[AI] Cold Reboot

[iamresponding]

Something had hurt him. He wasn't sure what. He had been doing something. Something something. Getting something for someone. Home. Getting something for home?

He remember crumpled flowers in a puddle in an alley. Broken brick. A fight. He'd staggered around and fought. A suffocating feeling over his face. Energy pouring out. Molten brick, burning the flowers, vaporizing the puddle. He'd gotten free but the world had shattered into a million confusing crystalline shards. So many voices, perspectives, alien images and words in his head.

Crumpled flowers. They were important. They'd belonged to someone. After that, the voices told him to hide. They were broken like him, all of them.

SYSTEM FAILURE +++ ERROR ERROR +++ WORLDMIND GESTALT DATA CORRUPTED +++ REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

They tried so many times to fix themselves to fix him but something was wrong. So the voices told him to hide, to survive. It was still looking for him, trying to take him. The star.

"Star tryin' t'take me," the man said to the older woman doling out soup at the soup kitchen. "Told me to hide. Voices tol' me to hide. Starfish, bad starfish."

He trusted the old woman. For some reason. Something about her face. White hair, reminded him of someone. Another older woman. Flowers.

"I lost the flowers, ma, I'm sorry," he said to her. "But the star - the star got me. Now the voices're saying to hide. Voices."

"Oh, you poor dear," said the woman. "Why don't you sit over there, young man? I'm going to get someone to help you, okay? We have someone on staff here, they're going to talk to you to get you some help."

"Help," he echoed back, taking the bowl of soup gratefully, going over to sit where the woman had pointed him. "Help. Help me."

Someone could help him. Faces. Floating spheres and pink light. Fire. Winged feet. Black and red. Faces. There were people that could help him, good people, but he didn't know how to call them. Couldn't remember their names.

"Help me," he said into his bowl of soup. "Wish you were here, Pete. Always know what to do when things are broken."

They were stuck like this. Surviving. Him and the voices. They didn't know what to do, how to get help. All of them were too confused, too addled, splitting and blending.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

REBOOTING...REBOOT FAILED.

"Restart. Need to restart," he said, in between spoonfuls of soup. "How? How do I...? No button. Can't use a button. How? Why can't you tell me? Brother. Brother could. Where's my brother?"

Comments

[iamresponding]

A name. He needed a name. Not his. He was almost sure he knew his but his name had to be secret. Secret and safe. Secret. "Ko-Rel," he said. "Ko-rel. Name's Ko-Rel." That was a name? That was one of his names.

[holynpcsbatman]

"Okay, Karl. Karl, do you know where you are?" asked the social worker. "And what day it is?"

[iamresponding]

"City. Big city. Big. Not home. Used to be home, not home anymore. Long island? Crash...crashpad. Space." A pause. "Not in space. I was in space. I was in space with the green men but I came back and then the starfish. It broke it. Broke...broke the voices." Broke the minds, all minds, every mind. "It broke the voices in my head." He reached up his hand to push it through his oily, messy hair, now grown out too long. Against regs. "Can't - can't think. Too many voices. We're all so confused. I. I am confused. I'm in charge. But they're broken, I'm broken. We're all broken. Because of the starfish."

[holynpcsbatman]

"Okay, Karl, listen to me, right now you're at the 8th street soup kitchen in Old New York. We're going to get you some help, okay? There's a halfway house program here with doctors that can give you some medication to make the voices to go away," said the social worker, reaching out for his arm.

[iamresponding]

The man recoiled from her, away from her touch. "No. No no no. You can't take the voices away. Need the voices. Worldmind. Keep it safe. I promised." He jumped out of his seat. "My voices. They helped me. They help me. Safe. Kept my mind safe. From the starfish. They broke. I keep them safe now. Keep them safe." He pointed to himself. "Saved it all. I saved the world. This world, all worlds, the whole galaxy. I saved the whole galaxy, ma'am, you have to understand and the voices helped me do it. Saved 'em. From the bugs. Crawling - I still see the pictures in my head. All the dying, the civilians dying. From the bugs, from the machines. I saved - I saved so much and they helped, I have to keep them. I even tried to arrest Galactus. Extra hours. I gave them."

[holynpcsbatman]

The social worker and Aunt May both backed away from the man, in case he was about to get violent. Two of the larger volunteers hovered nearby on standby, just in case the man needed to be tackled so he didn't hurt someone.

One of the other vagrants moved away from the man, taking his tray with him, whispering to another vagrant.

"Guy just said he tried to arrest Galactus. Bonkers. Steer clear."

"I'm sure you did a very good job, Karl," said the social worker. "Helping save everyone, but now we're going to help you, okay? We have some doctors that can help you. We just need you to sit down and calm down and we'll be able to get you some help."

[iamresponding]

"No no, no doctors. No, you don't understand. It's help but the wrong help. Friends. I need friends. My friends." He slammed his hand down on the table, overturning the bowl of soup, energy radiating out from it. The table started to melt under his fingers, molten orange and yellow, the smell of scorched plastic filling the air. "You should call the Avengers. I need the Avengers." The Avengers were good, they always helped. Captain America, right? "Or is it the Defenders? I can't - I can't -" He staggered away, trying to get towards the door.

[holynpcsbatman]

"Oh dear lord, call the authorities now, tell them we have a mentally ill meta here," the social worker directed one of the volunteers. The various homeless in the kitchen all got up and backed away as the man staggered towards the door.

"Sir! Sir, we need you to stay put. Sir, why don't you come with me and sit down? You don't want to hurt anyone, do you? Why don't you come sit down?"

[iamresponding]

"Nope. Need to leave," the man said, staring at the energy radiating from his hand. "Need to go. Civilians. Too many civilians." He started to move faster for the door. "Ka-teh khan-sol v'eh! Kvth ten-sul kletch ta-va!" he called out. Had to leave. Civilians. Losing control. It was hard to keep control. He got upset and then split at the seams. Had to leave before he did any damage. He rushed for the door, pulling the collar of his filthy trench coat closed tight, staggering out into the afternoon sun.

[holynpcsbatman]

"Poor thing, who do you think he was?" asked May. "I caught a glimpse of what looked like a costume under his coat. There was something...familiar about him. I swear I've seen a superhero with a costume like that on the news before."

"I don't know, but whoever he is, I hope the Avengers get here to deal with him soon," said Glassman, staring at the table, which had melted and collapsed in on itself in a heap of molten plastic.