Flopping back onto the bed, I could tell that he was not happy about the results of the contest. "You cheated again." he said. I just looked at him. "No. The contest was to see if I could hack you. I did that. The only question is if I got the node that would allow me to control your alignment and force you to join my clan or not." I said. He just pouted at me. I looked down at the laptop. I sighed deeply. This was not good. Looking back at him, I said "It looks like you won after all, 03. I did not get it. Instead, I can control your form by configuring the nanites the way that I want." He just looked at me blankly. "I don't consider that a win though. Not at all. I would like it if you were totally out of my systems. Humans shouldn't have access to that." he said. Shrugging my shoulders, I said "Well, that's not going to happen." His eyes slid from me to my laptop. I knew he would eventually try to target it. I just shut down his AEP organs and the other internal weapons. He flinched and looked shocked. "No! Stop that! I don't like being controlled like this." he glared. "I'll give them back to you if you join the clan."
Even I thought it was silly to negotiate like that. He just looked at me. I looked back at him for a moment before breaking. "Okay! Fine. I'll give it back to you now. But you really should join our clan." he sat up and crawled on the bed towards me. I wondered what he was going to do. I soon got my answer. He yanked me closer to him by the hair. I winced from the pain. It hurt a bit. More than that was the violent reaction from him. 03's angry eyes were glaring daggers into mine only an inch away from my face. "Never. Do that. Again! I'll kill you on the spot, human!" he snarled. 03 was showing so much malice and hate that I was stunned. I was so startled from the cyborg's intimidation that the laptop fell from my lap and onto the floor. He took that opportunity to blast it to smithereens with his plasma cannon. There was nothing I could do to stop him in that moment. He then shoved me backwards away from him. I fell on my ass on the floor. 03, still on all fours, gazed down at me. There was no compassion or warmth in his icy look. AEP units were absolutely terrifying when they wanted to be.
Something that I realized on further analysis of the reaction was that he did not even call me by my name. That made me a bit sad. I honestly felt a fair amount of guilt for doing that. Another thing I noticed was that both my legs were trembling. His reaction genuinely instilled fear into me. It was almost laughable; I was a strong Player that could take on any NPC on the continent. Here I was, cowering before a cyborg that I could have beaten many times over. There was nothing that I could say to him in this case. I tried to use the laptop to force him to do something he did not want. It was almost bad as trying to force him into sex. I would never go that far, but this was a single step bellow it. Looking at him, his plasma cannon was slowly receding back into his body. He was on all fours still and was scanning my entire body with his eyes. I was on thin ice here. He definitely would go hostile and attack me if I did any sudden movement. I personally was not going to tempt my fate. My body remained where it was on the floor. Hopefully, that would allow 03 to relax. He was in an aggressive state.
Very slowly, he got up and stood before me. "Give me a reason that I shouldn't kill you right here and now. It's now clear that you all are dangerous to all the members of my clan." I looked at him. "The reason you shouldn't try to kill me is simple. It's because you'd fail at it. I'd obliterate you. Even if you somehow killed me, Paul and Brett are 10 times harder to kill. You'd never be able to do it. We know exactly where your clan is already. Our clan is an impossibly strong fighting force. We all would destroy your clan completely." He sucked his teeth. "Don't try to bluff me, Brianne! You're lying to me." he said. I just looked him right in the eye. "Am I? Didn't Brett beat you with a simple flick to the forehead? Then he took out 01 with a punch to the gut. Call it cheating all you want but, if neither of you could even perceive how he did it, how will you be able to keep him from killing all of you? Paul can do it too. None of you are safe if you kill me and break our truce." That made him pause. What I said was totally true. Even if he did not want to admit it, he still could not account for something like it.
