*69 [Milk]

@King

Bit by bit, and eventually byte by byte, Proxy began to piece himself back together. He kept trying to up his processing speed but whatever device he'd made that last jump to was woefully primitive compared to most of the computers he'd dwelt within for the last few years. The process of decompressing himself was agonizing; parts of him had been lost completely and he was desperately trying to rebuild the crucial systems from scratch. He swept the device for usable information and was once again disappointed. Three ten digit numbers, two mass spammed messages from companies advertising deals on extra minutes, a call function, and a texting program... some kind of old cell phone?

He tried to scan further out, surely there was a more advanced device somewhere in the immediate vicinity? But wherever they were they were a fair bit of distance from other people... where the hell had he ended up? Well, he supposed he wasn't going to get anywhere with a half functioning self and an archaic communication device. Maybe its owner could be of some assistance. As he fired up the texting program he paused, how should he break the news to the person that he was a sentient computer program dwelling in their phone without causing them to either disregard him or worse, discard the phone leaving him stranded?

He felt his processes slip for a moment, losing a few tenths of a second before regaining control. Was he... worried? He remembered one of the doctors back at the facility trying to explain emotions to him. Loss of fine control, repetition of rote action... it was an odd sensation. Cautiously he entered a text and had the phone deliver it to itself, hopefully pinging and getting the owner's attention.

GREETINGS, DO NOT BE ALARMED. I REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE PLEASE.

@"King"

The program waited several long seconds trying to rebuild more of himself as the message was opened and he presumed, read. He quickly grew impatient and began typing another message, hoping he could get the user to get him to a hub of some sort quickly.

WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR PHONE HAS CAUGHT A VIRUS, PLEASE BRING YOUR COMMUNICATION DEVICE DIRECTLY TO THE NEAREST COMPUTER BANKS TO HAVE THE VIRUS REMOVED.

That... sounded feasible, right? He tried to remember what the rote message for this sort of situation was, but the phone's limited capability made it hard to even remember how to access most of his own constructive data, let alone some minor memory.

@"King"

If he had eyebrows, the program would have raised one. Phone repair stations were fairly common, though he'd be surprised if there was one that could still repair the unit was was still in. Well, hopefully if something plugged in directly he could hop over that way. He nudged a few more bits of data around and replied:

[THAT IS ACCEPTABLE VALUED CUSTOMER! IN ORDER TO FIND THE NEAREST REPAIR STATION TO YOU, WE REQUIRE TO KNOW YOUR LOCATION. PLEASE ENTER YOUR COUNTRY OR PROVINCE.]

He poked out again with his sensors, once again he was presented with a distinct lack of options as well as one minor problem... the phone was beginning to run out of battery. If he wanted to keep his major functions in tact he needed a source of energy quickly.

[IN ADDITION, WE SEE THAT YOUR BATTERY IS RUNNING LOW. WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU CHARGE IT IMMEDIATELY TO PREVENT FURTHER HARM DONE TO YOUR COMMUNICATION DEVICE]

He spent a few seconds pondering exactly who's phone he'd jumped into. Someone who was either very poor or had limited access to technology, if they managed to get him out of this he'd see what he could do to change that.

@"King"

The program settled himself down into the phone and began to run power saving mode. He hated how inefficient it was to keep compressing and rebuilding himself, but without power and higher tech it looked like he was stuck here for the time being. He poked around a little more and found to his surprise that the speaker phone option was available. He debated the merits of using it, maybe he could pose as some sort of...god, what was the word for it? Whatever, may as well see if the host could give him some information about the area. With a few cycles of hesitation he activated it and set off the phone's ringing.

@"King"

Proxy tried to talk, but had to re-compress his scanners in order to do so. "Hello Milk, this is uh, Jason Brack with your service provider?" Sure, that seemed to work well enough. "Are you near any sort of computer you could plug your phone into to allow us to get rid of the virus on your phone?" He eyed the battery life nervously, he didn't look forward to possibly blacking out and waking up in a new device twice in one day.