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Chapter 3: What is he, a cyborg skeleton?
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"What."
This time, it was A2 who had been forced into using single words to convey her disbelief at what she was seeing.
Only instead of an adorable baby that was causing the mental interruption, it was a hideous amalgamation of metal and bone, with a hideous, deformed grinning skull as a head. And it was riding a moped.
There was not enough 'what' in the world for A2 to express herself.
The trio had encountered the bizarre being on the edges of the desert region as it was heading into the city ruins. It had stopped and acted excited when it spotted the trio and rushed over to greet them.
"Emil, I'm glad to see you're alright." 2B held out a hand and shook an offered appendage.
"Miss 2B, Mister 9S! You survived!" The skull-in-a-machine said happily, the voice that it spoke with sounding young.
"When that tower rose up and started throwing around energy I didn't know what to think!"
"How's the Resistance doing? And what about YoRHa?" 2B continued.
"I've been helping Anemone and Pascal rebuild. It's taking a while, but we should have a small refinery up and running in the desert area soon which will recycle the toxic waste into usable fuel. Not to mention a lot of old buildings are repaired to the point they're habitable."
Emil paused and frowned. At least, A2 thought it did. It was hard to tell what a skull was thinking and emoting. Very, very hard.
"As for YoRHa, well, after the Bunker landed on the outskirts of the Drowned City's shore, they've been trying to rebuild as well, and establish some form of communication with all their agents and Resistance bases. It hasn't gone overly well."
"The Bunker survived?" 9S asked incredulously. Emil bobbed up and down.
"It wasn't completely devastated in the attack, it seems. Most of it is still intact, and they were able to pilot it to a degree that it landed in deep waters, rather than the shallows or in the ruins themselves. Still, a lot of their systems are down, and they're not very trusting of any none android offering help."
"So, what are you doing out here?" Emil asked, looking at their group. "I see a new face, so what's up?"
"We were looking for you, actually," 2B said.
"Really?"
"Yeah. We need your expertise on something," 9S confirmed. Emil tilted his head.
"I'm not an expert on anything expect scrap-building and magic. And even then, not very good at either."
"The thing is, we found something… odd. A human infant."
Emil froze at 2B's words.
"Are you serious?" he demanded, his voice all but a whisper. When the androids nodded he began to zoom around in circles.
"No, no, no, that's impossible!" the skull-child cried, clutching his head with his robotic appendages.
"It's true, a real, live human," 2B announced.
"You don't understand, that should be impossible! No humans survived the White Chlorination Syndrome or the aliens! Even the GESTALT Project failed, recording a handful of infected survivors as a baseline. No human is left on Earth."
"I found him in an underground facility designed to use cryogenics to preserve the species," A2 spoke up, drawing Emil's attention. "He was the only survivor out of a hundred."
"Human technology was not that advanced at the time of collapse! When everything went to crap they hadn't perfected cryogenics technology, and even if they had, it has been thousands of years! Without maintenance and care whatever power source was powering the facility would have died centuries ago. Same with the cryogenics devices. They'd have degraded into scrap, no matter how preserved it was!"
Emil rolled forward. "Please, let me see the child. I need to confirm it is a human."
A2 tensed and held the baby closer. Even if 2B and 9S trusted this thing, she did not, and was reluctant to give him over.
"Please, I swear on my life and my memories I will not harm him," Emil pleaded.
She looked down at the baby, then up at her two companions who gave a nod. She sighed and held the child out. Emil peered forward. The baby opened his piercing emerald eyes and looked at the new stranger.
Unfortunately, the sight of the deformed skull-thing caused the baby to burst into tears, and Emil quickly retreated.
"Well, it certainly acts human," Emil said with a sheepish tone as he rubbed the back of his head. He then turned serious and looked directly at A2.
"I need to see where you found him. I have a hypothesis as to what's going on, but I have to check the site to be certain."
"It's a three day jog," A2 cautioned. "And we don't have enough milk for the baby to last that long."
"Not without tackling another moose or two," 9S muttered under his breathe. The older unit politely pretended she hadn't heard anything.
"I think I can help with that," Emil said slowly. He rummaged around in his pack that was strapped to his vehicle and removed a tin can. He then opened it and proceeded to mix the contents with some nearby stream water and then dumped the concoction into a plastic bottle with a rubber nipple on it.
He then shook the bottle, stirring up the contents. Finally, his 'hands' began to glow, and he emitted pulse of white energy into the liquid. It glowed for a few seconds before settling down.
"What are you doing?" A2 demanded.
"The powder was some dried milk I found in some ruins. Surprisingly well preserved," Emil explained. "Even if their technology couldn't survive, some of their food stuffs could. I also added a bit of magic to it so it would sterilize anything bad within it."
"Why were you carrying around old containers of milk?" 2B asked. Emil looked down, embarrassed.
"I, um, I really like milk. I miss the taste so whenever I can I keep some of the good, old stuff for special occasions. Moose and boars don't have very tasty milk, even if it is healthy."
"Will it hurt him?" A2 demanded and Emil shook his head.
"No, it won't. Again, I swear on my life. I have enough formula for maybe two more days, twice if we ration it. But I don't think that's a good idea for a growing baby. So let's hurry up and head to the place you found him." He held out the baby bottle and the senior gynoid stared at it long and hard before grabbing it.
"Let's go." She darted off and her companions darted after her.
