"Hello? Anyone there?" The voice rang from the dark depths of the basement. Swiftshadow was now aware that she was not alone.

"Hello… Anyone?" The voice called again. It was definitely male and had a pleading desperate tone.

Swiftshadow shifted into human form. She answered, "Yes, I'm here. Do you need help?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Oh, yes yes yes," The voice was drenched in relief, "I do need help. I believe I am stuck,"

"Stuck?" Swiftshadow crept down the stairs.

"Well, stuck would be an apt descriptor," The voice said, "All I know is that I can't see and I can't move,"

Swiftshadow tried to see through the darkness. She could only make out vague outlines and shapes of objects. She was certain that even her dragon eyes would have trouble seeing with such little light.

"Well I cant see either," She said, "you wouldn't happen to know where a light switch is or at least a flashlight?"

"Theres a switch at the top of the stairs outside the door,"

Crap.

"But there is also one at the bottom,"

Swiftshadow felt around and found it. She flicked it and was blinded by the light. She waited a moment for her eyes to adjust. She found herself surrounded by stacks of numerous boxes. Each of them coated in a fine layer of dust. On the far wall, next to a work bench, was what looked couple dozen computer towers stacked and wired together.

She looked around. She couldn't see anyone around. "Where are you?"

"I'm right here," The voice said. Swiftshadow had to do a double take. It had sounded like the voice was coming from the stack of computers.

"Well all I see here is a bunch of dusty boxes and a weird looking computer stack,"

There was a moment of silence. Then a laughter filled the room, "So my experiment worked!"

Swiftshadow wasn't quite sure of what to make of the situation.

"Which means I have successfully mapped the neural network of the cerebral cortex and made a digital recreation of the data" The voice was giddy with excitement. Then the excitement died down. A more serious tone took over, "But if thats the case, then what happened to… Him? me? And who are you and what are doing in my… His… House?"

"I don't think i understood half of what you said," Said Swiftshadow, "All I know is that I got attacked by these crazy cat creatures and took shelter in this seemingly abandoned house,"

"Your going to have to run that by me again," Said the voice, "cause I'm pretty sure I heard you say you were attacked by crazy cat creatures and that this house was abandoned,"

"I'm just as confused as you are," She said, "So lets start at the beginning and introduce ourselves. You can call Swiftshadow,"

"Swiftshadow?" Said the voice, "Is that some sort of nickname or something?"

"Or something," Swiftshadow answered, "So whats your name?"

"My name is Wilson Hart," He said, "But you can call me Wilson,"

"Pleasure to meet you," She said, "So care to explain the whole computer thing. Preferably in layman terms,"

Wilson gave a long sigh, "What you see before you is a device designed to basically map the brain and create digital copy of it. That would make me an artificial intelligence with the thoughts and memories of the original Wilson Hart,"

"So what happened to the original Wilson?"

"I don't know," He admitted, "He should've activated me the moment the compiling process was finished,"

Swiftshadow pinched the bide of her nose, "you know what, its late, I'm tired, We can figure out all these mysteries tomorrow,"

"So what your saying is that you built this thing to bring in a new area of technology," Said Swiftshadow. She opened another box. It too was filled with wires, circuit boards, and some unfinished projects.

"Indeed," Said Wilson, "Just think of the applications that this technology could have. Medicine, phycology, heck it could bring humanity into a new era."

"Those are some lofty goals," Swiftshadow noted. She couldn't argue with what he was saying. Creating a fully functioning artificial conscious was nothing short of revolutionary. She picked up another box hoping to find a clue to what happened to Mr. Hart. The contents were much the same as last few boxes, Except this time some thing caught her attention. She pulled it out for examination. It was a robotic dinosaur. A velociraptor to be exact. It was green and blue with golden highlights. It was about a Foot tall and about three feet in length.

"Sweet a dinosaur,"

"Dinosaur…" Said Wilson, "Oh, yeah, that. That was a supposed to be a birthday gift for my nephew,"

"Aww, thats adorable," She said as she set it back in the box.

"Wait," Said Wilson, "We can use that,"

"Use it?"

