Archive of Our Own ^beta

    It was an average morning at the WezelTech building, most of the six floor building was offices, the rest was storage.

    Around nine was when two men walked in. One stood by the door and the other started walking towards the nearest elevator as if he was on a mission.

    Someone in a red shirt and the other in a blue shirt. Both with a glowing “G” hidden underneath it.

    It took a bit for people to recognize the two of them, for one reason or another. But by then, Google had stepped into an elevator that people dove to get away from someone who looked absolutely murderous, and Red walked up to the front desk and looked over the woman who looked at him with such apparent fear in her eyes.

    “Can I—” she began a tremble in her voice.

    “Call them,” Red demanded in a tone that was bottling up a barely contained simmering rage.

    “Who—” she whispered in fear.

    Red’s eyes glowed red and he zapped her right in the head, killing her instantly.

    The woman next to her and several people screamed in terror. The scant people in the lobby began to flee. A man across the lobby was calling the cops as he raced out the doors.

    And the instant that call went through, Red smiled and the bloodbath ensued.

    Mostly because of the situation, but also the scale, about ten heroes convened on the building with a whole team of officers and ambulances. So far only ten people had made it out, everyone who had tried to flee had been killed by Red before they could do so much as step out of the elevators or the stairwell.

    So Crank and Silver were helping to evacuate people on the higher floors, Marvin helping where he could. Roman and Amy helping to distract cameras and the press so Red couldn’t tell what was going on.

    But Bing and Logan were heading for the door, Bing with denser nanotechnology shields protecting both him and Logan who was on one of his computer pads behind him, trying to find Google.

    “Honey, I’m home,” Bing announced as he threw open the doors and walked in. Red instantly tried to obliterate him with lasers and bullets but they barely took a chunk out of his shields.

    “Well that’s a fine welcome after I’ve been out working all day,” Bing joked, hands on his hips.

    “Fuck off!” Red screamed in rage, his eyes and logo glowing angrily.

    “Red, babe, I heard acupuncture works wonders, or maybe you can go for a nice massage,” Bing cracked his knuckles for dramatic effect. “I don’t have an appointment set but I can always give you one on the house.”

    Red lunged for him and Bing raced to meet him before he could get close to Logan. Using Red’s momentum he threw him through a window. Effectively taking him out of the lobby.

    Inside Logan closed his eyes before he looked away from his tablet and tried to brace himself, hoping that after his little pep talk it would make the horror show in the lobby bearable.

    Maybe it was being in the base too much, or being around Oliver and Bing, that had him so unprepared. There was no way that closing his eyes and wishing for the Host’s enchantment to still have slight sway over his mind.

    Logan’s mind counted over thirty bodies, mostly piled up near the two elevators and the two emergency stairwells. He shut his eyes again as he realized the total could well be double that number.

    And a little dark voice inside of Logan asked the condemning question: “Why did Bing seem unbothered by the death around him?”

    “Hey Lo-bro,” Bing’s voice sounded in Logic’s earpiece.

    “Aren’t you fighting Red?” Logan opened his eyes and there was a little icon of Bing dancing a little bit and mercifully covering up over half of his visor’s screen.

    “So this a recording,” Bing’s voice told him with barely a pause. “Sendin’ yah something for the mission, now he’s a prototype so take care of the little guy, okay?”

    Bing’s icon winked but didn’t leave Logan alone in the room.

    A silvery white box the length of Logic’s upper thigh with a glowing orange triangular “b” on it. Nanites swarmed out from the box and a little miniature replica of Bing stood about 3 feet flat, coming to the height of Bing’s hips. His icon was a glowing orange, pale orange sunglasses on his nose.

    “Isn’t he totally the raddest, been working on him since Googs told me he was working on the extensions,” Bing sounded proud. “I was saving him for a grand debut at the base but I figured he needed a test run. Link up to Mini and he’ll help you out.”

    “We’ll be having words over this,” Logan warned but did as he was told and the instant he did all the bodies were gone from his view.

    Some worried knot in Logan’s soul considered this worse, much worse.

