I came to a stop.
The massive transformer in front of me was still arching with electricity, but I was no long moving towards it. I was aware of the large concrete room full of machinery, catwalks and pipes, but most of my attention was focused inward. My awareness of that fractal network had faded a little, but I still felt it. It was me, what my body was when broken down into information. Realizing it made me feel like I had just woken up, a sensation I had not experienced in a long while. "I-"
And then Starfire piledrived me straight into the ground.
The concrete beneath me cratered, and I found myself face down in a pile of broken rocks with Starfire straddling me. We were both still before a long moment, her bracing for how I was going to respond, me imagining that I would be intimately familiar with the taste of concrete at the moment if I had functioning taste buds. Eventually, I slowly raised my hand, finger pointed upwards.
"Ow."
Starfire straighten up a bit, but she did not relax. "I refuse to accept such a solution, Jacob! You will fight this! You will-!"
"Starfire!" I interrupted as I turned my head to look at her. "It's done. I'm back."
The woman looked at me for a long moment before she slumped, the tension bleeding out of her. "I thought… for a moment..." she said. I awkwardly turned over and wrapped her in a hug. I didn't hold it for long, just long enough to reassure her that I was there.
We tried to get to our feet, but I stumbled and had to put a hand on the ground to steady myself. I felt… light headed? I wasn't sure, it had been awhile since I felt that. Looking down at my hand I could see that it was rippling and shifting slightly. That chittering that had always been in the back of my mind felt different, like it had more texture and depth than it used to. Focusing on the sensation made it unfold and take shape in my mind's eyes. That Algorithm was still flowing through me, but I noticed… gaps in myself, for lack of a better term. Are you there? I asked in my mind, but the Remnant gave no response. "Jacob," I heard Starfire say, concern once again entering her voice. "Are you sure you are alright? Your eyes..." A pause.
"I..." I hesitated for a moment as I analyzed the 'holes' and how the Algorithm moved to fill them. "I think destroyed or damaged a few of my body's subsystems when regained control."
"Are you in danger?"
"No," I said, as my hand finally solidified and I got to my feet. "I'm rebuilding them as we speak. I just need some time to recover." It certainly was a novel sensation, having this much insight to myself. Still, I frowned. "Still seems kinda weird though. I mean, I just dramatically regained control of my body by collaborating with a mysterious entity and achieving personal enlightenment with respect to my new existence. I feel like I should have gotten a power boost or something."
"...What?"
I blinked as I realized what had just said and groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. Yeah, still don't really want to think about that right now, I thought. "I am the lampshade of my trope- Look, never mind."
It was then I noticed that Superboy, Artemis, and Kid Flash had gathered around the two of us. "Great to have you back Mach, but what the hell happened?" Kid Flash asked. "What happened to 'there's only one person in the world with the specific technical genius that could even attempt to hack me'?"
"Still technically true, technopathy kinda bypasses most of the technical bits." I said with some irritation. I had specifically checked a while back for technopaths on the Mountain's database, but to my surprise I had turned up nothing. There were a few instances of machines being compromised by other machines or nanotech, but no metahumans with the ability. As far as I knew, Calculator was the first.
"Look, a lot has happened that I need to explain." I started before I stopped. "No, there's too much, so let me sum up. I went to the communication hub, but it turned out the hacker was actually a technopath named Do- I mean the Calculator, because I taunted Murphy. He tried to delete me and co-op my body and it almost worked, but I got some help from a quasi-friendly AI that happens to be the remnant of the Fog AI we destroyed back in Philadelphia."
"Wait, quasi-friendly AI-" Superboy started to say.
"I'm not done. While I was under I managed to catch a conversation between Calculator and Sunderland. They're going to try to advance their operation as fast as possible, and destroy or kill anyone that knows about it. Namely us and all those people they enslaved. Also, the Calculator is planning an attack on the city's utilities as a distraction and way to kill all of us." I looked around at the massive concrete room. Many of the walkways on the walls above had been torn down, and several of the transformers were sparking wildly, but the lights were still on. "I assume that we're in one of Lafayette Utility Systems' buildings?"
