Craig wakes to a cold sweat and the dark navy-blue light of the morning sky flooding his room. He lies in bed, staring up at the ceiling. The dream he had, had been a mess of images that night. With a sigh, he turns to his side and gets out of bed to get ready for the day. His body aches from the previous day's junk hunting events, as he makes his way to the bathroom. There's a small smile that can't help but tug across his lips, when spotting the familiar beige Band-Aid wrapped around his finger. Recalling how it was gently placed upon it, can't help but give his chest a small flutter.
But as he recalls it, another image from yesterday can't help but cross his mind as well. One of which he'd rather try to forget. He frowns at the thought of it and goes back to getting ready for the day.
Once done, he heads to the bus stop.
"Wow, you're here early today," his sister monotones as she meets up with him there.
"Wow, you're just as annoying as you usually are," Craig monotones back, before the two go about ignoring one another again.
When the bus arrives, Craig gets on first and his eyes are immediately drawn to the back couple of rows, where Kenny sat. Kenny looks up at him and offers him a small smile that he can't help but return somewhat awkwardly, before spotting Clyde and quickly taking a seat next to him.
"So—"
"Don't. Say. It." Craig cuts him off and Clyde snorts.
The morning passes by quietly, aside from when science class arrives and Craig gets into a small banter with Clyde again, about how he should go sit with Kenny. But other than that, the day passes by pretty much as usual for him.
However, when he finds himself alone again, the image of what he saw starts to bubble in his mind again, much as he tries to ignore it. And for the next few days, it gnaws at the back of his mind constantly. And he starts to find it hard to pay attention to the things around him. Eventually, it gets to be so strong, that he needs to know if what he saw was real or not, to answer the question that had been slowly eating away in his mind.
Which is how he finds himself on this Saturday afternoon, back in the junkyard.
He wanders around the area until he thinks he finds the junk pile he had been at last, when searching with Kenny. This time though, he made sure to wear gloves and clothes he didn't mind getting dirty, as last time his mother complained to him about ruining his new hoodie with the stench of garbage. So this time he made sure to wear an old black jacket, from back when he was in middle school.
He searches for a couple hours, trying to look for the exact spot he was in last time, but starts to tire when he thinks about just giving it up and letting what he saw remain a mystery. His eyes fall onto a small red flag jutting out from the side of a large pile and a sudden image flashes through his mind. It was a part of the pile that he fell from before. He walks over to it and examines it more closely. The pole is decorative, and there's a sad face on the body of the flag. He remembers not thinking much of it when he first saw it, but now he was glad that he remembered the dumb thing as he was certain that this was the pile he fell from.
He looks it over once, before making his way up it again. Carefully he reaches the top of it, then looks around for what he thought he saw last. When he doesn't see it, he slides down the side he fell down before and slowly glances around. When he still doesn't see it, he starts to tell himself he must have thought it up or something, from the state he was in after the fall.
He decides to head back up, and as he does, just like the last time, his eye catches it. He freezes and looks directly at it. His blood pumping faster at the sight of five fingers and the upper half of a palm that were sticking out from under the pile of junk. Reaching up to the sky, as if trying to grasp it in some kind of pleading desperation.
Craig goes to examine it and something screams in the back of his mind, telling him not to, and that he should call the police instead. But a morbid sense of curiosity continued to drive him forward.
He moves some of the junk around it away, then when noticing an arm going further down, he digs some more. There was something telling him it couldn't possibly be a human body, because it still looked the same as it did four days ago, back when he first saw it. And with the amount of dirt built up on it that he could now see, he was also certain that it had to have been here for quite a while.
He starts to think that it could be a mannequin, but when he touches it, the surface is soft and he starts to worry it may in fact be a body after all. But as he moves more stuff out of the way, he spots a shoulder, or what seems like one anyways. He has to stop and process what exactly it is, as his eyes land on several small wires poking out from it. Confused and wanting to know more, he starts to dig faster, moving more and more stuff away. He reveals a torso next, followed by a head, and stops then as his eyes widen in disbelief.
"No way..." he murmurs to himself.
He goes to grab the torso and pull it out, but a pile of stuff starts to loosen and fall again, so he stops. And one by one, starts to move the stuff carefully out of the way instead. He's not sure how long he spends moving everything until he's able to pull the figure fully out of the pile, but once he does, nothing but utter amazement fills his features.
"Is this... real?" he says to himself in disbelief.
What Craig pulls out, isn't at all what he was expecting to be found. And the only thing he could call it, was something straight out of a sci-fi movie. An android. A full-fledged human looking android. Parts of it had wires sticking out of its nude colored frame. Although from what Craig could tell it seemed, male? At least to him it did, with its neutral doll-like body. Although he still couldn't be sure.
He wanted to look it over further, but not here, he wanted to check it elsewhere, where it didn't stink as much and he wouldn't need to worry about falling constantly from all the loose junk beneath his footing. But still, he had no idea how the hell he was even going to move this thing.
He looks around and spots a rope. He pulls it out from the pile and examines it. It seemed long and thick enough for the idea he had forming in his mind. He moves back over to the android and ties the rope around its torso and fastens it there. It takes quite a bit of energy to move its heavy weight, but he manages to get it up to the top of the pile, then over it.
But now what? Was he just going to drag it the whole way out of this place? That would require more energy than he was certain he had currently. He looks around for anything he thinks may be of use and his gaze lands onto an old metal cart. He decides it's good enough, as he digs it out from its spot and pulls it over to the android. Its wheels squeak as he drags it over, which only grows louder as he heaves the heavy body of the android onto it and secures it with the rope, before continuing on.
