…"
Savan sat down, parallel to the girl, at a comfortable distance for her. They, like every time it happened, didn't address her insult, instead, they told her a story about two brothers they met. Two boys who wanted to work, and were excited to begin their shifts at the factories. And how after just a few weeks, they saw the only one the County deemed worthy to continue toiling. They pause for a bit, and then Savan asks her a question they have wanted to ask a human for a long time.
Savan -" Tell me, do you actually think a human could survive outside the city as they are now?"
-" What do you mean?", grumbled Anna.
-" I don't believe that", continued Savan as she answered their question. " Neither humans nor clopys can survive in the desert. I heard the stories of other groups, trying to make it, to build something. And I don't think that they succeed. The only ones that can not only just live, but thrive, are the ones like Vivar, Azin…Half."
The girl didn't know what to say to all of it, especially since it came from something she never considered able to have such thoughts. A cloned employee was supposed to just be an automaton that followed tasks, and a set behavior and that's it. But there it stood, to her side, one that appeared to be different from their pre-set models. Still, Anna thought that maybe it was just spouting back platitudes from something they read or heard somewhere:
Anna -"Survivalists, preachers, and other weirdos from the undergrounds and lower levels always spouted similar things. This isn't something you invented, clone."
Syna -" Well yeah, of course. My idea actually came from books, critics, novels, and shows I listened to and watched about situations like the one we live in. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that becoming more like the C.T.Ds might save us, but I got tired of waiting until someone proves it."
-" You were listed as a willing participant, but I thought it was just a marketing ploy", responded Anna. "My brother and I didn't volunteer. After we became part of the unemployed three years ago, they captured us while we tried to sneak out of the city, and forced us to participate". The girl stopped talking all of a sudden, with her face getting red as a tomato, twitching between annoyed and flustered.
They sat in silence for a good few minutes, with Savan waiting for her to continue or to say something. Anna's barriers on how to treat the clopy as a normal person were still standing strong, but she was also the first to make a crack in them.
Anna - " I'm sorry, ok? For being such a dick towards you…but if it's fine with you, I would rather not go on with this conversation. For now. Can you just leave me alone?" she asked faintly.
Savan agreed and, using the right arm to prompt themselves up, but they put too much power into it and launched their entire body in a tumble.
-"Learning curves, am I right?", jokingly added Savan to cover for the mistake, while staring at the girl upside down. It didn't get any giggle out of Anna, but a short snort, which was enough to bring a smile out of everyone listening in.
-----
Angie, Syna, and their new companion were having a feast for kings, especially since Chirani Drums shot for them some wild game from the Playground.
Angie -" Giant rats with horns", outlined a visible gluttonous miner girl, who seemed almost ready to dine on it while it was raw. Syna didn't appear that excited about their banquet, but a roast later changed her mind on the subject.
Chirani was a competent shooter on his own, but combined with the computerized target guide and special bullets created by the C.T.D. elevated him into a sharpshooter. Still, his skills weren't the issue for the girls, they were more afraid of the one who put him in the race, Robert.
Syna -" Spy, voluntary or not, would still be a problem for us", mentioned the hacker. So, after some thorough body search and system check, they found 4 listening devices just on him, while the C.T.D. was infected with thousands of spyware and other such viruses. Easy to remove one by one, but a bother to do it for an entire swarm of those critters.
The spring cleanup couldn't have finished more promptly, as just right after they were done with cleaning the two, Sovereign finished his scan as well.
-" Conclusion: Found only three discrepancies, a bent elbow at a 4.5 degree more than humanly possible, a light dispersion that appears scratched, and virtual smudge on a robotic joint".
All of these could have been errors, or just small mistakes during the recording process, but they could also be " Signs of virtual props. Fuck", cursed Syna after kicking a rock. She requested to be left alone with her thoughts, which Angie and Chirani agreed to without fuss.