Starfire nodded. "We had been searching for you when Robin picked up the news report of the facility coming under attack. When we saw it was you, we came as fast as we could."
I frowned a little. "That was probably the intention, but I don't think he expected me to take you all out. He said there'd be nothing left but bits and rub-" I stopped and my eyes widened. "We have to get out of here now-"
"Relax, Machina," Robin's voice suddenly came up over comms, though the connection crackled a bit. "Me and Miss Martian are already on it. I figured something was up with the setup, so I took a minute to scope the area while the others tried to knock some sense into you. Found some air drones dropping off explosives all over the building. Kid Flash and I have been spending the whole time finding and disarming them while Miss Martian takes out the drones."
My eyebrows raised. "So, is the building secure?"
"Difficult to say!" Miss Martian's voiced was a little more frantic than Robins, and I heard some crashes from her side of the line. "Every time I think I'm done with these drones, more keep showing up!"
"Well, I'm not a problem anymore so we can-" I started to say before I stopped. "Wait, dammit, this is still a distraction. The Calculator setup this trap to kill you guys, but it was also to get you away from Sunderland's operation. It's probably going down right now-"
"The Justice League is already here." Starfire said. "I called them shortly after your disappearance, and they agreed to lend their aid in the situation. Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Zatara are all scanning the bayou for Black Hound now, with Batman for support. We split off to find you when we learned that this facility was under attack." Her mouth pressed thin. "But our long range communication has been jammed ever since we entered the area, so we haven't been about to contact them since."
I focused on my internal radio for a moment and confirmed this was the case, a powerful jamming signal filling the air around us. Our short range comms were strong enough to get through it, but if we wanted to go farther we'd have to overpower. I might be able to turn into a radar dish once I got my body sorted, but till then... "Well, I suppose that simplifies things. Still, he doesn't want us contacting the League. The Calculator doesn't care if Sunderland fails, but he never wanted it to be know he was involved with this. But I know, and now you all know."
Superboy shrugged at all of this. "So, we just have to find this Calculator and pound him into the dirt. No problem."
"I don't know… quite frankly, if he decided to cut his losses and run right now, I don't think there is anything we could do to find him-"
"~Well, I hope you're happy with yourself, you little shit.~" The building's intercom crackled to life, and the Calculator's voice echoed through the building. "~I don't know how you managed that, but enjoy the last few minutes of your existence!~" I then heard at the edge of my hearing a loud buzz, sounding an awful lot like a swarm of aerial drones carrying a massive amount of explosives heading towards us.
"...Though that doesn't stop him from throwing every explosive he has at us as a parting shot." I muttered.
"Team, spread out!" Starfire commanded as she took to the air, ignoring the tirade the Calculator was giving us over the speakers. "We still must defend the facility lest the Calculator destroys it out of spite. Miss Martian and I will stay in the air, Machina and Artemis on the roof. Kid Flash, patrol the perimeter and act as spotter. Superboy, you are with Robin to take care of any explosives we missed."
The team present nodded and split up. Starfire simply flying up through a convenient hole in the ceiling. For a second I tried to fly after her, but my body shifted sluggishly, the core refusing to cooperate. After a few seconds I gave up and headed in the same direction Artemis went, hoping to find a flight of stairs. Oh, I damn well better get over this crap quickly, I thought to myself.
I could already hear explosions going off around the building as I raced through the corridors and up the stairs. I reached to the top floor before Artemis did, and sprinted down the corridor looking for roof access. I passed by the main networking control room as the Calculator's voice over the PA calmed down somewhat. "~Oh, and while you kids are having fun watching each other get blown apart, enjoy knowing that I'm cranking up the dials to max on all those meatbags you were trying to save. I doubt anything's going to be left of those assholes poking around the woods but shreds.~"
My running slowed, and I soon came to a stop. The enslaved would tear everyone around then, and then themselves, apart. And even if they were stopped the implants would kill them from being overclocked like that. I couldn't let that happen, but what could I do? Even if I could contact the League right now, what could they do? If what the Calculator was saying was right, those people only had a few minutes at best. And it wasn't like the team could go and stop him physically, we didn't know where he was. That meant the only thing I could do was...
