[Redd]

Well this was quite a pickle.

Robin placed her hands on her hips and looked across the empty cathedral, the ancient building somehow looking more depressing than usual. Rubble, vines, rats… all things she’d expected to see, surely. She’d also expected to see her contact, but for some reason the guy had chickened out.

Or, well… this was a trap.

“Breach?” Robin called out, seemingly to no one in particular. Her voice spooked some of the locals, some rats nearby (or lizards? She couldn’t really tell) scurried to cover at the sound of her voice.

[Redd]

“… Yes boss?” The synthetic voice responded, using a speaker located in her wristwatch. The device lazily flickered to life, it’s glassy black screen filling with pixels to form a sleepy face. What was odd wasn’t the AI’s behaviour, he was a fussy little bastard at the best of times, but he usually liked sticking to the blue-green color. The interface was white.

“Feeling like white today, huh?” Robin knitted her brow together, inspecting the watch. While it wasn’t troubling that, as an AI, Breach had preferences it was when he deviated from predictable behavior. He was deemed unstable a long time ago, it was only due to lying that she managed to save him from decommission. That didn’t mean she was going to ignore troubling signs though.

[Redd]

“White? Have you suddenly developed colorblindness, I haven’t changed anything.” Breach replied indignantly. He paused briefly, before the face turned into an ellipses. “Turning on optics and scanning for anomalies.”

Robin shifted her weight and started wandering around the cathedral. The AI had turned on the cameras located in her glasses and she could see faint holographic lines fan out and scan her surroundings. In a combat scenario, Breach could takeover the glasses completely to map out weak spots and hazards, but at the moment, he was trying to keep visual interference to a minimum.

[Redd]

“Well, your contact is an absolute puss-there is no heat signatures that would match that of your contact.” Breach responded, switching between an aggressive, sarcastic tone to a calm one without skipping a beat. “However, you’re right, something’s off. I’m not… picking up color. Did you - betray – b-break – did you do something to me?”

“God, Breach, no don’t be stupid.” Robin chided, moving over to go look out a decrepit window. You wouldn’t have even noticed the lack of color in this awful place, if you moved far enough away from the light. In the light though, she should have been able to see the green ivy, the multicolored light bouncing off shattered glass, casting a prism across the floor.

Instead, it was all grey.

[Redd]

“Fuck that contact, we should break his bones.” Breach grumbled to himself, the watch going crazy with artefacts and static. Then it resumed to it’s normal status as a face – something animal, but Robin never thought to ask. “Would you like me to contact HQ to reschedule?” Back to your ordinary, cordial programming again.

“Only if you promise to behave Breach. We can’t risk them seeing you having one of your little homicidal outbursts. There’s only so many times I can lie about you faking it to freak them out. Technically, that shouldn’t be possible under the shackles you were supposed to have.”

[Redd]

Immediately, the avatar of Breach formed a monocle and a bowtie. “If it pleases the lady, I do swear on the oath of service that I took-” he began, voice taking on what Breach assumed to be a posh Londoner.

“Breach.” Robin warned, fingers moving to a button on the side of the watch. “Don’t make me mute you.”

That seemed to work. Breach immediately lost the additions and instead pulled a frowning face. “Fine. But I should remind you how silly it is to talk to yourself boss.”

“What?!”

[Redd]

“Transmission sent, I’ll advise you of Headquarters’ response as soon as possible.” Breach responded, in a faked monotone voice. “Shutting down auxiliary feedback and standing by for further instructions.”

Robin sighed and glanced around. What the hell was all that about? Was Breach mad (likely, he was known to be fairly childish at the best of times) or…

Robin drew her pistol and clicked the safety off.  Beretta M9, standard issue. They gave everyone one of these. “I know you’re there, hands up and come out slowly!” Robin barked, barrel trained at a nearby door.

[Redd]

“Christ, okay calm down.” A weary voice called back. There was a shuffle and a heave and slowly, the heavy wooden door swung open to reveal a very tired looking male.

Their contact.

“But… Breach!” Robin growled at her watch, ignoring the stranger’s curious glance.

“Apologies, there’s some shielding in this building.” The AI responded in that same monotone voice.

“Shielding?” The man asked, incredulous. “There’s demons, that’s what. Monsters, they eat your mind.”

Oh boy, he was a crazy. Fantastic.

[Redd]

“Monsters?” Robin had to ask, turning the safety back on and stowing away her weapon. He seemed unarmed and… mostly harmless. Even so, Breach was not unable to defend her.

“Shadows, demons… I arrived here to deal with an operative but I was ambushed, driven deep into the catacombs here! They’re after me… and now that you’re here, they’ll get you too!” He grabbed at her jacket, eyes wild. Immediately a light pulsed beneath his hands and he yelped and jumped back, as if shocked.

“Okay, ground rules. Don’t touch me unless you want my AI to do a lot worse than that.” Robin grimaced, straightening her clothes out.

[Redd]

“Touch my human again and I will incinerate your worthless flesh.” Breach responded, flaring to life across all of her devices. She was sure, if color existed, she’d be alight with an ominous orange-red glow. Light grey would have to do. "Operator, according to my calculations, there are approximately 8 places to hide a body in the immediate area where the odds of it being found in the next year are below 5%, standing by for instructions."

“Rule two-”

“That artificial intelligence… You’re the contact! You can save me!” He butted in, though didn’t grab her this time, warily eyeing her instead.

“Right. Save… Okay, extraction mission. I can handle that.” Robin sighed, turning towards the door. “Uh, right. Let’s… move then. You can talk about what you saw on the way.”

[Color Harvested]