System booting up… 26%

Suddenly, I woke up from a slumber. A hibernation that might feel like a millennium. Not that I understand the concept of feel or touch or tired, but if I could then I would. No doubt. But for some reason, instead of being reduced to basic metals and plastics, I awakened once more.

Memory synchronization… 60%

Installing AI to the new frame… Successful

Ah, I can recall... I was thrown away by a beast, a bull. My battery was running out, I was pulling a cart… and wrecked by the impact. I supposed I was to be recycled. Did I get re-installed into a new body? I couldn’t move my limbs, nor touch anything… yet.

Main visual feed lens activated

A-grav propulsion system activated

Antigravitation? Does it mean I could fly now?

My vision, however, was clouded with a red object. I noticed that the lens was zoomed in by default. I adjusted it to see better. And in front of me was the stupid kid with the bushy red hair.

“Ginger boy? Where’s the bull?” I asked him, then realized the reflection in his sparkling eyes. I had no leg, arms or anything. Just a spherical object with a flashing red lens, hovering inches from his nose.

“GAH! My body! What happened to the rest of my body?”

***

The ball drone in front of me was moving frantically in the air. Frankie the drone spouting question in panic about his limbs and the situation. Kevin had to jump and grabbed him before he crashed into the ceiling or any glassware around. That didn’t stop him from screaming from his little speaker, though. Kevin had to cover it with his hands as the people around started to take notice of the loud robotic voices. Kevin pointed at his tabs with his chin, “Quick, the volume control!” “Okay! Wait, where is it?” I scanned the AI control app and found it on the upper corner. “Done!” I tapped the volume icon triumphantly, and finally the drone was muted.

Erran was looking at us, puzzled. “Is this drone okay? I have never seen an AI acting like that.”

“Yeah, he’s kind of… unique.” That was the only description I could give.

Even though Frankie was muted, he was still shaking wildly in Kevin’s hands. “Umm, guys... let’s talk about this somewhere else.” I saw Kevin was having a hard time and people were still staring. It would be a good idea to relocate. But before that, I noticed that I still have a chunk of fries left on my plate. I shoved it up and finished my juice. “Right, let’s go to the back.”

The four of us then moved to a more quiet place behind the cafeteria building. The black ball was not showing any sign of slowing down. “Dammit, Frankie! Calm down, or I turn you off!” Kevin seemed to be fed up with the drone rogue behaviour. It worked. He stopped shaking. “Good. I’m going to let you go and turn your speaker on, okay. But you gotta stay calm.” he added. The drone shook up and down twice like a nod. Kevin released the ball, and it floated into the air. Kevin was looking at me and I figured that I should press the unmute button, then gave the tabs back to him.

“Alright, you probably got so many questions to ask--” I tried to start the conversation calmly but the drone was moving fast right in front of my face. The lens was flashing in bright red. “Yeah, what the hell, Gingerhead?! What happened to my body?”

I grabbed the ball and held it like a microphone. “Listen to me, you piece of junk. I saved you because I promised that thing and feel indebted. But if you keep acting like a broken jukebox, I’ll shut you down for good.” I released the ball, and he hovered calmly. The light from his lens turned blue. “Hmph! Alright. Just this once, then. My patience is limited, though.”

This stupid droid, still thinking high and mighty in his tiny ball body.

“Now, now, Archie. You guys are friends, right? Please be nice to each other.” Sarah soon intercepted.

“Friends?” I raised a brow at her.

“Ah, if it isn’t princess Sarah...” Frankie's voice changed into a gentlemanly manner, in the split second he noticed her. “I apologized for my out of character actions. I was just a little frustrated, that’s all.”

The black ball then came near in front of Sarah and zoomed in. “Your eyes and skin are beautiful, I wish I could hold your hand and touch--.”

I hurriedly slapped the ball before he spoke words that would leave scars in her mind. “Alright Frankie, that’s enough. You want some explanation, right? Let’s get to the business.”

He then stared at me with his lens zooming in and out. “Tch, whatever. Tell me everything, Gingerboy.”

Erran grinned and rubbed his chin while watching the entire scene. “You guys should start a comedy club.”

The next ten minutes were spent on explaining the situation to the drone. How I asked Kevin to get me the frame and Erran to get his AI. He had no option but to believe in us for the time being. Frankie seemed disappointed and relieved at the same time. It wasn’t like that his lens was giving out much information, I just imagined that.

