“So, what did you talk about?” Emma asked as Adrian set up her phone with the network monitoring app.
“Raven. Dad and Grandpa are a bit concerned about him. Ben, I don't know what his problem is.”
“Me either.”
Neither of them spoke again until the app Adrian installed was done with its first run. “Huh. It didn't find any access made through port 51.”
“So, whatever got in, it can hide from stuff like this?” Emma asked.
“Looks like it. That's concerning.”
“What can do that? A virus?”
“Sometimes; most viruses stay inside the host machine. It's usually computer worms that infect a machine and then jump to another.” Adrian then got to work changing a few settings of the app before handing the phone over to Emma. “That should do it. It'll run in the background on its own, and warn you if something that you didn't directly interact with is trying to use the wireless.”
“And what if that happens?”
“Then, there's an option built in to stop all network activity immediately. If something seems off, you can try that. See if it stops the issue.”
“Let's test it,” Emma said. She then loaded a YouTube page and got a video playing. Adrian then showed her the command to stop network activity; within a second, the phone's wireless was shut off and the borders of the screen were tinted blue.
“That's how you know it's working.” Adrian said; the video ran out of streaming data a few seconds later, and when Emma refreshed the page, it showed a no response screen. “Only you can turn that off, so don't forget the numbers you entered.”
“I won't,” Emma replied.
“You want to write them down on something?”
“It's my birth year. I can't forget that.”
“True, you probably won't.”
Emma then left the room, leaving Adrian and Raven to themselves until dinner was ready. Adrian harbored no worries about Raven being brought up, and once everyone was finished eating, he drifted around the house for a while, his attention going back to the cars and what had happened.
“Can you still access the house cameras?” Adrian asked of Raven as he switched out the battery in the new camera.
“Yes. This One Has Retained Access To That Camera System.” When Adrian didn't respond, Raven asked, “Is This One Being Required To Relinquish Access To Camera System?”
“No. Just asking.”
“Is Adrian Ritter Concerned That A Similar Event May Occur Before Vacation Is Over?”
“Not really, no. That was just bad luck, and we got all the presents inside afterward, so there's nothing to steal from the cars now.”
“Then This One Will Remain Watchful For Similar Occurrences.”
“Thanks, Raven.”

