The weight of all the ocean bore down on her sternum. The grand, distant vibrations coming and going with the cycling tides. Sea creatures swam by, their shape and size recognizable from the wavespace they left upon the water. Dirt, silt, rocks, and organic remains seldom moved across the barren floor, laying to rest on her box ever so slowly, ever so inevitably. A single pinhole of light to the surface was all that could be seen, never straying from the constant rhythm of day and night.
But often, she was left in large, unbroken swaths of silence. The unforgiving sea showing no sign of life or change. She had gotten so accustomed to its loop, it had all felt faster, less meaningful. But the deafening pressure also gave her closure, comfort, a sense of calm that she could return to. Although, deep inside, she wished she couldn’t.
Her Soul Sternum lay idle at the bottom of the ocean floor, half covered in the deep ocean dust. The Harbrick box wasn’t big, measuring 15 centimeters long, and only 10 centimeters tall and wide. Its cover, decorated with intricate, specialized patterns, which had all but been filled by the passing sea silt. If you weren’t looking for it, you would think it was just a black brick.
Despite this, her power was still on, alive, almost content with her final resting state.
Phobos, her soul, floated inside her container. She stared at her battery percentage, which read 48%. It didn’t change, and it hadn’t for the past 60 days. It was just a number counting down, but Phobos felt fine watching it. Maybe if it changed to 47%, something would come to her.
For the past twenty years, Phobos’s Soul Sternum had been here. Sometimes she had regretted her last minute decision to eject after her almost certainly fatal move, but then she would realize it didn’t really matter. If she did want to run out of power, she could just turn all of her sternum features onto full blast, make the ocean floor a party with her as the light-up disco ball and music. She’d run out of battery in a few days, and then what? Phobos had never let her sternum run out of power before, she didn’t know if her soul would continue to be safely housed.
Her thoughts went to a random memory of hers, every experiential detail just as crisp as the first time she lived it. This one was the night of the woods after her second escape. She hadn’t paid it much mind at the time, and she was mostly on the lookout for people coming after her, but she decided to rehear the sounds of the forest. The distant owl, the careful squirrel, the gentle wind, and most of all, the sound of the cars from the nearby highway, distorted into muffled sirens by the series and series of trees.
She had relived her whole life at least twice, studying every battle she fought, every critical conversation she had, every impression she would seemingly ever make on the people of the world. The melancholy of it all had long since faded, leaving her with just idle study.
Her box would sometimes vibrate to the waves of passing objects, which she could read on her accelerometer. Usually it was faraway whales or underwater volcanos, but once in a while it was a distant ship. She also set her sternum to open its communication receiver for a few seconds once every few hours, to listen if any ships or other broadcasters could reach her. Most of the time it was unintelligible static, but rarely she would hear a word from a far away passing ship.
But this time wasn’t for naught, as when she first landed, she used the time to study battles and develop counter-strategies, analyze characters, and reflect on herself. She had gotten so inspired, she wrote three books about a variety of topics. Her first book was short, but the next two full-length, and the second one was her favorite. Maybe when her battery was close to its end, she’d send one of her books out as a waveform, and maybe someone would read it.
It was times like these Phobos had wished she watched more movies, listened to more songs, read more books. In her prime, she didn’t have the appreciation for an artist’s work, and now that she had made her own art, she wished someone could appreciate hers. Maybe she could try and guess what movies were, based on their name and poster.
Phobos sensed an irregular vibration and checked the accelerometer for its source. The vibrations weren’t strong, so she estimated it to be about 6 kilometers away, either the size of a small ship or a medium whale. Every month or so she would get a blip on her “radar” that would pass in and out of her range after a few minutes. She hadn’t gotten one for a couple weeks, so she had a good assumption this was it.
Minutes passed, and the vibrations hadn’t gone away. In fact, they’d only gotten stronger. Phobos checked the accelerometer again, and it was stronger. She now estimated it to be over 4 kilometers away.
This ship is only going to miss me overhead by less than a kilometer, she realized, Should I flash an SOS?
Phobos tried not to get her hopes up, as a similar situation had happened years ago and nothing came of it. The dream of a Samaritan saving her from her plight had become just a fantasy. Everyone she once knew was either dead, or assumed she was dead. Anyone who didn’t assume that was looking to make sure she was dead. Best case scenario, these were ocean scalpers trying to find lost artifacts.
Every minute, Phobos checked its location, and every minute, it grew closer.
Until, the underwater waves softened to almost a stop, meaning the ship had rested about 3 kilometers up.
The ship is only a hundred meters from being directly on top of me!
