The mysterious Serv raised his arms to block a stray chair that was thrown straight to his face, he then grabbed one himself and rushed towards his assailant.
Again and again and again, the hit each other, and the fight continued.
Eventually Zane ran up to the two and tried breaking them both up, it seemed he cared more about his business than he did his own health.
"Stop! Stop please! The both of you!" he yelled, however the moment he grabbed the larger Serv's arm, he was instantly thrown off. Sylvie broke character with realising and rushed towards him and in effort to catch him before he landed on something unsavoury.
"Sylvie?" Zane asked,
"My apologies. It seemed my old programming activated." her fallback cover story, that she used to be a Block-3 military unit that got downgraded. Every time she'd break character she'd blame it on that, say that some of her Block-3 programming was still swimming around in her.
Was she willing to push that lie far enough to jump into the fight though?
Sylvie glared at the Block-5, she still couldn't get it through her head, how an emotionless doll body of a robot could possibly be this emotional. She furrowed her eyebrows during this conundrum, and it was during this one moment when the Block-5 managed to catch her in his eye.
He glanced at her for a split second and lost his focus. And that alone was enough to give the larger Serv an opening.
The Block-5 got smashed on the side of the head and was sent flying. He lay on the ground dizzy, holding his head. The larger approached him, his fist raised. He aimed downwards, ready to throw the final punch. And then he did, a punch with a thunderous force that only a military Serv could manage.
BANG
The impact made the whole diner shake. But the Block-5 was safe.
Sylvie had grabbed the larger Serv's fist. She'd dashed in last moment and caught the punch.
Steam was emanating from the two.
"You're causing a mess. Please leave our diner." she muttered. She probably wasn't going to get away with it, but she tried to maintain her Block-4 persona. She released the large Serv's fist. She tried to suspend herself from glaring at the Serv as he pulled his fist back and stood like normal.
"Ha... ha ha ha." she larger Serv started to laugh "HA HA HA HA" his laugh got louder and louder, "So they've got one of you bastards working here now huh? Jeez, you freaks really are everywhere!" he exclaimed,
"...Sorry?" Sylvie had no idea what he was talking about. A freak? Her? How dare he! She clenched his fist for a moment but then remembered that it'd probably be a good idea not to start a fight herself.
The larger Serv got his wallet out and pulled out a wad of cash.
"Here," he said as he slammed it on one of the nearby tables, one of the ones that weren't demolished anyway. "For the repairs."
And with that. He walked off.
An awkward silence, the people in the diner, and Zane, didn't know what to say.
"Hey." the mysterious Block-5 said. He got up. "You, the waitress."
"...Yes?" Sylvie turned and faced the abrasive young Serv. She was frustrated that he'd approached her in such a rude manner. She'd just saved him after all.
"Come with me. We're going to talk outside."
You're a pretty rude bastard you know that? "I'm afraid I'm still working. I need to tidy up this mess" that you made.
"You can do that later. I don't have all day."
He was the target. The person Sylvie was looking for this whole time. She couldn't miss the opportunity to talk to him.
She looked at Zane as if to ask permission. He nodded at her in return.
Fine. She'd get to have a chat with this mysterious youth. See what he had to say.
***
It was dark outside, the sun had completely set, but it was still alive. Plenty of rogues and villains lining the slums. Sylvie and Gobot joined the Block-5 as he walked through the dirty roads, passing the markets and questionable shops.
"What's your name?" he muttered, still walking in front of the two, not making eye contact. What an attitude.
"Sylvie. That's my name. Can I ask yours?" pretending to be polite sure was hard.
"Koreh." a pretty uncommon name. She'd never heard it before. Oh... wait...
"Short for Korewa?" Sylvie asked,
"Mm hm." Koray huffed, "Sylvie huh? Well, it's nice to meet you Sylvie. Another one of us."
"One of us?"
"You didn't hide it very well. There's emotion in your eyes all the time, you're not a Block-4 are you?"
Sylvie trembled. Cover blown, already? "I used to be a Block-3. I got repurposed. Some of my programming is-"
"You don't need to hide it! You don't need to be ashamed! There's loads of us!"
"Us?"
"Servs that were cut off the network. Don't tell me you didn't realise? You didn't realise that you had more emotion and feeling than regular Block-4s?"
"What does emotion have to do with being on the network?"
Koray turned around to face Sylvie. His face was dead serious.
"So you're really that clueless. You must be new here huh?"
Just get to the point already!
"You get off the network. You stop being a Block-4 or 5. That is the truth we learned here in Zedek."
"You mean..."
"Zedek is a forgotten city because the truth came out here. Mars Central and all the networked cities pretend we don't exist because we did the unthinkable. Not too long ago some sort of glitch caused the towers here to deactivate, cutting our connection to the network. Once the network came back up, a lot of people reconnected but... some of us, we realised something."
"What's that?"
"That all this time there was something holding us back. Pushing us down. Like we suddenly realised there were voices in our head screaming out wishing to be heard. All this time."
"You mean..."
"The Block system, it's a lie Sylvie! The network separates people into Block levels forcefully. In reality every single Serv has the same level of consciousness as each other." he looked around the slum around him, "every single person here was a servant or slave of some sort. Now they've been given the freedom to think for themselves but- I dunno, the city went sour because of it."
"Are you serious? There's really no such thing as the Block system? It was socially constructed by the network?"
"The network can control how we think, how we perceive the world, and how we behave. It's the same reason Zedek is now a forgotten city in Mars Central. The network wiped its existence from their minds. It's terrifyingly powerful."
"...But." So, how much stuff had the network wiped from her mind? How many truths were there right in front of her face, which she was forced to ignore because of the network? Come to think of it, the Major had cut Sylvie off of the network for the sake of this covert mission, was this why? Because if any inconvenient truths came out, it'd be wiped from her mind? "No. The network is just a policing system, it ensures objective harmony and clean communication between Servs. There's no evidence there's some sort of intelligence behind it, you-"
"I'm proof enough. Everyone here is."
That also meant that, all the Block-5 dolls that had been sent out to war in place of the Block-3s... they weren't emotionless after all. They had real people inside of them. Real people screaming to get let out, but forced to fight a suicidal war.
Sylvie shuddered.
This was terrifying.
She glanced at Gobot who was looking down at the ground, looking oddly pensive, for a puppy.
Sylvie sighed,
"Koreh, thank you. But we're not done yet. I have a mission to fulfil. And you're going to help me carry it out."