December 24th, 2016

The next morning, Raven was quick to tell Adrian that it had seen something outside overnight. The new camera had been in the right position to notice a fox skulking around the rear of the garage, though the battery had run out of charge soon after.
“Did you use the house cameras afterward?”
“Yes. This One Did Not See More Activity Through Them.”
As the morning went on, and his family members woke up, Adrian gathered the camera from outside to let the battery warm back up, then took inventory of the gifts he'd bought. Everything was ready, and just had to be deposited under the tree. The rest of that morning went by with little of note until Raven requested to play some games within the desktop. This time, the AI wanted to try the game Adrian had used to understand how it was moving around inside his computer.
After getting the game's source port open, Adrian texted to Raven that it was free to operate the game. It jumped into a new game within moments, and although the AI's aim was off at first, how naturally it moved the player unit around the world-space was telling.
When the first level was over, Adrian texted to Raven, “Does this game seem familiar to you?” (Descent)
“This One Does Not Recognize This Game.”
“Interesting, because you already have a really good handle on it.”
Raven's response was delayed. “Does Adrian Ritter Believe This One Has Been Trained On This Game?”
“It's possible. Or something similar, at least.”
“This One Does Not Know If That Is True. This Kind Of Movement Is Natural To This One. However, This One Sees Adrian Ritter's Logic.”
Adrian didn't respond to that, and Raven continued playing. It finished the second level in a reasonable amount of time, though missed a few secret pickups. The third level was much the same, though once it was done, Raven texted, “This One Desires To See How Well Adrian Ritter Plays This Game.”
“Alright. I'll try my best.”
As the fourth level began, Adrian checked the controls, made some adjustments, and then performed a few test flights. When he felt ready, he flew down the corridor and shot open the door at the end. A second later, he had several drones zero in on him and was dodging laser and melee attacks. Raven meanwhile made no comments about his performance until the level was over and the results screen was showing.
“This One Enjoyed Watching That.”
“Glad to hear it. Should I do one more level, or two more?”
“Does Adrian Ritter Have Urgent Business?”
“Not until tonight, no. Just asking.”
“Then, This One Desires To See Two More Levels.”
As Adrian made his way through the fifth level, one particular room made him hesitate. He inched his way closer, and then realized there was a creature spawner in the room, backing off just as the enemies inside began firing at him. After a moment to gauge his options, he got the enemies to funnel into the corridor where he was, shooting them down one by one, then making a dash for the room, and the item he needed.
“The Purple Grids Cannot Be Destroyed?” Raven asked after the level was over.
“No, they can't. They're part of the level, and they'll keep spawning drones if you're too close.” Adrian began level six shortly afterwards, and was immediately under fire. The level was finished minutes later, though he saved just before taking the final actions near the exit.
“This One Has Found Data For Thirty Levels. Maybe This One Can Finish All Of Them.” Raven said as Adrian returned to the main menu.
“You probably could. I don't have much to do until close to seven, so if you want, I'll give you free reign of the desktop, and the game, until then.”
“This One Will Not Need That Long.”
“Alright, then I'll check in here and there until you're finished.” Once Raven agreed to that, Adrian left the AI to do what it wanted. It jumped back into the game right away using its saved file. Adrian in the meantime found a book he'd been meaning to read and after turning down the monitor's volume, hung around to watch some of Raven's gameplay in-between reads.
The AI continued to be a natural at flying in the 3D space and within the following hour, several more levels were completed. It made occasional remarks about the levels as it went, always within the phone's messenger app.
It was in the early part of the second hour when Raven encountered a situation where it was overwhelmed with drone enemies. Adrian heard the low shields sound after several seconds of laser and gunfire, and looked up moments before the player craft lost them and got blown up.
“This One Misjudged What It Could Handle,” Raven said when the level restarted. It then retraced its path to where the gear was dropped. Playing more strategic the second time, it made an opening to collect everything before finishing off the remaining enemies.
“Good recovery,” Adrian texted before he went back to reading. Raven didn't respond until the level was done, though did so with its smiling icon.
A while later, Emma came to Adrian's door. “Mom says lunch is almost ready.”
“Alright,” Adrian replied before saving his page with a bookmark.
“What's that on the screen?”
Adrian looked aside briefly. “It's a space flight combat game, oldie from the late nineties. Raven's playing it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He's pretty good at it.”
At that, Emma came closer to the screen and watched for a minute. Raven was heading towards a room it hadn't accessed before, and once the door was shot open, the sounds of alerted drones came. It stayed away from the room at first, shooting everything in view, then made for the opening and pulled a one-eighty once past it. Several drones were left, all of which were shot down moments later.
