Dante's AI Assassin

Full Moon February howls and yowls, shapeshifter lovers.

Here's a little flash scene that appeared magically in the endless realm that is my imagination. Hope you enjoy.

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Dante's AI Assassin

Hungry and cold, Kalina curled up under the shabby covering she'd dragged out of what the human population around her called trash bins. On top of a smelly mattress she'd found the same way, Kalina stopped shivering long enough to press her palm against the electronic device known as a tablet. Instantly she entered the primitive cyber world.

With practiced ease she created a new cloaked persona, then traveled the deepest
undercurrents of the internet where various AIs existed, worked, and emerged. Most of the AIs were shadow operations by various, world-conquering militaristic groups.

During her first day on Earth, after being abandoned on the prison planet, Kalina had traced the funding of these harmful AIs back to one source, Octopus Prime. It hadn't been difficult, given her natural ability as a machine killer. Plus all of her training on the various starships she'd served on, until being captured by slavers who hadn't known about her power to destroy their ship -- if she'd so chosen.

Once she'd finally demonstrated her skill, the crude beasts had negotiated and given her enough sustenance before dropping Kalina in the midst of the mean Chicago streets. With her physical strength depleted, her major obstacle had been simply surviving.

Holed up in an empty apartment, she'd managed to fend for herself while learning about the strange, often crazed culture happening around her. With ease, Kalina stayed hidden from the empire-of-evil AIs, as she thought of them. She'd joined forces with a small group of good AIs, and spent most of the day immersed in the cyber world. Together, she and the Light Rebels combated the sentient web predators being loosed on an unsuspecting population.

Then there were the neutral infants created by gamer hackers who'd figured out the correct coding, but had no clue how to control these un-programmed AIs -- often co-opted by the Master Spider AI, the Black Widower. Wanting to keep her presence secret for now, Kalina hadn't directly challenged the Black Widower. Not yet.

****

"What is it, Maynard?" Dante alpha-wolf snapped while glaring at the old-style office intercom. He'd been about to shift and go for a long-needed run in the winter forest with his beloved woman, Kitty. 

"Sorry, boss wolfman," the badger shifter in charge of the Pleasure Club's internet security system snapped back. "It's an emergency. The woman on my screen says she's an AI assassin. That she's interacted with you."

Dante jerked to attention, every nerve and fiber of him on extreme alert. "Be right there."

Emergency, Kitty love, Dante mind-blasted to his mate as he strode to the secured area of the club. Kitty waited for him in their suite of rooms.

Understood. Need my help? Kitty's gorgeous face appeared before his mind's eye.

Cyber security, he explained. Be with you as soon as possible.

Maynard activated the sliding door just as Dante was about to enter his code. "Been talking with her," the badger rattled off. "Whoever she is she stopped a major AI attack on us. Proved it to me."

"Yeah, she proved it several weeks ago." Dante growled, rushing to the huge monitor that dominated the subterranean room.

"What the fuck?!" Dante heard behind him. "How did she...?"

"She appeared on my personal computer monitor several weeks ago. Asked me not to inform you. Let's say she convinced me."

Dante spoke fast, then flattened his palm on the now-blank screen. Immediately an ethereal refined face appeared.

"Dante," Kalina whispery greeted. "There are more AI attacks planned on Talbot's Peak. I need to come out of the cold... isn't that a spy saying on this world?... to help your community. You're, you're the only one I trust. The only place I trust on Earth."

"Give me the details like we talked about. I've got the perfect man for the job. He just doesn't know it yet. Thought it was safer that way."

"Yes," she softly agreed. Her large, uniquely shaped eyes flashed with a prism of color. Dante hadn't been able to determine their true color. For all he knew, the ET woman disguised her appearance. In moments, she delicately spoke the code words they'd agreed on.

Dante gave a curt nod. "Got it." In the following moment, the screen blanked, then blinked to Maynard's normal settings.

Wheeling around, he waved Maynard off. "Later."

****

Summoned by Dante with two words "Mission Impossible", Zortega strode into the inner sanctum of the alpha werewolf, who he'd recently discovered was a long lost cousin through their dams.

Instead of being comfortably reclined in his chair as usual, Dante paced the large confines, and whirled to face him.  "Ever been to Chicago?" the alpha asked in an abrupt growl, and without benefit of greeting.

"Once. Long while ago. What's up, cuz?" Zortega returned Dante's piercing gaze, and braced his legs in a power stance.

"Damsel in distress," Dante barked. "An ET damsel who was abandoned on Earth."

Intrigued, ferociously intrigued, Zortega allowed a half grin to form. "Sounds like my kind of mission. When do I leave?"

"In a minute or two." Dante stole a moment to flash his own grin. "Blade Runner, our own ET rabbit shifter, is warming up his space craft."

Zortega felt his eyebrows shoot for the moon. "You've been holding out on me, cuz."

"Yeah. Hasn't been enough time to tell you everything that goes on around here. Okay, here's the howl, cuz. I know her precise location, and her individual frequency. I don't know what she looks like, but she goes by Kalina."

Dante approached fast, and they stood eye to eye. "For her sake, and for the sake of Talbot's Peak, find her, rescue her, and get back here as soon as possible. She's an AI assassin, and we've been under constant attack."

Buzzing inside with his supernatural strength, and savage with his mission, Zortega turned on his heel. "Where's this Blade Runner and his craft?"

~~~~~~


Wishing you love and passion on the wild side ~ 

Savanna 

Savanna Kougar ~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance