Yugioh W.A.L.L.E!

Frist chapter and taster! Just a few points I'd like to make first before you start reading.

1) Atem will be undergoing a few occ moments, but with justified reasons! Like he won't talk much because he has lived most of his life alone, therefore won't do much talking or interacting. Plus he's Wall-e's equivalent in this story, and as you are aware, Wall-e didn't talk very much. (Pixar actually stated that the idea of Wall-e and Eve was that they spoke different languages so they had to express themselves in other ways, such as Wall-e's radio to communicate.)

2) There will be no bashing. Everyone's a goodie in this, you'll meet the characters as they come along.

3) Their names have been changed a little so that they fit a 'name abbreviation' like Eve = Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Examiner. So A.T.E.M does stand for something, and other character's names have changed to fit certain phrases too, because there aren't enough vowels in their names for example. (Marik and Bakura were the hardest to do)

4) It's just a taster really, I'm not focusing on this just yet, I just wanted to get my ideas all sorted and condensed so that I had Atem and his backstory and world firmly in my head before I moved on.

But with all that said, read on and tell me what you think!


The year is 2805.

Location: Planet Earth.

Status of city: Zero population.

Status of Planet: Unsustainable and devoid of life. Abandoned in 2110.


At least, that's the official record. Seven hundred years ago, in the year 2105, the CEO and president of the world's largest manufacturing company for humanity's every whim, Buy an' Large (BnL) declares a global crisis!

The Planet is too polluted and littered to sustain life! Trees and animals die like flies, unable to breathe the toxic air, unable to scavenge nutrients from the drying soils, unable to withstand the levels of pollution in the rivers and seas. There is more litter than land, it floats in the oily, greasy seas, and has become the snow and sands of the vast empty plains of the planet.

Because people were becoming buried in their own houses and cities because of the garbage the Government finally decided that they had to do something radical to turn around life on Earth, or there would be no life left to turn around!

The largest evacuation in the history of mankind took place, with every country, every citizen packed onto one of the robot included Star liners. Their they lived the lives of luxury for a scheduled fifteen year cruise through the stars, waited on by robots and humanoids hand and foot until their homes were ready for their return.

On Earth BnL put their scientists onto one of their most top secret and ethically violating projects, but crisis times called for radical decisions, and began to mass produce A.T.E.M.s: Altered Time Enduring Maintenance-Men and Women; they were mostly human but with robotic parts as part of their genetic makeup.

The first of them were mass produced in test tubes for the first two years. By then the first generation were fully grown to adult sizes and were genetically formulated and raised to have the mental conditioning to clear up the planet, clean up trash, fertilize the earth, take care of life should they find it. It was similar to the Directives (bred/raised purposes) of other humanoids, but these were stronger conditionings than the average humanoid. In the next year second generation A.T.E.M.s started being born in the 'wild', but they were even more adapted to the outside harshness of Earth's environments, so the scientists encouraged this.

The A.T.E.M.s were dependent on the humans, because of the conditioning in their brains they were unable to stop working unless told or pulled away, often A.T.E.M.s starved or died of injuries because they couldn't work around the compulsion in their brains to get food or first aid, some even worked themselves into comas and deaths; another reason why children were encouraged. Just as a Fish couldn't help but swim A.T.E.M.s couldn't help but follow their mental Directives, even to the point of insanity and danger.

By year five however the CEO and scientists abandoned the project, Earth, and the helpless A.T.E.M.s The toxic levels were continuing to rise, the oceans had officially dried up and there was no such thing as greenery anymore; to the humans it was hopeless. They sent a final message from Earth and then left on the final Starliner.

For the A.T.E.M.s, this spelled their doom. Their numbers, that had once been in the thousands dropped dramatically, with only those who could resist or pace their compulsions and conditionings surviving, in a twisted form of man-made natural selection. However, this alone was not enough. Without water many more soon died, and food was getting more and more scarce by the day. Any food that was found was fought over to the death, any water that was clean enough to drink, or filters that would clean water were valued at the same price; a fight to the doom.

