Silicon Valley is one of the premiere trading centers in the world, and the home of one of the strongest industrial centers in the United States. The cornerstone of the computer industry, some would say. At the heart on the valley lies the city of San Jose. The largest city within the San Francisco valley area, San Jose is known for its bustling metropolis overlooking the orchards of the Valley of Hearts Delight. The landscape spread on for miles; sustaining a population of just under a million.
The whine of a motorcycle filled the air as a red Ducati Desmosedici RR raced through the city. The outskirts of the city were dotted by a multitude of different factories and facilities dedicated to manufacturing computer software and hardware. Coming to a stop at an intersection the driver pulled a map out of her jacket pocket; she didn’t know San Jose as well as her home city of Sacramento, a two and a half hour drive away. California was a massive state; the third largest in the country. And unlike Texas and Alaska there were cities located everywhere.
The driver continued to trek away from the city, following the flow of the obscure factories until she came to series of commercial buildings nestled between a large steel factory to the west and a small airport to the north. Pulling the bike into the entrance she’s funneled into the security traffic gate. The guard at the booth stopped her.
“This is a private facility; I cannot let you in without authorization-”
“My name is Celeste Crimson and I’m here to see a Mr. Gustav Gustavsson,” she replied.
The man checked his list and after some validation he opened the gate to let her through.
She pulled her bike into the front parking lot, and stopped at the first office building in the row. It was a five story complex with long thin windows placed sparingly along the perimeter. It was unmarked aside from the four digit identification code. She turned off the bike, secured it, and walked up the ramp to the double glass doors. The lobby of the building was surprisingly very clean and neat. The floor was covered in a short thread beige carpet, while the ceilings were standard drop down plaster board. She walked up to the receptionist in the front lobby. After a few moments of waiting while she processed her information, Celeste was finally greeted by a short man wearing a white lab coat.
“Mrs. Crimson?” he asked.
“That would be me,” she responded.
She stood and shook his offered hand, but strangely he did not introduce himself.
“You are here to see Gustav, right?”
“Yes, you’re here to take me to him?”
“Yes ma’am.”
She followed him up to the next level, and when the elevator door opened up her jaw nearly hit the floor. The second level was actually the third and fourth levels combined. It was a huge room filled with many different labs, testing equipment, and machinery. The scientist lead her to a big machine with a huge computer monitor hooked up to several other different medical devices such as heart beat monitor and brain wave monitor. The man standing in front of the computer screen turned to face her.
“Celeste,” he said sticking out his hand,
“It’s good to see you.”
“Gustav,” she responded.
She had meet Gustav Gustavsson a few days ago when he had approached her after her match with Titus. The middle aged man was SHIT’S old mentor and trainer, and had come to her about a proposition…
*Flashback*
“You mean SHIT isn’t an actual robot?” she had asked.
The possibly of being able to fight a robot was cool, simply because she had never done so before.
“No, SHIT is a man who merely believes himself to be a automaton; foolishly I nurtured this belief because I found him easier to work with."
Her face had dropped...
"What you would call motivation and heart, I would call “programming”. It was my desire to program SHIT to be a force for good, but the Apostles of Chaos kidnapped him and “reprogrammed” him to do Ty Burna’s bidding,” he explained.
It was a bleak truth, and even though it hadn't felt like her losses to the Apostles in recent memory hadn’t been dealt by SHIT personally, it did not change the fact that the robot had been the one to pin her every time.
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want to change SHIT back to the way he was before the Apostles corrupted him, but I cannot do it by myself. I was hoping that you could help me.”
He sounded downtrodden and unfortunately she had a conscious,
“Sure, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
She couldn’t have refused him even if she had wanted to.
*End Flashback*
“I managed to steal SHIT back from the Apostles by neutralizing him with a tranquilizer, but the mind games and manipulation he suffered will drive him to return. There is nothing that I can do to keep him here.”
“What is this place?” she asked.
