The robot could feel nothing.
How could it? There was nothing to feel in such a dark void. The only thing to do was sleep for eternity.
However, a speck of light slowly roused the being. The light grew bigger and bigger until it was impossible to miss. What a bothersome thing...
It stirred and woke up for the first time. It saw other beings who watched his every move. It saw colors - or a few bland ones, per se.
Although, it couldn't stand the discomfort of being stared at by... what were these beings? They seemed intelligent - they surely wouldn't harm it, would they?
Before it could do anything, everything vanished into darkness and the robot felt surprise and a touch of loneliness. The only thing it could do in the darkness was reminiscence about another life that it may or may not have had.
Time seemed to go on forever before it saw another speck of light, but something was different about this one: it was warm and inviting. The light beckoned the soul and it obeyed. T he light glowed before swirling and changing shape into that of a shimmering figure of a elderly man.
"I see you have no name. Shake off your surprise and tell me, what do you remember?"
The Medabot thought it was a rather odd question and pondered for a bit. "I...suppose I remember those beings that look like you," it answered, static covering most of its words.
"Good. You are learning rapidly. There is no doubt about the path you will take when you awaken again. Unfortunately, this path is filled with trials and tribulations you will have to overcome. I can promise that it won't be easy," Lucien said.
A...path?" It asked, confused.
The man nodded, "yes, but don't worry, already I can sense a spark within you - a fighting spirit. You would do well to nurture it and let it grow."
He then turned his back to the fledgling soul, "...I hope you will eventually forgive me..."
"What are you-?"
The room was still before the rebooting of a machine pierced the thick silence.
Fingers twitched once before slowly closing into a fist. Its sapphire optics lit up brightly and looked slowly around the darkened room. It couldn't tell what time it was.
A burst of information suddenly loaded onto its mainframe telling it the time, date, and other relevant information.
It touched the smooth glass that made up the tube and shook off the cables and wires attached to its Medal before closing the hatch. It brainstormed on different ways of getting out before it chose an option. It was a crude one and more than likely to raise an alarm, but the robot couldn't care less.
It aimed at a specific point in the glass before smashing through the glass with its shoulder, watching the clear shards and pieces rain down upon the floor. An alarm sounded as the robot made its way out of the broken tube, avoiding the jagged pieces of glass.
It growled in frustration when the alarm wouldn't stop blaring and red swirling lights of the klaxon kept swirling.
Suddenly, people burst into the room - switching the lights on, talking hurriedly, and peering at the damage. Not one seemed to have seen the robot as it dashed into a corner and hid, all at once unsure and confused.
"What happened?" One woman, who was most likely in charge, asked. She looked furiously at the shattered tube. The alarm finally stopped its shrieking.
"I'm not exactly sure, ma'am. I'm not one for jumping to conclusions, but it looks like someone stole the Medabot." A young man replied and then winced when he realized he merely stated the obvious.
"Get me the head of security, Ryu. I want him to review the tapes and find out who's responsible for this." Isis commanded tersely.
"Yes, ma'am."
Stressed, she put her fingers on her forehead and paced as workers conversed among themselves. The beginnings of a headache began to work its way throughout her skull.
Isis examined the tube; she noted that the pieces of glass were mostly on the outside of the tube and bot the other way around... That would mean that the Medabot did this. She rolled her neck to loosen it up when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. "What in the world?" She murmured as she looked closely and saw a blue glow.
Isis moved some of the equipment and discovered the "stolen" Medabot, looking at her with a faint sheepish expression. Isis sighed, "one of you, find Ryu before there's even more commotion; I found the Medabot."
While one of the men ran off, the rest crowded around Isis to get a look at the robot, who was bristling with discomfort. If she didn't know any better, she would swear it looked tempted to turn its guns at the team.
"What's it doing over there?"
"Hey! I can't see!"
"Did it break out by itself?"
"Looks like we got a jail-breaker on our hands!" Some chuckled at the attempt at a joke.
The Medabot tuned out their comments and conversations and looked for a way through the onlookers. "All right. Most of you can stop gawking and go to your rooms; you'll see it in the morning. A couple of you can help me clean this mess up." The ones designated for clean-up groaned while the rest of the people quickly filed out of the lab.
Isis kept an eye on the Medabot as she keyed commands into the computer. She immediately heard a crash and quickly looked over her shoulder. The source of the crash had fallen in a heap, a blank space where the optics were supposed to be.
Isis had placed the robot into stasis.