It wasn't a good idea. The Calculator was still as powerful as ever, and not stupid in how he used it either. I was disoriented, unsure of what the hell had just happened to me or how to use it, and I had no plan. There was a chance that if I went and did it, I'd just get myself killed or controlled again. It'd be irresponsible if I risked myself like that. The smart thing to do was pull back, wait him out and let someone else handle it.
But if I did, people would die.
...What else was I to do?
I turned and moved, heading to back to the network control room. "I have to confront him."
"Wait, what?" Superboy was the first to voice his confusion over the comms. "What are you talking about?"
"The Calculator's in the facility's systems. If I interface with the main terminal, he's bound to find me, and he's not going to pass up another chance to get me back under his control. I need to confront him and sever his control over the people Sunderland kidnapped."
"Are you nuts?!" Kid Flash yelled. "You just broke free of mind control and you want to go back in and give this creep another shot?!"
"I still have the… thing that let me break free last time. I can resist it now. Almost certainly. Probably."
I reached the network control room and ran in, the large circular room containing a console that wrapped around the whole outside of it. I moved to the console, but was stopped as Starfire simply smashed through the ceiling and came to a stop in front of me. "Machina, no!"
I nearly fell back. "Don't smash through the building we're trying to protect! And don't leave Miss Martian!" I yelled.
She ignored me as she grabbed my arm and tried to pull me. "You can help us fight here-"
I resisted and held my ground. "Those people will die if I don't do something. I can save them. I will save them."
"Someone else will-"
"Name someone else who can do this." I shot back. "Name someone else who can save those people in time."
Her face twisted, but she didn't have an answer. After a moment her grip loosened. "...Can you do it without losing yourself?"
"Hey," I said with a small smile. "I'm not planning on making a martyr of myself. I'm coming back… but what am I if I don't try?"
She closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them, they practically burned with intensity and she placed a hand on my chest. "Ventra Hal Sur'mec Dunarish Cortar!" She shouted at me before shooting back up into the air.
Grab hold of the Sun and crush your enemies with it.
Without hesitating a moment longer, I moved forward and plunged my hand into the console, willing it to split and interface with the hardware. For a moment, nothing happened. I blinked as the automatic reflex that usually took hold when I tried to interface with tech failed to trigger, and I groaned. "Oh for the love of..." I muttered as I focused the Algorithm, centering on what I wanted and trying to remember the sensations I felt every time I had done this before-
And then I was in.
For and instant, there was only me floating in an empty void. My body was once again made of blue lines in a circuit pattern, tracing so densely over me that it was hard to see between the gaps. The instant passed, and lights and lines came into existence around me. Everything was connections from nodes to other nodes. It was actually rather small and simple compared to what I had experienced before, just a few dozen nodes with a single larger connection trailing off into the 'distance'. It took a few moments to realize that I was in the Local Area Network for the facility, and that line out must have been the connection to the internet.
That was as far as I had gotten before he found me.
I felt it before I could see it. That bit of pressure closing in around me on all sides, similar to what I had felt when I first met the Calculator. But much, much weaker. He has a range on his power, like a field, I thought as I remembered what the Remnant told me. He can extend his influence through the network, but it's wasn't nearly the same as being around him physically.
Even so, I was still able to hear his voice as the pressure tried to dig into me. "Oh this is adorable. You're actually trying to come after me through here. And I had thought that I would have to write you off as a loss." The pressure tried to dig into me with each words.
I ignored his taunt as I 'looked' around, trying to catch a trace of him as I said "What happened the AI? Did you do something to it?"
A scoff. "Nothing yet, but when I find that garbage code I'm going to enjoy taking it apart to see just what it did to restore you back to this broken state."
There! Coming from the large connection leading out, a sort of dark mist was pouring towards me. I pushed through the pressure and move forwards, following it down the connection line to the internet. As soon as I did my world exploded with more connections extending in every direction. Pure data flooded my awareness, and for a moment I was worried I would drown in it. But the Algorithm came to my aid, and the information was parsed and given context. Not just points and lines of light, it was now a city extending in all directions, information speeding to and from every building in a lattice of communication. It wasn't as grand or intricate as my own network, but it was alive.