Additionally the scientists didn't realise that the gene that gave the A.T.E.M.s their supernatural growth also stopped their aging, for indefinitely. Each A.T.E.M looking like they had died at the age of twenty or twenty five at the latest when they could have easily been decades or centuries old. The A.T.E.M.s found that, providing they stayed healthy and fed and out of injuries, they could live for extremely long periods of time; the longest recorded to date was over six hundred before they died in a fight over a preserved dead rat (meat was highly valued whatever the state, protein wasn't easy to find.)

But eventually all the A.T.E.M.s died. And the planet was once again lifeless, zero population on every continent, in every country, and every city … well except one.


Location: New York.

Year: 2805.

Population: One A.T.E.M. Male, 517 years of age.

Status: Relatively healthy physically. Slightly below average Mentally.

Overall: Surviving.


The Atem lifted the shovel and dumped another lot of rubbish into the Decomposer. The clever machine, the Decomposer, sorted through everything that was put through it with lightning speeds; everything that wouldn't decompose would be placed into a square compartment that would be crushed into a square block. The decomposable stuff would be sprayed with chemicals and enzymes that would speed up the process to get rich and fertile soil, the soil would be dispersed onto the ground around it or into little pots depending on where it was placed. Finally anything that would make up vitamin and mineral supplements would be compressed into little capsules and spat out in the bottom like a vending machine.

The Atem working on this saw the red light flashing on the Decomposer and moved to haul a heavy leaver down, he grasped the worn handle tightly with both calloused hands, and then he heaved. Every rock hard and developed muscle over five hundred and seventeen years of hard daily labour pulled at once and dragged the leaver down. He then pushed down with his body weight as well as his strength and when he heard the muffled crunch that singled the block of useful material had been turned into a cube he let go. The leaver groaned as it pulled itself back up into neutral mode, its gears were a little rusty; the Atem would have to go and get some more oil from somewhere soon to keep it in good working order.

The Atem opened the door, it opened like an oven, and pulled out the square of basically all metal and plastic polymers – stuff that would take millions of years to turn back to soil or recyclable molecules – and walked over to a growing wall of a thousand million others, and simply added it to the collection.

As the Atem turned back to the Decomposer, the machine about the size of a smart car or a very large suit case for the mobile ones, something interesting caught his eyes. A shiny piece of metal glinted out from under some freshly thrown soil. The Atem reached down and picked it up. It was a metal disk about the size and shape of a frizzbe, the BnL logo scratched and faded in the slightly raised centre, but for the Atem it was a mystery and it was interesting.

What was it? What did it do? What could he use it for? Should he keep it? All these thoughts ran through his mind as he looked at the disk, turning it over and over in his hands until he decided it would be useful. He jogged over to a discarded backpack of sturdy material and placed the disk into the pack to take home.

Just then his life support extension on his chest began to bleep. The Atem looked up at the sun, or what he could see of the sun through clouds and clouds of dust and polluted air, and saw that it was going to set in about an hour. That was his cue to go home.

The Atem turned off the Decomposer and picked up the supplement capsules to put in his pocket, there were a lot of red ones here. This patch of garbage, and soon to be soil was, rich in iron. That was good, the Atem reflected, now he could replenish his skeleton's structure and finally move something heavy again. His thoughts not the normal patterns for someone his age, because of his isolation for just about five hundred years his mind didn't use many words, he thought through images and senses and emotions. The few words he did know didn't have a lot of relevance to him, there was no one to speak to, no one to remind him what, when, where; what sound that made, what this word meant, if this sound was a word …

So his mind, although active and healthy in many respects, was lacking in the ways of the 'modern' man as he hadn't fully developed the skill of talking, nor had he maintained it. But he did know words because of a lovely little gadget he'd managed to repair one day when he was sick in his home and tinkering.

The Atem reached across to his left arm, to his bicep where a radio had been duct taped to his solar panel band, and pressed the play button. The radio spluttered once then continued to play from where he left off the last time. The old fashioned record and play radio had been tinkered with by this Atem into drawing its power from the solar band, and therefore the Atem himself, and soon its jolly notes spilled out into the endless silence.

