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

Automan: Overclocked

By Sailor Chronos

Chapter 10

Lina sat in front of her computer, tears of despair running down her cheeks. Even with the combined efforts of Walter, Terri, and herself, they hadn't been able to halt the corruption of the program. Normal data recovery routines couldn't handle code of such complexity. Every manual attempt to correct the code and rez up Automan to do an on-site diagnostic had failed. Even their backups had proved useless, since somehow the base code had become locked and couldn't be altered.

Despite everything, Walter hadn't blamed her for the program's demise. He had theorized, like she had, that Automan had absorbed too much information and experienced too much emotion in such a short time that it had overwhelmed him. Still, she blamed herself. She had retrieved him in the first place, ostensibly to return him to Walter... but in the end it was because she had been infatuated with him. Now they were all paying for her selfishness: Walter was going through the soul-crushing pain of losing his creation a second time, his family had lost a friend, and she had lost her friend and lover.

Love. Walter had programmed Automan to be the perfect hologram, prepared for every eventuality, and yet it was the complexity of human emotion that had destroyed him. The Snowman had melted; this Pinocchio could never become a real boy no matter how much he or his friends wanted him to be.

"I'm so sorry, Auto," she said brokenly, as if he could hear her voice through the computer screen. "I was selfish. I thought you'd be able to handle it." She wiped her eyes but the tears kept coming. "You were the best crime-fighter, friend, and person that anyone could have hoped to be. And we all cared about you. You'll be missed."

Slowly she rose to her feet. It was very late and she needed rest, but she didn't think that she could sleep. Not now, not after all this.

Her stubborn streak showed briefly as she decided to not turn off the computer, perhaps in some forlorn hope that Auto would return. "'Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince; and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,'" she quoted as she turned off the lights in the room, glancing one last time at the blank command window on the screen.

Halfway up the stairs her knees gave out and she was forced to turn and sit down, sobbing uncontrollably. "Who am I kidding?" she said to herself between ragged breaths, trying to deny the illogic of it. "It's a game, a display, a series of commands. But I..." She lifted her eyes back to the computer. "Oh, God help me, I love you, Automan! I've always loved you. Please come back."

Silence. Heartbroken, she mentally slapped herself for thinking that by some miracle words alone would bring him back when three expert programmers couldn't. She stumbled up the rest of the stairs and into her bedroom, collapsing on the bed in grief and exhaustion.

Deep inside the computer world, in the block where he usually resided when not active, Automan sat in pain. He had sensed his friends' attempts to correct his program, heard their pleas to return, and knew when they had at last given up. But he couldn't return, as his essence had been cut in half. It was like a barrier had been thrust between the hologram he had begun as and the complex person that he had evolved into: an old safeguard that Walter had programmed into him long ago and forgotten, inadvertently buttressed by repeated corrective coding. As a result he could no longer feel anything.

However his memories remained for the moment, and already he missed the interactions that he'd had with his human friends. His own words of not-so-long ago came back to him: if he didn't feel, how could he truly understand the humans that he had been created to protect? How could he be a perfect hologram without emotion? He did not want to forget what it was like to care.

"I love you, Automan! I've always loved you. Please come back."

An echo of Lina's voice reached him. She was the crux of it: she had recovered him, brought him back into the human world, and helped him fully realize the potential that Walter had given him. For that he had loved her, only to be shut down by his own traitorous code.

He didn't want his friends to suffer. It was not logical for them to grieve for him, or wonder what had happened to him. He at least had to send some form of message, but his path to the outside world was blocked.

As he searched for a solution, it seemed that the barrier within him resolved into a wall that he could actually see, and he stood and pressed his hands on it. Beyond it, out of all the active computers online, was one whose unique identifier was that of Lina's, shining like a beacon. She had not given up, therefore he could not. He must contact her; give her a sign before he regressed completely.

No, that wasn't enough. Walter and Roxanne, their sons Jack and Matthew, and Lina... they were his family and he would not forget them. He wanted to feel again, wanted to love, wanted to LIVE. With all his remaining strength, he drove his fist into the wall in front of him.

A hole appeared, and light came streaming through. Then the wall shattered into myriad sparkling motes of energy, swirling around him and into him, repairing his body and restoring his heart. Emotion came rushing back, and for a moment he stood in awe at its return, holding one hand to his chest. Walter with his wisdom had given him a soul, and it had been Lina with her love that had completed it. He owed them both. But for now, there was just one thing to do.

Lina was lying on her stomach, on the edge of sleep, having wept until she had no more tears to give, when something roused her. There was a presence in the room, large and benign. She lifted her head slightly, and out of the corner of her eye noticed a blue glow. Moonlight? No... It was impossible...

She turned over onto her back and saw him standing in the doorway, the brilliance of his body illuminating the loving smile on his face.

"Hello Lina," he said quietly.

Unable to speak, she slowly got up and walked to him, and put a hand on his solid, smooth chest to convince herself that she wasn't dreaming. "You're here," she managed to whisper. "How? Your code was too damaged."

"My own code was responsible," he explained and gently pulled her to him, feeling the aliveness of her body in his arms. "My development had exceeded a pre-defined point, whereupon I was automatically shut down. I overrode the lockdown when I heard you calling." He cupped her face with one hand. "Lina, I remember you and I love you. Please don't cry any more."

Joy filled her and she tilted her head up to receive his kiss, not caring which form he presented, holding him tightly in sudden fear that he might dissolve at any moment. But he remained, warm and real. "Can you stay?" she asked hopefully.

"Not now; the city is waking." Already his power was ebbing, but he smiled to put her at ease. "The next time I'm summoned I'll be ready to get back to work. Please tell Walter to expect me."

"I will," she said. "Are you sure you're all right?"

He hugged her again briefly, and then stepped back. "Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry, we'll have our date. I promise." He disappeared.

Energized by Automan's visit, Lina hurried back downstairs, made a pot of coffee and went to her computer. The first thing she did was send Emails to Walter and Terri telling them the news, although they probably wouldn't read them until afternoon at the earliest. Then she went through Auto's miraculously recovered code and made some slight modifications.

Next, thanks to the assistance of some of Auto's computer acquaintances, she began to implement a project that she had spent several months developing but hadn't thought she would need, until now. Once it was in place, there would be no doubt as to who Automan was.