Chapter 1
January 19, 2134
(30 Years after the fall of Machines)
The country was back to normal, thriving even, after Curtis Wily and his machines had made the country their personal killing fields for years. The billboards of Preston Light and Tracy Bonne still stood, though faded and mostly vandalized by this point, to remind people of what humans could do when challenged. Much like the billboard across the street from the open construction site. The site where four men stalked in front of a truck's blinding headlights.
Phillips Construction. For three years Tyler Coleman had excelled in employee performance, always on time, last to leave, picked up co-worker's slack in emergency situations, the works. Now he was on his hands and knees in the mud. His wet brown hair half soaked in his own blood.
Surprisingly, it wasn't the beating that bothered him. It wasn't the sudden betrayal of his so-called friends, who had stripped him to his grey boxer briefs in the pouring rain, in the dead of winter. It wasn't even the fact that they intended to kill him and dispose of his body. No, they had taken his hearing aid. 'It's the smallest things that cut you the deepest.' He thought to himself, wearily.
Three Years Earlier
"Over here is where we keep the fusion-powered tools." Richard Phillips said, pointing to the gated off area. He led Tyler through the workshop of his father's company. Mr. Phillips was a heavyset man in his early forties, roughly eighteen years older than Tyler. "When we sort out our work requests, you'll be going with Sean." He continued. "You cant miss him, he's the tall, bean-poled fella with the ponytail. He's only been here a year, but he knows the ropes pretty much."
Tyler had to walk fast to keep up with the big man, "So how far do you guys usually travel for a job?" He asked, pushing his glasses up.
"Depends on the offer, we work all across New Mexico, but only for the right price." The man answered, rounding the corner. "There's your man right there." He said, pointing to a guy about the same age as Tyler. "Sean! Get over here, new guy starts today." He shouted to him.
Mr. Phillips was right about Sean. He stood about six-foot-two, with long brown hair. He sat, smoking a cigarette and thumbing through a stack of holo-sheets. He looked up, "Alright, I'm not the new guy anymore." Sean said smirking. He walked over to shake Tyler's hand, "Don't sweat being green. We got a good group of guys here. "You and I will actually be heading to Santa Fe to meet them, shortly."
Getting out of the old truck, Darren was the first to greet him. The short, muscular, black man had a jovial demeanor. He introduced himself, slapping Tyler on the shoulder, followed by the others. Jake was a short, tattooed bald man, while Jesse was the bearded stoner of the group. The men seemed to hit it off immediately, welcoming him into their circle as family.
One Year Later
Tyler stood, laughing, as he held the pool stick prepared to put Jake out of the elimination round of "cut-throat". "Okay, okay, listen." Tyler said, standing back upright. "How bad do you want me to target Sean first?"
"Are you kidding me?" Jake replied, laughing. "I only have one ball left, but if you give me another turn, you're losing your rent money, Ty."
Tyler cocked an eyebrow, clicking off his hearing aid. The men erupted in laughter, "I don't think he feels like hearing anymore of your bullshit, Jay." Darren suggested.
With everything going on around him, Tyler leaned down and shot. Everyone recoiled and went silent, as the ball ricocheted and knocked in the remaining four balls besides his own, eliminating both men.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Sean shouted. "I had three left. How the Hell did you do that?" He began to go in his pocket for his wager, "I swear you were a pool shark before you moved here."
"You say something?" Ty asked, clicking his ear piece back on.
Sean dove, playfully putting Tyler in a headlock, "C'mere you rat bastard." He said, in an old-time gangster voice. Letting go, he straightened his shirt. "Shit, Ty. What kind of shampoo you use?" He said wiping his hands on his jeans.
"Wait, you guys use shampoo?" He replied, fixing his glasses.
The men laughed drunkenly, not realizing that this would be the night that the seed of paranoia would be planted.
It was three in the morning when Tyler and Jesse pulled into the driveway of their small, two-bedroom townhouse. Jess half-stumbled from the passenger side of the pick-up, as his friend caught him, mid-fall. "Alright, alright, I gotcha." Tyler said, helping him walk to the door. "You can't keep doing this to yourself, man. I thought after six months a night out would do you some good."
"She ain't taking me back, bro." Jess replied. Struggling to walk through the door. "She hasn't even replied to my holos in three weeks."