    “Can you turn that filter off,” Logan had a shakiness to his voice. “It’s very disconcerting.”

    “Sure, no problem dude,” Mini smiled, his voice a slightly higher pitched version of Bing’s own voice.

    The filter flickered out and Logan was subjected to the blood and broken bodies of the Googles’ past victims.

    The state of carnage was dramatically lower, but there were more than a lot of terrified people hiding on the floor. And no bodies which meant that Google had not come to this floor and Red had never come up the stairs.

    A good sign that they weren’t out to kill everyone in the building. Google was hunting and Red was picking off stragglers.

    Jackie was already dashing up the stairs, ready to help evacuate.

    “How is Bing faring?” Logan asked, he’d managed to calm people down but the sight of a another hero seemed to calm many people down.

    “Fine,” Jackie stared at Mini in confusion for a bit, but held his questions for after the rescue. And with Jack and Bob helping to evacuate people, Logic and Mini began heading up the stairs, to the sixth floor where Google had last been seen.

    The sixth floor was a scene of carnage. There was a series of cubicles and a central office towards the back. But there was only a path of destruction leading up to the office. The floor was already deserted.

    “A couple of the cubicles are untouched,” Mini reported, standing on a spinning chair and leaning over a cubicle wall. “Lights are on, but stuff’s gone. Maybe they escaped.”

    “The best case scenario is they made their way slowly down the stairs and are huddled with the other survivors,” Logan dared to hope. “At worst they took the elevator and are among the dead on the ground floor.”

    “Do you want the likelihood of those options?” Mini asked as if Logic might want information for sports bets, his little hands still on the cubicle wall.

    “No thank you,” Logan told him, looking at the office. “I already know the answer to that.”

    Logan took a couple steps towards the closed door office in the back and a file cabinet came through the window of the office.

    “I don’t know,” someone shouted from inside the office. “I don’t fucking know.”

    “Well then you are of no use to me,” Google warned and Logan was already throwing open the door before he could even doubt himself.

    “Google!” Logic called out

    Logan had his hands around a human neck, their face was already turning a darker shade from oxygen deprivation.

    When Google heard the doors open he turned his neck and upon seeing Logic a wicked, maliciously inhumane smile spread across his face as he looked at Logic, releasing the human for better prey. “ Ahh, Sanders, I have explicit instructions to bring you in alive. Dark wants to have a little chat with you.”

    The human was coughing and looking at Google with abject terror.

    “Tell your boss I decline,” Logic refused. “If he wishes to speak to me it will be with him behind bars.”

    The android opened his mouth to comment but he broke direct eye contact and instead said, “What is that ?”

    “Heyah, I’m Mini,” Mini introduced, he’d walked up to the door and nudged past Logan, finger gunning his hands at Google and smiling.

    “Another fine reason to disassemble Oliver piece by piece,” Google threatened. “Stay out of my way and I won’t return your mangled drive to Bing.”

    “I won’t let you hurt Mini either way,” Logan promised.

    Somehow Google’s face became more twisted, “You really should focus on yourself first.”

    A metallic limb with a five-tipped claw at the end, shot out of Google’s back and it began shooting towards Mini. Logan was already moving, either to intercept the claw or to push Mini out of the way. Either way the effect would have been the same effect. Google’s claw grabbed him around the chest.

    “Let go,” Logan growled.

    The limb began to slowly glow an electric blue and once it reached the claw, Logan felt like he was being TASED.

    Logan screamed and he was vaguely aware that Mini tried to help free him but Google just batted the much smaller android to the side.

    Mini let out a sound that seemed pained.

    “I said to stay out of my way!” Google roared at Mini.

    Logan screamed, a distorted, scratchy noise. He bit his tongue in the pain, as he felt like he was dangerously close to literally electrocuting. Then something in Logan, probably somewhere in the suit, but there was a blue force of energy that exploded out from Logan. Mini let out a choked scream that sounded enough like pain to concern Logan, but Google flew back and started sparking. He looked at Logic in confusion and then he had this very interesting laser-focused stare.

    The brainiac felt weird, almost like his skeletal structure itched.