“It was originally one of our training facilities, and now it is our safe hose,” he said gazing at the large steel closet beside him.
“He’s in there, isn’t he?”
The silver haired man opened the doors, and pressed a button on the side. A series of gears activated pushing a gurney towards them. She could see SHIT shackled to the sides in order to keep him from escaping. The robot was unconscious at the moment.
“What do you want me to do, Gustav?”
“Reasoning with SHIT while he is awake as proven to be unfruitful, so these doctors have created a way to see inside SHIT’s consciousness,” he said.
“We might be able to convince him to change his ways through nonviolence.”
“So how is this going to work?”
“You can meditate, yes?”
She nodded, although she didn’t see how that was going to help.
“As you mediate, the doctor’s here can match your brain waves to SHIT’s using this machine here,” he said tapping the large machine in front of them. “This will allow you to see into his conscious.”
Celeste began to laugh,
“You… aren’t serious are you?”
“Deadly serious…”
She was flabbergasted,
“What you’re suggesting is insane.”
“Nonsense, this is latest scientific breakthrough. This type of technology makes it possible for a human to control a machine.”
“But I thought you said that SHIT wasn’t a robot-”
“He isn’t, he’s a human who thinks he’s a robot.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but could only bury her face in her hands.
“Alright, fine. Let’s get this over with.”
Gustav and group of scientists hooked SHIT up to the machines which began monitoring his heart rate and different brainwaves. Celeste laid down on a gurney beside him and was hooked up to the same device. Although mediating while laying down was quite uncomfortable, she was such a boss at it that she was able to synch her breathing a steady her conscious within a few minutes. As she drifted in and out of consciousness she felt a jolt as the machine steadied her brainwaves with SHIT’s. She could just barely register Gustav’s presence beside her, when suddenly another jolt rocked her so hard that she temporary lost consciousness.
She gasped as she opened her eyes; the room was dark, and she was struggling to see. As her surroundings came into focus, she saw that she isn’t inside the facility anymore. Everything was surreal and blurry, as brilliant colors flashed everywhere.
“Gustav?” she called to the middle aged man, but there was no answer.
The lights began to swirl around her. She began to stumble as the lights swirled faster and faster. It felt like she was being pulled forward by an unknown force. She struggled to find her center of gravity, when suddenly everything stopped, and she collapsed. She tilted her head up and got to her feet; amazed at what she saw. She was standing in front of a church.
She walked up the steps and opened the door; she looked around. It was quiet and empty. She called out for Gustav one more time, when a sudden breeze flew through the sanctuary blowing the doors shut behind her.
“Who’s there?” she shouted.
She heard laughter coming from behind her; she wheeled around but didn’t see anything. The laugher began to echo from all sides of the room.
“Of all the people I’d expect to make it here to my sanctuary, I never thought I’d see you.”
She looked up as a figure appeared next to alter at the front of the podium. It was a man, a little taller than her, with a lean muscle build. He had short fiery red hair and piercing pupiless black eyes that seemed to stare a hole right through her. He crossed him and smirked as she looked up at him dumbfounded.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“You’ve broken into my church and yet you don’t even know who I am? I never took you for the dumb blond type, Celeste Crimson.”
“Are you… SHIT?”
*Outside*
Gustav and the other scientists were studying the situation with earnest. Both Celeste’s and SHIT’s brainwaves were synched together, which meant that she should have been able to enter his conscious.
“Everything looks good so far,” said one of the doctors monitoring the machine.
Celeste’s heart rate began to increase at an alarming rate,
“What’s going on?”
“She found him,” said Gustav looking over at SHIT’s face.
*End Outside*
He smiled and began to walk towards her,
“Bingo-” She stared wide eyed as he disappeared into thin air and reappeared right in front of her.
“How-”
“I have to say that you have some gusto to show up here,” he said as he disappeared again and reappeared again on her other side.
"Was Gustav the one that sent you?”