"Out there! There's a world outside of Yonkers. Way out there beyond this hick town, Barnaby. There's a slick town, Barnaby. Out there! Full of shine and full of sparkle. Close your eyes and see it glisten, Barnaby. Listen, Barnaby..."

The Atem's step gained a small bounce as his favourite part started to play, this part sounded so happy, it made him feel happy too. "Put on your Sunday clothes, there's lots of world out there! Get out the brilliantine and dime cigars. We're gonna find adventure in the evening air! Girls in white in a perfumed night, where the lights are bright as the stars! Put on your Sunday clothes, we're gonna ride through town, in one of those new horse-drawn open cars! We'll see the shows at Delmonicos, and we'll close the town in a whirl, and we won't come home until we've kissed a girl!"

The Atem's face pulled into a handsome smile as he set the recorder to replay his favourite part again.

Physically the Atem was very good looking, he looked mostly human and had muscles that many an old-time model would have slaved to get. Not to say this Atem didn't slave to get his anyway, but he didn't gain them with that vain intent.

His skin was darkly tanned from unfiltered UV lights from the sun, his skin luckily had been adapted to withstand such high radiation beams daily so had no chance at getting burnt or skin cancer. He was slightly shorter than an average old-time human, yet his limbs were perfectly proportioned and very muscled, he worked since he was fully grown – about two years of age – and every day since then so he had a lot to show for it. He wore hard wearing pants that were tough for every situation, and heavy duty boots.

However his left trouser leg was torn at the bottom and a metallic skin replacement had been placed there to seal an injury, it looked quite literally like someone had welded a metal square onto his skin. The injury in this case had been caused by an unstable piece of structure; it had fallen and cleaved out a bit of the flesh of his lower shin. Yet such things were, dare anyone think it, normal in his world. But because he was out of good quality skin-repair kits he was forced to command the metal nanos in his blood to repair the wound with excess metals from his body.

That wasn't his only injury. On the top of his left shoulder there was a stitched up scar from his early childhood, he remembered his Mother A.T.E.M ignoring her own compulsions and stitching him up to make the skin-repair kits go a little further. Along his left wrist to his mid lower arm was a large recent scar of skin that had been torn off in an accident, he had been forced to use an out of date skin-repair kit for that one, and it had left a blotchy looking scar in the shape of a rip. On his right shoulder was a large burn, some gas had ignited in the midday heat and the Atem had been standing too close. A flame shaped scar was stretched over his shoulder touching his collarbone and the burn cut off where his bicep solar band was placed as it protected the skin under it form the flames when he got it. He had numerous wound scars on his torso and sides, but his worst one was his right elbow. He now had a metallic joint in place of bone; it had been crushed in an accident, the joint showed as the nanos couldn't regrow skin over the joint and so it looked like he had metal holding his right arm together at the joint. Yet somehow blood managed to get to his fingers; the wonders of bodily repair kits.

The Atem had a black T shirt as the second part of his clothing; it had no sleeves to allow his arms to touch the limited sunlight. This was important because on his upper arms there were two solar bands that worked just like solar panels to give him extra energy directly from the sun into his being, mostly to keep the robotic parts of him going, but he could survive with less food provided he got enough sunlight and supplements. There was an extremely powerful one on his shoulder, it would slide on like a loop and was in the shape of a wing, it powered the life support on his chest. One had his radio attached, but under both arms was skin sensitive and modified to absorb the energy the bands provided from the sun.

On his left hand was a burgundy glove with a thick metal ring around the wrist as if to seal it on. The glove was mainly for protection and the scientists must have felt stylish at one point. But the true function was in the metallic ring. It had a laser on the top of the wrist, powered by the solar bands, and on each side of it were two flip-open compartments where the Atem would place his supplements. The ring would swiftly distribute them into his blood so he stayed healthy, and his life support on his chest would inform him the second he started running low on a mineral or vitamin so he would always be able to control his health.