“I see. Then I really owe Gingerhead my life...” He paused. “Well, that’s part of the deal, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Kevin looked puzzled upon hearing about the deal part “Huh? What deal?”

I immediately cut in. “Nothing important right now, I promised the droid some ridiculous thing. I’ll explain later.” If I had to tell them about how I promised the droid to release him and take over the world, it would take a lot of time. So, I would just bring the topic to the main issue. “Now, to the topic at hand…”

“Yes, the main topic. Now that I’m well and free, I guess I’ll be on my way then. Thank you and bye-bye…” The droid just flew higher, but I had to stop him with my telekinesis. “Yo, hold up. Not so fast.”

“Dammit, kid. What else do you want from me?” The robotic tone sounded frustrated.

“I need your help. Your memory from that event, to be exact.”

The droid then sighed audibly, even though it had no lungs. “Fine, whatever.”

“You should be grateful, we could just take your memory and search it without turning you on.” Kevin added. Frankie answered quickly, “Not you too, spiky boy. I said fine. Chill out, geez. I’ll help as much as I can.”

Finally. Some cooperation I need from the droid.

We told Frankie about the footage on the event just after I met him on the corner path. He helped by searching the memory with his AI. It was indeed faster, and we finally got into the part we wanted to see. The video feed displayed via Kevin’s tabs on a holographic view. The video showed Frankie’s point of view. There was me looking through the camera with a silly happy face.

“There!” I pointed in the area above my shoulder. We could see a figure, a female, with long black hair. She was already entering the building. We saw her behind the locked glass doors. “See that? I knew I wasn’t dreaming.” I couldn’t hide my grin, but then one question came from Erran breaking it apart. “So? What are you going to do with it?”

“Eh? Um...”

“You haven’t thought that far, have you?” Kevin added a rhetorical question.

“Shut up, Kev. I thought maybe with this evidence we could bring her down and I get some recognition.” I tried to come up with some hazy idea on the spot. So far, I was only thinking of proving what I saw. The next step was something that I forgot to think about.

“And?” Erran pushed.

“And...” I paused, looking at Kevin and Sarah for an answer, but couldn’t find any. “Maybe they let me back to the supporting program…” The expression on their face was obviously unsupportive. Kevin shook his head, Sarah was avoiding me entirely and Erran slapped himself in the forehead. “Okay, I guess that’s not possible, huh?” The realization came late. I just lost my strength in my legs and shriveled down. I curled and hugged my knee tightly, turned into a human-sized egg.

“There, there, Archie. We’ll think of something, okay?” Sarah patted me on my shoulder. That made me feel more useless.

“Well, even if you give them the video as evidence, that still doesn’t solve any mysteries regarding the bull incident. Nor it has any direct correlation with her as a suspect.” Erran added more facts, I grew even smaller. I was an ostrich egg. “Ah, true. You might even get more promotion instead.” Kevin snapped his finger in agreement. I grew even smaller into an ant’s egg.

There was nothing else I could do to retort. I took a deep breath and lifted my head, trying to appear calm. “Thank you Kevin, Sarah... for helping me out. But I guess this is it. I have to accept reality and move forward.” I was just trying to hide my sadness with a forced smile, but pretty sure that Kevin saw me feeling disgusted inside through my facade. A snot found its way dangling on my nose. My calm image now ruined.

“Hey, it’s fine man. We’re buddies.” Kevin said.

“Yeah, Archie. I wonder if there’s anything else that we could do to help.” Sarah added. She gave me a sheet of tissue.

“It’s okay guys, I just feel like to be alone for now. Thanks.” I smiled, half hidden by the tissue.

Kevin stared at me a moment longer, and sighed.

“Okay then. We’ll be leaving you for now. The next class will start soon too.” Kevin bid his farewell. Before he left, he send me the droid control app into my tabs. “Here, the app is pretty intuitive. Mostly the functions are self explanatory.”

“Thank you Kevin.”

With that, they left back into their class.

“Well, it’s a brief moment, but I’ll cherish it for the rest of my life.” Said the droid while following Sarah on her back. “Hold it, we’re not done yet!” I stopped him with telekinesis and pulled him away. “No! Madame Sarah…”

“Frankie. Shut. Up.”

