Wait, he fucking agreed?
Danyi blinked, not realizing she was holding her breath all this time.
The Unity Plaza was dead silent as if someone was about to be executed, the only difference was that an AI was fulfilling the demand for sex.
To most of the young ladies, this reminded them of when they would seduce and even roleplay with bots, but now seeing it in real life, they could not help but give her a thumbs up.
In one fluid motion, General A-01 grabbed her by the waist and tossed her over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes.
The breath left her lungs in a startled oof, and suddenly her view of the world was inverted, just the backs of his pristine white uniform and the stunned, gaping faces of the crowd behind him.
"Clear the airspace," A-01 commanded, his voice vibrating through his chest and straight into Danyi's ribs.
Drones swarmed instantly, forming a protective phalanx around them, pushing back the crowd with buzzing warnings.
From her upside-down vantage point, Danyi saw the faces of the citizens she was leaving behind. A woman in the front row looked at her with tears in her eyes, mouthing a silent prayer for Danyi's soul.
A man shook his head, looking at her with deep, profound pity, as if she were a lamb being carried into a slaughterhouse.
A slow, chaotic grin spread across her face as she gave the crowd a little finger-wave. Bye, losers, she thought. Enjoy your nutrient paste. I'm off to wealth.
A-01 marched straight to a vehicle that made the earlier hover-car look like a tricycle. It was a sleek, obsidian teardrop of metal that hovered silently a few feet off the ground. No tires. No windows. Just pure, expensive aerodynamics.
The door hissed open, and he dumped her onto the plush leather seat inside.
Danyi bounced once, righted herself, and immediately got comfortable. The interior was spacious enough to host a small party. The lighting was moody and ambient. The smell was expensive.
As the car accelerated smoothly into the sky, leaving Sector 4 far below, Danyi felt a thrill that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with victory.
She was here. She was alive. And she was alone with the most powerful entity on the planet.
She looked at A-01. He sat across from her, legs crossed, looking at a holographic data stream floating above his wrist. He looked calm. Detached. Completely unbothered by the fact that he had just kidnapped a woman who publicly asked to ride him.
Danyi's eyes trailed down his body. The broad shoulders. The long fingers tapping the air. The way his uniform fits him with perfection.
Just think of him as a really, really expensive vibrator, she hummed to herself, biting her lip. A vibrator that rules the world. Same thing, basically.
She shifted in her seat, feeling a coil of heat, pure curiosity mixed with adrenaline, pooling in her stomach. She was ready. She was beyond ready. She was mentally preparing to spread her legs and see exactly what kind of hardware the General was packing.
"So," Danyi purred, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. "Your place or the back of this hover-car? I'm flexible."
She fluttered her eyelashes, fully prepared to give him the best twenty minutes of his artificial life.
A-01 stopped scrolling. The hologram vanished. He looked up, and the temperature in the car seemed to drop to sub-zero instantly.
His gaze wasn't hungry. It was the way a scientist looks at a petri dish that has grown something unexpected.
"You have misunderstood, Human," he said, his voice smooth and cold as a glacier. "I did not agree to copulation. I agreed to your challenge."
Danyi's face fell. The sexy smirk slid right off her lips. "Excuse me? You said, 'Let's do it.' That is legally binding in my book."
"I agreed to the premise of your threat," A-01 corrected, leaning back. "You claimed you wanted to 'fry my motherboard.' That implies you possess a capability I have not accounted for. It implies you are a sophisticated virus in a biological shell."
He tilted his head, his blue eyes scanning her like he was reading code.
"I intend to isolate that virus. I intend to debug you."
Danyi slumped back against the leather, crossing her arms. "Debug me? Are you serious? I thought we were going to—"
[Oof.]
The System text popped up in front of her face, ready to mock her, she was sure.
[He thinks you're malware, babe. That's... kind of a compliment? In his language, that means you're interesting. He wants to study the glitch. Let him.]
Danyi glared at the text, then at the General.
Great. From sex object to science project. My life is a joke.
The car began to descend. They weren't just going to the house; they were going somewhere deeper.
When the doors opened, they were in a different part of his tower. It wasn't the luxurious bedroom from before. This was a lab. The walls were lined with servers blinking in rhythm. In the center of the room sat a cold, terrifyingly sterile examination table.
A-01 grabbed her arm and marched her to the table.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Danyi protested as he lifted her, effortlessly, again, and deposited her onto the hard surface. "This isn't what I signed up for!"
"Silence," A-01 said.
He stepped between her legs.
Danyi's breath hitched. Okay, maybe this is going somewhere.
But instead of kissing her, he pressed a button on the side of the table. Metal clamps whirred to life, securing her wrists and ankles with a soft click.
"Hey!" she yelped, pulling against the restraints. "This is a bit intense for a first date, don't you think?"
A-01 ignored her. He leaned over her, his body looming large and terrifyingly dominant. He looked down at her then, his face inches from hers. He was so close she could feel the slow beating of his bio-printed heart. He wasn't cold, on the contrary, he was warm. Distractingly warm.
He reached out, his long, elegant fingers brushing against her jawline, tracing the pulse point on her neck before moving up.
Danyi froze. Her heart hammered against her ribs, loud enough to echo in the silent lab.
Was this also programmed in his system too??!!!
He pressed his thumb against her bottom lip, dragging it down slightly to expose the pink flesh, staring at her mouth with an intensity that made her toes curl.
He leaned in closer, his breath ghosting over her lips, until everything else in the room faded away.
"Don't move."