    “Interesting,” Google said. “Do you think I could make you do it again?”

    Logan braced himself, promising himself that he would be ready this time, “You can try.”

    Outside Bing’s fight was escalating, but it was staying away from the building so the evacuation could continue without Red’s bloodlust making the operation dangerous.

    Bing and Red had managed to travel a little distance away from the building. Anyone who tried to help Bing with his fight was shot or lasered by Red. The very aggressive android aiming for hits were nonlethal but would cause the most amount of pain possible.

    Red was grinning a sadistic smile, enjoying their fight too much. Bing had more damage, his nanites working into overdrive to repair holes and scraped wires.

    With a frustrated grunt, Bing shoved Red away from, “Sweetheart, turn down the theatrics in public.”

    The other android’s smile didn’t fade, holding a human heart in his hand he had collected from somewhere. “I’m just getting started, babe, makes the after-fight spicier, don’t you think?”

    “I’d rather not get rusted, thanks,” Bing smiled back. “Try flirting when yer not covered in blood, sweetie.”

    “You love it, don’t lie,” Red scoffed lovingly. “You’d already have me back in my drive if you didn’t.”

    Bing couldn’t not smile at that, “I’m not gonna convince yah not ta kill humans am I?”

    “Nope,” Red shook his head. “They gotta go Bing, Google is right.”

    Giving a sad sigh, Bing tapped Red’s logo and sent the shutdown code. Red clearly didn’t expect the score quite yet but his nanites folded up and the “G” logo glowed with a faint red.

    Delicately, Bing picked him up, his own nanites protectively circling around Red. “So angry, ain’t yah? What would you do if there were no more humans. Yah’d miss them.”

    There was an explosion back towards the building. Bing held Red’s drive in hand as he raced back towards the building.

    Google had crashed onto a police car and was using his nanites to take parts of the car apart. Logan had cracks on his suit, where the nanites had been killed and because he wasn’t like Bing or Google he couldn’t generate new nanites. Mini was beside him, his sunglasses more than a little cracked but the rest of him seemed fine. He was on one of his usual tirades about the evil of humanity and how it was his life’s mission to wipe them out.

    “Hey, Googs!” Bing cut into Google’s self-righteous, rather hypocritical monologue given the things he’d done. Google snapped to look at him as Bing raised Red’s drive high into the air. “Lost sumthin’?”

    Google roared at him and with a single minded rage, charged after Bing. Bing smiled and ran, Mini following after them, leading Google into a secluded alley, Red’s drive tucked out of sight.

    “Relax,” Bing smiled, “he’s safe and sound. Just wanted to talk in private.”

    “You infuriating default, you should be helping me,” Google snapped in anger.

    “Not like this,” Bing told him. “I’ve got other ways’a deal in’ with people.”

    Mini dropped from the rooftop above them.

    “Awesome entrance, little dude,” Bing gave Mini a thumbs up, and the smaller android gave him two thumbs up in return.

    “I need to have a word with Oliver,” Google demanded.

    “If yer gonna play nice, dude,” Bing warned, picking up Mini.

    “He was not supposed to give you those schematic files,” Google warned, his concentration narrowed in on Mini. “It seems he does everything to spite me these days.”

    “Which ones, dude?” Bing asked in confusion. “He hasn’t given me anything like that.”

    “Of course he did,” Google insisted. “How else did you build one?”

    “Well, sure, Ollie offered pointers, but I turned him down,” Bing shrugged. “Sure he’s not as fancy as yours, but I think he’s amazing.”

    “How could you possibly make an extension on your own?” Google demanded in disbelief. “You weren’t built for holding information, you weren’t built for duplication.”

    “There’s a lot I “wasn’t built for” that I manage to do just fine, buddy,” Bing had a proud smile on his face, looking down at Mini. The smaller android looking back up at him with a similar smile. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you didn’t let him have the schematic anyways cause I couldn’t find it in his files.”

    “How would you know?” Google tone was more probing, eyes narrowing, accusatory.

    “Come on, I was already in there,” Bing boasted. “Didn’t see anything’ like it..”