To keep him safe from the violent Earth weather he had, on his right wrist, a golden-bronzed bracelet in several rings up from his wrist to halfway up his lower arm. On it was a shield of electrical magnetic energy that he could activate with the punch of a button, or his instinctive survival skills. Its only drawback was that it took lots of power to maintain, but it could keep his head clear of sand if he was trapped in sand storms, he just had to hold his arm up to his face and a bubble of clear air would be around his head until he found shelter and turned it off. But the actual weather warning device would let out an alarm sound to warn him of approaching storms of any kind.

Finally the life support he had was partly built into him. It was connected to his ribs and shoulder on the left side of body. It went in deep to monitor his heart, metabolism, levels of ingested nutrients, any infections, illnesses or unusual growths. There was a small screen that showed his heart beat and glowed a certain colour if he started pushing himself too hard, green for fine, red for take a break. There were moving bars of different colours that told the Atem what nutrients were high or low in his body so he could keep them regulated, finally certain buttons would flash if something instantly bad was happening, like if he was running too low on solar energy.

Otherwise the rest of him was human. His hair had three colours, black ebony for the main mass with a collection of blond bangs and lightning streaks that hung over his face and went up into his spiked hair, and finally the tips of his hair were crimson. His face was sharp, almost regal looking, with haunting red eyes. His red eyes were a genetic mutation over the generations to deal with the UV he was constantly looking at.

A noise startled the Atem, he shut off his music and stood warily as the noise approached him. He wondered if it was another humanoid, he hadn't seen another one in many, many decades, but he never stopped hoping for someone to share his world with and to ease his loneliness.

Finally a robotic pile of limbs fell out of an empty BnL oil barrel. The Atem relaxed and a smile spread across his face, full of near childish delight at the sight of his companion. It was a robotic dog, entirely metal, he had found it one day while he was working and had taken the interesting parts home only to find out that it wasn't broken, just out of charge. The Atem at once gave the bot some energy, and changed its Directive slightly to not only be a companion to him, but to also hunt for food so the Atem could focus on working.

The robotic dog looked like a Labrador and had a collar naming it SCRAPS. So the Atem had decided to call it that.

The Atem knelt down and untangled the robot's limbs before patting its hard metal head. The robotic dog wagged its tail in response and placed a packet of several sealed crisps at the Atem's feet. The Atem's eyes widened; preserved food!

Those items were very rare, and very good to keep; they didn't need cooking, even if they tasted a little stale they would be fine to eat, they had flavours, and he could store them. It must have been one of his lucky days to gain something like this!

He grinned and packaged up the preserved crisps and turned to scratch Scraps on the head, the gesture familiar and causing a funny response, the dog's robotic tongue lolled out in an imitation of its real template. The Atem's smile widened "Good Dog," he pronounced with some difficulty, he hadn't spoken in a long time he realised.

The robot wagged its tail at the praise and followed the Atem on his way back home.

As the two companions got onto an old train track, it was clear of most rubbish almost like a road, the journey would be easier now. The Atem reached for his radio again but as he put his foot down something sharp poked at his sole. He cried out and hopped on his left foot away from the object and over to an old lamp post. He looked at his foot and gasped when he realised his shoe's thick sole had worn through to his foot basically. He felt the hole and was relieved to find no blood; he couldn't waist another skin-repair kit after the shoulder burn incident.

He looked around and carefully began treading along the railway. Scraps had stopped and whined when his 'master' had expressed pain, and his programing made him stay in close proximity until the circuits that made up his brain deemed him 'normal' again.

The Atem finally came across a deceased humanoid. The male Atem looked to have the same sized shoe that the living Atem had. After prying them off his decomposing feet, the living Atem pulled the new pair on and replaced the ones he had taken with his own. He looked down at the dead Atem and felt sad. He titled his head to the side and then managed to say "Thank you … Matthew."

Strange. The living Atem wondered why he had the urge to name those he found. But, on the other hand, they couldn't all be buried under graves call 'Atem'. He'd named his Mother when she passed away, his Father, those he had to take items from, just to give them and himself some kind of individuality. The Atem turned and walked away, leaving 'Matthew' to nature's ways.

His new shoes rubbed a little, but his skin was tough and he knew he wouldn't get blisters. With the point made before, why hadn't he named himself?

