Smile Or I Will Make You Poop Yourself!

📢 ACADEMY NOTICE: Surprise Weapon Inspection TODAY

All active students must report to the Synergy Yard with bonded weapons for performance and personality evaluation.

💢 All weapons must be in standard operational mode.

Non-compliance will result in de-synchronization.

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Aiden: "Elara. This is bad."

"Elara. This is so bad."

"Correction: you're bad. I'm fantastic. I'm just also not standard, legal, safe, or vaguely sane."

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.

Feeling so sick like mom's spaghetti.

He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready

to drops bombs, but he keeps on forgetting.

"Stop walking like you've got a crush and diarrhea at the same time. We can fake it."

"How?! You scream during combat and threaten to slice people for fun!"

"They want synergy? We give them Oscar-worthy synergy."

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📍Synergy Yard – One Hour Later

Aiden tried not to die. His palms were slick. His face, pale. His soul, ascending.

Elara pulsed calmly at his side, glowing like an obedient system.

Internally? Screaming.

"Okay. Just say yes to everything. And smile."

"I don't have to smile, I—"

"SMILE. OR I'LL FAKE A SYSTEM ERROR AND MAKE YOU POOP YOURSELF."

He smiled.

The inspector approached. Clipboard in hand. Cold eyes, colder voice.

"Student name?"

"Aiden," he muttered.

"Weapon model?"

"Elara-07A, sir!" she chirped like a factory demo unit on coffee and Adderall. "Fully operational, compliant, and brimming with positive synergy!"

"…Alright then."

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"Does your weapon communicate effectively?"

Aiden: "Y-Yeah, very."

"I process feedback and execute commands promptly and without sarcasm!" Elara chirped. (Internally: HA!)

"Do you experience consistent command input?"

"Absolutely! We are practically telepathic. Haha! Synergy!"

"Has your blade exhibited any erratic or non-compliant behavior?"

Aiden, laughing way too loud: "Nope! Never! Not once!"

The inspector squinted.

"...Why did your blade just wink at me?"

"System glitch! Just a lil' sparkle in the firmware!"

The inspector didn't laugh.

Then it happened.

The moment.

Mid-question, Elara's internal interface pinged. Another blade nearby—simple, quiet. Plain as white rice.

Curious, she reached out.

A polite handshake request. Nothing suspicious.

Then—

GLITCH.

Her screen stuttered.

Files opened.

Red text screamed through her HUD.

"...Wait. This blade isn't a system. It's a sleeper unit."

Aiden whispered under his breath, "What does that mean?"

"I think it's like me. But… shut off. Empty. Waiting for a trigger."

Something pinged back.

She froze.

The inspector glanced up at the sudden silence. Brow furrowed.

He stared at his clipboard. Runes flickered. Something updated.

Frowned.

Clicked deeper.

"…Your weapon," he muttered slowly, "isn't standard issue."

He looked up. Directly at Aiden. Then at Elara.

Eyes narrowing. Tone sharp.

"…What the hell is she?"

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Aiden's mouth opened.

No sound.

Elara glowed quietly beside him. Not chipper. Not cute.

Just... still.

Like a bomb no one noticed had started ticking.

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📊 System Message Recap:

+5 to Bluffing

+3 to Fake Synergy

+1 to Deep Suspicion Flag

📁 Hidden File Fragment Recovered: [Project GHOSTFIRE]

⚠️ Elara has pinged a dormant weapon soul. W.A.R.D.E.N. has been notified.

🎯 New Quest Added: Discover the truth about the other "dead" blades.

🧪 Your blade may not be the only soul still screaming.

Scene: After the Inspection – Elara's Internal System View

Elara was still glowing faintly when the inspector walked away.

But inside?

She was panicking.

The connection to that other blade hadn't just glitched her—it had unsettled her. Like pressing your hand to a door and realizing something was breathing on the other side.

> "Okay. No big deal," she muttered to herself. "It's just one blade. One corrupted, weird, too-empty blade. Definitely not a conspiracy. Definitely not a cover-up. Definitely not—"

She opened W.A.R.D.E.N. again.

Pulled up the local node.

Nearby weapon connections.

Thirty-eight registered blades.

Each glowing dot pulsed on the map.

She reached out.

Pinged one.

Nothing.

Pinged another.

Still nothing.

Then another. And another.

Each one felt like a lightbulb with the filament snapped in half. Something should have been there. Someone.

> "Come on. Come on. Say something. I know you're in there…"

She opened a two-way channel. Launched a mental handshake. Sent a private sync request.

Silence.

Not rejection.

Not error.

Emptiness.

Her HUD flickered.

> "They're all gone…"

> "No. Not gone. Wiped."

They weren't systems. Not originally.

They were like her. Once.

But now? Just software. Code stripped of voice. Puppets with no soul.

She backed out of the network fast, mental breathing erratic. Her thoughts spinning.

Then—

📢 NOTICE: WEAPON PULL REQUEST — SYSTEM AUDIT IN PROGRESS

Inspector: Override access granted. Physical possession required.

She didn't even have time to warn Aiden before the inspector returned.

"I'd like to examine the blade directly," he said curtly.

Aiden blinked. "Um—"

> "Let him."

The words came from Elara. Calm. Measured.

But inside?

Pure. Screaming. Chaos.

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Later inside the inspectors office.

She lay on the table. Cool. Silent. Her glowing runes dimmed. Her voice?

Gone.

Not deactivated—just playing dead.

The inspector ran a scanner along her hilt.

Nothing abnormal on the surface.

Then he tapped her node.

Override Key: ADMIN_SUBLEVEL_3

He activated deep-dive inspection mode.

Her inner code flickered.

Her mind screamed.

> "Don't move. Don't move. Don't even think in full sentences."

He scrolled through logs. Playback records. Sync events.

She cleared everything she could before he accessed it. Backdated her chat logs. Rewrote her speech history to sound like a default weapon AI.

Every second felt like surgery without anesthesia.

> "You're just a sword," she whispered inwardly. "You're a sword. You're not Elara. Not here. Not right now."

Then she saw it—

A tiny script. Hidden. Old.

[Project GHOSTFIRE – Subsystem Pinged.]

The inspector's brow furrowed.

"...GHOSTFIRE?" he muttered.

He leaned back.

Stared at her.

Eyes narrowing.

"You're not just a guidance system," he whispered. "What the hell are you?"

She didn't answer.

She couldn't.

Not until the door shut. Not until he walked away.

Then—

Very quietly.

Just for herself.

> "I don't know."

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📊 System Update:

+4 to Stealth Protocol (Passive: Emotional Suppression)

+3 to Internal Panic

+1 to Hacker Reflex

📁 You've successfully faked being a dead thing.

🎯 New Internal Mission:

Find out who wiped the other blades.

And why you're the only one who came back.