Misery on Mercury

The surface of mercury stretched out around Izime. The sun scorched plains of metal dust that had settled after years of geysers exhausting their plumes into the nearly atmosphere-less planet. The true beauty of the molten metal as it was ejected towards the stars wasn't simply the way they splashed as gravity pulled it back to settle with its cooled kin.

The odd magnetic storm from the sun at this close of a distance could make metal dance. The molten lead shivering and separating as the magnetized slag of alloys inside were pulled free. Arcs of electricity passing between the tiny glowing spheres as the sun ejected enough plasma to disturb the local Sol system. The lower gravity and increased force from the sun leaving that liquid metal hanging.

A snapshot of chaos caught in nature's hand.

Normally Izime enjoyed these rarely seen storms from the safety of the ship, watching the incredible light show with human eyes.

Now though the A.I. felt himself bearing the same disconnected state as parts of his human psyche connected to the hard filter of the chips he consisted of now.

Thoughts, wants, desires, and even basic instincts pulling themselves free of the core process Izime was trying to maintain.

Blaming the storm that was passing over mercury for his unease. The Peterson Hauler 10 Series had more than enough shielding to protect the bits that controlled Izime's thoughts from flipping. Izime knew he could fly the ship damned near in the corona of Sol itself an only set off some alarms as the hydrogen scoops overfilled.

The Basilisk 'watched' the solar storm crash across the geyser fields in front of it. Cold calculate looking back on the idiotic choices he'd made.

Izime taking a breath just to remind himself that he'd been less than this in much more significant ways. It was human to make mistakes, and he was human.

Though the A.I. and the human both stood firmly on the hill that this particular mistake was rather large.

Not so much for himself as everyone else.

Sure, losing the body was rough and Izime certainly wasn't happy about that, but he would eventually recover the gift Bell had given him. The issue with the League would hopefully be a once and done thing. The heroes acting like antibodies for his mistake.

Izime not really bothered that as the pendulum of action swung back it had turned into a guillotine.

More worried about just what the effect would be on the script in the end. That was the harder equation to solve. Just how far he'd shoved this universe off axi, how badly he'd messed them up. Getting so involved with his little business that he'd taken an active role. So active he'd been forced to acknowledge his own butterfly effect right before his capture.

Hindsight being twenty-twenty Izime still really couldn't tell what he'd been thinking. If he'd even been thinking at all, maybe Bell had just made an idiot. Taking up some of the left over resources, the things left off panel was OK. In the broad stroke of the story those things would never reappear, so he'd never made an impact.

Jumping in to stop an FearForm's attack that first night in Voltham, saving Psyis mid-scene was tantamount to suicide. Something that really should have occurred to Izime before ever stealing the ac-unit. At any point before one of the major characters came chasing after him.

If he'd had a single bite of sense. 

It would have just as quick to snap to a cell once anyone with their own comic series started showing up unannounced.

Safer considering how Dark Night had taken to the issue.

Cradle had even tried to talk him out of it. The raven catching on faster than he had to all the rules Izime was tossing to the roadside. The A.I. looking out across mercury for something to blame beyond his own idiocy. Blaming human emotions making no sense, he hadn't even known Psyis then.

There were two other actual heroes there and zero reason for Izime to step in beyond wanting to put himself in that scene.

Not that he'd wanted people to get hurt in the time it'd take Dark Squire to bring her down. Izime imagining a scene where the two would have reconnected. Steven shedding the cowl at last to dive in and save his thessian lover. It was rather clear the two were in a rough patch and

Probably a key moment for the Thessian's bond with the Blane.

The simple algorithms Izime was running suddenly growing much more complex at that thought. The simulations spinning further and faster than they had trying to sort out the shitstorm flapping his wings in Voltham had caused. Izime increasing the pump cycle as more than a few cores started heating oddly.

The electrons seeming to physically hang inside the die as the A.I. forced the thought through.

The A.I. running algorithms as he tried to determine just how the thessian would excuse her visit.

Sensor readings from the cargo bay warned that the other element that had caused this whole problem would soon be walking in.

Izime quickly opening the door for the Thessian so she could join him without a second thought.

~~One Psychic Just Looking for an Excuse~~

Looking upwards at the door above her Psyis considered how appropriate it might be to go talk to Izime further. Constantinople already having passed out in one of the bunks, Psyis could feel the only other sentient mind had slipped from activity.

The exorcist passing out as soon as he'd laid down.

Chewing over Izime's parting words Psyis considered coming up with a reason to come see him in on the pilot's deck. Only managing to recall the last reason Izime had taken her an Constantinople into the tighter quarters of the split working and living area.

Letting her powers push her off the floor Psyis floated over the safety rail of the gangway right outside the door. A bit surprised when it hissed open and revealed more than the dark hall lit only with its red safety lights on the floor. Quickly but quietly moving across the smooth mag-boot designed floors Psyis pass through the hall.

The molten lights of mercury's lead geysers leading her down the hall through the other already open door at the far end.

A purple hand reached through the beads that hung over the entrance to the deck, her eyes running over the four sets of flight seats. Finally locating the shimmering form of Izime, nearly invisible against the back light of molten lead.

The view of his eyes literally watching her through the back of his head while he faced the glass a bit unsettling. Psyis waiting until those eyes returned to watching the liquid metal rain down around the ship. The sizzle of the shields reaching through the micro-atmosphere through some means to fill the room with noise.

"Are you..." Psyis started to ask, looking around the room that was filled with personal things.

The guitars Constantinople and Izime had played a few days ago.

The memory sticks she'd been feeding Cradle as the three had passed the bottle of coolant around. The blankets Izime had gotten out for them still thrown over the seats they'd drunkenly lounged in.