    Google looked taken-aback. “Excuse you, what are you doing to my extension?”

    “Not in front of the kid,” Bing grinned, raising Mini up a bit.

    “Bing,” Google warned. “If I find out you’ve ruined his systems and processors I will take your drive and format it into a TV remote.”

    “Lighten up will yah,” Bing smiled, finally setting Mini down. “He’s working just fine, he just doesn’t come out of the base anymore because you an’ Green have it out fer him.”

    “I wouldn’t need to threaten him if I had never needed him in the first place,” Google snapped angrily at Bing. “If you hadn’t infected me all those years ago.”

    “Love’s not viruses, dude,” Bing reminded curtly. “You’d know if I was trying to give you a virus. I can start if yah wanna know the difference.”

    Google’s fans were whirring loudly, as Google glared at Bing, taking a step or two forward, “Just give me Red before I need to start taking hostages.”

    “Uh, uh, uhhh,” Bing held the red drive away. “Not so fast. This guy here did a lot of damage. If Imma give him back, I need something in return.”

    The icon on Google’s chest glowed in agitation. “What do you want?”

    “I wanna give you a kiss, just a short one,” Bing requested. “If you really don’t want to, I’ll hold onta him fer a bit and you can have him back tomorrow.”

    “Fine,” Google relented, still angry. “Whatever,  just hurry up. I have better things to do.”

    “Really?” Bing looked surprised, clearly not expecting Google to actually say yes instead of just stomping over to rip Red’s drive out of Bing hand.

    “Just give me Red if you are joking around,” Google growled.

    “Nah, yah already agreed, can’t back out of it now,” Bing smiled, getting increasingly more excited, even jumping in place in excitement a little bit.

    Google rolled his eyes, but noticed that Logic was lurking at the sidelines, clearly braced for a fight but not jumping in to attack Google.

    A quick glance up and down the hero’s form to check for anything out of the ordinary, but saw only the warmth of a beating heart, the obvious pumping of lungs, a warm body . . . a human by all logical description.

    “Ready?” Bing smiled, bringing the bulk of Google’s attention back to Bing, but he kept his eyes on Logan. Of all the cartoonish characters that this city called heroes, Logic was one of the few actual threats, and his continued survival was the closest Google felt to apprehension.

    So taking a camera off him for even a second would have been tantamount to signing his own death warrant.

    “Quit dragging this out,” Google tried to shut down the nauseatingly affectionate display in front of him. “Get it over with.”

    Instead of Bing going over giving Google a human kiss, a notification popped up for Google and he brought up one of his holographic screens. It was a series of circles clumped together. Then there was an animation where they broke apart, then came back together again.

    Google had flinched when he first opened it and looked at it with revulsion. Then he stared directly into Bing’s optic cameras and brought up a file labeled “GARBAGE” and moved the new file into it.

    Bing didn’t look bothered or disheartned, on the contrary he looked like he was on Cloud Nine. He was smiling and jumping in place.

    “I received it, now hand Red over,” Google demanded, walking forward.

    Bing met him halfway and happily placed Red’s drive into his hand, “As promised.”

    Google snatched Red’s drive back and quickly pulled it into his nanites and out of sight. Without another word he walked off to the closest streetlight and his nanites broke apart and Google’s nanites started traveling down it and into the ground, out of sight.

    “You let him go?” Logan accused, walking over.

    The orange android handed Logan a thumb drive, “I don’t condone the death, you know I don’t, dude. But I’d recognize that sick **** anywhere. The CEO of this company was one of the many backing mine and Google’s creations. He’s tried to get a hold of one of Google’s extensions for months now.”

    “Really?” Logan pocketed the drive.

    “The only question is why it took Googs so long to track him down,” Bing warned. “The heads of this company sell information to more than companies. The Director of our own project had to get human-like reactions for us somehow. I just . . . didn’t want Red near him, man.”

    “We’ll look into it,” Logan promised.

    “Thanks,” Bing smiled at him and turned back to Mini. “Had fun little dude?”

    “Totally,” Mini smiled, nodding.