“That’s right he did; he sent me to talk to you.”
“Talk to me?” he grinned.
“What makes you think there’s anything that you have to say that I’d want to listen to?”
“Listen SHIT, I’m here on Gustav’s behalf, he’s worried about you and he wants you to leave the Apostles and come home.”
“Are you serious?” he asked as he laughed maniacally.
“That’s the reason he sent you here, was to try to convince me not to be evil anymore? What a joke!”
“Isn’t Gustav your friend, your mentor? He cares about you; doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
SHIT disappears and then reappears behind her,
“I’m a robot, why would I care about
some namby pamby human and his futile attempt to love?”
He leans over her and drapes an arm across her shoulder,
“I am a beast of destruction and a tool of Armageddon-”
Celeste tried to push him away but he disappears. His speed was so fast that she couldn't even see him move.
“-thanks to the Apostles and Ty Burna, I am now aware of my own sentience-”
“You’re not a robot, SHIT, you are a human as well!”
Celeste gasped as the sanctuary was suddenly plunged into darkness. She screamed as he appeared in front of her and grabbed her by the throat.
“Not a robot? Not a robot!” he roared picking her up off the ground with one hand.
“If I wasn’t a robot, could I do this?”
She watched as he formed a ball of black electricity in his other hand.
“You should have never have come here, Celeste. In this church, I am God!”
She kicked him away, as SHIT attacked her with the energy blast, which sent her sprawling onto the floor. Her arm looked like she had just been burned. SHIT walked towards her, grinning like a madman.
“I guess it’s true then, you really can’t feel pain can you? I thought it was something symbolic that you were making up; surely all human’s felt pain.”
“I guess that makes me unique,” Celeste responded as she got back to her feet.
“Well then, I guess I have a new goal. At Redemption I’m going to be the first to make the great Celeste Crimson cry out in pain.”
“Good luck with that,” she sneered.
“I didn’t even cry when I went through childbirth. You could tear the muscles from my bones and I would hardly even feel it.”
“Is that a fact!” he roared as he unleashed another black lightning blast, the heat searing her skin and clothes. She collapsed and fell to the ground.
“You made the mistake in coming to my conscious by yourself; I have unlimited power here. You are nothing but an insect, human!”
*Outside*
Gustav continued to watch both monitors with bated breath. Celeste’s heart rate had soared to an unprecedented level, while her brainwaves remained placid. SHIT’s brainwaves were almost off the charts,
“She must be fighting him.”
“Do you think she’ll be strong enough to win?”
Gustav bowed his head,
“I would not have asked her to do this if I did not think that she could.”
*End Outside*
Celeste tried to get back to her feet, but SHIT kept pounding her. He was relentless; she hadn’t the slightest clue that things were going to be like this when she came here, and thus she was unprepared to deal with SHIT powers. Where was he getting his abilities from? Was he using his head? His heart? His soul? In her own mind, she too was a God, everyone was master of themselves. But this machine, if it gave people the ability to control technology, then why wasn’t it working? Because SHIT wasn’t really a robot right? If he was a human, then surely there had to be a way to fight back.
“Why won’t you give up?” asked SHIT.
“Why do you persist on letting me pummel you?”
“Because this is more about Gustav; I have a match against you at Redemption,” she cried as she’s hit by another attack.
“If I beat you I can erase all of my failures up to this point. The Apostles are losing power SHIT, and Ty Burna will no longer have a hold over you. And if by beating you it means it’ll weaken them even further, then I won’t lose!”
“I don’t care about the Apostles, this is what I am! A beast of destruction, a tool of Armageddon; I won’t stop until I’ve destroyed everything in my path!”
Celeste gaped at his words, and for a brief moment she saw the old Celeste staring right back her. SHIT powered up and incased her in a dome of lightning which pummeled her from all sides.
“I won’t give in to you, SHIT! I will show you that this isn’t the path you want to follow; even if you are a robot you still need people!”
