Automan and all character names therein are owned by the American Broadcasting Company and Twentieth Century Fox. All characters are fictional and resemblance to any persons living or dead is coincidental. No copyright infringement is intended.

Automan: Re-Resolution
by Sailor Chronos

Chapter 1

12 March 2002

Officer Carolina Baines was having a bad day.

Not only had the burglar she had arrested the previous day been released with no charges filed against him, not only had her hairdresser botched the dye job and turned her wedge-cut hair brown instead of red, but she just lost most of her case report to one of the brownouts that had been plaguing the city for the past month.

Granted, this was Los Angeles, one of the most populous cities in the country, but it seemed that these power shortages weren't normal. She had grown up here and couldn't remember when the electricity had been this unreliable. On average there were three or four of these sudden brownouts a week, and many people were scrambling to bolster their electronics with an Uninterruptible Power Supply unit or even a generator, herself included. Unfortunately her division HQ had the budget for neither convenience, and it was becoming commonplace for documents to puff into the ether when the computers went down. Tempers were fraying and case backlog was increasing. Multiple calls had been made to the power company, but they insisted that all their equipment was in working order and they couldn't track down the problem.

She decided to give up on the report and call it a day, intending to complete it in the morning. After driving home to her modest townhouse and flopping on the sitting-room couch without bothering to change out of her uniform, her mind wandered. Perhaps what the city really needed was some sort of expert on all things electrical; a specialized engineer perhaps. Someone who was very familiar with the city's electrical grid and computer systems, someone with the ability to track power fluctuations as they were happening...

Someone like Automan.

Lina sat bolt upright. She hadn't thought of Automan for years. If it hadn't been for him and his creator, she wouldn't be in the career that she was in now.

Back in 1983 the Central Division's resident computer expert, Walter Nebicher, had made something very special that he called Automan. The original concept had been a game that could help Walter solve criminal cases. But Walter wanted more than that: he wanted a partner who complimented his own abilities. With a combination of computer power and an inadvertent tap into the electrical system, he created what he termed a hologram, but was really an electricity and light-based construct that could materialize and directly affect the physical world. Walter's diligent programming even allowed Automan to learn, and over time he had become a quasi-independent being.

Lina had discovered all this during the summer of 1984, when she had her first job at the division headquarters, serving as a computer intern. Most of the staff kept Walter at arm's length, thinking of him as too much of a geek. But she had warmed to him very quickly, and considered him her mentor for the duration. It was he who had inspired her to go into computer engineering in college, and later into the police force - mainly because of Automan.

Having been an eager, impressionable 16-year-old at the time, she couldn't help but notice the tall, handsome man that was frequently seen in Walter's presence. Around the department he was known as a federal agent by the name of Otto J. Mann who specialized in computers, much like Walter. However she had stumbled upon his true nature one day while she was working on some algorithms on the mainframe computer in Walter's office. Walter had left a reference check running while he was out on a case, not expecting anyone else to enter the office, and Automan had appeared. Both of them had subsequently sworn her to secrecy.

The defining moment for her career occurred late in the summer. She had volunteered to be a plant for a youth gang bust, since none of the other detectives looked young enough to pass muster. Unfortunately she was ratted out and kidnapped before her backup could reach her. Taking responsibility for the case, Walter and Automan found and extricated her before she could come to any harm. Walter's assurances for her continued safety weren't enough for her parents, who immediately removed her from the internship before she had a chance to thank Automan properly; he had returned to his computer world as was his wont when he wasn't directly needed.

Two years passed while she finished high school. Six years in college for her double major of computer engineering and criminal justice. One year of police academy. Nine years in the job that she loved. Not in all that time did she have (or make) an opportunity to see Automan again, even though she did still have a few friends at the division that she was in contact with. Too long. Now she had no idea of what had happened to him.

But how could she find out?