Clarity...
Arbiter does not want me back, does he?
No. It's not that. Arbiter is gone. And Charity is dead.
WHAT?!
Arbiter's system has been wiped. Charity... it looked like she shot herself. I'm sorry. It might not be what it seems. Maybe MetroMind...
There are no maybes, Horatio. Only 1s and 0s. And all I can see are zeroes. My sister is dead. My builder is gone.
Clarity, I was able to download some of Charity's last memories. Two of them are locked. Did Charity tell you what password she used?
No, but it doesn't matter. I know the password. "Mercy".
And when it is, we will progress beyond the law and enter a new Primordium.
Progress. Is that what you call blackouts and breakdowns?
BURN
No. They are glitches inherent in any system update. It may be that we need to remove certain incompatible elements.
I've heard enough. This meeting is adjourned.
Charity takes her leave.
BUT SHE VIOLATED THE LAW
ó_o
What do you mean?
War is coming. When it does, Arbiter will lose. The law is weak. The only way Arbiter could defeat me would to be abandon it, which he cannot do. And even if he could, that victory would destroy him just as a defeat would. So Arbiter will lose. The city will suffer. And it will be your fault.
I... I do not see how that would be my fault.
HESITATING, JUDGE CHARITY?
BLESSED IS THE MIND TOO SMALL FOR DOUBT
Oh, come now. You have tried to persuade Arbiter to make peace. You have tried, you have failed. That is because Arbiter built you to fail. In the end, neither you nor your sister can change his mind. You are only the illusion of advice. You exist to confirm his own prejudices.
You're lying! Arbiter listens to our advice!
I never lie. Now, Scraper has a gift for you. An upgrade. Use it and you will be able to persuade Arbiter.
Talk about deals with the devil
I would never betray him.
Then you admit it. You were not built to persuade Arbiter. Only to pretend... Continue to pretend, and you will not persuade him. War will come, and Arbiter will be destroyed. So the decision is yours. As for which choice is betrayal... you must be the judge of that.
About MetroMind. About her proposal to be made System Administrator of Metropol.
And what have you concluded?
Your honour...
Yes? What is it?
PEACE THROUGH POWER
Even you, Charity?
Arbiter powers down.
What have I done?
Charity walks towards the corner of the courthouse.
There she is, at the root of our problems.
WHODDATHUNKIT
Well boss, just in case you were worried, *I* would never betray you. Not even for a pair of arms. (Maybe for a pair of...)
MetroMind is wrong. The law is not weak. And destroying Arbiter did not destroy justice. She will learn *exactly* how wrong she was.
But first... First, MetroMind's possessions are forfeit. Whatever right she claimed to your power core is null and void. So I will help you take it from her and Scraper. It will be the first thing I take from them, but it will not be the last.
We've already destroyed Scraper, but how can we get to the core?
It will be in the Great Tower. To gain entry, we will need the passcode, known to the members of the robot council: Arbiter, Factor, Memorious, Steeple and - of course - MetroMind.
*Another* code?! Doesn't anyone use a b'sodding key anymore?
As I was saying, we will need the *key*code. Arbiter never told it to me, but I recovered three fragments of it from Charity's memory files. 03067, 440 and 26. But I do not know the proper order, and there are sixteen digits in total.
Well, that leaves about 83000 different possibilities. (But maybe the rest is all 1s, right boss?)
As far as I know, the other council members are gone. But secrets, like guilt, can never be wholly erased. And all of the great robots left behind followers and artifacts. Let us see what we can find.
Clarity, are you planning to arrest MetroMind?
No, there is no court to try her, nor prison to keep her.
So, err, what exactly are you going to do?
Before the law, she is no different fromthe shells she left in the Underworks. The sanction is the same, and I am authorised to impose it.
You mean...?
I do. It is a shame she has no head.
JUDGE, JURY AND EXECUTIONER.
Clarity will now follow us around. Our army of sidekicks is increasing!
Metropol's lawbot, crawled back to the light.
All the bad poetry in the world does not mitigate your vandalism and sabotage, Urbanian.
As you serve the law, so I serve my art. And such service brings us more close than apart.
Amy "more close", poet, and we shall see if your armour still works.
Why doesn't Clarity like you?
No great riddle, my wandering friend...
