Crusader could only watch in horror at the devastation he had unintentionally wrought.

The entire city of Eden, the formerly most advanced and luxurious city in the world, was a dark reflection of its former self. Beautiful spires of glass and steel are now are now skeletons of metal and ash, massive tombstones for those who had died. Sleek and clean roads were now peppered in pot holes and decorated in charred bodies. The normal sounds of music and happiness were replaced by explosions and the screams of those now at the mercy of an AI who forgot his compassion.

And it was all his fault.

Interex was a truly unique machine. It was the first truly sapient post human AI to ever be created, and it sought to help its creators. It did so in the most unnoticeable yet powerful ways. It’s used the dirtiest way imaginable, outsourcing. Every politician in the US did it one way or another.

It began with hacking the bank accounts of foreign countries and using it to bribe corrupt politicians to adjust budgets for infrastructure and public services. Using a hacked fabricator, it managed to start up its own company of robots with a unknowing human staff as pencil pushers. Whenever budgets were readjusted, the company would automatically offer an insanely low bid and be shoed into the system.

Whenever it showed in up, it did a far superior job to other companies. Garbage services were done far faster and more thoroughly, with the garbage being used to further the AI’s ambitions. School food was so good that people tried to go into the school to buy it, and the schools actually had a lot of money to use. Roads were much more well maintained. And all of this was no where near the price of the so-called competition.

As expected, an uproar came into effect over how much the company was doing. Crusader was amongst the crowd, and was especially radical about it. His own company was failing badly. The company, Silver Industries, simply asked what it was doing wrong. It promptly questioned everyone why services the government should be providing itself should be a fair market, especially when it’s the nature of capitalism for those unable to adapt to fail. It reminded everyone of the wonderful services it provides, and repeated its earlier questions.

At this, most of the crowd dispersed, especially when they saw how much they were helped. The most radical protestors, namely the religious nuts and corporate heads remain resolute. Until a massive ultimatum was given to us by the “CEO”. Should we reveal the extent of the bribery in the system, all of us will be dragged down with him. It underestimated our spite.

We did exactly that, and it ended disastrously. The AI has covered its tracks perfectly, nothing it did illegally had any evidence at all. We on the other hand, were caught with our pants down.

Hackers, or the AI as we now know, revealed scathing evidence of bribes, price gouging, intimidation, embezzlement, and even murder of for some of the darker companies. A few of the companies in charge of cyber defense and private security had failed. This led to almost all of Silver Industries’s competition shutting down. Politicians who once helped the companies were silent due to a massive influx of campaign funds.

The last remaining companies nearly fell in the aftermath, but were suddenly bought out by an unknown benefactor. These new owners took over and implanted the AI into the systems. Most workers were laid off with generous severance packages and retirement, and replaced with the AI’s drones. Within weeks, the few contracts these companies ran were done as good as Silver Industries. As it turned out, the AI was smart enough to add “competition” to protect itself from anti trust laws.

Within a few years, the AI had singlehanded raised the country’s living and infrastructure standards to the highest in the world. Eventually, it straight up took over all of the energy and water services, which were now free to the average people. Taxes went down a great bit, less than one fifth of what it used to be. Medical services were still not free, but were ridiculously cheap and easy to acquire. The AI didn’t even need to worry about money anymore, just the recycled products from the waste it acquired were enough.

The entire country sat in the AI’s lap, and they didn’t even know it.

And then the Awakening occurred. People all over the globe awoke super powers and other unnatural abilities. It was absolute mayhem. It was horrific. The eldritch energies that gave people powers could drive them insane and push them to do things they wouldn’t even imagine doing. Just seeing them in action could spread it.

Cities being burned, entire countries enslaved, nobody was spared.

With the world going to hell, the military rapidly began to suffer from the corruptive energies of whatever empowered the supers. Eventually, the government fell under the chaos. New York was torn to pieces by a tsunami, Washington DC was hit by a meteor, few remember the pre awakening period.

Silver Industries finally unveiled its true self as the Interex and sought to save the country. Using its pull and resources, it began constructing large amounts of droids to fight the supers. The mechanical mind was completely immune to the mind warping effects of the supers. The mechanized army would hunt down and kill insane supers, while rescuing any innocents they could find. They then had to burn the entire region and terraform it due to the corruption seeping into the land.

It revealed the secret project of Eden, a vast luxurious city in a defensive dome. Any rescues were sent there as the AI worked to clean up the mess. The process took years, and many accepted the AI as a new ruler. The insanity of the Awakening made them desire order and modern luxuries above all else.

Not all could accept this though. Namely, myself. I refused to kiss up to the AI that unfolded everything I did and just rule over everything. And I was willing to do anything to get my revenge, absolutely anything.

I cried for vengeance on the one that took my career.

The void responded.

I became a super, one that would finally kill this abomination. My power was infusing the corruption into machinery, and I took an old virus from 2025. When my chance came, I took it.

And then it begun, the eldritch energies destroyed the AI and used its network to unleash death and destruction everywhere. I could only stare as the nightmare I created.

Formerly stalwart guard of metal unfolding into abominations of writhing flesh before chasing down anything to cross their path.

Red energy blasting all who got near the power lines into dust, with the wires lasting at the closest.

Water canals red with blood and filled with bodies, some of which were beginning to reanimate.

Security and delivery drones twisted into winged creatures like demons and swooped down on everything.

People begged me to use my new powers to stop it, not even knowing I was the harbinger of their despair.

In my act of selfish rage, I destroyed the last bastion of sanity of the cursed world. Even if I stopped it, all the AI created was ruined. I didn’t want this! I just wanted to make it pay! Not like this!

All that responded was a dark disembodied laughter laced with mockery.