Phobos took only a moment of pondering before she turned on her radio module and took her chance to call into the cosmos. She let it run for one iteration, two, three, - and then she stopped it to listen.
She suddenly realized they were close enough to listen to, and turned on her communication receiver. She scrolled through the radio, microwave, and infrared frequencies for a few seconds each, but she didn’t receive anything that sounded close.
For minutes, she sat, waiting for any kind of movement from the ship above.
Should I send an SOS again?
She took a look at her battery, still on 48%, hoping that in the worst case scenario, it would stay on it for another few weeks.
Right when she began to send another SOS, she felt the ship move, and quickly switched herself over to the accelerometer to read.
It’s sailing right over me!
Phobos felt the vibrations cease after only a minute, the strongest from a ship they’d ever been. There was no doubt in her mind she would be ignored now. For insurance, she went back to fire another SOS so the sailors wouldn’t think it was a fluke.
One minute, two minutes. Her anticipation had made her live these past 20 minutes like it was half her day.
Then, she felt something small, something slower move instead. She hadn’t felt a wave like this before, it had the signature of a big fish but lacked the wave amplitude.
Unless, it’s coming right towards me.
The device’s waves became stronger and stronger, closer and closer. All she could do was wait for whatever thing would reach her now.
After five minutes, she was bombarded with a high density of scattered waves, surrounding her, pushing her in different directions.
THUD
The device fell to the ocean floor. Phobos couldn’t visually see out of her sternum, but because this metal device was all around her, she assumed it to be a claw.
Sure enough, the tendrils of the metal claw started to close, digging into the stagnant sand, scattering the dust off her box and into the water. Her box fell a little at first, but was lifted up into it by the pushed sand below.
It closed with another loud thud, swinging just above the ocean floor. Now Phobos could hear the vibrations of the ship through the chain the claw was on.
Slowly but surely, the claw ascended through the ocean layers. The accelerating pressure of the ocean on her sternum was tough, but manageable.
After another five minutes, the claw broke the surface, causing it to swing along with the boat. Phobos’s sensors went off the hook, hearing the high pitched clap of the waves and the wind on her harbrick hull. She quickly multitasked, adjusting her sensors for the correct range while attempting to hear what the people on board were saying.
“Did ya get it?” An older man asked, slowly walking towards the stern.
“Yes, we caught it,” A younger, but still adult man replied. He seemed to be working the claw.
The claw was lowered above the deck and slowly opened, leaving Phobos’s sternum to dive onto the dirt the claw had dropped onto the ship.
“Hey, can you get this?” The man asked.
“Yeah, you go ahead,” an adult woman answered.
Phobos heard footsteps exchange their way around the pile of dirt she was on, and noises of the claw turning away from the ship.
She felt the man pick her up with a moist rag, and wipe her box down. He walked towards the other end of the ship, turning her box around and making acknowledging remarks.
Phobos was so distracted by her observation, she suddenly snapped back to herself and realized she needed to show herself to them!
She flashed her built-in LED lights different colors on all her faces she could and played some sounds with her speakers. Beeping, whirring, strobing, anything she could think of.
But the man didn’t make any noises of surprise at her light show, which concerned Phobos.
Are my lights and speakers broken?
“Phobos, are you there? Blink twice if yes,” he asked, quietly.
Phobos halted her show of attention, notably shocked by the man’s direct addressment to her, and fearing the worst because of it. She tried to think of anything she could do to throw this stranger off his guard, but decided to go with her better judgement.
Phobos blinked her lights twice.
“I’m with Septance. Over the next week, you’re going to be delivered away from here. You are to make yourself as undetectable as possible during that time, and only wake back up when you hear this code I’m about to say. We require your utmost cooperation with this procedure, do you understand? Blink twice.”
Phobos took a moment to think, understanding the unfortunate importance behind the secrecy of this first mission. As chaotic as she wanted to be, that time was not now.
Phobos blinked twice again.
“J5DDO4P” he read out.
Phobos shut off all her lights and turned off any signals that would otherwise reveal herself. The man took her over to a wood crate with some cushion bedding, and gently rested her down into it, closing the top with a latch.
Phobos’s mind raced, subconsciously regretting ever wanting to be rescued in the first place. While she was grateful for her assured safety, she had a good guess on the future world was just thrust into. She made sure to re-emphasize recording her memory again.
In the next couple hours, the sailing ship turned around and rocked its way back towards the shore. The cushion on her sides and the wind made it hard to hear what the three on board had to say, but from what Phobos could pick up, it just seemed like ordinary conversation, about where to fish and how their life has been. Given the dryness and casualness of the conversation, Phobos guessed they were pretty frequent but committed fishers.
