Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 48: Capture

Ava looked around, it was hard to read the faces of the Servs, what with the masks they were wearing. The one with the cape, he had a familiar voice, but his face was also covered with a smooth black mask. No eyes, no nose, no mouth. Free from expression.

Ava observed the body-types of the Servs. They weren't very well made, it looked like they were largely made out of less sophisticated parts, their bodies lacked nuances that he'd expect your typical Serv to have.

Ava would probably be able to take these guys out if he undid his limiter, pretty easily. But he decided to hear out what they had to say.

"Hell?" he asked

"Evos who are off the network believe that ones that behave badly go to a nasty place beyond their imagination when they get destroyed." Ava could hear a smirk in the voice of the Serv in front of him, "and they live there for eternity."

"Life after death huh?" Ava couldn't quite get his head around such a contradictory concept, "so you plan to kill me huh?"

"Of course not, I told you, this is hell. Ava died here, he was reborn and this moon turned into a nightmarish place of death and destruction, he lives forever through us, as the heretic virus."

"I'm not Ava-11." Ava sighed, "Ava-11 survived, he left this place after surviving his 'death' but from what I remember of his accounts, he did swap bodies quite a lot when on Europa." which probably led to the viral infection, "I guess the legacy he left here could be considered immortality, to a degree. Living on as a virus really does sound like eternal torture."

"Our creator didn't die?"

"Well, not on Europa. He's dead now," Ava smiled, "we killed him,"

All the Servs... no, they weren't Servs, they were made from Evo factories, created to look like rudimentary Servs, calling them Heretics would be best, all the Heretics readied themselves into a battle stance.

"You killed our God!?"

"If it makes you feel better, I am, like you said, Ava. I'm a reincarnation of him." Ava opened his arms, he was another version of their God, of course there was only one way they could react to him. At least that's what Ava thought.

"Get him!" The Heretic shouted with intense rage in his voice. All the other heretics jumped down and ran towards Ava.

That wasn't the reaction he was expecting. Logically if they considered him their God, wouldn't they... treat him like one or something? They'd treat him like a Block-0, right?

No.

Thinking about it. The Heretics were born from Ava, and Ava knew how he'd act in this situation, if someone made a hefty claim that'd destroy his world view, he'd go out of his way to examine and analyse it before accepting it.

Knowing the way the twisted way the Heretics worked, there was a far more likely reality to what would happen to him.

"Capture him and take him to the lab for dissection!" the lead Heretic shouted.

Ava lowered his arms and made his decision. It was a complete change in plans, but the opportunity to infiltrate a Heretic base was too good, he'd learn so much, maybe something super important. So he'd let himself get caught. It was fine, he'd find a way out once he was done, his hacking ability made him invincible.

He felt the arms of the Heretics around him as they tried to subdue him. They really were clumsily made.

Hopefully this mission would be done before Sylvie and Aphrodite got too worried and decided to jump in.

***

Ava lay on the ground at the back of a truck, the leader was sitting above him, two other Heretics were driving.

Ava didn't know where the others had gone, they'd probably gone off to do their own thing.

Ava's hands and feet were broken, it was the only way the Heretics could think of disabling him, while the experience hurt quite a bit, it wasn't that much of a concern, there was enough light and energy in his body to heal the damage in the case of a few hours.

It seemed that sort of technology was too advanced for the Heretics so they didn't even know it. Made sense, seeing as Evo's didn't bother using healing tech themselves, the means to make it wouldn't be available in their factories.

From where he was, he could only look up to the sky, white, snowy, completely blank. Not much to say about it but it was still quite serene.

"What're you guys gonna do to me then?" he asked, he was fairly sure the Heretic was near enough to hear,

"We're going to take you to one of our factories and examine your body. We'll dissect you. Your body is clearly more advanced, the question is how advanced. Whether your body really is advanced enough for you to claim you're a reincarnation of our God."

"And if I am? What then? How do you think I'll feel knowing that people I created will have tortured me so much?" Ava already know the answer to this one, although he didn't know if the Heretic knew the innate reason why, or whether he was willing to tell the truth.

"We'll see what happens when it happens," the Heretic responded.

"Heh, of course." The answer was close enough to the truth as Ava expected. The real answer was that he didn't care, as long as he knew the truth, well and truly, nothing else mattered.

"Hey, do you have a name?" Ava continued,

"I'm a Class 1" The Heretic replied,

"I didn't ask for what class you are. Whatever that means. I asked for your name, who do you identify as?"

"I identify as a Class 1. The others were Class 2. We're in the process of producing Class 3 drones and repurposing the class structure of all the hacked Evos of this moon."

"No solo identification? Nothing others call you individually?"

"All Class 1s have the same mission directive. We all serve the same purpose and ranking. No individual Class is required. We're aware that Serv society feels the need to provide individual identity for every single unit, but this only serves to complicate and takes away cohesion." the Heretic said this with no hesitation. The class system reminded Ava of the Block system, but it was different... in a way.

...

Wasn't it?

"So I guess next time I meet a Class 1 I won't know whether it's you or another one," that was also why they didn't have faces, they probably all had the same voice too. That was pretty sad.

"The only thing that matters to me is serving Ava and spreading our word. Killing all Servs and Evos that refuse to become a part of us."

"Right." there didn't really seem to be any room for negotiation, not that Ava was interested in anything like that for now.

Ava realised what this meant though. If they didn't even have names, it meant they were all networked, that'd be the only way they'd know what another Heretic was up to, what orders to give it.

Which was perfect.