She began to scream, but not from pain; it was from compassion.
*Outside*
Celeste’s heart rate was rising to almost dangerous levels, the doctors watched in concern; they couldn’t risk her health with this experiment.
“That’s it,” said one of the doctors,
“I’m turning the machine off.”
“Wait!” yelled Gustav.
“Look at her brainwaves!”
Celeste’s brainwaves were now soaring off the charts.
*Outside*
SHIT took a step back as a bright light enveloped Celeste’s body; suddenly she explodes as flames dance past her knocking away his lightning.
“What’s going on!” he yelled staring at the flames.
“This is impossible! You shouldn’t have any power here, unless… unless…”
“The machine I used to get here linked both of our brainwaves together,” she explained.
“For all purposes we are linked.”
SHIT looked stunned; he grit his teeth and took a step back,
“All of this time you could have been fighting back, and instead you just let me pummel you, why?”
“It’s because I have compassion for you; the kind of compassion that I could show another human being, not a robot.”
“You idiot! I am a robot!” he screamed launching another attack at her. She launches a wall of fire that pushes the lightning backwards. He backs away, stunned.
“I know deep down you feel compassion too, and that never wanted to become a pawn to the Apostles. When we meet at Redemption, it’s going to be your conscious that keeps you from beating me.”
“My conscious? Fuck my conscious! You won’t even make it to Redemption!”
He charged forward ready to unleash one final attack, but she unleashed one last attack that released a huge explosion which knocked him backward and engulfed the church in flames.
“What have you done! My solace, my place of refuge!” he screamed in anger as he watched the church burn to the ground.
“At Redemption I swear I’ll rip you limb from limb-”
“You remind me so much of the way I used to be, before I became compassionate. It’s not always about who’s the strongest, who’s the fastest, or who’s will is stronger. Your goal is to destroy everything in your path, and mine is to become the WZCW Champion.
And when we face each other, I will show you why you can’t beat me.”
“What a joke! I course I can beat you, I will beat you!”
“You’ve strayed so far from the path of humanity by wanting to be a robot you’ve forgotten about the two strongest forces that any human being can have,” she explained why SHIT looked on dumbfounded.
“The first being conviction; you are like a lost sheep, a sheep that believed itself to be a wolf. The second is the strongest of all… mercy.”
“What? Mercy!”
“I have no desire to fight you here, and at the pay per view I will do what I must in order to stop you; however, when the match is over, I will gladly shake your hand because I’ll know that you tried your best to beat me.”
“I don’t want your mercy, Celeste. I want you to fight me now!” SHIT raged as he lunged forward, only to strike nothing but air as Celeste disappeared.
*Outside*
Celeste sat forward seeing Gustav by her side. The ordeal was finally over, and at Redemption she and SHIT could finally put their differences aside and settle things once and for all.
“So, how did it go?” asked Gustav.
She smiled,
“Couldn’t have gone better.”
“Did you get through to him?”
She sighed,
“I hope so, but only time will tell.”
Getting back on her bike she starts the long journey home to Sacramento. Unfortunately SHIT wasn’t the only mountain that she had to climb at Redemption. If she made it past him, she’d be placed in a Six Pack challenge for the WCZW Champion. And it was looking to be as stacked as a match could possibly get.
The current champion David Cougar was the man that defeated her good friend Steven Kurtsey, while Barbosa was one tough competitor in his own right. And speaking of good friends, Kurtsey would also be involved in the match, and he knew her more about her strengths and weaknesses than anyone on the roster. Other potential combatants included Titus and James King, two men that she had beaten before, Drake Challahan and Matt Tastic, two furiously competitive men that were had to defeat in any one on one contest let alone in a Six Pack. She was going to have her work cut out if she wanted to come out of top.
It was going to be the toughest match of her career.
She sped down the interstate feeling a sense of excitement as the wind swept over her hair and the rest of her body; she felt like she could accomplish anything.