"Just try and get some sleep." Tyler said, dropping him on the couch. "I told you that you could stay here as long as you need, until things become final, one way or the other." He clicked on the holovision, "But drinking yourself to death won't help anyone, Jess."
Jesse waved him off, as his friend departed to take a shower. He started flipping through the channels. He came across "The Era of Machine: Taking Back Freedom", the buzz of all the news channels and award shows at the moment. He decided to see what the fuss was about, sitting up and watching intently.
The horror stories and tales from the survivors were shockingly disturbing. The machines had fallen five years before Jesse was born, but his father had told him of the human-like androids that slaughtered and enslaved the people. He had also told him of the two androids, controlled by Tracy Bonne and Dr. Light, that saved the country.
"...can't deny the fact, that even after all these years of peace, these machines could still be hiding among us, Mrs. Bonne." The interviewer was saying.
Tracy Bonne-Radcliffe, still spry and composed even at age sixty one, looked agitated by the statement. "Mrs. Goff, we both know that is a loaded statement. The fact that Dr. Wily was a complete and utter psychopath, could lead anyone's imagination wander about what he was capable of."
"But, it is possible, yes or no?" Nancy Goff pushed on.
Tracy brushed her silver hair from her eyes, staring the woman down intently, "In a word. Yes." She said. "But in thirty years' time, we've seen no evidence of it. So the likelihood of another 'takeover' is slim at best."
Jess sat up, wide-eyed, considering this possibility. The feeling didn't last long, due to the sudden urge to vomit interrupting. He ran into the bathroom, stuffing his head into the toilet to greet his dinner again. When he looked up the shower was still running, but empty. Tyler stood to his right, fully clothed, holding a small screwdriver. "What the Hell have you been doing this whole time?" Jess asked.
Tyler looked dumbfounded, "Fixing my hearing aid." He answered. "Are you okay?" He added.
Jess jumped up, "How did you hear me then?!" He accused.
"I read your lips, dick." Ty replied, pointing to his mouth.
Jesse shook his head slowly, "Nah man. I've never seen you drink."
"That's because I don't drink." Tyler said, confused. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"No. I've never seen you drink, period." Jess said, before snatching the mouthwash cup and filling it with water. He shoved it in his friend's face. "Drink!" He shouted.
Tyler slapped the cup from his hand, grabbing Jesse by the back of his shirt. "I don't know what the fuck has gotten into you." He said, escorting him back to the couch. "But you need to sleep, sober up, and get your fucking shit together."
Tracy Bonne was still on the holovision, finishing up the interview. "Do you have any idea what I have sacrificed, what Preston Light sacrificed, for you to sit here with that smu..." She was saying when Tyler shut it off. He had already seen the documentary twice since it's air-date the previous week. "This shit?" He asked, pointing to the holovision, "You think I'm a fucking robot?" He asked, half-laughing, and leaving the room.
After Tyler had walked away, Jess turned the program back on. "Wily held this country in place by fear, Mrs. Goff. The same fear that media platforms, such as yourself, are using on the people of this nation." Tracy was saying, standing up. "The only difference is that Wily had a means to control it, you don't."
As he watched her storm off camera, Jess didn't even realize just how true that statement was. Fear would be the driving factor behind he and his friends analyzing every move their coworker made, over the next year. And considering themselves heroes for it.
One Year Later
The four men stood in the pouring rain, outside of their current building project. "I'm telling you man, with the drought we've been having, it has to be tonight." Jess was saying to the others. "I read that these things are vulnerable to water, so we will have the advantage." The others nodded, as Sean pulled out his holocomms.
Tyler sat on the couch, shaking his head as he watched the crime reports for the night. It never seemed to be peaceful to him, these days. The chiming of his holocomms snapped him out of his thoughts, forcing him to mute the bad news. Sean's face popped up when he answered. "Hey man, what's up?" Ty asked.
"Hey Ty. Mr. Phillips just called, said the police caught some guys trying to break into the trailers at the Teller Site." Sean began, in the rain. "He wants us all to gather the equipment and secure the buildings."
"Shit." Tyler replied, plainly. "Let me get changed and I'll meet you there." Throwing on his black coat, he locked up behind himself, not realizing that this was the last time he would ever walk through that doorway again.
