Fic: Ex Machina (5/9)
Fic: Ex Machina (5/9)
Series: Special Projects
Summary: After their experience with the Demon Meg, Chloe is broken. Dean is shattered. Somehow, they've got to find a way back, while at the same time figuring out how to stop a Demon-made Artificial Intelegence.
Author: pen37
Beta: Clarksmuse
Fandoms: Smallville/Supernatural/DCU
Characters: Chloe, Sam, Dean
Pairing:Chloe/Dean
Rating: Pg-13.
This is a part of the Special Projects series. You can find the rest of the series here.
Written for the Crossovers100 challenge. Prompt #67 Snow. The table is here.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9
The JLA team arrived in a van the very next week. Under Bobby’s direction, they pulled up to the newly-reconstructed porch, and lowered a ramp so that a redhead in a wheelchair could get into his house.
“That’s Oracle,” Chloe whispered to Dean and Sam. “Her real name is Barbara Gordon, and she used to be Batgirl.”
“How did . . .” Sam started to ask.
“Not in the line of duty,” Chloe said. “The Joker targeted her to get to her dad.”
“Who’s her dad?” Dean piped in.
“Police Commissioner Gordon.”
Both Sam and Dean gave her an incredulous look.
“I told you he was one of the white hats,” Chloe rolled her eyes.
Next out of the van was a tall African American. Dean looked at the van suspiciously as the suspension let out a groan, and then the vehicle bounced as he got out.
“Dude’s packing some hardware,” Dean said.
“That’s Victor Stone. But we call him Cyborg,” Chloe confirmed. “He was original League, along with me and Clark. And like me and Clark, he’s spent some time enjoying Lex’s dubious hospitality.”
“When you call him Cyborg?” Sam asked.
“It’s descriptive,” Chloe said. “He’s half computer.”
“And Oracle is -“
“A better hacker than I am. Mainly because she has more time to keep her skills fresh, considering that she isn’t out hunting.”
“So this is our hope to bring down the AI?” Dean asked. “A handful of hunters, computer geeks--”
“And Superman,” Chloe grinned as Cousin Clark got out of the van. She left her customary spot next to Dean, and raced across the porch to throw a hug around Clark Kent’s neck.
Sam shot Dean a sympathetic grimace, which Dean ignored in favor of staring holes in the back of the flannel-clad, dopey-looking farmer cum super hero.
“Dude?” Sam started tentatively.
“Just let it go, dude,” Dean said. He turned and walked into the house.
Bobby had cleared out the living room in preparation for the invasion of heroes. He offered them all shots of holy water, and then turned the floor over to Sam.
When Chloe sat outside the window, the three newcomers gave her odd looks. But since she made no move to explain, they let it go in favor of solving the looming problem of the Demon AI.
Dean was quick to take his spot next to her, and kick Sam’s chair away so that Clark couldn’t sit there. Clark gave Chloe a confused look as she leaned in against the windowsill, before sitting down next to Cyborg.
“So here’s what we know,” Oracle got right to the point. “The AI’s program is housed at Luthorcorp, but it’s been making strikes against hunters and against the JLA through the net. The most daring of which was when it accessed a Department of Defense’s SBL.”
“SBL?” Dean asked.
“Space Based Laser,” Sam clarified. “It’s meant to be able to shoot long-ranged ballistic missiles out of the sky. But it’s not supposed to be operational for at least four more years.”
“Tell that to Ellen,” Dean snarked.
“As near as we can tell, there have been a couple of successful attempts to access the traffic grids in larger cities. The resultant traffic accidents have involved our two respective groups,” Cyborg said.
“Not good,” Chloe shook her head. “So how do we take this thing out if it can move around the net?”
“It still has programming,” Oracle said. “And that's still housed at Luthorcorp. If we can take that out, bye bye AI.”
“And Luthorcorp has to be more heavily fortified than the U.S. Mint.” Chloe shook her head. “Lex is a lot of things, but he's not an idiot.”
“But he's not Lex anymore,” Clark said. “And he doesn't know about all of Lionel's back doors.” Clark stared pointedly at Chloe.
Chloe threw her hands in the air in frustration. “Ollie has a big mouth.”
“I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't important, Chloe,” Clark said seriously.
“With you, it's always important,” she grumbled. “Assuming that I can find a window, how are we going to take it out?”
“I was hoping that you had some kind of idea.” Oracle said. “I've never encountered an AI quite like this.”
“I have an idea,” Isaac piped in.
Everyone in the room turned to look at the kid. In the face of all that attention, he blushed scarlet and ducked his head.
“Well?” Dean asked.
Sam glanced meaningfully at Chloe. She nodded, reached through the window, and thumped Dean on the back of the head. He glared at her, then rolled his eyes, and turned back to Isaac.
“It's a Demon AI right? Why don't we just re-write some of its code? If we change its function, then we change the nature of the thing, right?”
There was a long pause as they all chewed on that thought.
“Actually? That might work,” Oracle said. “We'll need to have the coding ready so that we can just overwrite it immediately after we gain access. But . . . I think you're on to something.”
“How are we going to do this?” Bobby asked. “The second it knows we're there, it'll just turn on us.”
“Not if we have a more powerful AI helping us.” Clark again looked at Chloe.
Chloe frowned at him. “You want me to work with Jor-El on this.”
“You're the one who speaks Kryptonian, and rebuilt the computer,” Clark said.
“Who is Jor-El?” Dean asked.
“A schizophrenic Kryptonian AI,” Chloe said with a shrug. “It and I have this mutual hate thing going on.”
“Actually, I think it likes you,” Clark said with a shrug. “It once told me that it misses arguing with you.”
“For that? You could totally get Lois to go up there.” Chloe pointed at him.
“What? And sleep in the doghouse? I'm Superman, not Stupidman.”
“I am so not touching that line with a ten foot pole,” Chloe snorted.
Over in the corner, Oracle and Cyborg exchanged knowing looks.
“Feels like old times,” Oracle observed.