Gone, Part 7: from apes to men, from men, to gods.
Zeta opened up the bag of supplies he had managed to procure in the last hour, both through legal and illegal channels, and began to get to work. First came the black IR absorption paint, which he coated his entire body with. This served two purposes- to make him harder to track and less visible if he ever was spotted without his hologram on. Metal stayed cleaner, but made him stand out badly.
After coating most of his body in the paint, he set about on the second task, which was the most difficult. Working quickly, Zeta removed the metal that served as the exoskeleton for his head. He had been considering doing his even before Ro was kidnapped, but now it was essential. Ignoring the internal structure that now remained in place, he took the titanium shell in his hands and began to mold it to a rounder shape. When both the back and front were the shape he desired, he cut away two small holes in the front, then bent the metal until it formed a proper nose bridge. Then, with the utmost care, he replaced the exoskeleton (not before rearranging some things among the internal structure) and sealed it shut. Then he picked up the lower jaw he had made and connected it to the mouth machinations. Only then did he pause to judge his work in the mirror.
It wasn't perfect, but much better than he had postulated. He now had what looked like a human skull with white eyes for a head. Perfect for the next step, which had just finished setting on the counter next to his tools.
The latex was a little hard to stretch over his head, but it needed to be this tough if he wanted it to last past tonight. Taking his time, Zeta carefully put in place,, before gluing it down. He carefully smoothed the flame-retardant strands that made up his hair and eyebrows, then smiled. It wasn't really a smile, for his didn't have the time or the parts to motorize the skin to create true expression, but that was for the hologram was for. But now, if Bennet or anyone else scanned him, he would like the hologram he wore. He'd had to rearrange the eyebrows later, but now the scowled look on his face suit him just fine.
Zeta, no Zee, for that was what he truly was now, pulled on the black bulletproof trench coat he had gotten, and attached the sword to his waist. If one looked too closely at his body, they would notice the lack of a midsection, and odd hips that jutted slightly from the coat, but he passed well for a human.
He would rejoice later. Right now, he was only thinking of one purpose; to save his Rosalie.
-----
Zee scanned the apartment complex below him, as he reworked the wiring in his right shoulder. After he had taken IU7's shoulder rotator cuff, he had studied the differences between his design and the IU7's, and came across a design flaw in himself that they had fixed in the later models. When he was finished, even the foot thick ceiling of the penthouse wouldn't cause problems.
"Zeta, don't do it. You've caused enough destruction already. Let the police save Miss Rowan." He turned his head to face Bennet.
"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong person. My name's not Zeta." He turned his gaze back to the sentries that lined the rooftop.
West looked through the holoviewer. "Sir, I think we may have made a mistake." He handed the holoviewer to his superior. "Take a look."
Bennet scowled and snatched it from West's outstretched hand. Sure enough, the coat, the face and the sword appeared through the green lenses. Who was this? And where was Zeta?
Then he noticed that the viewer's sensors were blurry the lower he looked. Lowering the lenses, he recognized that the foot belonged to a synthoid, not a human. The black coating was probably some sort of radio buffer. "Zeta, I'm not sure what you have done to yourself, but If you don't stop this insanity, I will let Rush open fire on you."
The synthoid stood slowly, and glanced over his shoulder. "My name is Zee." And with that, he stepped off the ledge.
Bennet, West and Rush could only look on helplessly as Zee landed on the roof of the heavily guarded apartment complex. "We'd best get our own agents down there! If Zee- Zeta has his way, there won't be a single person left in that building left to arrest!"
-----
His programming had all but crashed to keep him from killing everyone that came near him after he landed gracefully from above. If he had time to go over his situation, he would wonder if a doctor might call this multiple personality disorder. But with his Holy Grail within reach, he was not about to waste time on personal problems.
He ripped off the housing of the elevator's mechanics, tossing the entire structure like papier-mâché. As he dove down the shaft, several laser blasts flew around him, but missed completely. When he reached the 6th floor, he grabbed the side of the wall and swung against the doors. They barely budged, but that was expected. Mr. Desudo didn't like visitors, and he probably wasn't the first to try this way. But he was first non-human. Digging into the crack of the door, he grunted (how human..) as he bent back one of the doors with his hand and pushed in the other with his feet. Satisfied that the hole was big enough, he climbed through.
And came face to face with a gun.
