PROJECT: Lucian

This was an entry into a fan-fic micro-competition for League of Legends. I just figured I'd cross-post it here because I'll never save the Boards permalink like I can this post. If you'd like more information, I'd recommend reading Lucian's background and watching the PROJECT: Overdrive video. (Lucian is a character in the game, while PROJECT is a line of skins for several of the characters.)

—

They know their foe—Battlecorp's latest monster, codename WARDEN. It doesn't seem a great threat; in fact, it looks mostly harmless. In truth it is a shell housing an anti-cybersecurity and hacking AI, armed only with ad-hoc trans-physical jacking ports and a datapad. It has hit other PROJECT installations, but agents had severed communications before it could infiltrate the main system. Now it comes for the system directly.

PURIFIER are prepared. They are to immobilize it with a motor-impairing cybervirus, or barring that, to neutralize all possibility of hostility. PROJECT would like WARDEN "alive" for research into Battlecorp technology, but if all else fails, protecting PROJECT is paramount.

The elevator stops at the roof. An eerie green glow seeps through the door as it opens. PURIFIER immediately tumble out, laser weapons blazing light. WARDEN laughs. Its datapad is unharmed, and it pulls it back to itself. The glare blinds them, and they shoot wildlly until they can see. PURIFIER ONE throws a trans-phys shell at WARDEN as PURIFIER TWO lays down covering fire. The trans-phys should bind to its housing and begin infection.

Miss. WARDEN ducks behind an A/C unit, but ONE lobs another trans-phys at it. Another miss. She tosses her pistol to TWO; he senses the plot and catches it. He circles around and begins firing madly. WARDEN has nowhere to go but back into the waiting arms of PURIFIER ONE. She misses her last shell as WARDEN lashes out with its jack ports.

Pain, searing pain. WARDEN with lightning precision, has jacked into PURIFIER ONE. Its true purpose is revealed as ONE begins to dissolve from extremities in. TWO can feel everything ONE does: agony, fear, helplessness. His weapons are overheated from such rapid firing; he rushes closer. The glow of the datapad begins to turn purple, and PURIFIER realize that WARDEN is digitizing ONE for Battlecorp study.

ONE has one final plan. If TWO can infect her with one of his trans-phys shells, it should also infect WARDEN. It will cost her life, but she is already almost gone. There is little time. TWO can see her in the datapad, exploring the walls of her virtual prison, feeling the torment of her new jailer.

He freezes. If she is still in there, perhaps she can be recorporated. WARDEN laughs maniacally. It knows what he is thinking. It knows that it has won. PURIFIER ONE finally dissolves, the datapad the new plane of her existence. Before PURIFIER can react, WARDEN flings a jack port at a passing hovercraft; it blinks twice and turns green. It pulls itself to it and is gone.

WARDEN appears to have gone dark following the incident, but recent Battlecorp evolutions seem designed to circumvent various PROJECT tactics and safeguards. PURIFIER was remanded for mnemonic recalibration, but escaped before it could be started. Between damage, failure, and lack of asset to retrieve him, he was deemed not worthy of pursuit.

He loved her too much.