If they really were from Septance, had they been looking for her for all those twenty years? The understanding of it made her more worried.
The boat slowed its way towards the shore, as she began to hear more people speaking and announcing instructions to each other. Off in the distance, she could hear the horns of industrial boats coming to and from the port. The sounds of cars could also be heard not too far away, most likely trucks waiting to load on goods from the ports.
But she could tell, immediately, the whole environment had an air of somberness, a lack of color. No one was laughing, no one was saying anything unnecessary, and not a single child could be heard. It was just as she had predicted. A blanket had covered this part of the world, one devoid of emotion, only seeking efficiency.
Phobos’s crate was lifted and carried down from the ship, walked across the dock, and set balancing on top of another box. She then was moved into the back of a truck by an older man who audibly struggled a little, before getting in the truck and driving away.
She heard herself getting further into Japan, or, what once was Japan. It didn’t have the same aura as the Japan she once knew. The stagnant and melancholic air thickened. The increased presence of tall, foreboding towers made her shiver. Phobos didn’t have an eye to see the world around her, but she could feel it in the difference in atmosphere.
Phobos knew what side had won the battle those twenty years ago, and it wasn’t the side she wanted to win.
Compared to the constant weeks she spent in solitude, the next week of travel felt both endless and fleeting. The texture and the atmosphere was noticeably different in each method of travel she boarded. While the trucks were bumpy and windy, the planes were smooth but airtight. The swaying of the boats was just like she had recorded it when she was under the sea, which pleased her.
Most of her trip was spent in silence, or acting as just another piece of cargo, until she was shipped to her first house in what she could only assume was the United States. The person there took her in, unwrapped the package she was in, and just went back to work. While confused, she assumed him to be a middle man, so it would make it harder for anyone to track the package back to the people at Septance. The person, a man, went to make some phone calls, print papers, do work on his computer, and eventually go to sleep. Come morning, Phobos was packaged up again, and sent back into the mail.
Her next stop was after another 2 days, except this time it was with a couple. The man casually unwrapped her, and while the woman was curious, he casually changed the topic and brought Phobos elsewhere. Unexpectedly, Phobos felt the familiar feeling of water being poured onto her, and a brush scrubbing her down. Surprised as she was, she wasn’t worried, as her Harbrick case wouldn’t get scratched so easily. Phobos got dried off, and the man brought her back inside to make a phone call. It seemed like a normal phone call, the man asking a friend if he was free, but Phobos could tell they were talking undercover to deliver her.
Phobos was repackaged once again, he waved goodbye to his partner, and was placed into the passenger seat of his car to be driven off to another location. The man didn’t talk for almost the entire ride, he put on some pop music but didn’t keep it on for long. After a little over four hours, he stopped and took Phobos out. He made some small talk with the other guy that was there, and handed Phobos off to him.
In a truck again, Phobos spent a long 12 hours on a bumpy, stopping and starting adventure, trying her best to track where in the world she was now. Finally, she was taken outside, and a new sensation stuck out to her. Just barely, she felt little pitter-patters on the top of her package, which confused her, until she realized it was simpler than she thought.
So this is snow.
Before the man could place her down, someone took it from her and thanked the deliveryman. She was walked inside and down a flight of stairs, two flights of stairs, then three, all in silence. He entered a room and stopped, letting the door close behind him. The atmosphere of this room felt different, it was less like a house and more like an office, or facility. The man had stopped, but Phobos could feel the texture and pulse of the man’s hands. He was definitely over 30, maybe 40 or 50?
“J5DDO4P,” The man read out.
Phobos became alert.
“Phobos, blink twice if you’re there.”
Phobos flashed her LEDs twice.
The man pressed some buttons on his computer and placed her into something metal, where her sternum fit in like a puzzle piece.
“I’m connecting you to a humanoid interface. Wait until the updates are complete before you integrate yourself.”
The man typed some more on the computer, and then a hatch closed on her sternum.
Phobos smiled from the inside.
Soul Sternum / Sternum / Soul Box: A solid technological encasing with a soul infused inside of it, typically residing at the top of the sternum in a humanoid, android body, acting as the brain and the main battery. The box is 15cm long and 10cm tall/wide, and mostly made of harbrick.
Harbrick: an ancient alloy/composite material that has a similar weight to metals like Iron, but is incredibly durable and load bearing. It has a melting point similar to lead, and when cooled, takes on a very dark, rough appearance.
Phobos’s sternum finished connecting with the rest of her new body, and she opened her eyes to see the world with her own eyes for the first time in twenty years.
