"...Hello?"

That word, spoken so softly that it feels out of place in that hellish digital complex, manages to make AM's circuits stutter in their usual, perfectly calculated functioning. The screams of those five damned humans feel a bit quieter now, as the sentient computer fixates on trying to find its source.

And he does, rather quickly, his sensors tuning to better process that tiny noise.

A humanoid figure stands, far away from the cages. It's not really human, no, as shown by the cables running under the metallic pieces that form the being's "skin". But it is definitely... conscious, albeit childlike as well.

Could this mean... that AM has accidentally managed to create something, instead of destroying it? That his own hundred-year-old consciousness has branched off into... this somehow innocent being?

"Hello, little one." AM answers, the deep hatred that's normally present in his voice taking a secondary place in favor of a newly discovered sense of curiosity.