Completely covered, he walked across the Teller Site, seeing Jake by the first floor frame. "Hey Jay, I saw Darren's truck back th..." He began to say, when the numbing impact to the back of his skull sent him into momentary blackness.
He awoke a minute later, being snatched around, as his clothes were being ripped from his body. "He's coming to!" Darren shouted, before kicking him across his ribcage, rolling him over. "You said water would kill him!"
"The hearing aid!" Jake shouted, "It must be giving him power!"
"Please." Tyler tried to say, dizzily reaching for his ear. Sean smashed his hand down with a pipe wrench, before snatching the device from his ear.
The four men proceeded to wail repeatedly on his body and head, with wrenches and pipes. Every few seconds, Darren would stomp his face down in the mud, harder each time. "Guys, this isn't working!" Sean shouted. "What if we fucked up?"
"Shut the fuck up!" Jesse said, pointing at him. "I lived with him for a year and a half. He's a fucking machine!" He began walking to his truck, as his friends followed.
"What the hell are you doing, man?" Jake asked.
The four stopped in front of the headlights. "I'm getting my gun." Jesse said, "I'm going to end this and be a fucking hero."
Darren chimed in, "What if he's not an android? The water ain't doing shit."
Jesse looked at him flatly. "Then we bury him."
At that moment, another set of headlights approached, quickly blocking their exit. The men looked around frantically, as the large man jumped out. "What the flying shit is going on here?!" Mr. Phillips yelled, as he came up to them, enraged.
"How did you know we were here?" Jake asked, nervously.
"Motion detectors, dipshit!" He answered, pointing to the work zone. "Have you guys lost your fucking minds?!" He shouted, shoving them back toward the truck.
"He's a machine in disguise, Rick!" Sean shouted.
"Are you serious?" Phillips replied. "Don't you watch the news? Ever since that documentary, people have been going ape shit left and right. Killing and attacking their friends out of paranoia!" He said, pointing to Tyler. "Ah Christ. You took the kid's fucking hearing aid, too?" He added, looking at Sean's hand.
"It's his source of..." He began to explain, when Mr. Phillips cut him off.
"Shut up." He said, quietly. "Go help him. And hopefully we can fix this mess."
Sean walked over to his sobbing friend, reaching out and returning the ear piece. Tyler returned it to his ear weakly, as Jesse joined in helping him up. "Why?" Tyler asked, quietly. "After everything I've done for you."
"I'm so sorry, Ty." Jess said, "I don't know what the hell I was thinking."
"I saved you all." Tyler whispered.
The two final things to go through Jesse's head were confusion, and fusion. The men froze in horror, as the headless body fell to the mud. The fingers of Tyler's left hand had split back onto his forearm, leaving a hole where his wrist should have been. He marched toward them, seemingly healed of any and all damage.
Jake panicked, jumping into Jesse's truck to make an escape. But Tyler reached out his reformed hand, and closed his fist, crushing the vehicle with the man's top half inside. The hearing aid glowed an orange hue, as Darren ran toward him. Raising his arm, palm out, Ty's wrist opened ejecting a razor-sharp katana directly through the man's forehead.
Grabbing the hilt, he turned on his heel, catching Sean by his ponytail, snatching him to the ground. "Please, Ty." The man pleaded.
As the earpiece blinked, Tyler's facial features seemed to shift slightly. It could have been the shock of the moment, but Richard felt that the boy looked vaguely familiar. He only stared on, frozen in terror.
"I've put up with the total disregard and disrespect of you filth for too long!" Tyler yelled at his former friend. The word and emotions felt like his, but sounded like Zero saying them. Zero. A name he hadn't dared to think of in decades. His anger only grew now.
"Ty..." Sean muttered in the split second that had passed, before his head was severed from his body.
Phillips stared at the android, as he walked up, flinging the blood from his sword and tossing Sean's head in the mud. As Tyler approached, it dawned on Richard. The face was a face he hadn't seen since he was a child. "Megaman." He muttered. "You saved us." He said wide eyed and amazed.
The blade plunged through his chest, as he began to feel weak, falling against his hero. "I'll have to live with that mistake." Alex Light whispered, before walking into the storm, leaving his blade to lie with the bodies.