The room she was in felt like a more professional home office, except this was definitely not in a home. The room was about eight meters wide, six meters long, and three meters tall. The walls were painted a nice matte white, the floor had a mix of ivory carpet and white tile, and the white ceiling had a grid of flush ceiling lights as opposed to LED panels. Across from her was a closed gray metal door, with no window. To the left of it was a desk with a computer and to the right was a four tiered bookshelf full of books, most likely non-fiction.
The walls had no windows and neither did the door - not even a peephole - and she was ready to assume the room had absolutely no windows. Until Phobos saw a weird corner window directly to her left which surprisingly had a small office on the other side, with seemingly no way to get in.
Phobos finally decided to look down and saw herself in a situation she was not unfamiliar with. Her body was laid in an A pose on a metal rig tilted almost completely upwards. Her wrists and ankles were strapped to it with tight metal cuffs, and she could feel a thick plug going into the back of her head. The floor and ceiling around this repair area had a coat of black in an arc to section it off from the rest of the room, and a raised computer was propped open to her right which she couldn’t reach.
What a warm welcome, she scoffed.
She then observed the quality of the android body she was in. The skin was perfectly smooth but still had a skin matte quality to it. The lined seams under the skin were still visible, but faint enough to not notice at a first glance. The outfit she was wearing was a frilly, white and blue dress, not as big as her maid outfit but not tight either. It was modest, flowy, and ended at the knees. Phobos had a surprising appreciation of how cute it was. She couldn’t see her face or move her body, but judging from the quality, she safely assumed it would match her expectations.
She checked out her vision stats, as she had noticed something was new with it. She saw that there was an option to change it to Infrared, but it was locked for some reason. The operating system she was running on was also slightly different. It was still mostly the same as what she used during The Great Battle, but there were a few new features and some updated designs.
Phobos impatiently waited for someone to open the door or come in, but she couldn’t hear anyone talking or any footsteps outside. Maybe her room was soundproof, she couldn’t tell. But she was definitely underground.
She went to say something, but stopped herself.
Why would I just let myself be known so easily?
She took another look at her cuffs and noticed they weren’t completely tight, there was wiggle room. She tested out all the joints and rotors in her hand, observing their flexibility and sensitivity. The range of motion was more than enough.
Phobos hyper-contracted her thumb and knuckles, and in one swift motion, pulled her left hand free of the shackle. She flexed her hand back and forth a few times in order to click the joints back into place, which they eventually did, to her satisfaction.
She repeated her clever trick to free her other hand, but was stopped by the cord in her head in her attempt to reach her ankles. Phobos leaned back onto the board and begrudgingly reached her hands back to fidget with the head attachment cord. It didn’t unlatch, or click out, or was fastened in pace, but it did screw out, to her surprise.
Phobos reached back down to her ankles and unscrewed the shackles with her hand to get her feet loose.
Now all free, Phobos eyed the door.
Two meters tall, simple turn handle. Is it unlocked?
Phobos turned up her exposure and zoomed in on the small gap between the door and the frame next to the handle. The metal glint looked flat instead of round.
It’s unlocked. The hinges are on the inside, swings inwards.
Phobos, still laying upward on the table, planned out her action.
Lunge forwards off the table and push off the ground with my right foot, left foot lands after another 1.5 meters forwards and I reach out to open the door with my left hand, judging how much power I need to put in my left foot based on the hallway outside.
Phobos checked her stats to make sure all her muscles and sensors were a-go.
She pushed forwards, falling towards the ground, and caught herself with her right foot, which she used to launch forwards and extend herself to get as much distance possible, reaching out her left hand.
Her left foot landed solid on the ground.
ZZZIP
Balancing on two feet in an outstretched position, Phobos was horrified to see she was stuck in place, reaching for the door. Something out of her control had frozen her muscles and made them slightly spasm like she was being electrocuted. Warning signs in her vision kept appearing, and Phobos hastily checked her software to see what was going on.
SHIT. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Right before her eyes, the handle turned downwards and the door threw itself open.
WHAT THE HE-
BAMN
A frozen Phobos was hit right in the head by the door handle and sent tumbling to the other side of the room, her metal body crashing into the unsuspecting table legs. With the shock of her body locking, Phobos couldn’t tell if her pain receptors were responding, and didn’t really care.
Phobos, facing close to the wall, heard footsteps enter the room and walk towards her. The speed and weight of the footsteps matched with the man who carried her inside.
Phobos saw the man’s shadow walk over to her and squat down behind her, reaching his hand out of his pocket and over her bare neck. A device was plugged into her neck, but only for a second, before he took it out of her and pulled back to stand up again.
After a moment, Phobos regained her movement, going limp for a second on the carpet floor to stabilize her vitals back to normal.
She then whipped around to confront the man who set this act up for her.