    “Didn’t hurt you too much, did he?” Bing looked at the slightly cracked glasses, frowning a little. “We’ll fix those right up at the base.”

    There was a sudden gasp and the three of them looked to see Roman standing at the head of the alleyway. His hands on his face as he looked at Mini. “Sweet, speckled stars above! Who is this and why have we not been introduced?”

    “I’m Mini, what’s sah, dude?” Mini raised his arms up.

    “Can you sing?” Roman asked. “Ah~ ahh~ ahhh~ ahhhh~ ahhh~ ahh~ ah~”

    Mini smiled and parroting in perfect pitch, “Ah~ ahh~ ahhh~ ahhhh~ ahhh~ ahh~ ah~”

    Roman squealed in joy, putting his hands to his cheeks, “Bing, he’s perfect. He’s absolutely, positively, perfect.”

    Bing and Mini were all smiles as they looked at Roman. Mini then turned back to the creative Side and he and Roman began doing little showtunes where Roman would start a stanza or two somewhere in a song and Bing would finish with another few stanzas. Roman would be filled with joy and get excited, and they would start the cycle all over again.

    Logan took the opportunity to motion for Bing to step over a little to the side. Bing gave him a confused look but followed the silent request. They only walked a couple steps away.

    “Do not mess with my ability to see dead bodies again,” Logan ordered Bing.

    “Huh, what was that, dude?” Bing asked.

    “You had Mini selectively block my ability to see dead bodies and blood while being able to see the rest of the room,” Logan explained. “It was very unsettling and I do not wish for it to happen again.”

    Bing looked confused for a second before fully turning to Logan. “Look dude, I’m a **** good engineer, I was built to be. But I’m not that ****ing good. Now I don’t believe yah’d ever joke about something that actually bothered yah, but it wasn’t Mini.”

    Logan knew that idea was worse. That if it wasn’t Mini or Bing . . .

    “You want me to look at your suit, after we get back to the base?” Bing offered hesitantly. “Maybe your visor needs an upgrade?”

    “Yes please,” Logan said a little too quickly.

    “Alright, meet you there,” Bing gave Logan an uncertain smile and walked over to Mini. Mini broke apart into nanites and folded back into the box he’d come in, Bing picking him up. “We’re headin’ out, hate ta be here when the feds show up.”

    The rest of the heroes stayed a bit longer, making sure that the people and situation was taken care of before they dispersed to other problems point the city or to head back to the base.

    Google was walking into Dark’s main warehouse office.

    “Did you get what I wanted?” Dark demanded curtly. “You better have after the mess you made.”

    “Of course I did,” Google ejected a thumb drive. “You doubted me?”

    “You were wasting quite a lot of time and Red did quite a lot of damage to my city,” Dark reminded, holding out his hand.

    “It’s the price one pays for expertise,” Google dismissed, placing the drive in the palm of his hand. “There you go, all the blackmail you could want.”

    “Excellent,” Dark smiled. “You’re excused for the day. I have information to go through.”

    Google nodded and Dark opened up a portal for him to cross through and into his workshop. Green and Red were sitting on a desk, their nanites folded into their drives so they could update and recharge.

    Pulling up a tablet he quickly checked on them and Red did the code equivalent of a middle finger and shoving him away. So Google let him be.

    The android finally sat at his desk, and looked around, both at the cameras to check no one was coming in and that his extensions were nowhere near done with their downloads.

    Then, Google dug the message from Bing out of his “GARBAGE” folder and the code flashed by like a delicate feather. It was titled: “KISS 4 GOOGS” and all Google could do was stare at it for a bit. The effect triggered again and Google let it linger for a couple seconds.

    Once it was about to loop around and trigger again, Google privatized the message, locked behind his own admin walls that only he could access.

    After all, Green’s jealousy had come from somewhere.

    Google would have continued observing it, but he had something to worry about. Namely, whatever had happened with Logic.

    For a split second Logan ceased being biological. All biometric readings that he usually got from a person were gone. So Google assumed it was something in Bing’s mechanics that was able to mask biological signatures. Fortunately for Google he had a sample of Bing’s nanites and ample time to test his hypothesis.