The closest he'd come to playing a guitar right now was an audio recording or bouncing that drone off the strings.

 Izime could only look now, scanning them electronically.

"OK? I was." Izime watched Psyis' red eyes as she glanced at all the things they'd enjoyed before she'd known just what he was. Not judging her as much as himself for falling into such a brainless trap in the first place.

"I guess that would be a stupid question." Psyis nodded looking away from the instruments, taking a breath as she tried to apologize.

"Sorry." Not knowing where to begin with all she wanted to say, Psyis started with a single word.

"It's not you, or even the deal with the League. I knew what would happen eventually so stop beating yourself up." Izime nodded to the chair beside him while he glanced at the one beside. The A.I. shrugging and sitting as well to encourage the invitation, he could at least play pretend still. "I'm not good at being a person in the first place, so it was just a matter of time until I got caught."

Psyis walked over, not sitting but instead looking down at the once man. Only once because she'd nearly killed him and now it was only more convenient to exist like this. Lips pulling to the side, hoping she was making it clear to Izime she'd not accept his belittling of the situation.

"Do you know what it's like to be this ship, any ship?" Izime spared the stubborn looking thessian a half glance. False eyes glancing back out the window he asked a question he already knew the answer too.

"I can tell you the exact degree of that lead," Izime pointed towards a nearby plume directing the psychics attention.

A second drone flying from underneath the ship, Izime joining it when it got close to the plume. His voice echoing inside the pilot's deck as a hollow hand reached through the molten metal.

The sacrificial drone vaporizing along with Izime's ghost. "It's almost going monatomic at 1450 C in this atmosphere. On earth that's still well past boiling but not blowing plumes of lead gas like it is here."

"The drone?" Psyis asked the figure of Izime who'd returned to sitting idly a bit uncomfortable with his casual play-death with the drone. The action only confirming her suspicions of Izime's disconnect with the self she'd imagined him to be.

"I have plenty." Izime glanced at her curiously as he leaned forward. At least pretending to rest his elbows on his knees as he explained his new capabilities further. "I can tell you the seismic properties of this planet, calculate and increase the scrub rate of oxygen. Something I need to do apparently, because destroying that drone upset you."

"Which I know because I'm monitoring every one's heart rates and breathing. I can even calculate the probability that you came to talk to me, using the coolant as an excuse." Izime gave Psyis a side-eye as he accused her, all the while motioning for her to help herself.

"You forgot I can't drink. That or you're just as rude as Constantinople when it comes to respecting my things, probably worse considering everything." Izime giving her an encouraging nod even as his words offered her the opposite. "It's on the shelf wrapped in a mag-sheet so it didn't roll around."

Psyis watching as Izime's hologram gave her an encouraging nod while the drone with his voice called her disrespectful. The thessian torn between acting as if Izime was wrong, berating him for upsetting her or simply drinking his liquor to punish him for both.

The thessian furrowing her brows until Izime gave a playful smile. Finally relaxing a bit as she walked over to pull the metal woven fabric away.

Izime watched the purple hand reach out with a precision none of his drones had in this form. Revealing a metal cylinder the size the of a very large thermos the A.I. knew to be unnaturally cool to the touch. Temperature sensors and thermal cameras reflecting as much. Izime suffering that disconnect again as he tried to recall the chill those purple digits were feeling.

The thessian sat back, unscrewing the cap revealing a slightly pinkish glow. The coolant having fermented within the drive core of the ship until it had reached a consumable state. The liquid tipping out of the metal container and into a metal cup that was held in a now blue hand.

"I'll um... play pretend." Izime rendered a shaker glass, the ice settling noiselessly as the digitally created liquid appeared. Taking his own sip Izime watched as a slender neck took a deep swallow of the highly questionable 'liquor'. "What's on your mind Pi."

Psyis kept her eyes closed, waiting as the side-effect of the volatile alcohol took effect. Knowing that if she had kept them open the geysers before her would have faded away regardless. Focusing instead on the smooth tingle that came as the liquid soothed her dry throat as Izime unintentionally used half of her nickname. Glad that the space-shine washed away any embarassment or frustration she'd expected to feel.

Just another sign that even her own enhanced system was being affected by the powerful substance.

"Why do you act like I-like we all didn't..." Psyis stumbled for a moment in her rush to ask the question that was bugging her most now. Stopping she found an alternative route to her answer, the words having caused a roadblock in her mind. "that this didn't happen Izime."

"Not my first kill the bot rodeo and you're all actual heroes. I'm the killer A.I. that was playing human." Izime looked through the glass in his hands out towards the geysers of mercury sliding down a bit as he leaned back lazily.

Not like he could actually see them properly anyway, he just knew that's what he'd have like to done. How he would have been sitting if he'd still had a body and been having such a talk with Psyis drinking with her once again.

"This is the obvious outcome the only logical one." Izime calculating his response just as much as his pose. Hollow digitally colored teal eyes looked over towards the Psychic who had probably never considered his side of tangling with heroes such as herself.

The risk was already a given, Izime had never forgotten just how heroes handled creatures like him.

"Doesn't matter if some don't feel that way, Constantinople and yourself now too I guess." Izime spoke up trying to lighten the burden the two were probably feeling, Constantinople and Psyis turning coat to help him now, "I'd like someplace better than the trench but it wasn't ever going to go great for me. Like I said earlier I really just want a view at the end of it."

Izime tipped his glass back finishing it, before upending the cup over the deck. Watching Psyis reaction as the holographic ice cubs slid around the floor before disappearing. Righting the crystal-clear cup as another full drink immediately reappeared.

Izime smiling at the bits of code cycled through, the unnecessarily high-quality render pulling resources and dumbing him down a bit.

A drunken chip of silicon for a single micro-second as it processed.