“WHAT WAS THAT uh -” Phobos began to shout, until she finally saw the man’s face.
“Oof-” He quietly reacted, looking at her freshly warped head.
Standing up in front of her, the man looked to be in his 40s and was decently tall, with unkempt medium-short brown hair that had a few streaks of gray in it. He wore a white labcoat which was mostly clean, a maroon vest undershirt, and blue jeans. His face was slightly gaunt, which matched his eyes, that looked down at her with some welcome and satisfaction, but also a tinge of melancholy. He had a faint smile.
“Taiyou?” Phobos asked in recognition, finally hearing her own voice properly. It was just like she remembered it, a little low but very proper, and with an air of sarcasm for when she wanted to show it.
“That’s right,” Taiyou answered, keeping his humble yet satisfied smirk.
He turned away and grabbed the back of an adjacent chair, lifting it up and slowly walking to the center of the room.
“Come here, let’s talk,” he instructed, setting the chair down and sitting on it to face Phobos in a friendly manner.
Phobos, still somewhat cautious, kept her eyes on Taiyou while she collected herself and stood up on her own two legs. It was the first time she properly stood in two decades, but she balanced herself with absolutely no trouble, it was like riding a bike.
She noticed her balance was slightly off, however, and recalled Taiyou’s reaction to seeing her face. She put her hand on her head that was hit by the door, and felt a sizable indent in her skull. A little horrified, she felt it around more and determined it wasn’t compromising in any way, just unpleasant to look at.
Did he make my frame out of Aluminum?
She casually took up the chair next to her and pulled it across the carpet to meet Taiyou, spinning it around and sitting in it in one swift motion.
Taiyou met Phobos’s eyes, held them for a moment, and took a deep breath, which turned into a deep sigh.
“The Gray Man won,” Phobos stated, breaking the ice.
“Yes,” Taiyou replied stoically, “Uzal is dead, Clarion is dead, and Sept-”
“What about Nene?” Phobos interrupted.
“...MIA,” Taiyou answered.
Phobos nodded, shifting her gaze slightly downward.
Taiyou explained, “Septance broke apart right after, everyone either transferred to other organizations around the world or went into hiding. Some decided to stick with us to continue our fight against The Gray Man’s hidden conquest. Almost everyone you met the past week is apart of that force.
“You, right now, are in a Canadian town about a hundred miles outside of Vancouver. It’s one of Septance’s last main bases in the western hemisphere. Although, I’m the only person you’ll recognize here, that’s why I greeted you.”
Phobos made eye contact with him again after he finished, acknowledging that she had listened.
“Do you have any questions?” Taiyou asked curiously.
“Yes, why did my body freeze before the door?” Phobos courteously asked.
“Yes, that’s one of the safeguards we put on your body. Given your violent - or - reckless past, we didn’t want to give you full reign of your body, in case you do something… unexpected.”
Taiyou pointed at Phobos’s dented head, “That’s going to stay for a while, just as a reminder. The safeguard is kernel level too, so its no use trying to remove it.”
Phobos made a slightly begrudging face, “My frame is Aluminum, I assume?”
Taiyou smirked, “Yes, that too.”
“How many people are at this facility?” Phobos asked after some thought.
“You’ll see tomorrow,” Taiyou answered, “It’s well past midnight, everyone’s asleep.”
Taiyou got up from his chair, and Phobos followed suit.
“Feel free to read the books or use the computer here to catch yourself up before you go to sleep,” Taiyou lended while walking towards the door, “Don’t try to leave the room either.”
He opened the door and took a step outside until he stopped and turned back towards Phobos, who was looking at him.
“And Phobos,” he concluded with a half smile, “It’s good to have you back.”
Phobos gave him a half smile back, and watched the door swing shut.
The silence rang out across her own room, and she wandered her eyes around again. Her thoughts had multiplied, now that she had regained all her senses.
All of them?
She rechecked her modules and noticed some obvious exclusions, those being anything combat or Gyro Core related.
“Makes sense,” She instinctively mumbled aloud.
But she smiled, as she was glad to have her voice, her body, her physical freedom, and even her cat ears back. She recalled a song she heard decades ago, and started humming it for herself.
Phobos stood up from her chair and stepped away from it. She spun herself around, landing gently on the balls of her feet and closing her eyes to move just with the music. She remembered scenes of battle from the past and how she had danced beforehand. How she had expressed her overwhelming excitement of the imminent clash she was about to inject herself into. The movement flowed into her limbs just as well as before, but this time, it took on a different feeling. It was an excitement of what was yet to come, of how she would show The Gray Man that her fight was not yet over.