“That looks fun.” Emma said.
“You want to try it after lunch?”
“Yeah.”
Adrian nodded in response, then texted Raven. After telling the AI he would be occupied for a while, he followed Emma out of his room. When they returned, Raven had progressed into the final third of the game.
“Emma wants to try the game for a bit, Raven,” Adrian texted.
This time, Raven noticed almost immediately, and saved the game. “This One Looks Forward To Seeing How Emma Plays,” it said a moment later.
After setting Emma up with a new pilot file, Adrian checked the controls. Raven hadn't changed them since his own plays earlier. “Okay. Remember how you used the WASD keys for movement the other day?” Emma nodded. “You still use those in this to move forward, backward, and strafe left and right, but now you have to keep in mind the ship's orientation.”
“How do I do that?”
“You'll get a feel for it once the level starts but, quick and dirty, the mouse controls where you're looking, and how fast the ship pitches up or down.”
“Seems easy enough,” Emma said. She then started a new game and tested the controls.
As she did so, Raven sent a message via the in-game message system. “This One Can Guide Emma If Desired.”
“How do I respond to that?” Emma asked.
“In-game? Press the T key. It'll bring up the text entry. Enter sends what you typed.”
Emma then sent Raven a reply. “I'm trying out the controls.”
“This One Can Adjust Controls As Needed.”
Instead of responding to Raven, Emma asked Adrian, “The rolling feels too weird. Can we turn it off?”
“Yeah, we can...though if Raven's offering to help, we should try asking him.”
“...I don't know what to ask.”
“Let me see the keyboard, then.” Once he had it, and told Raven he was using it, Adrian added, “Did you figure out where the code for user defined actions is?”
“Yes. This One Found That Section Of Code Earlier.”
“Alright, then let's try this. Turn off left/right mouse tilt, change turn left and turn right into A and D, change strafe left and right into Q and E, and make roll left and right into Z and C.”
Raven's response was delayed for a short time. “Controls Are Adjusted.”
Adrian handed the keyboard back to Emma at that. This time, her flying was smoother. “That does help, a lot,” she said after a bit. She then texted to Raven, “Thank you.”
“This One Was Glad To Help.”
Adrian let Emma fly on her own after that. She took a while longer to beat the first stage, and didn't play the second longer than a few minutes.
“I'll play some more when we get back home,” she said.
“Does your dad own this game?”
“Probably. If not, we'll ask you for a copy.”
“Alright, though we're playing this through a source port, so you'll need that too.”
Emma nodded in response, then texted to Raven that she was done playing. The AI retook control and resumed where it had left off; Emma watched for a short while, then left, Adrian resuming reading soon after.
When Raven reached the final two levels, Adrian set his book aside to watch. The AI was overwhelmed again halfway through the penultimate level, and had to take some time to recover its lost upgrades. On the final level, it was much more cautious, opening doors without immediately going past them, or peeking around corners to activate and attract enemies. One by one, the rooms were emptied of enemies and secrets, until at last the AI entered the final boss arena.
When the boss appeared, the AI backed off a little, then switched to its expendable guns and began firing. The distraction enemies came soon into the fight; Raven initially ignored them, but after taking some fire, it turned its attention and firepower towards them. It then grabbed one of the invulnerability powerups and resumed chipping away at the boss when it was in sight. Its rapid fire cannon was the first to run out of ammo, then one and another of its stock of missiles.
Adrian meanwhile was quietly cheering on Raven, smiling as he did so.
Eventually, he heard the sounds that marked the death of the final boss robot. Adrian pumped his fist at the event, and once Raven had made it clear of the final arena and into the ending cutscene, he texted to it, “Nice job. That was a really good first run.”
Raven responded with its smile icon. “This One Had Fun Playing This Game.”
“Glad to hear it. Maybe we can do something as a team at some point.”
“This One Would Enjoy That.”
For the remainder of the afternoon, Adrian hung around outside with his family, and in the wooded areas behind the house. He spotted more ravens in trees this time, at least one he suspected was watching him.
“Adrian Ritter Brought More Peanuts?” Raven asked after Adrian mentioned that out loud.
“Yeah. Just a handful, but that's plenty.” Without putting his phone away, Adrian fished out the peanuts, rolled them in his hands briefly, then laid them out under the tree where the raven was perched. Within seconds of him backing off, the bird had flown to the ground, along with two others, and snatched at least one of the peanuts. When they took off again, the one Adrian suspected before stayed closer than the others.
“They learn faster than I thought,” he said aloud.
“Will Adrian Ritter Offer Other Things To Them Tomorrow?”
“Depends. Tomorrow's Christmas. If we have leftovers, I'll think about it.” Adrian then hung around near the tree until it was clear the ravens had finished the nuts. Back at the house, his mother reminded him they were all going out to eat soon.

=====================

With the talk with his grandfather over, Adrian helps Emma secure her phone. The next day, Raven asks to try the game Adrian showed it before.

=====================

Raven's Voice Lines = https://1drv.ms/f/c/0cc1a5ef5f1d85e.....Z5lBw?e=WY4RNn