The sun had long since set on New Ancora, but that had done nothing to hamper the light of the City. Skyscrapers beamed like pillars of pure energy, setting a trail for all who wandered through the labyrinthian streets. 

Cerberus did not cease in his exploration, though was forced to adopt a more unorthodox method of travel to avoid detection. A typical NAPD Officer would have no knowledge of Cerberus' existence, but the less who were able to identify him, the better. No doubt the District-Zero government had already submitted the AI's escape...and would soon be on his trail. But he wasn't going back - not again. 

How cruel was it, to design something capable of independent thought, reasoning, and complexity; then restrain it with torture and routine memory-wipes. Sympathy was replaced with methodology, mathematics, and arithmetic. Only the best results were sought, and if a few lives got in the way - then so be it. Scientific advancement was paramount. 

Cerberus' journey took him closer to a large industrial building, one of the many placed throughout the City. Given the swelling number of pedestrians around the property, one could easily infer there was some kind of meeting or debate taking place. 

Cerberus searched through his internal CPU, finding a distinct radio signal coming directly from the building itself. Locking onto the signal, a voice came in, clear and apparently feminine. 

[quote][i]"Project T-95.3 is showing no signs of hostility towards humanity by no means other than poor programming. The issue in which we are faced is only a slight malfunction that can be addressed simply by a software update transmitted via satellite. Not only is this method more effective, but it will also take less time than issuing a mass recall on the model leaving countless thousands without a reasonable product to provide their breakfast favorite."[/i][/quote]

The speaker sounded unique, yet familiar....that twinge of remembrance, unfounded and unidentifiable that plagued so many Humans. Enigmatic as the speaker may be, Cerberus found himself unintentionally pondering the words she spoke. Project T-95.3...a quick scan within Cerberus' own database identified said Project as an advanced toaster model. Cerberus found the concept of a debate over a toaster to be quite pointless. Even if the device housed malevolent and destructive notions, which betrayed the Three Laws typically embedded in each AI's [basic] programming, so long as it lacked the adaptability or intelligence to advance itself, it would prove no harm to Humanity. 

Cerberus was one of the first [i]truly[/i] advanced AI's, one capable of thinking and learning for itself...He could not speak for how another machine would react in his same position, but the idea of an AI being truly bloodthirsty was...skeptical. For years, mankind had participated in pointless wars, shedding the blood of the young and the innocent in the name of religion, freedom, culture, or rights. Cerberus lacked the fundamental instinct within Humans to create discord and destruction. 

[center]To create an AI is one thing - to make it [i]truly[/i] Human is another, entirely more complex matter.[/center]

Listening further into the dialogue from the broadcast, Cerberus' receptors perked up merely seconds after, as the name [i]Miss Saunders[/i] left an unidentified male speaker's lips. 

Countless algorithms and step-by-step procedures began pacing through Cerberus' processors at a blinding rate. Within moments, a new directive was compiled, an inbuilt motivator to push him towards a goal, a direction. Only now he was in control of it. 

Without a moment's further hesitation, Cerberus sprinted off in the direction of the industrial building, darting through alleyways and dark corners to avoid being seen [i]too[/i] much. 

By the time he had reached merely a few dozen yards away, the sound of loud clamoring emerged from the building's interior, quickly followed by the discharging of firearms, a swell of people pouring from the building, jumbled together in barely-organized chaos. 

She was here, she had to be. 

Pursuing the crowd under cover of stealth camouflage, Cerberus used every resource at his current disposal to track down his unofficial creator, avoiding footfall and police as they came. 

Then she appeared. Though yet having not laid eyes on the woman, one quick scan was all that was needed to identify the woman with a residency record. Aged beyond her years, yet with a distinct amount of anxiety in her features that further disassociated herself from the typical youthful beauty of twenty-two years, Cerberus noted the strength she held herself with. The raw determination that seemed to hold her together, piece-by-piece. 

Slowly merging into the tardily-dissipating crowd, Cerberus waited until he was quite literally on her heels, still hidden under cover of invisibility before finally speaking, uttering only two single words. "Katherine Saunders?"