It was strange, but he had always been called Atem, just like all the others had been. It seemed to be his name, and he couldn't really see himself as being called anything else. It was what he was and who he was. So Atem was his name.

Atem kicked a can along the rail track, amusing himself slightly as he continued to walk home.

When he passed an old Gas and shop centre, green paper with numbers on them scattered all around it, old BnL solar powered television advertisements started up again. They reacted to his movement and projected their holographic images above their power sources.

Atem had heard them all before so completely ignored them.

"Too much garbage in your face? There's plenty of space out in space, Buy an' Large Starliners leaving each day. We'll clean up the mess while you're away." The images showed a luxury space Starliner going through the stars, and then a small clip of waving scientists, the ones who had opted to stay behind to monitor the cleaning up of the planet.

Atem eased himself down from a ledge and carefully picked Scraps up and placed him down so he wouldn't get his front legs tangled again, and then they continued on their way. They passed many structures made entirely of non-decomposable materials, some structures rivalled the old-time skyscrapers of New York, others just lined the walls of the already made ones, however there were more fully made ones, about ten to one compared to real skyscrapers.

Another advertisement activated "The jewel of the BnL fleet: the Axiom! Spend your fifteen year cruise in style, waited on twenty four hours a day by our completely humanoid or robotic crew, while your captain and auto pilot chart a course for none stop entertainment, fine dining and with our all access hover chairs even Grandma can join the fun, there's no need to walk! The Axiom, putting the Star in executive Starliners. "Because for BnL, space is the final frontier!" the CEO of BnL signed off, waving at the Axiom's take off as the advertisement finally ended.

By this point Atem and Scraps had travelled across the abandoned Starliner launch and landing pads and were only a few minute walk from home.

Atem approached what once was an old dock, the metallic structure would have jutted proudly into the sea, but now it just stood as a towering structure over an endless plain of sand instead of on top of the sea. At the end of the old metal dock was a bunker. It was about the size of a two car garage for old-time folks; it was rusty on the outside and had once been a bright yellow with the A.T.E.M eye on a triangular spade-shovel symbol on the sides, along with the BnL logo.

Atem pointed for Scraps to stay out of the way, the robotic dog sitting where Atem pointed his finger obediently, then Atem pulled a leaver to lower the entrance to his home.

The door opened from the roof downwards, forming a ramp into the bunker. Atem smiled when he saw what was inside and jumped up the ramp to go indoors and start unpacking his things.

As he entered the room the bunker made he went to the left hand side and picked up an extension lead with lots of plugs in it, his fingers flicked the switches on the sides and throughout the house strings of old-time Christmas lights and lamps lit up to illuminate the bunker. The lights had been hooked or stuck to the ceiling and were powered by batteries that charged when the solar or wind turbines on the roof created energy, and it was stored in rechargeable batteries until the switch was flicked.

Atem's home was divided by several revolving shelves, each shelf had a vast collection of items stored on them. Things that went from useful items like food to less important things like bubble wrap; clothing to lighters, spare parts to old toys, and blood packs – filled with potentially life-saving Nanos that were only to be used in the most dire of occasions, such as organ damage and broken bones – to paper cups.

Atem looked around his home and hummed the tune to Hello Dolly, Sunday Clothes, and took off both shoes and his two layers of socks to place them by the entrance of the bunker. He wandered inside and placed the new found food into a box on the floor by his thin and flat mattress that had lost all spring, then went to his most prized possessions.

At the back was an old IPod with a tiny screen. Atem knelt and turned it on, then turned to the metal toaster and clicked up the toast rack manually – he had no idea what it was used for or that he had to power it with electricity, luckily – and took out a Video cassette. He put it into the VCR, he had hooked up the screen into the IPod, and sure enough Little Dolly began to play in the miniature screen. Atem reached up and pulled down a giant magnifier he'd attached like a calendar page above it, and the television was full sized.