------
Desudo was nothing like Zee had expected. Instead of a gangster or gang junkie like his cohorts, Desudo was middle-aged, balding and overweight. He look more like a pencil pusher than crime lord. He didn't look like he even know how to hold a gun. Zee frowned, then noticed the safety was still on. He grabbed the gun and crushed it nonchalantly, leaving the man holding a ball of sparking electronics.
"H-how did you get this far? I read your specs! Those doors a tensile strength of two tons! You aren't built to deal with even one!"
Zee picked the man up by the lapels of his coat. "The evolving robot, that's me." He brought the man in close. "Where. Is. SHE?"
Desudo pointed to the back door of the plush lobby. Zee dropped the sniveling man, and strode to the door. It was dark, but he heard breathe of someone asleep. He stepped in, relieved it was all over.
The doorframe became a net of electric current, trapping Zeta. His limited pain sensors screamed.
Desudo strode over to the synthoid. "Now I have a new doll and ultimate weapon. Even your limited evolution can't deal with 12,000 volts of direct current. Looks like your little Lancelot ploy failed."
Zee's eyes burned red with hatred. "Ro." He stuttered through the shock.
"Will be staying right where she is. She's a pretty a little thing. And I'll bet she'll fight a lot less now that I have you. Maybe in time she'll even come to accept it."
Zee's programming went berserk. Grabbing the sword at his side, he sliced either side of the door, blowing the circuitry. He stumbled into the darkened room, twisting and landing on his back. He crackled still with electricity, which made it difficult to move. The sword clattered out of his hand and into the darkness.
Desudo grabbed a pistol and aimed at the synthoid's head. He cocked it, aimed, and squeezed the trigger-
From the darkness, Rosalie Rowan charged holding Zee's sword. Before he could even swing the gun up, she drove the point into his stomach. He screamed and slumped against the wall.
Ro stood for a moment in the doorway. Zee could see the bruises on her face and legs where the tattered silk she wore didn't cover her. She looked at him and smiled weakly before her knees buckled under her. He caught her just before she hit the floor. She looked up at him and gently touched his face. "You feel...different."
Zeta smiled softly at her, and cupped her hand with his. Then he realized something odd. He could feel her, more than he ever could before. He shouldn't be able to even feel her through the latex. "And you can smile. Wow." She traced his lips. He would have frown if it didn't feel so nice. Four hours ago he couldn't make a proper smile. What had happened?
He'd wonder later. Right now he bundled Ro up into his arms and spirited her away, just before the NSA and SWAT burst in on the offices of Robert Desudo.
-------
"So your think that the nano-whatevers in the IR paint and the latex mixed, and when that voltage went through you, it connected with your own hardware? Weird." Ro sat on the bed, looking on as Zee pulled on molded latex feet. As she recovered, Zee had experimented with the mixture he had inadvertently created, and had set about creating a more human-like body coating out of it. She touched her face lightly; the bruises had just started to fade.
"Yes, it seems so. Look how quickly it attaches to the current skin." He lifted a pant leg to show the mixture melding together and erasing the seam of the two parts, creating a whole. "But it doesn't really matter now."
"Why not? This is fantastic!"
He walked over to her and touched her face lightly. "Ro, you need to think about what happened to yourself. Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?"
Ro lay her head on his shoulder. "Zee, a doctor isn't going to change what happened to me. I think the only way I'm going to get over it is if I stay right here with you."
He stroked her hair softly as she snuggled into his neck. Drawing her into a hug, he looked down at her, happy to see a content smile on her face. Suddenly drawn by some unknown power, he bent down and touched his own lip to hers. A kiss, his first.
Slowly she responded to his intentions, drawing him even closer, leading him farther. He pulled back, allowing her air, but she held onto his shoulders, looking at him with pleading eyes. "Will...will you stay? Make sure I don't have nightmares?"
Zeta stroked her face with his thumb. "Of course." And he drew he back into the kiss, and falling back on the bed. ------
Authoress's notes: Wheee! Finished! Now all that's left is the epilogue and that's only going to get published if I get some reviews, pluuuuuzeeee! I live off feedback, and right now I'm dying a horrible death. I wanna know if you guys liked it at all, and if I should draw something for it (eh, eh?). Tell me what you liked, disliked, hated, adored, etc. And the epilogue makes up for all the seriousness, I promise.