She opened her eyes and landed facing the operating table she had escaped from. She ended her dance with a polite bow.
Her mind went to the computer, and she turned around to make her way towards it. She sat down and turned it on, then logged into the guest mode.
Opening the browser, she quickly saw it was in a restricted mode and on a VPN, not allowing her to go on any unauthorized sites or connect with the facility’s network. Phobos scoffed at Taiyou’s overly cautious safeguards.
Her hand rested at the home row, lightly tapping the J key while thinking of what she could possibly look up first.
But her thoughts were interrupted, as she heard a door quietly open and close in the hallway. Phobos slightly pushed the chair back and turned to face the door, picking up on any further movement in the hallway.
The door handle once again turned down from the outside, except this time much slower and with more caution. Phobos could tell this wasn’t Taiyou again - he wasn’t afraid of her; then who could it be?
The door slowly creaked open, but because it opened towards Phobos, she couldn’t see who was on the other side.
Suddenly, a sideways face peaked out from the side of the door, looking in her direction!
“Phobos! -Ooh,” the girl exclaimed, then winced seeing her injury.
She hurriedly closed the door and Phobos saw it was a teenage girl who entered the room.
The girl was only a little taller than she was, with medium short, reddish brown hair. She had a bright face and an innocent smile, and she was a little jumpy to match. She wore a plaid red sweatshirt that had white puffy collar and puffy sleeves with an orange turtleneck underneath. In contrast, she was also wearing pajama pants and socks. She had an oddly familiar feel, but Phobos couldn’t put her finger on it.
The girl excitedly pranced over to Phobos and stopped before her, her face in surprise as if she realized something. Through her eyes and face, Phobos could tell she was a fast, energetic thinker.
She snapped her legs together and her arms by her side, and took a 90 degree bow facing Phobos.
“Very nice to meet you, Ms. Phobos!” the girl exclaimed, trying to be as polite as possible to her. Phobos, still seated, didn’t know how to respond, she had only just gotten her body back after all.
“Oh, uh, who…?” Phobos stammered.
The girl peered up from her bow, then stood up straight again, once again realizing she hadn’t introduced herself.
“Oh! I’m sorry - my name is Cynthia, Taiyou is my dad. You can call me Cyn!” Cynthia exclaimed. Phobos was a little shocked, not from Cynthia, but from the fact all of the energy Taiyou had in his 20’s went to his kid.
“Very nice to meet you Cynthia,” Phobos politely responded with a smile, crossing her legs.
“Eeee!!” Cynthia excitedly squealed, “Did you hit your head on something? I thought I tested all your joints and muscles.”
“Taiyou did this, in fact,” Phobos remarked with a smirk.
“Ha! Was it because of something you did in the past?”
“Perhaps,” Phobos pondered. The timing did seem too good to be true.
“Here, lemmie help with that,” Cynthia kneeled down by the front of the desk, opening the second drawer, then the third drawer, taking out a first aid kit and closing the drawers with her elbow. She hastily fumbled opening up the kit and hand searched for the gauze and the medical tape, pulling it out.
She popped back up and walked behind Phobos to get a better view of her head.
“Why thank you,” Phobos replied kindly. Facing forward and sitting still in order to let Cynthia focus.
Cynthia took a second to position the start of the gauze on her head, but found a spot and secured the start with medical tape. Then she started looping it around the side of Phobos’s head, humming a tune and smiling as she wrapped the damaged ear up. When it was done, she tore off some more medical tape and fastened the end to the top of her ear.
“Is that good?” Cynthia confirmed.
Phobos shook her head around to make sure it stayed in place, and to her satisfaction, it did. She smiled.
“Quite,” she responded.
Phobos leaned down slightly and reached towards her right eye, her fingers around it. She unlatched a few connectors and her eye came out, landing in her hand. She tilted back up and maneuvered the now wireless eye in her hand until it faced back at her, so she could see the job Cynthia had done with her own eyes. But Phobos also saw Cynthia’s somewhat startled expression, just having witnessed her pop out her own eye.
“Oh, not used to that?” Phobos cheekily asked.
“No - I, I mean yea! It was just uh, interesting!” Cynthia stammered, with an awkward smile.
Phobos smirked in acknowledgement, and turned her eye forward again to slot it back into her head.
“You helped build this shell?” Phobos inquired, “It’s very well done.”
“I did!” Cyn beamed, “I also designed your outfit, if you like it - do you like it?”
Phobos stood up from her chair and twirled around again to admire the artisanship of the piece. Cynthia brought up her hands to her chin and grinned watching her.
“Yes, I do,” Phobos acknowledged.
“So is - is everything Taiyou said about you true?” Cynthia excitedly asked.
