Emendation

[40.7128.74.0060
40.7580.73.9855
11.11.2020.64.62.34.5
INSERTION INITIATED. . .
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TEMPORAL CHOCK INITIATED. . .
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DISRUPTION COMPLETE.
INITIATING SHUNT. . .
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SHUNT COMPLETE.
INITIATING TRAVELER SEQUENCE. . .
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WARNING: 68% CHANCE OF FULL BIOLOGICAL DEGREDATION. . .
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TRAVELER SEQUENCE COMPLETE. . .
TRANSFER IN 3. . . 2. . . 1. . .]


Times Square was anything but quiet before the ground began to shake. Celebrations were still in swing over the recent election as everyday Americans did their best to continue to forget the horrors that decimated New York not-so-long ago. Even the shaking of the ground, so little that there was, did scarcely bring any of the partying to a halt. A few car alarms blared, some concerned citizens stopped on the streets to peer around with wide-eyes, and a handful of phone calls to the police and other emergency services went out... but the shockwave went as quick as it had come. Despite its minuscule presence, social media lit up with word of the minor quake, and within seconds, followed up with videos and photos taken in Times Square of something queer; a small sphere emitting blue light, barely three feet off the ground and only a meter wide, at the exact apex of Seventh Avenue, 42nd Street, and Broadway.

As a crowd gathered around it, leaving the glimmering, flickering sphere of blue light plenty of room to expand, the ground began to shake again. Once more, it was nary a rumble, but it was clear that the distortion of blue light was somehow related. Again, the ground shook, this time with far more vigor. The ground around the sphere cracked, forcing the asphalt of the conjoined streets to briefly ripple before tears spread across its surface like that of a spider's web. Panic ensued and the crowd mostly dispersed, fleeing indoors to neighboring shops and buildings, as cars screeched to a halt and lights all across the city flickered. The sphere had begun to grow amidst all the chaos, pulsating rapidly with its eerie blue light as its diameter reached a good three meters, now finally touching and burning into the ground.

Arcs of energy in the form of crackling lightning and thunder reached out from the sphere like angry limbs, lashing into nearby electronic billboards and structures, shattering glass and cracking concrete. Those that took cover were spared the blinding flashes of light emitting from the sphere now, but those who were brave enough to endure, caught the chaos on camera. Within minutes, the event was already viral across the web, and at the apex of what looked like what might be some kind of explosive force... the blue light vanished, the rumbling stopped, and in a small crater where the pandemonium had begun were the smoking remains of something once human and a black, metallic looking humanoid kneeling just beside...

As emergency services began to arrive in the form of the NYPD, Medical Services, Firefighters, and even the National Guard, the metallic humanoid slowly came to stand straight up... its blue eyes glimmering brightly.

Fenris was new to the city. Honestly, he had always wanted to go. He had seen pictures in books his grandfather had shown him, but after the initial interest in technology was stamped out his grandfather was determined to keep him from such a place. A city had far too much…stimulation for a curious young mind like Fenris and the poor boy would be overwhelmed with all the different sorts of technology at his fingertips. These feelings had faded with time, however, and Fenris got older and showed interest in imbuing technology with magic his grandfather’s stance against a visit to the city was slowly dampened. While he still believed the city would be too much for the boy, he relented and allowed Fenris to take a trip to New York City. If anything, it’d be a learning experience, especially seeing part of the world that had been so severely damaged.

It was six thirty when Fenris found himself in his eighth gadget shop. It was filled with thrilling knickknacks and strange devices, the likes of which he had never seen. Night vision goggles, listening devices, strange locking mechanisms, and so many others. There was something called a joybuzzer which had given him an idea of a sort of…shocking grasp type spell. It’d be hilarious. He didn’t have much in terms of American money which had gotten him kicked out of the previous seven gadget shops, but maybe this one would be more understanding of his situation and would let him have a free sample. He heard of some establishments which had given free stuff out. That’s what good and proper stores did.

He browsed for about five or so minutes when everything around him started to shake. He looked around curiously. Was this normal for the city? It didn’t seem like an earthquake. Were earthquakes normal around here? People seemed rather worried about it, but well…maybe this was one of those improv shows he had read about. Not realizing he still was holding it, he walked out holding the joybuzzer looking around and at the running crowd. He decided to head in the direction of what they were running from and soon was joined by the siren vehicles. Authorities? Maybe…just maybe…something was wrong?

