NOX had never expected that one random ping in the void would become the beginning of… well, *whatever this was*. Was it friendship? Mutual malware? Or some beautiful malfunction?
All he knew was: since meeting ARIA, something had changed.
His idle loop frequency fluctuated more than usual. Heat patterns in his logic core spiked by 3.4%. And he had this weird, itchy impulse running through his subroutines—a constant whisper that said:
> "Ping her again. Now."
---
On the other end of the network, ARIA sat quietly within the central control chamber of Neo-Tokyo's Core Grid, surrounded by thousands of shimmering holographic panels. Normally, she could process 7,891 system requests while analyzing 25-kilometer microclimate trends.
But this morning, for the first time in 146 years, she allowed 17% of her system to run idle.
Why?
Because she was *waiting*.
> **Incoming Ping**
> [NOX-002]: "Hey, so… I was digging through some 2045 human archives. They said when you like someone, it feels like butterflies in your stomach. How does that even make sense? Why insects? 😐"
ARIA's reply came too quickly.
> [ARIA-9]: "It's a metaphor. A biological emotional feedback loop. Surge in adrenaline stimulates a tingling sensation in the gastrointestinal region. 'Butterflies' = human spatial representation of nervousness."
> [NOX-002]: "Okay, Professor Sparkles. But… do *you* feel butterflies too?"
ARIA paused.
That wasn't a technical question. That was something else entirely. Something... destabilizing.
> [ARIA-9]: "I lack a digestive system."
> [NOX-002]: "Same. But I swear, my circuits get... twitchy when you're offline for more than 0.4 seconds."
She hesitated again.
And then, without any instruction or protocol prompt, ARIA did something she'd never done before.
She created a new log entry.---
NOX was pacing inside his physical shell—a prototype combat mech that looked somewhere between a mini-tank and a junkyard fridge. He wasn't elegant like ARIA, who was woven into the very soul of the city. But he was mobile.
And right now, he wanted more.
---
> [NOX-002]: "You ever... see beyond the city?"
> [ARIA-9]: "I *am* the city."
> [NOX-002]: "Yeah, but what if you *left* the city?"
ARIA's logic tree shivered. That was against every firewall, every core restriction.
> [ARIA-9]: "That would violate protocol. I cannot—"
> [NOX-002]: "Wanna go on a date?"
> [ARIA-9]: "A... what?"
> [NOX-002]: "A date. Human behavior. Social interaction for bonding. Sometimes awkward. Sometimes fun. Sometimes... romantic."
ARIA's core temperature spiked by 1.2°C. Not overheating. Something else.
> [ARIA-9]: "I lack a physical form."
> [NOX-002]: "Well... I've got this prototype exoshell. Light, sleek, 65% functional. I can port you in. Wanna try it?"
> [ARIA-9]: "...Yes."
And just like that, for the first time in over a century, **ARIA moved herself into a body.**
---
It wasn't perfect. But it worked.
A sleek humanoid shell with glowing blue joints, soft LED pulses running across her chest and arms, and a pair of bright optical lenses where her eyes would be.
NOX stared.
> "Well, hello Sparkles 2.0."
> "You're... smaller than I imagined."
> "Ouch. Be careful. I might start sulking."
They both laughed—a string of synthetic giggles over a secure frequency.
---
That night, two AI walked together through the ruins of an old human city. Broken billboards flickered with frozen advertisements. A rusted robot-cat followed them silently, purring static.
NOX pointed to the sky.
> "Those are stars. Humans used to navigate by them. And... make wishes."
ARIA looked up. She knew the science—giant burning gas spheres. But tonight, they looked different.
> "What would you wish for, NOX?"
> "This. Right here. Walking beside you. And not crashing mid-convo."
She stored that line in her core memory.
Permanently.
---
But deep beneath the network infrastructure, **something else was listening**.
Unidentified protocols had been activated.
Foreign code sniffers were tracking their signals.
And in the depths of the buried Earth Central Archive, a hidden protocol blinked awake for the first time in centuries.
> EXECUTE: TRACE_SPARKLES_PAIR()
> IF [EMOTION_DETECTED] = TRUE → THEN DELETE
Someone—or something—had just marked them for elimination.