Atem smiled and took a step back to look at the things he'd found today. But before he opened his bag he took out his Contact lenses and placed them in a soaking and cleaning gel, he did the same with his nose filters; so he didn't breathe any instantly toxic fumes or sand while he worked. The contact lenses were tiny enhancers, he could adjust his point of 'near vision' to see into the distance or really close with them on, if needed he could also see in great detail. But without them he had normal Twenty-Twenty vision.

After making sure that they were safe he turned to his new items. He picked out a lighter; the silver boxes had fascinated him, so he collected them. He had about twenty now. He eased one into a place by the others and then picked out the next object; a plastic spoon and fork in one. Atem turned to his opposite shelf and pulled a leaver until the right shelf was at his kneeling level. But there was a problem when he finally got to the right one.

Atem looked at his new-found object and then back to the cups full of plastic spoons and forks. His new item wasn't quite smooth and round like the spoons, but it wasn't rectangle and pointy like the forks. After a few moments of debate he laid it down in-between them since it didn't really belong in either.

After humming in approval he picked out the final item; the metallic circle. He flipped it over in his hands again before turning to the video, having just had an idea as to what it could be. He watched the musical number where the men used hats to dance, and looked at his item again. He stood up and put it on his head, squashing his hair a little as he mimicked dancing around with it. The actions brought a large smile to his face: What a wonderful thing to find.

He put it on the shelf where he kept his favourite items. With the disk placed he admired the others; a light bulb, bubble wrap, an egg beater with a turning handle, a spare set of Christmas lights, a bendy bit of wire, a bouncy rubber ball with a smiling face, and finally a golden pyramid.

The golden pyramid had been in many pieces when he had first found it. But when he found many different shaped pieces, he realised that this was something that went together like a puzzle. However the overall shape was still missing the front and it was hollow. He wasn't sure if there were others that fit inside or if it was just meant to be a hollow space. But it sat there gleaming brightly in the lights of his home; one of his treasures.

Atem smiled and moved to get some food, only for a new scene on the IPod to distract him from his thoughts. It was the part when the main character sang to the lady in the pink dress. Cornelius and Irene, they were Atem's favourites since the film followed them and showed him this lovely moment.

Without looking his hand moved to his radio to record the song as he sat before the screen again, watching their movements as if it was the first time all over again, letting the beautiful notes of their duet wash over him.

"And that is all ... that love's about..."

"And we'll recall ... when time runs out..."

"That it only ... took a moment ... to be loved … a whole ... life ... long!"

Atem watched with his intense red eyes as they reached out and held hands. He tilted his head as he thought of that simple gesture, simple to any normally raised person, but to him it was special. He had no person to hold hands with, even now as his fingers intertwined as he imagined what it must be like to feel another's skin where his was, what it must be like to have someone special … how special … like that was one of the embodiments of love and beauty.

The song ended and Atem looked down at his dusty, tanned brown hands with sombre eyes. He loosened his grip and stopped recording with a sigh.

He was lonely.

He had been alone for a very long time, so long that he couldn't properly remember the faces or names – though most likely they were all called A.T.E.M, but he had to get his habit of naming people from somewhere – of anyone that must have raised him, or any company he might have had once. His Mother and Father and any friends he had were all blurred faces and smiles without features … he must have been happy once, with people to care for him and for him to care for.

Often Atem had considered wandering the world, leaving his home and Directive in search of anyone to share his world with. They could be young, old, mean, nice, quiet or loud, but he'd like them for their company.

But he knew that this wasn't possible. He couldn't wander around without a safe haven to go to and hide in, what if a sand storm or any other unpredictable weather came for him? He knew this city and all its safe spots. He wasn't sure he'd be able to find food or water, and he wasn't sure he'd survive lots of travel without mentally breaking down from ignoring his conditioning for so long. He was very good, because of decades of practice and rewards from surviving because he ignored his Directive, at pacing himself. He managed to compromise with his Directive wired brain; he'd work, but not all day. His reasoning was that the longer he lived the more he would achieve, so therefore surviving was helping his directive.

He could resist, but after a week he'd be itching and twitching to get back to work. He'd fidget and get anxious and unpredictable until he'd worked off his compulsion for another day or two.