Zeta opened up the bag of supplies he had managed to procure in the last hour, both through legal and illegal channels, and began to get to work. First came the black IR absorption paint, which he coated his entire body with. This served two purposes- to make him harder to track and less visible if he ever was spotted without his hologram on. Metal stayed cleaner, but made him stand out badly.
After coating most of his body in the paint, he set about on the second task, which was the most difficult. Working quickly, Zeta removed the metal that served as the exoskeleton for his head. He had been considering doing his even before Ro was kidnapped, but now it was essential. Ignoring the internal structure that now remained in place, he took the titanium shell in his hands and began to mold it to a rounder shape. When both the back and front were the shape he desired, he cut away two small holes in the front, then bent the metal until it formed a proper nose bridge. Then, with the utmost care, he replaced the exoskeleton (not before rearranging some things among the internal structure) and sealed it shut. Then he picked up the lower jaw he had made and connected it to the mouth machinations. Only then did he pause to judge his work in the mirror.
It wasn't perfect, but much better than he had postulated. He now had what looked like a human skull with white eyes for a head. Perfect for the next step, which had just finished setting on the counter next to his tools.
The latex was a little hard to stretch over his head, but it needed to be this tough if he wanted it to last past tonight. Taking his time, Zeta carefully put in place,, before gluing it down. He carefully smoothed the flame-retardant strands that made up his hair and eyebrows, then smiled. It wasn't really a smile, for his didn't have the time or the parts to motorize the skin to create true expression, but that was for the hologram was for. But now, if Bennet or anyone else scanned him, he would like the hologram he wore. He'd had to rearrange the eyebrows later, but now the scowled look on his face suit him just fine.
Zeta, no Zee, for that was what he truly was now, pulled on the black bulletproof trench coat he had gotten, and attached the sword to his waist. If one looked too closely at his body, they would notice the lack of a midsection, and odd hips that jutted slightly from the coat, but he passed well for a human.
He would rejoice later. Right now, he was only thinking of one purpose; to save his Rosalie.
-----
Zee scanned the apartment complex below him, as he reworked the wiring in his right shoulder. After he had taken IU7's shoulder rotator cuff, he had studied the differences between his design and the IU7's, and came across a design flaw in himself that they had fixed in the later models. When he was finished, even the foot thick ceiling of the penthouse wouldn't cause problems.
"Zeta, don't do it. You've caused enough destruction already. Let the police save Miss Rowan." He turned his head to face Bennet.
"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong person. My name's not Zeta." He turned his gaze back to the sentries that lined the rooftop.
West looked through the holoviewer. "Sir, I think we may have made a mistake." He handed the holoviewer to his superior. "Take a look."
Bennet scowled and snatched it from West's outstretched hand. Sure enough, the coat, the face and the sword appeared through the green lenses. Who was this? And where was Zeta?
Then he noticed that the viewer's sensors were blurry the lower he looked. Lowering the lenses, he recognized that the foot belonged to a synthoid, not a human. The black coating was probably some sort of radio buffer. "Zeta, I'm not sure what you have done to yourself, but If you don't stop this insanity, I will let Rush open fire on you."
The synthoid stood slowly, and glanced over his shoulder. "My name is Zee." And with that, he stepped off the ledge.
Bennet, West and Rush could only look on helplessly as Zee landed on the roof of the heavily guarded apartment complex. "We'd best get our own agents down there! If Zee- Zeta has his way, there won't be a single person left in that building left to arrest!"
-----
His programming had all but crashed to keep him from killing everyone that came near him after he landed gracefully from above. If he had time to go over his situation, he would wonder if a doctor might call this multiple personality disorder. But with his Holy Grail within reach, he was not about to waste time on personal problems.
He ripped off the housing of the elevator's mechanics, tossing the entire structure like papier-mâché. As he dove down the shaft, several laser blasts flew around him, but missed completely. When he reached the 6th floor, he grabbed the side of the wall and swung against the doors. They barely budged, but that was expected. Mr. Desudo didn't like visitors, and he probably wasn't the first to try this way. But he was first non-human. Digging into the crack of the door, he grunted (how human..) as he bent back one of the doors with his hand and pushed in the other with his feet. Satisfied that the hole was big enough, he climbed through.
And came face to face with a gun.
