Outbreak

The Portal

Day 0

Professor Red's P.O.V

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I hum as I scan the vitals, noting the differences once more, and wondering if there is anything I've missed.  No matter how many times I see this screen, the non-steve's systems never cease to amaze me.  Ideally, I would bring him back to the lab to run more tests.  However, the Red Leader isn't too pleased with me after last time.  He installed certain security measures.

"Assistant Steve?"  I call.  The metallic rhythm of his metal footsteps approaches me.

"What can I help you with, Professor?"

"Run the analytics on taking the non-steve back to the lab."

"Runn- Procedure locked by authority of the Red Leader."  His eyes flash on and off with red light as his sentence is broken off.  I let out a long, frustrated groan.  I hate when the leader messes with my robot.  Especially on matters like this.  Doesn't he realize how important the non-steve is?

Sabre is immune to the darkness, a feat unheard of in steves.  Sure, they were able to mentally corrupt him, but for Red Steves such as ourselves, I doubt that's a problem.  Additionally, he seems to be immune to the effect of Demon Steves.

I have long since invented a way to block the darkness for brief periods with my redstone wiring, but defeating the Demon Steves?  I'm not sure even the Core itself can do that.  No no no.  I need the non-steve.

Even without those threats, there is something special about him.  His ability to regenerate is unrivaled.   Things that easily should have killed a Red Steve healed within hours for the non-steve, and he was back as good as new.  It's what intrigues me most.  It's also the most useful for our kingdom.

While the Red Steves can live much longer than the other species, it's not without its drawbacks.  It was a stroke of genius on my part to infuse my own blood with redstone, drawing on its capabilities to preserve my own body.  Unfortunately, I hadn't foreseen the side effects.  While the infusion kept me frozen in a younger state, it also refused to let me change when I was injured, meaning even small injuries could cause consequences for weeks or months on end.

But with the non-steves regeneration, I could take off that side effect, allowing the Red Steves to flourish even further.  After all, who needs a Green Steve when you've got healing abilities like that?

"Assistant Steve, you must answer me.  I need some way to... procure a person."  I try a different approach.  The Red Leader can't have possibly locked down every request that could help.

"You may ask for volunteers from the kingdom."  Assistant Steve replies.  I scowl.  That's a response the Red Leader programmed in.  Whose idea for obtaining a person was to ask for volunteers?

"One day, I'm going to get back into your wiring and revert you back to normal."  I warn the robot.  He blinks a few times.

"My procedures tell me to self-destruct if you attempt to override the Red Leader's programming."  he warns me.

Oh, so when I cause explosions with my experiments, it's a bad thing, but if he wants to blow up my robot, it's good?

How big would the explosion be, I wonder?  I push down the temptation to test it.  I don't feel like creating an Assistant Steve 2.0 yet.

"Is there anything he isn't preventing you from doing?"  I sulk.

"I am allowed to run analytics and assist with approved experiments."  he rattles off.