Virus
Chapter Twenty-Two

Eventually, we managed to track down the Amalgamation’s servers. They were now peacefully humming, as it was unconscious. There was one issue, though.

“We have nowhere to put it,” Lance stated.

“We’ll just knock it out for a while… until we replace something.” I responded. I was still using terse answers with Lance, but again, that was for later.

Putting the A.V.Algamation, as I was now calling the mix of the two, into a coma was harder than it seemed. However, eventually I was able to replace a backdoor into the circuity (thanks to the A.V. A part of it) and shut it down. It was done- now came the metaphorical ‘clean-up.’ Returning the people to their homes was only relatively hard- when they came to they would replace an airline ticket to their home, while being in the airport. They would get filled in by their relatives. However, parents were harder. All we could do was take them home… and say that they had just gotten back. The amnesia would be hard… but I was ready for secrets to be secrets. I would ask about my origins later.

It was strange, coming back to school. It seemed like that was in a different life, and it was, in a way. My parents had accepted the explanation dubiously, but it may have helped that I kind of implanted memories of a faux vacation into their mind. I still knew I had plenty of explaining to do, but for now I was content to leave it be. Perhaps in a day or two- I had always been a procrastinator…

Arrangements had to be made- there were roughly a thousand people down here, ones who the Amalgamation had been collecting for the two or so decades before I caught on to the conspiracy. Some of them were considered dead by society, others were mentally traumatized. We did what we could, organizing a sort of medical camp for the people, raiding the lair for supplies. The Amalgamation was weird… it became clear that a robotic mind was different from a human- the three rooms full of mantis shrimp merchandise simply confirmed that. However, there were plenty of cots to drag out, and rations to distribute. It was exhausting, yes. Why did other heroes have an organization clean-up for them we didn’t? Lucky, I whispered into my mind, and remembered that there was no one there- not anymore. Another wave of despair washed over me, but I couldn’t deal with this now that others needed urgent help. My own issues would wait… large as they were.

I didn’t know how long we could continue this- it was certainly taking its toll on me. We had an ‘evacuation’ process going, where I would knock a person out, and they would acquire the documentation needed to return to their homes. The people who were presumed dead… well, at least the surprise would be pleasant- I hoped. However, the others needed to be quieted or housed, and although some of the better-feeling members were contributing, it was hard. I was careful to make sure to hide my face, though. I didn’t want my identity getting out to the public.

Finally, the numbers shrunk down to a hundred, then a couple hours later, only our parents remained. I had stolen a shuttle bus and was shipping people to the airport. If anyone found the steadily growing crowd of people suspicious, they didn’t mention it, perhaps because it was so spread out. In total, the entire endeavor took a whopping four days, just driving back and forth. I didn’t need to eat and sleep, but since sleep and rest were different things, I still took an hour off a day. The people were dazed and disoriented, which was good. In fact, I had slipped some tranquilizers into their rations, just to keep them from turning into a mob. Now, again, all there was left was to return to school. We booked a plane back to home and flew off to the remnants of our old lives.