And I saw the line of data that the black mist cut through it.
I broke into a run, moving faster than I ever thought possible as I followed it back to its source. However, every connection I made, every step I took, the pressure got worse, the mist became more solid. I stumbled and yelled out in pain as the mist coalesced into a tendril and stabbed me in the side, the pressure spiking.
SUBM-
No.
The lines of my body changed shape as the Algorithm responded to my will, coming together and forcing the foreign agent out of me. I charged forward again, warding off attacks as more tendrils tried to run me through. They were getting stronger the further I went, but so was I. Each attack I defeated gave me more insight into the Algorithm, how I was using it, how I was supposed to use it. The whole of the Algorithm was massive and limitless, but unwieldy. I had to use the right part of it, find the bit I needed for the right task. And the more and more I protected myself from control, the more the function took definitive shape, the more efficient it became. Soon, from the depths of my mind, a name came forth.
Core-Loop Reinforcement Protocol.
Yeah, that'll do.
Even as I tore forward, the other man's voice still echoed around me. "What are you even hoping to accomplish? No matter how this goes, the League will be down a few members in a few minutes, and your team will be dead. You're just a child throwing a fit at this point, unable to help anyone."
It was my turn to snort. "The League can handle a few rowdy citizens and some guys with guns. And my team is awesome enough to handle whatever piddly robots you can throw at them. But you? You're mine."
An instant later I saw it, the source of the darkness I had been following. A building node that had been completely wrapped in a thick black cloud, tendrils extending in all directions from it. I launched myself full force at it. But when I hit the wall, I couldn't push through and stopped. The tendrils reacted immediately, spearing into me and wrapping around so tight I couldn't move.
SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT
I screamed as I fought back the pain. The pressure had become crushing, the same as it was when I first met him. This was Calculator's personal terminal, one which had to be right next to him. The way I was projecting myself, trying to access it as such was the same as if I was standing in the same room as him.
"What now, genius?" the Calculator crowed. "You came at me with no plan, no hope of success and look at you now! Right back under my heel where you belong! So what are you going to do?"
SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT
Well, what does a man do when he dramatically decides to take on an overwhelming force against long odds head on in order to save lives, and is now up against said force?
Lean into it.
The Algorithm in me started to run faster and faster, the glow of my body increasing and causing the darkness to burn away. My arm broke free of the tendrils and slammed into the dark wall before me. The tendrils tried to burrow back into me but my other arm got loose and slammed into wall as well. I roared as started to hammer the wall with everything I had.
I could feel the other man's contempt as he watched me. "...This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. You can't brute force your way-"
The wall cracked, light shining through the darkness.
The Calculator stopped, and the wall quickly sealed itself back up. "...as I was saying, you can't just-"
The wall cracked again, this time larger.
"Stop it." he said sharply.
I kept going, faster and faster. Even through the pain, through the force opposing me, I grinned and laughed. I couldn't help the words that spilled from me. "Ora," I intoned. "Ora Ora Ora ORA ORA ORA ORAORAORAORA!"
The wall fractured more and more, unable to repair itself as fast as I was damaging it. The tendrils could no longer get close to me, burning away before they could even touch. The whole building shook as I cracked my way inside with a brute force assault.
"No! NO! How are you doing this?!" The Calculator screamed. "What are you?!"
"I..." I pulled my fist back, glowing with an awesome power. "Am a superhero!"
The whole side of the building caved in as I punched forward into the space, and inside the hollow area I saw it. All of those dark threads tracing back to a titanic figure, a humanoid made from digital mesh with a geometric symbol on its brow. Any features it might have had were lost though, in the mess of black wires that cut into its 'flesh', binding it in elaborate tracing patterns. Its jaw was slack open and its eyes were covered by a visor. The wires around it pulled, and like a puppet the thing tilted its head towards me, its expression unchanging.
This was Dominion. The corpse of a dead, digital god that the Calculator puppeted around to give him his powers. I wasn't sure if the Calculator knew, I wasn't sure how I knew, but this thing was so much more than just a metahuman power. Part of me prayed that it was dead for good.