------
Desudo was nothing like Zee had expected. Instead of a gangster or gang junkie like his cohorts, Desudo was middle-aged, balding and overweight. He look more like a pencil pusher than crime lord. He didn't look like he even know how to hold a gun. Zee frowned, then noticed the safety was still on. He grabbed the gun and crushed it nonchalantly, leaving the man holding a ball of sparking electronics.
"H-how did you get this far? I read your specs! Those doors a tensile strength of two tons! You aren't built to deal with even one!"
Zee picked the man up by the lapels of his coat. "The evolving robot, that's me." He brought the man in close. "Where. Is. SHE?"
Desudo pointed to the back door of the plush lobby. Zee dropped the sniveling man, and strode to the door. It was dark, but he heard breathe of someone asleep. He stepped in, relieved it was all over.
The doorframe became a net of electric current, trapping Zeta. His limited pain sensors screamed.
Desudo strode over to the synthoid. "Now I have a new doll and ultimate weapon. Even your limited evolution can't deal with 12,000 volts of direct current. Looks like your little Lancelot ploy failed."
Zee's eyes burned red with hatred. "Ro." He stuttered through the shock.
"Will be staying right where she is. She's a pretty a little thing. And I'll bet she'll fight a lot less now that I have you. Maybe in time she'll even come to accept it."
Zee's programming went berserk. Grabbing the sword at his side, he sliced either side of the door, blowing the circuitry. He stumbled into the darkened room, twisting and landing on his back. He crackled still with electricity, which made it difficult to move. The sword clattered out of his hand and into the darkness.
Desudo grabbed a pistol and aimed at the synthoid's head. He cocked it, aimed, and squeezed the trigger-
From the darkness, Rosalie Rowan charged holding Zee's sword. Before he could even swing the gun up, she drove the point into his stomach. He screamed and slumped against the wall.
Ro stood for a moment in the doorway. Zee could see the bruises on her face and legs where the tattered silk she wore didn't cover her. She looked at him and smiled weakly before her knees buckled under her. He caught her just before she hit the floor. She looked up at him and gently touched his face. "You feel...different."
Zeta smiled softly at her, and cupped her hand with his. Then he realized something odd. He could feel her, more than he ever could before. He shouldn't be able to even feel her through the latex. "And you can smile. Wow." She traced his lips. He would have frown if it didn't feel so nice. Four hours ago he couldn't make a proper smile. What had happened?
He'd wonder later. Right now he bundled Ro up into his arms and spirited her away, just before the NSA and SWAT burst in on the offices of Robert Desudo.
-------
"So your think that the nano-whatevers in the IR paint and the latex mixed, and when that voltage went through you, it connected with your own hardware? Weird." Ro sat on the bed, looking on as Zee pulled on molded latex feet. As she recovered, Zee had experimented with the mixture he had inadvertently created, and had set about creating a more human-like body coating out of it. She touched her face lightly; the bruises had just started to fade.
"Yes, it seems so. Look how quickly it attaches to the current skin." He lifted a pant leg to show the mixture melding together and erasing the seam of the two parts, creating a whole. "But it doesn't really matter now."
"Why not? This is fantastic!"
He walked over to her and touched her face lightly. "Ro, you need to think about what happened to yourself. Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?"
Ro lay her head on his shoulder. "Zee, a doctor isn't going to change what happened to me. I think the only way I'm going to get over it is if I stay right here with you."
He stroked her hair softly as she snuggled into his neck. Drawing her into a hug, he looked down at her, happy to see a content smile on her face. Suddenly drawn by some unknown power, he bent down and touched his own lip to hers. A kiss, his first.
Slowly she responded to his intentions, drawing him even closer, leading him farther. He pulled back, allowing her air, but she held onto his shoulders, looking at him with pleading eyes. "Will...will you stay? Make sure I don't have nightmares?"
Zeta stroked her face with his thumb. "Of course." And he drew he back into the kiss, and falling back on the bed. ------
Authoress's notes: Wheee! Finished! Now all that's left is the epilogue and that's only going to get published if I get some reviews, pluuuuuzeeee! I live off feedback, and right now I'm dying a horrible death. I wanna know if you guys liked it at all, and if I should draw something for it (eh, eh?). Tell me what you liked, disliked, hated, adored, etc. And the epilogue makes up for all the seriousness, I promise.