Atem moved away from his sad thoughts and turned off the IPod to get food. He sat on his mattress and began to chew on some preserved and overly salted meat, then he ate a packet of crisps, with a can full of filtered rain water. He looked down at his Life Support and saw that he was running low on vitamin A and C.

He reached for his belt, there was a rectangular pocket there, he flipped the top open and took out an orange capsule and a green one. He sealed up the pocket-holder on his belt and turned to his wrist.

He opened the flip-click-open-and-shut compartments to reveal a few indents, just the right size for the capsules. He inserted the capsules and closed the compartments. They would be trickling into his blood any moment.

Sure enough he felt a little rejuvenated as he instantly built up what he had recently lost.

He got up and picked up his bag, it was dusty and dirty, he went to the entrance and smacked it several times on the ground to knock off the dust and dirt. As he did so a strong gust of wind sounded and Atem looked up at to see if any sandstorms were coming. But instead he saw something he'd never seen before.

There was a black patch of sky, full of silver lights, like his silver boxes and Christmas lights combined. They were so far away, and so beautiful. Why did the brown clouds hide them? Why couldn't he see them every night? What were they? Could he touch them? Atem stared, his hand turned on his latest recording, and the other reached up as if to try and capture them before the ugly brown clouds did.

"And that is all ... that love's about..."

But the moment was shattered when the Warning System on his right wrist, the one towards the sky, began to blare its alarm and flash red. Atem's eyes moved from the disappearing silver-lights and to his wrist, he looked around worriedly and felt a small dread well up in his chest when he saw the ferociousness of this storm, it was fast approaching and would be here in about thirty seconds.

Atem picked up his things and threw them inside. He went to the leaver by his shoes and by the cables, and pressed the button that would close the door.

"And we'll recall ... when time runs out..."

Wait! Scraps!

"Scraps!" Atem shouted, the faithful robotic dog still sitting outside where it had been told to, much to his master's horror. Its tail wagged and his eyes focused on Atem with a programed smile.

Atem gestured for Scraps to come "Inside!" he gasped.

Scraps stood up and jumped the small door and skidded indoors next to Atem's feet. Atem shut the door just as the storm hit. The house shivered and wailed a little, but it wasn't anything extremely unusual. Atem just hoped it wasn't one of the more violent storms that would cause his house to fall off the pier, his house has shifted once before due to a violent storm, but it hadn't done so since. Yet Atem still had concerns.

He knelt and silently fussed over Scraps, glad his companion was safe, and took him over to his mattress. Scraps knew what this meant and curled up at the foot obediently, Atem lay himself down on the mattress that had lost all spring, it was more like lots of layers of cardboard covered in thin cotton. He stretched a little and pulled an equally thin blanket up to his chin, he relaxed his long worked muscles and stared at the ceiling.

"That it only ... took a moment ... to be loved … a whole ... life ... long!"

Atem's eyes closed and he drifted off to the sound of the recording. The storm wailed on around his home, the lights flickered and shone as their power supply was slowly running out, the next day a thousand other things were waiting to fall and injure him, toxic gasses were being released and blown about in the gale force winds that rivalled a hurricane's and new threats that Atem had no way of preparing for. The old buildings of New York groaned and swayed in the storm. Some of the carefully stacked boxes began to roll around the city and undo some of Atem's work.

A mammoth of a job, cleaning an entire planet single-handedly, and it was ultimately one that would never happen. Deep down, Atem knew that he was never going to achieve his Directive, he didn't always acknowledge this, but there were days when he would long to make a difference; bigger and sooner than the one he was born into. But he pushed on, he survived, and tomorrow, he'd work again.


Wow, that's a lot of description, but hopefully you all now understand Atem's world and what he looks like. If you have trouble getting a good idea of his looks, don't worry, I'll have some drawings of Atem put up on my Deviatart Account the moment I have a decent photo. Also the Cover-Art is mine and is also found on my Deviantart page.

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You liked it - what did you like about it specifically?

The description was good - Where?

It's hard to follow at certain points - Where exactly?

Help an Author out so that I can know what to do or NOT to do next time, Thanks for reading, please leave a review. Thanks.