Suddenly the building started to collapse in on itself, and every wire and tendril shot towards me. I knew, the Calculator was trying to destroy his terminal to stop me. That was fine, I only needed one more instant. Still shooting forward, I found the wire I was looking for, the one that glimmered with a Red light. The Algorithm let me know it was the one, and the instant I grabbed it I commanded it to stop and shut down. The wire went dark, and I severed it.
Everything collapsed in on me-
I found myself sitting on the floor of the control room, the networking console a torn up mess and me experiencing what I could only describe as a full body headache. "Oh, dumpshock is a bitch..." I muttered.
My comms activated and I heard Starfire say "Machina, the drones have all stopped. Did you succeed?"
"Yeah," I said, and in spite of the ache I grinned. "I crushed him."
It was a whole two days before the mess down in Louisiana got even close to settled. One of the nation's largest Biochemical research companies being found to have orchestrated a massive human trafficking operation tends to cause some mayhem, which was to say nothing of all the actual physical damage that was caused. Still, due to the efforts of the League (and my team in the shadows), we managed to get the situation sorted and the guilty parties in custody fast enough to hand it over to the normal authorities. And yes, we even saved the lives of all the people Sunderland had kidnapped.
The Calculator escaped though. We headed to where I guessed he was after we left the facility, but he was long gone. There was quite a lot of heat on his head because of his association with the incident, but I had a feeling that he would not be easy to track down. All the same, I also had the feeling I'd be seeing him again someday.
In any case, there was a lot to think over, a lot to experiment with after that whole debacle. I was correct when I had assumed that I would only need some time to get used to my new… state. I may have lost a few functions, but I rebuilt them quickly from the ground up, and now I was in more control than ever. I had essentially lost some automatic use for more manual control, much better in the long run. So many questions, so many possibilities. I did try working on it as soon as possible after I had gotten back to a decent base state, but shortly into my work I found that I was getting distracted. It took me a bit to realize that I was still a little over stimulated from everything that had happened to me. I needed to decompress.
And so, I found myself laying on the ground with my eyes closed, feeling the light of the sun wash over my body. The day was clear, and there was only a slight breeze blowing on the top of Mt. Justice. While I was in my most human form, I had the electromagnetic sensors running as well. It was faint, but I could just about feel that little bit of warmth through my skin, the sunlight having just enough energy. For a time, I enjoyed the solitude.
Of course, my preference for this little spot was not a complete secret, and soon enough I felt someone settle near me. I opened my eyes to see Kori looking down at me, a soft smile on her face as she knelt next to my head. She didn't speak at first, just letting me look up at her as the light of the sun formed a halo behind her.
Finally, I said "Being a superhero is stressful."
She tilted her head a little. "Do you need some time away from it?"
"Are you kidding? I'm just starting to get the hang of this."
That got a laugh, and she smiled wider. Her eyes drifted. "What's that?" she asked as she pointed to the object in my hand.
I held it up for her to see. "A little thing I was experimenting with before I came up here." I said. The object was a tiny plastic cube, about an inch on each side, with a single LED on top. "It's just a small light with a battery and electronic switch. The catch is that the switch is on the inside, and the case is insulated from EM, heat, just about anything you can think of."
"How do you turn it on then?"
I didn't answer her, instead focusing on the Algorithm. Build, build, build and… complete.
The light turned on.
I let out a breath and put the box on the ground. "I have no idea how I did that. Alright, I do have a guess. But I don't know if it's true… and I'm a little scared if it is."
"What is it?"
"To make that happen, I run an algorithm in my mind." I explained. "On its own, all it does is run through some very unique math, an infinite series that approaches a limit and, due to some creative Gaussian transformations on imaginary numbers, actually reaches it. It should be complete nonsense, but I think that the algorithm is causing some kind of platonic resonance on a higher plane of logic that gets picked up by technological devices."
Kori processed this for a long moment before she said "So… it is like magic?"
"Yes, like magic. Specifically, I think its technomancy… and I may have kinda invented it."
"That is incredible! How?" She asked.