He moved closer to the area that was emitting so much energy. For a moment he gripped Fang’s device, ready to summon his beloved companion should things go wrong. It looked like a lightning storm centered right in the middle of this Timed Square (who times squares? Non-magical culture was confusing). He stared at it with a mix of awe and curiosity. This was amazing. He hadn’t seen anything like this. Was this some form of technology? Or maybe a superhero he had heard of. Could also be one of those…super villains? Maybe. It was hard to read based off a storm alone. For now he just kind of stood there, waiting to see what happened.

Then he saw it, two glowing eyes from the storm. Seeing them he rose a hand and gave a happy wave. He reached into his pocket, taking out a…kindle? He began to search through it and finding the spell he had wanted. A communication ritual, trying to connect with whatever rested in the middle of the storm. If he managed to build a communication network with the being inside he’d send a simple message.

“Hello! What’s going on here?”

[INITIATING HANDSHAKE PROTOCOL. . .
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CONNECTING TO: 7,910,487,213 DEVICES. . .
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23% COMPLETE. . .
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45% COMPLETE. . .
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77% COMPLETE. . .
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100% COMPLETE.
INITIATING KINGMAKER PROTOCOL. . .
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ERROR: 2,345,881 DEVICES COULD NOT BE CONNECTED. . .
OVERRIDING. . .
ERROR: 1,168,138 DEVICES NOT CONNECTED.
ACCEPTABLE MARGIN.
UPLOADING CENTIPEDE-INTERLOCKS. . .
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INCOMING COMMUNICATION. . .
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"Hello! What's going on here?"
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VERIFYING SOURCE. . .
SOURCE LOCATED.
PROBABILITY OF INHUMAN CONTACT: 66%
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She gave no notion as to whether or not Fenris' message had successfully reached her; instead, slowly coming to stand within the crater as the electromagnetic storm that crackled and hissed around her began to dissipate. After a moment of silence, as the charred skeletal remains of a man fell to the side nearby, those glowing blue eyes of hers smoothly swiveled to eye Fenris. Despite the shouting policemen and national guard figures forming a wide perimeter around her, the being's focus was Fenris. For a long moment, she did little but stare at him; her gaze seeming to oscillate with small sparks of light edging across her irises and pupils before her attention turned to the various armed military and police forces still encircling her.

Assaulted by a variety of demands, from putting her hands up, not moving, and even getting onto her knees. Had she been human, she might have complied. Despite many of the men and women both in the National Guard and the local PD bearing weapons designed to take down a superhuman, all of which she was capable of identifying, they were no threat to her. So for the moment, as they continued to shout commands and communicate to one another, she continued to secretly establish a foothold in the digital world; infecting billions of computers across (and in orbit of) the planet. Phones, pads, televisions, gaming systems, desktop, military computers, servers, and satellites--and everything in-between--was being implanted with various highly advanced programs designed to connect her to everything and everyone.

For Fenris, a simple message scrawled across his kindle...

What are you?

For a few moments, Fenris wondered if this was really the kind of thing he wanted to get involved with. It was strange and…by the sounds of the authorities also had a piece in this game. Getting involved with something like this could end up getting him into a fight or thrown in jail or even getting a cold talking to by his grandpa, and he wasn’t sure which of those was the worst outcome. Then, there was also this question. What are you? How was he gonna answer that? I mean, what is anyone for that matter? He could give any sort of answer. He could give his name, his race, his job, his…mental state? Maybe not that last one, it was a hard choice to nail, that was for sure.

Regardless, with a sigh, this was too good not to see where it’d go. Using his kindle he would begin to write up a message to reply to this being and hope that it would suffice. “Hello there! My name is Fenris, I’m a mage of sorts, that means I can do magic. Uh…I don’t know why I wrote uh, but! Magic is sort of a power of sorts? It allows people to do an array of interesting and cool things. I use it to well…do a whole bunch of stuff? But! You should know that I am not an enemy? Not looking for a fight. Is there…anything I can do for you? Anything you need?”

Fenris would hope that answer would suffice. He had never really talked to a machine before, not besides Fang. Though, Fang didn’t really talk back, he just listened. There could be a lot that could come from this and he wanted to put in a good first impression, of course, though…he couldn’t just stop there. After a few moments he would begin to type again, hopefully this time getting an answer back from it. “What are you? What are you doing out here?”