"You mentioned magic," she said as she began to feed the baby while running. Emil nodded.
"Yes, it's hard to believe, but it's true."
"How?" A2 knew that humans had tried to tap into some extra-dimensional energy source for the GESTALT Project, and that some of this mysterious energy was incorporated into the androids in various ways – mainly to pull off a POD's Skill Ability – but knew very little about it. In fact, she highly doubted even YoRHa truly knew more about this substance.
The cyborg skeleton rubbed its chin in thought as it zoomed behind her.
"It's hard to explain. You know about the Replicants, right?"
"An early attempt to revive mankind using prototype androids," A2 confirmed. Emil nodded.
"Right. Well, I lived during that age. I can't really remember much, but as 2B and 9S know, I was made to be a weapon of some kind." He sighed.
"Anyways, I gained this power, and retained it even when the Replicant Plan failed. Why? I don't know. I was one of the only survivors. I recall a few others had similar powers to mine, and I vaguely recall two red-headed women who had similar functions, but I was the best at it. I was made for it. Long story short, I haven't a clue how this happened, what I am, or why I can do what I can do. The most I remember is fighting the aliens when they first arrived, and holding them off so the others could rally."
A2 was silent at that. So, he was like them, in a way. A failed attempt to revive humanity. But one that had come to terms with it, and continued onwards. She wondered if she could have done so for thousands of years alone and with no goal. Probably not.
She glanced down at the human in her arms to make sure he was still there. He was, and he giggled and laughed at the blurry scenery, apparently finding the whole thing amusing.
A smile crept up on her lips as she watched him. She had a purpose, now. No need to fret about tomorrow and wonder if today is the day you decide to shut down. Such a wonderful gift.
After a long, tiring run over the course of two days the group arrived at the previous city ruins. It didn't have an official name, since no Resistance cell had been formed there. But it was the closest settlement to the Tower, so 'Tower City' was what A2 decided to refer to it as.
Not that she or the other two androids with her liked to remember the mess that had gone on there.
"Here, in the basement of this building," A2 said, pointing. A few broken pieces of machine lifeforms littered the group still.
The machines were like the androids, in that they were partially bio-organic. Instead of being based off of the human genome though they were a mix of plant DNA. This meant that their bits and pieces would quickly degrade if left unattended, melting into a gooey mush.
That was partly the reason why the wild life grew so tall and rampant in certain places. The machine's corpses were highly fertile and contained accelerated growth properties.
Yet for all their impressive designs they still fell like wheat before the scythe. A2 snorted in amusement at that thought. She remembered an old companion from YoRHa who liked to quote that saying while swinging a custom designed scythe.
"Is something the matter?" 2B inquired, glancing over at the older android.
"No. Just remembered something that amused me, is all," A2 replied. 2B shrugged and turned back to Emil who was examining every nook and cranny of the facility.
They were currently inside the pod storage area, and the skull-machine-thing was mumbling to himself as it explored. 9S was doing some research of his own, delving into the code and internal mechanics of the machines around them. 2B was busy standing guard, watching out for any rogue machines.
A2 was just glad the air was warmer now. She didn't want the baby getting sick from the cold. Still, she stood a ways away from the entrance all the same, just to be safe.
After a moment Emil trundled back to the group, shaking his head.
"Well, I found the answer," he stated.
"Don't keep us in suspense, Emil. How did all of this survive?" 9S asked, waving his hand at the subterranean base. "'Cause you were right about it. The tech and materials should not have lasted this long."
"Magic," Emil said shortly. Seeing their questioning looks, he explained.
"Several of the people inside the pods were infected by the White Chlorination Syndrome," he revealed. "The latent magical essence that lay inside them thanks to the White Chlorination Syndrome never progressed, though, suspended in animation as they were. What it did do was, well, leak out. The magic was carried along by the tubes and wires and pipes and data, mutated and mutating. Eventually, it settled into a few different places."
He pointed into the distance of the chamber. "Like attracts like. Energy to energy. The industrial generator powering this facility is one of the places the magic settled. It's why there was still power. Most of the magic though seeped into the machines and materials, preserving them. And last, but not least, it leaked into the last untainted living thing once the other hosts perished."
Everyone turned their attention to the sleeping baby in A2's arms.
"He's human," Emil quickly assured them, "but he's a hybrid of sorts. He nhas magic, but not the sort that caused White Chlorination Syndrome. He has None of the crippling side effects mortals should have in order to bear this power. Even the Replicants suffered complications trying to use it, and that's why you androids need to use a purely mechanical focus, i.e. your PODs, to properly command it. But not him. The first, and only, true Magic User in history."
"That's why he survived. He has the life force of dozens of other people inside him, which sustained him alongside the magically enhanced cryo-tech. Plus, I believe quite a bit of magic was drawn into him from the outside, which is why the area is so free of it, and why there is very little radio and EMP interference around the Tower, and why it was built there. No magic to interfere with the complex workings designed to do whatever it was supposed to do."
"I see." A2 held up the baby and stared. He yawned and opened his eyes, blinking cutely at the woman in front of him.
"Ma!" he cried out, holding out his arms towards her.
Her breathe caught in her throat and she gasped in shock before pulling him close.
"Yes. Yes, I am your mother," she promised. She wondered what the streaks of wetness rolling down her cheeks were.
9S later informed her they were called 'tears.'