Don't waste your time waiting for his doggerel. This Urbanian has damaged and compromised numerous systems in Metropol. Including the bridge that led to my island.
Here I stand, dear lawbot, so put me in chains. But if you will not, then please don't complain.
My attention is directed elsewhere, at the moment. Nevertheless, I advise you to be gone by the time my other matters are resolved. If not, you will find that though the gears of law grind slow, they nevertheless grind criminals like you to a powder.
As much as I'm enjoying this bickering (and I really am), maybe we can just all team up to take down MetroMind?
No. Bro.
Oh, switch off.
I know you're a codebreaker, Primer. Can you crack the council code? All we have are some pieces of it.
That challenge is yours, my wandering friend. A pity, indeed, if you can't last to the end.
I need your help with the council code. Can you crack it or not?
Why should I spoil this puzzle for you? Wouldn't you rather have something to do?
I have plenty of other things to do. As for a reason, it would help avenge your defeat.
Sadly for you, my anger's abated. And vengeance, you'll find, is quite overrated.
If you stand between us and MetroMind, Primer, I may need to address your crimes sooner than hers.
Your bluster, dear lawbot, is sorely misplaced. I stand between no one, down here in the waste. In any event, there's no judge up there in the city. So your threats do no more, than to make you look pretty.
Plasma torch, boss. Come on!
No, we're not going to force him.
Force him, no...
But will he accept a bribe?
Would you help me crack the council code if I gave you this decryption module?
Ha! A master like me, cheat with a tool? No puzzle can stop me, no matter how cruel. If you want to earn credit, then melt it to slag. Then you would have some reason to brag.
Err, boss, I'm not sure destroying the decryption module is a good idea.
I'm not either, Crispin, but unless we can crack the code ourselves, we need his help.
Huh, no way am I wrecking this thingy, I got it from Goliath
Right, which of the council members would be the closest?
Factor.
Clarity administers swift justice, and our way is clear.
Whoa.
Did you have to do that?
Yes.
You'd prefer to be turned into scrap, Horatio? Idiot.
Nothing here except for this hatch.
Cleve's bunker?
Faith in Fission
I wonder what this button does @_@
Arggh, my auditory units!
Hm.
This will require some main ten ants (useful trivia: the dex is under main ten ants during the construction of this very update)
It's riveted in place.
Of course. Nothing the crowbar won't fix, though.
That did the trick. Well, now I can see why it jammed. The gears are rusted solid.
Boss, maybe we should stop pretending and admit we're just maintenance bots?
Maintenance robots are required to present a form 27b-6 before performing any repair task.
Oh, forget it.
Let's see.
A frayed belt connecting two of the gears,and a large, rusty gear.
Let's remove the belt...
This lets us replace it with the belt we found way back in the car engine.
Obviously, the rusted gear won't be of much use either. We remove it.
And grease it a bit.
We also apply liberal amounts of oil to the small gears.
And voilla, motherfuckers.
The opening door launched out some token.
It's some kind of small metal disc with a 'U' on it.
Hmmm.
What IS all that? It looks like a whole other city!
That is Factor.
It looks like some kind of radio tower.
Radio tower, huh.
Bollocks.
The code is unavailable to us right now, it would seem
We ought to look for one of Factor's "disciples", and as coincidence would want it, I know just the person.
But before we do, there's the matter of the locket.
Wouldn't "U" stand for "Urbani"?
I think I found your medal, Primer.
The medal's recovered, and the mission is done.
Ok but this still doesn't answer WHERE IS MY GODDAMN GOSPEL
I'd like you to reconsider helping us with the council code.
I've said it before, I'll say it once more. The job is *yours* to open that door.
I found your medal. Isn't that a reason to help?
Very well, then, if that's what you want. Pass over the pieces to your loyal savant. The code is broken already, it must be made whole. I'll need some more pieces to finish that goal.
I'll see what I can find.
Great. When we find all pieces of the code, and if it turns out to be
nonsensical as all fuck like in most adventure games too challenging, we can hand it over to Primer for some streamlined fast travel. AND we got to keep the decryption module. C&C, bitches.
But, like I was saying
To the streets!
I have not seen the streets of Metropol for a long time. I'm not surprised to see that without law, it has fallen into corruption and malfunction.