Ex grumbled and yawned as he slipped out of his bed, rubbing his eyes. The alarm had stopped a short while ago, but not before it woke him up and deprived him of any chance of further sleep.
He looked at his watch: 04:30.
Ex sighed. He knew if this had anything to do with Isis' work (which it most likely did), then Isis wouldn't want to see his face in the lab. But he was awake, and he might as well find out what happened since he was going to get bored doing anything otherwise.
It took a few minutes to find the lab. Once he entered, he immediately saw several people cleaning up bits and pieces of sharp glass and talking amongst themselves. He saw Isis working on a metal body - her project, he presumed - and sauntered over towards her, smirking, "so, I'm guessing your project was a success."
To his surprise, Isis did not snap or ignore him, "why, yes, but it still needs further testing before it's ready to be recruited." She totally missed it.
"Recruited? Don't tell me we wasted all that time and money to create a Medabot just to recruit it into the ranks? We could've just bought any old hunk of junk and conditioned it to be a good soldier," Ex hissed.
"It's not like that. I suppose I could've used different wording. It'll be our ultimate weapon - a trump card of sorts," Isis said.
"It's that powerful?" Ex stared at her in disbelief, "I suppose you're not going to tell me what exactly it will do, besides what little tidbits of information the boss generously gives out?"
"I have no clue. Whatever plan he's brewing he's keeping it to himself. I suppose that will control any leaks."
Silence reigned for a few moments before Ex broke it. "So, what are you going to name that thing?" He asked.
"I'm not naming it - Shadow is. I don't see what's the big deal, but apparently, he wants to name it something specific." Isis swiped a blonde lock of hair out of her eyes, "that would make it unique, I guess. All of the other Medabots either had us name it or their names came with them."
"Oh," was all Ex could say.
"So, what did you want?" Isis asked briskly.
"That alarm nearly made me suffer a heart attack. Couldn't go back to sleep."
"Poor baby," Isis muttered.
Ex threw her a dark look, "nice to know I can count on you when I randomly start dying."
"Sorry," Isis particularly wasn't.
"Anyway, mind telling me what triggered it?"
"This guy right here."
Ex did a double take. "That abomination actually woke up? I thought implanting memories would corrupt its CPU and other weird techno stuff," he glanced up, " not that I doubted your genius."
"I couldn't help but think that too, but apparently not," Isis replied, brushing off his comment.
"...So, how's the kid? He still alive or do I have to start digging?"
Isis stopped working and looked at him intently. "Why the sudden concern? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard you didn't exactly care for him."
"I don't," Ex replied in a flat tone, "is curiosity a crime now?"
"...Well, last I heard is that he slipped into a coma and isn't recovering well," Isis answered. She wasn't sure what Ex needed to get out of this conversation, but she didn't necessarily care.
"Why so much trauma to his body if it was a simple head scan?"
"It wasn't just a 'simple head scan', Ex - the science is still way too new to gauge its effects on the human body. This is the copying of entire memories we're talking about! We could only implant a select few inside the Medabot due to there being so much information that the Medabot would just crash after a few minutes from overload. The technology today allowed us to turn the brainwaves into pieces of data and codes. With these codes, we can write them into the Medabot's CPU and it would subconsciously read the code when choosing to remember something."
Isis could see she had lost him after the second sentence and sighed.
"Isis? I can only understand so much theoretical physics," Ex commented, throwing his hands in the air with exasperation.
"This isn't theoretical physics - what is wrong with you?" Isis retorted, then said, "in layman's terms: we implanted a few memories into the Medabot's, ah, brain. It's just some groundbreaking science I'm dabbling in - not a big deal."
"...Nice..."
Isis shot him a look, "you're not dumb, Ex. Try harder to understand next time."
"...I believe that was the closest thing to a compliment I've ever heard from you, Isis," Ex sounded genuinely surprised.
"That's quite sad."
Ex shrugged and leaned against the wall, watching Isis fiddle with different circuits and parts, "how long until you report to the boss about this?"
Isis held back a shudder, "probably later in the morning. Though, I'd be lying if I said I looked forward to it; he gives me the creeps."
"You wouldn't be human if Shadow didn't give you the creeps."
"Tell me about it," Isis agreed. "Anything else? If not, then I'm sure you have better things to do with your time."
Ex feigned a hurt look, "here I thought you were enjoying my company."
Isis rolled her eyes, "get yourself some breakfast if you know what's good for you."
"Was that a veiled threat?"
"Interpret it however you want."
Ex made a carefree (not disrespectful - he suffered a bleeding nose last time) gesture over his shoulder as he exited the lab, then stopped and turned around. "Eh, Isis? This is kind of embarrassing, but have you seen my phone anywhere?"