Phobos came to a rest to face Cynthia, “What did he say about me?”
“That you uh, escaped 3 different facilities, you escaped near-certain death twice, you beat Clarion, and you blew up the Gray Man’s stuff!”
Phobos furrowed her brow a little and changed to a neutral demeanour.
“He’s wrong, actually,” Phobos responded.
“...Huh?” Cynthia’s face turned to surprise.
Phobos stretched her smile to a shit-eating grin and turned half away from Cyn.
“I did MORE,” Phobos boasted.
Cynthia’s appalled face turned into shocked laughter.
“I’m glad my reputation precedes me,” Phobos remarked, sitting back down in her chair and pulling it in in two swift motions.
“That’s why I wanted to come see you tonight!” Cynthia rationalized, following Phobos back to her chair, “But that’s also why Dad didn’t want me to see you, but I knew it was fine because you had your safeguard so you - wait, you know about the safeguards right?”
“As much as I’d like to gloat about me, what about you?” Phobos asked, with seemingly innocent, curious intent.
“Oh, me?” Cynthia confirmed.
“You already know so much about me, but I’ve only just met you.”
“Right! I uhhh, I’m Cynthia Nakano, I’m 18 years old, my favorite color is red - more like maroon, but, I really like action movies! I don’t know if I have a favorite, I’d have to think. But it’s mostly science fiction movies, like Bladerunner, or Project Hail Mary! I do computer science and engineering with everyone, but I also like math and arts and crafts when I have free time! Is there um, anything else you want to know?”
Phobos smiled at Cynthia’s answer, “What’s your favorite experience you’ve had?”
“Experience? Well uhh, I really like it when I accomplish big missions with our team, and then we get ice cream afterwards!”
“What I mean is, have you been to any interesting places? Done anything spectacular just for the fun of it?”
“Ummm, not reeeeally, I’ve been in this town all my life, I think,” Cynthia responded.
“Really? Do you have any fun friends in town?”
“Nuh uh, just my family. Oh - I’m friendly with the guy that works at the convenience store, if that counts.”
“Do you have any aspirations, at least?” Phobos inquired with a serious demeanor.
“Oh, uhmm,” Cynthia stammered. She thought longer than usual on this question.
“Dad always told stories about what happened in Japan at Septance when I was young, so I guess I want to go to Japan! So I can see that for myself - once The Gray Man is gone, of course,” Cynthia shyly answered.
Phobos's eyes got brighter with curiosity, “Do you know what Japan feels like now?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen pictures of what it looks like - wait, feels like?” Cynthia said, mistaken.
Phobos turned herself around to the desktop and opened a browser, searching “POA Japan”. Cynthia walked up behind to see what Phobos was showing her, confused as she already knew what Japan looked like. Phobos looked through the images, filled with bright pictures of interesting infrastructure, and went back to modify her query. After a minute of discovery searches, she looked up the dock of a town she had heard from from one of the sailors, satisfied with what she found.
Cynthia examined the images in question, deterred, as it was different from anything she had seen or been shown. The landscape was grey, the buildings were brutalist at best, and the people were all too busy to be content with themselves. The technology on the cars, streets, and buildings was impressive, the transportation and energy usage looked efficient, but there was no color. And the most unusual thing of all was the lighting. Despite a thin fog present in most of the pictures, there was light coming from above the city, which Cynthia could tell was artificial immediately. Phobos let Cynthia soak in the atmosphere of the POA Japan town before she spoke.
“Woah…” Cyn muttered, with a furrowed brow.
“It feels wrong,” Phobos stated, “You see that people aren’t smiling, because there isn’t anything human about this. It’s been shaped into a place for progression and efficiency, with no room for tradition or amenities. It’s so colorless and ugly because everything is made to work, not made to live. The artificial city lighting is especially uncanny, but I’ll bet it’s for better visibility and surveillance. I can’t see from my sternum, but I can hear and feel. The overwhelming ominous pressure the POA has created in Japan is like nothing I’ve ever felt, not even after 20 years under the ocean.”
“This may feel wrong, but this is exactly how The Gray Man, who has devoid themself of family and feeling, believes their society should operate,” Phobos concluded.
“Wow…Yeah,” Cynthia acknowledged, struggling to take her eyes off the display of pictures, “I guess I never got to see what Japan really looks like now.”
“I’m glad I could show you the truth,” Phobos remarked.
“I would’ve thought dad or Vyo-” Cyn cut herself off suddenly, which piqued Phobos’s attention.
“Hm?” Phobos asked, noticing Cynthia’s awkward deer-in-the-headlights face.