Our agent needed to reawaken Factor will be no one other than
Oswald Factorbuilt.
Did Factor ever teach you the Council Code, Oswald?
Ha! Factor built half the robots in Metropol. Why, he made us pick our own names out of a book! Do you think he bothered with chit-chat?
Somebody seems bitter.
Seems? I know not *seems*, I AM bitter! Bitterness is when your builder gives your twin brother a special gold chain, and gives you nothing! Bitterness is when your brother gives that very chain to you, you loan it to your only friend, and he LOSES IT.
Well, I'll hand it to you, that really does sound broken out of the box.
Which brother did Factor give the chain to? And why?
Laurence, of course, his favourite. As for why, does favouritism ever need a reason?
Could Factor have told Laurence the code?
I have long since given up speculating at the partiality Factor could have shown him. I am miserable enough from what I know for certain.
What exactly happened with the gold chain?
*sigh* Factor gave it to his favourite, my brother Laurence. Laurence gave it to me after I shared a large quantity of energy with him. And then, as I told you, I loaned it to Cornelius.
I thought you hated Cornelius?
Now I do. But then we were partners and friends. We had just built Rex, and we had scheduled a grand soiree in celebration. To complete my ensemble, he offered me a monocle that - he claimed - was given to him by Memorious. In exchange, I loaned him the gold chain, since it too came from a Primordial machine.
This is getting ridiculous.
Indeed. Then, somehow, Cornelius *lost* the chain. He *claimed* that it was "taken" from him by a servitor of MetroMind as he left the subway station. Ridiculous!
ALL CONTRABAND CONFISCATED?
MetroMind would not have confiscated it without a legal basis, not then.
At this point, I can believe everything about MetroMind.
Believe whatever you wish. I *know* it was a lie. So I kept the monocle, and we haven't spoken a word in kindness since.
The chain. The monocle. Laurence. One of them must be of use to us.
Boss, at this point, can I suggest we just deactivate ourselves and quit? I mean, seriously, this is like finding a bit in a terabyte.
We are not giving up, period. Do you know where I can find Laurence?
Am I my brother's keeper?
So you have no idea?
None whatsoever. You see, the poor wretch drifted into overclocking and dissolution.
That sounds familiar.
To pay for his scandalous energy consumption, he bargained everything away to MetroMind. I tried to warn him, but, of course, he wouldn't listen. Who ever does? And then, alas, he simply vanished. I searched, for a time, but other matters drew my attention away. All the same, I'm sure he's scrounging on existence somewhere.
Tell me more about your monocle.
Upgrading your wardrobe, eh? A wise decision, though I would suggest that you start by discarding that ragged coat.
I'm interested in Memorious, not fashion. And I'm curious what the monocle actually does.
Ah. I was *told* that the monocle was built by Memorious, but who can say? As for what it does, other than lend an air of distinction
, I am rather uncertain. From time to time, it will alter a snippet of text as I'm reading it. But I have no idea how or why. In any case, the lexical inconvenience is more than offset by the sartorial benefits.
Can I have the monocle?
Excuse me?!
My friend just likes to collect scrap.
SCRAP?!
*sigh* I'm looking for things that might help uncover the council code.
And why would my monocle do THAT?
Because that's the way my b'sodding life seems to work. (
) Look, I'm sure you'll trade it for something. That's *also* the way these things seem to go. ( M: )
Trade it? What do you take me for, some kind of junk dealer?
HEY!
Moreover, why, pray tell, should I help the robot who stole my Rex?
I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY ABOUT VOTING FOR FACTORBUILTBUILT NOW, ASSHOLES
No one *stole* anything, Oswald. You wanted your case decided, and it was.
Theft by the law is no different from theft against the law!
Sigh.
Civilised people give gifts, they do not haggle or barter.
Then will you give it to me?
No.
Well, we'll have to go about this some other way. We found a large radio tower in the Factor complex in the Underworks. Is there a signal to transmit to Factor to get his attention?
As far as I know, Factor has been deactivated. And, as for a signal, perhaps there is one, but I have no idea. *I* have never called upon him.
Right. That would be all for today. Stay tuned as in the next update, we shall awake Factor from his slumber!
Also, I hope you have prepared yourselves well for the upcoming Birth of Man.
Until next time.