"With help from the Remnant AI. Really it was their work, I just provided the final key to complete it. I… ever since that moment I feel like I'm connected to something. It's small, but it's there. And I think the more that I learn how it works and how to use it the more that it will grow."
"How wondrous... But why would that make you scared?"
"Because what if there really are many-angled ones living at the bottom of the Mandelbrot set?"
Her brow furrowed. "I do not understand."
I waved her off. "Don't worry about it, I'm probably just being paranoid. I'm actually pretty excited to see what this can do."
The smile returned to her face as she looked at me. "I for one enjoy what it has done for your eyes..."
I hadn't realized it until I had seen a mirror, but my eyes had irises now. Blue, and circuit patterned if you looked close enough. I don't know what about the nonsense I had gotten resulted in that… but I was far from unhappy with it.
A small motion of Kori's head caused her hair to spill down, some of it falling onto me. I reached up and wove my fingers through it, smiling back at her. There was a long moment that stretched between us, a comfortable silence where our presence for each other was all we needed. Finally, I spoke.
"I'm 28."
Kori blinked, straightening up as she looked at me in confusion. Meanwhile, I fought the urge to facepalm. What the hell is wrong with me? I thought. Out of all the things to say, why would I start with that?
"I… see?" Kori said hesitantly. "Is that an important age for humans?"
"Not really, I just… I guess I felt I needed to give you some context." I said. "Recently someone told me that I needed to get the lead out of my ass."
"...I was not aware that your posterior had an abundance of lead, or that it would be harmful to you."
"...Ok, I walked right into that one." I said with a sigh as I actually facepalmed. "Ugh, how am I so bad at this?"
"It is fine. You don't have to-"
"No, I have to say something." I insisted as I got to my feet, and Kori followed suit. "I almost died. I knew from the start that this could happen, being a superhero, but I guess I didn't really realize it until now. I…realized I can't really put things off or wait till they're perfect, so I need to do this. Hell, there's a good chance you already know what I'm going to say. But I have to say it, at least once." I took a breath as I looked up before looking back at her.
"You are the most important person to me in this world."
He eyes widened and I pressed forward. "Ever since I got to this reality you have always been there for me. I'm at my happiest when I'm around you. You're kind, strong, and the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And I know that I'm not really... all there yet, but I was, I want..."
I hesitated as I tried to find the words before I gave up. "Ah to hell with it." I reached out to cradle the side of her face with my hand before I stepped in and kissed her.
I felt that warm, electric tingle as her lips pressed against mine, spreading to my whole body as she pressed herself flush against me. Her arms wrapped around my neck as she leaned into it, and my free arm went around her waist in turn. The rest of the world just faded away for me, and for a long instant there was only her.
Finally our lips broke apart, though we remained in each other's embrace. Kori's smile was as brilliant and beautiful as ever as she said "What took you so long?"
"I had some hang-ups to get past." I said as my other arm slipped down to her waist, unable to keep my own smile off either. "Besides, if you had pressed the matter I doubt I would have said no."
"You can be a very hard man to read, Jacob." She replied. "I know that it is not your fault, but it can be hard to tell just what you are thinking or feeling. I did not want to put undue stress on you if..." She trailed off.
I nodded. "Ah. Well, I hope I've made it clear now. I'm here for you." I paused and looked to the side. "Well, as much as I can be anyway."
A hand turned my face back towards her. "But you want to..." she trailed of.
"Yes. I'm working on it." I said and I gave a lopsided grin. "And now I have a lot of motivation."
A pleased hum came from Kori's throat. "Good. In the meantime I'm sure we can find other ways to be intimate."
"Absolutely. Though I must warn you, if you get too close you may find out my terrible, dark secret: that I'm actually a boring, average man."
She gave me a coy look as her arms tightened around my neck. "I don't need to know any more about you to tell me who you are. I'll tell you what I do know. I know that you came back for me in that space station even when you could have run. I know that you've put countless hours into improving yourself and helping your team so that we'll all be prepared for what we'll face. And I know that you're the kind of hero who would risk his life to save others when no one else can."
Kori gave me that brilliant smile that made me feel human again "You are a wonderful man, Jacob Morgan. And I chose to be with you."
We kissed again, and for that moment, life was perfect.