"I don't look after your things, Ex. Have you tried calling it?"
"It would be dead by now. My battery is a piece of junk."
"If the clean-up crew got rid of it, there's nothing I can do for you other than suggest you get a new phone."
"That's a pain to go through getting issued a new one."
"You lost it, you suffer the consequences... You didn't lose it outside, did you?"
Ex rubbed the back of his neck and said nothing, looking everywhere except at Isis.
"Dammit, Ex!" Isis glared threateningly at the man.
"I'll take care of it! No need to get mad. It's probably around here somewhere," Ex finally left, running a hand through his tussled blond hair.
Isis felt at peace as she listened to her coworkers chat in the background. She closed the chest panel on the robot and grabbed a nearby sheet, throwing it on the metal body.
"You boys can handle it here?" Isis called to the workers. They nodded. She hung her lab coat on a coat hanger and exited the room. What she wouldn't give for coffee, a dark room, and a comfortable bed right that moment.
This was Metabee's first complete night as a runaway. He, frankly, wasn't enjoying it too much. He wandered around in a daze; Ikki getting himself kidnapped was starting to sink in his processor.
He sat against a dirty wall in an trash-filled alley, one leg tucked against his chest and the other in front of him. Metabee kept his blaster ready; he wouldn't shoot to kill, but one never knew what idiot would try to steal a Medabot. Especially to get at his parts. Now that was truly barbaric.
'Why?' He asked himself over and over again. What did those guys want with Ikki? That idiotic kid was a goofball (and close to useless) at best, and Metabee sometimes thought about ditching him one day.
Okay, maybe not.
Metabee watched as the night sky faded to a hint of gray and the few stars blinked out one by one. Slowly the gray turned into a combination of pale pink, red, and orange. He idly thought about visiting Henry to see if he found any information.
Then again, he was still trying to figure out what possessed him to give the cloth to the store clerk in the first place; it's not like Henry to actually know anything besides robattle tactics and different Medabot parts.
Still, there was no harm in asking, was there?
"How goes the search, Phantom?"
"Tiring."
"Is that so?"
"I only have guesses to where Ikki could be. I haven't been able to visit many places recently because everyone still thinks I'm public enemy number 1. There was a reason I skipped town few years back."
"Last time I checked, you blew up that museum just to take Medals. So, yes, you are still public enemy number 1."
"...Darn it."
"Anyway, back to the subject, what was your theories?"
"Well, I found this leading into the remote area of the park," the masked man held up a silver cellphone that was covered with a little dust and grit. "I didn't see any tire tracks in the earth, which makes me believe the kidnapper carried him personally. He had to have some stamina to drag a kid for kilometers while staying out of sight."
"So, the suspect is big and athletic enough to move Ikki from place to place quickly - though Ikki should be rather light. Wouldn't be much of a stretch for this guy to carry him for several kilometers... Did you try getting into the cellphone?"
"No. I didn't try charging it yet... and I'm betting you this has a password on it," The figure carelessly tossed the cellphone up and down.
"That never stopped you."
"You're right - it won't."
A sigh, "just continue doing what you're doing."
"I also have this," The man held a white cloth. "This guy must be clumsy with possibly incriminating evidence. The cloth was soaked with chloroform when Metabee gave it to me."
The elder man took the cloth from the Phantom Renegade, "I'll keep it here for now. I'll leave the cellphone with you; you can try to break into it on your spare time."
The masked man nodded, "but one more thing, Dr. Aki."
"Yeah?"
"I'll need a bunch of explosives."
"...What for?" He asked warily.
"Once I find this group - I'm sure it's a group or a criminal organization we need to look for - I'm making sure they're going out with a bang!"
Author's Note:
Edited: 08/10/18
If anybody didn't get anything Isis said either, don't worry. Made up science is the best, no? /s
Fun fact: Turns out, at the end of the original series in the Japanese version, Henry/Hikaru actually had to hit the road since his identity as Phantom Renegade was discovered - which would have meant the authorities would be on his tail. It did explain his disappearance in Spirits, but I had him come back for this story when he heard about Ikki's plight. I don't think he would have stayed away for too long anyway.
I also have a suspicion that Ikki and co. actually live in Tokyo, but don't quote me on that one.
I'm doing yet another wave of re-editing, so please bear with me. I put little dates down here that tracks when I update a chapter. It's actually been kind of fun!
Anyway, have good day/night/weekend!
Yours Truly,
Winterbornbree