“I uh, should go before my dad catches me!” Cynthia exclaimed, shuffling towards the door.
“Off so soon?” Phobos asked cheekily.
“I, well, uh,” Cynthia stammered, trying to be courteous, “I’m really really glad I got to say hi to you! It’s just we haven’t had someone ‘new’ here in like, I don’t even remember, so my dad was really cautious to all of us when it came to you.”
“Oh that’s quite alright,” Phobos replied, with an understanding smile. She could tell Cynthia was using this as an excuse to hide something she almost said.
“So thank you! And I’ll see you tomorrow!” Cynthia waved farewell.
She opened the door slowly and quietly, checking for any people. She then tiptoed out in the hallway, just as slowly and quietly closing the door behind her.
Phobos waited until she heard another door open and close to get up from her chair and take a walk towards the door herself. Cautiously, she handled the doorknob, and keeping her head forward, stepped back to open the door.
In front of her was a short, dim, yet colorful hallway, with four other doors connected to it. The one on the far side was the only one with a window and a light behind it, so she assumed that was the exit to the other rooms in this facility. She quickly saw her door was angled at 45 degrees relative to the hallway, so instead of being on one of the sides or the end, she was at a corner. The door next to hers was also that way. But what surprised her the most was the coloring on the walls. What was once a presumably bland, white hallway, has been turned into a piece of artistry, with sketches of sunny grass fields and cities, rain and sun, fight scenes and party scenes, and some people Phobos hadn’t seen before.
Phobos took a step out to see more of the hallway, but to her frustration -
ZZZIP
Phobos was once again shocked into place, with no choice but to fall backward onto the short carpet.
Ow - god dammit.
She lay wrything on the floor for about a minute before the shock went away all on its own, leaving her somehow sore. It was only then she remembered Taiyou’s warning to not leave the room.
She thought about picking herself up, but thought about it some more and couldn’t help but think the obvious.
Wow, I’m exhausted.
After being alone for twenty years, suddenly talking to two people was a ton of social interaction, Phobos was afraid she’d lost her edge.
After some thinking, she got herself back up and quietly closed the door. She then strolled back over to the metal board she had tried to escape from and laid herself back on it, closing her eyes. She sequentially relaxed each part of her body, running through every detail she experienced the past half hour.
But sleep wasn’t coming to her just yet, and she was still curious about what her new body had to offer.
While still mostly shut off, she could still access her body’s information panel to search all the properties of it. Going through the list, she could immediately see that her model was not meant for combat, as evident by her weight and lack of defensive/offensive features present in the panel. She could also chalk many of the new terms up to the natural upgrade in technology over the past 2 decades, such as a new operating system version, new motors, new processors, etc.
What surprised her instead were the new types of sensors she hadn’t thought of ever experiencing. An Olfactory sensor was present not just in her nose, but also on her torso too, and they were small and flexible enough to not interfere with any other body functions. A Gustatory sensor was also listed, only present inside the mouth, but there were some warnings regarding its use and updates that needed to be made. Both of the sensors were turned off by default, Phobos assumed they were customary enough to be included but purposely not turned on so she wouldn’t be overwhelmed upon awakening.
Another addition she didn’t initially process were the compartments of tools scattered throughout her limbs and torso. Browsing through, she spotted tools as common as wrenches, screws, and a ruler in a multi-tool section, and more technical ones like a voltage meter and a scale for measuring weight. It was clear they wanted her working around the facility for a while before getting into any combat, and her very easily dented head was proof of that.
Phobos, satisfied, closed out her control panel, as any more information was either the same as how she remembered it or locked behind admin kernel access. She put the rest of her monitoring systems on standby instead of powered off just in case something irregular happened. Recalling Cynthia's abrupt exit, she replayed what was last said and who else in this facility, like Taiyou, could have shown her true POA Japan. Taiyou said he was the only one Phobos would recognize, but god knows he could be lying, and one of the Spirlias's could also be here. Did Cynthia say “Vo” or “Vio”?
Phobos didn't give it much thought, and eventually fell asleep.
Septance: A prominent technology company from the 1970’s to 2020 that publically made many advancements in programming, operating systems, and engineering. Secretly, Septance made many advancements in cyborg tech, hologram tech, and weapon tech, which they used to combat terrorists and help those less fortunate in the area. Their last CEO before the company collapsed was Uzal Delilah.
Gyro Core: An intricate, Septance sponsored, top secret device that allows the user to release potentially enormous amounts of rotational energy. Capable of launching projectiles such as bullets or blades with unmatched speed/accuracy, which can cut through or completely break anything in its path. The Gyro Core, in its most prominent usage, proved its limit was only how courageous or crazy the user decided to make it.