"Right now I cant do or see anything," He said, "And if you hadn't come I would've probably have gone insane by now,"

"So what you need a body,"

"Yes, though it will need some altercations to work,"

"Which is a bit of a problem," Said Swiftshadow, "Considering I'm not exactly the most technologically literate person and you don't seem to have hands. Then again if I had a step by step guide, I maybe could put something together,"

Wilsons fans whirred as he processed the information, "We'll need a monitor and a camera. The camera to see and the monitor to show,"

"I'll see what I can find," Swiftshadow dug through the boxes. It took a bit but she eventually found what she needed. The hard part was getting the right adaptor cables. There was a large box of hopelessly tangled cables. It took awhile to disentangle them.

She set up an old digital cam corder on a tripod, "There, can you see me now?"

"Yes, thank you," He said, "Huh, I Imagined you with blond hair, like my twin sister,"

"Sorry to disappoint," She replied, "Also Sister? What is she like?"

"Oh, She's beautiful with an amazing singing voice," He said, "She was also a talented actress and was starting a promising career in the movie industry,"

"And I'm guessing she had a wonderful son,"

"Oh no, She didn't have children, at least last i checked," Said Wilson, "That honour goes to my elder brother,"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he's complicated," Wilson admitted.

"How so?"

"Well, half brother," He said, "And he was always a bit of a bully. He eventually married a wealthy heiress. I'm pretty sure he loved her money more than he loved her. It eventually ended in a very bitter divorce. I kinda let him stay over a few days as I was working on this. Anyways enough about me. What about you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Whats your story?"

"There not much to tell," Said Swiftshadow.

"Nonsense," Wilson admonished, "You don't end up in the middle of nowhere for no reason,"

Swiftshadow sighed. She supposed it wouldn't hurt to tell him some of her story. It's not like he would be able to tell anyone, "For starters I woke up in the middle of nowhere with a bad case of amnesia a few weeks ago…"

"So you don't remember anything?" Said Wilson sympathetically.

"Except for a few bits and pieces, Nada,"

"Whats the story behind the claws?" He asked.

Damn… She was defiantly going to have to invest in a pair of gloves, "Long story short I got abducted by aliens, experimented on and now I'm part space dragon,"

"Are you being serious? or are you just yanking my chain?"

"Would it be any more believable if told you I was saved by a magical wolf spirit?" Swiftshadow chuckled.

Their conversation was cut short by a low growling. Swiftshadow was instantly reminded of her empty stomach. Unfortunately she had the last of the granola bars for break fast.

"You should find something to eat," Advised Wilson.

"Unfortunately i am out of food," Said Swiftshadow, "Besides its fine. Its not like I cant work on an empty stomach,"

"Like hell you are," Said Wilson adamantly, "I'm not allowing you work on such an important project hungry. I can tell you from experience that a full stomach leads to a productive mind. There is a convenience store down the street. Go there and pick a few snacks,"

"I saw it as I came in," said Swiftshadow, "I also don't have a lot of money,"

Wilson Sighed, "Go upstairs and look in the closet in the first bedroom on the left. There's a hidden compartment in the form of a loose floor board. Theres a wad of cash I saved up for rainy day,"

"Okay, fine," Said Swiftshadow, "You win. While I'm out you want me to try and find any clues as what happened to well, you?"

"Yes," He answered, "You can try the library, they keep an archive of the local newspaper. You don't have to look beyond last July,"

"That just leaves almost an entire years worth of news," Swiftshadow muttered, "Anyways I'll be gone fore a few hours. Don't you go anywhere,"

"Yeah right, What am I going to do? Go for a walk?"

Slinging her back pack over her shoulder, she trudged up the stairs. She cautiously cracked the door open. The beast was gone. There wasn't even a trace that it was even there except for a few droplets of crimson blood. Broken glass lay strewn across the floor. She would have to clean that up later.

She carefully stepped over the mess. She needed to go pick up some groceries.

A square blue portal opened at the edge of town. A young man with bright blond hair darted out of the portal. He was soon followed by a brunette woman about his age and a large muscular neanderthal of a man.

"You know, Martin, you should learn to more considerate," The brunette said in annoyed tone, "This is the second time this month you accidentally destroyed one of M.O.M.'s projects or precious artifacts,"

Martin adjusted his red and yellow shirt, "Come on Diana. I'm sure that once we find the villagers and stop what ever monster was responsible for their disappearance she'll forgive me, just like always,"

"M.O.M. seem mad," Grunted the caveman.

"It'll be fine, Java," Assured Martin, "Just as soon as we solve this mystery,"

If there were was one thing Martin loved, it was a good mystery.