Before exiting the junkyard, he spots an old worn out dark blanket and decides to toss it over the android, so that any passerby doesn't think he's transporting around a dead body or something. A wheel starts to shake under its heavy weight and he worries it may fall off, but luckily it doesn't. And even more luckily, he doesn't come across anyone while on track to his new destination.
Stark's pond.
Not really knowing where else to go, this is what he ended up deciding on being the best location he could come up with to move the android to, at least for now. He heads into the nearby woods and comes to a stop by a giant boulder. Once there, he removes the android from the cart and places it down onto a small clearing on the ground. He sits down next to it, needing some rest before he starts to overlook it.
There's a faint patch of some sort on the chest, that he wonders about briefly before his gaze wanders to the limbs, which are slightly detached in some areas with wires poking out from them. He wanted to put the wires in their correct places and connect them again, but he didn't have the tools, nor the time to do so as the sun was starting to set now. Despite it being spring and longer hours of daylight, it didn't change the fact that so many hours had passed by since he first started his search, then moved the android all the way here from the junkyard. He would need to leave it here overnight and check in on it the following day, with the proper tools and rest.
After looking for somewhere to place the android, he decides to place it next to the boulder and places the dark blanket and some branches over it. It was well enough hidden away from any paths or possibly any passersby that could see it. Once done with that, he hides the cart as well in some thick bushes. He double checks once more to make sure everything is hidden well, then heads off for the night.
When he gets home, he showers then heads to his room. For a long while he debates on if he should tell anyone about his find. The first thought that comes to mind is telling his friends, he felt he could probably tell Token about it, but Clyde… He knew Clyde would probably be terrible at keeping something like this a secret for long, it was much too big of a thing for him to remain quiet about. Hell, he had a hard enough of a time trying to stop him from telling Token about his crush on Kenny as it was already. Kenny… He wonders, but quickly brushes the thought away. In the end, he decides it best to just keep this to himself. Besides, part of him kinda liked the idea of being the only one who knew about this mysterious bot and where it could have come from.
The thought ends up provoking his mind for the rest of the night and well into the following day about what its origins could be. When he wakes up early the next morning and heads over to the spot he left it in, he comes prepared, with a toolbox, a towel, a water bottle and some soap.
He sets his things down and clears everything off the android, then moves it out on its back. Next he takes the towel and wets it before adding soap, he proceeds to wipe the whole thing down and clear off the dirt and most of the smell from it. After he's done, and it dries off, he starts to examine it again.
It looked so human-like, that it was a bit uncanny. He touches its blond coloured hair, it's thick and bristle. He tries to clean it as best he can, but doesn't have enough water for it. His hand glides down to the face and he runs the tips of his fingers over the features. The skin was softer after being cleaned and the features felt so real, like his own. It was so strange and fascinating at the same time. He then moves his hand away and starts to examine the wires and other areas that seemed damaged, before he opens the toolbox and gets to work.
Several hours pass by as he works on it. He manages to get the wires for the limbs back in place and reconnected and almost expects something to happen when he finally reattaches the last wild wire. But nothing does. In thought as to what to do next, his gaze is drawn down to the patch on the chest again. His curiosity about it grows and he runs a finger over it, digging his nail under the side of it to see if it will open. It does. He lifts it up and underneath it lies a white panel with a button. He presses it, almost absentmindedly, and a small slot opens under it. He hadn't even noticed an outline to a slot there, from how seamless it blended into the small white panel. A small chip card pops out from it and carefully he takes it and examines it, wondering what it's for. To him, the card seemed possibly compatible with a computer. He looks over the android once more, before pocketing the card and wrapping the bot in the blanket, then hiding it away again.
He decides to head home and to try and figure out what's on it, not really thinking there's anything else he could do for now.
He makes his way back home, as evening starts to fall and heads up to his room. He changes his clothes before turning on his computer and sliding the card into a slot on it. At first, nothing happens, however a few seconds later a window pops up. But there's only one option for it.
Continue?
He finds it strange but clicks it.
There's a moment's pause before the screen suddenly goes black and a window pops up in the center of the screen.
Continue to stored data?
Yes? No?
This piqued his curiosity immensely and he clicks Yes. Another window pops up then asking for a pin code and his brows furrow.
"A pin code?" he mutters.
He obviously didn't know what it was, or have the numbers for it and knew there was no way in hell he'd get it, so he decides it may be best to just remove the card or shut the computer off. He goes for the latter and presses the button to shut it off. The moment he does, the pin disappears and another window pops up. This time with red text.
"Error detected, emergency reset?" Craig reads aloud confused. The window then disappears and is replaced by another one, this time of a percentage bar.
Reset in progress.
"What—no, shit!" Craig swears when realizing what's happening.
He continues to try holding the button down, but when it doesn't shut off, he quickly looks for the plug and goes for it. He catches a quick glimpse of the number at 95%, before he manages to reach through the wires under his desk and pull the plug. The screen shuts off with a deafening loud buzz, before it finally falls silent after a few seconds.
He lets out a sigh once he calms down and removes the small card from its place and onto the desk's top, then lies down.
"Well, that went well," he mutters to himself.
He stays lying for a while but eventually gets up to check on his computer and make sure there isn't too much heavy damage done to it. Luckily, when he boots it back up again and finds it running smoothly, he feels a bit more at ease about it and decides to get ready for bed. Needing some sleep after everything that had been happening lately.