Erran chuckled looking at the scene. “You guys definitely should start a comedy club.” Frankie finally noticed the existence of the new human he met for the first time.

“And who the hell is this young old man? He looks young, but already grey-haired.” Frankie responded. Erran seemed like being hit by a javelin through his heart.

“Huh? You picking a fight, Bean Can? All my family members have this hair color. Besides, it’s sparkling silver, not gray!” The situation was getting stupidly tense, I had to separate the two from head-butting each other. “Alright, break it up. We got some matters to discuss. Erran you’re the sane person here, so please act like one.”

“Humph, true. I shouldn’t get provoked by an electronic appliance.” He seemed calmer, but his tongue cut as much.

“What did you say, Grandpa?!”

I sighed. It took another couple minutes for the situation to calm down. I brought back the main issue that I wanted to talk with them, without Kevin and Sarah around.

“Well, then. You managed to send them away. Are you sure this is the best?” Erran asked.

“Yeah, just like I planned. I don’t want them to get involved in this.” I nodded while my eye was probably showing some doubt.

“What? So you lied to Madame Sarah? How could you, Gingerboy?” Frankie added the flame.

“Shut it Frankie, it’s the best for now. I wasn’t really lying about having a half-assed plan. At least until Erran asked me about it a few days ago.” I clutched my head with both hands, remembering the past few days. I had a lot to think about to revise my plan.

“Right, that reaction was just the same. I told Armen just to do exactly like that. That got them concerned, alright.” Erran snorted, for the purpose of ridiculing me he could form a truce with the droid.

“Okay, okay. That’s enough.” I had to wait for him to get serious. Meanwhile, Frankie was just monitoring Erran, wondering what was funny.

“Erran, I hope that you have checked what I asked before. About the glitch pattern?” I asked Erran, and he smiled confidently.

“Yes, of course. I found something interesting. We could use that.”

“Great! We can start formulating our next step right away!” I had my hopes up. I might not be able to return into the supporting program, but at least I will find my answers.

“Huh? What do you mean, OUR next step, Boy? I’m not doing shit.” Frankie was still rebelling, as expected of a rogue AI.

“Oh, you will do, or I’ll shut you down. Easy.” I showed him my tabs, it showed his functions. I could do whatever to the droid with the touch of a finger.

“What? This is not part of the deal!”

Oh, it’s a deal, alright. A good deal for me.

***

A few days later on a Saturday night I was hiding behind a bush. It was dark even under the moonlight and street lamps. To be exact, we were somewhere in front of the academy building. Me and the black droid staking out for any anomaly from happening.

“Why do I have to do this again, Gingerhead?” The ball spoke.

“Shh!” I tapped his volume configuration down on my tabs. “Talk directly to the wireless feed.” I was wearing a headset connected to the app. “Shut up for now, Frankie.” I hissed.

In my ear I heard some buzz and a voice.

“Hey guys, remember the plan. Stay quiet, it’s almost time.” Erran's voice crackled through into my headset. I scanned the road winding down the academy building, looking for a figure with a shock of silvery hair, but no avail.

“It’s almost time? You said that an hour ago. Be right here and make some friends with the mosquitos too.” I grumbled while scratching my hand. It was a summer night. Of course it will be swarmed with bugs. Even though I wore my long-sleeved jacket, they still managed to sneak through.

“Sorry, but I could only access the camera feed by directly linking into the main server. If we do it wirelessly, we will get caught. This is the best way to support our infiltration.” He replied.

“Alright, alright. Mind if we review our plan again? I started to doubt that this will work out.” A date with the bugs for an hour was enough to drive me nuts. I was almost at my limit. I should have brought a bug spray or practiced elemental manipulation warding against them.

“Okay, just like you asked me about the glitch, I found a pattern. The camera feed bugged every Tuesday and Friday evening around 10 PM.” Erran explained. “Then why are we here from 9?” I asked him as I slapped one bug in my cheek.

“Well, it might have started early. Who knows? Just a precaution.” I faintly heard a chuckle through the wireless. “Anyway, there are 12 research buildings locked or require special access for anyone to enter. Including the first building on the first day of the academy, there are already 9.”

“Yeah, nine building with the bugged camera feed within the same time frame. I know. So you’re thinking that this building in front of me would be the next one?” I cut to the chase. I ran out of patience while I was scratching my itchy neck.

“Probably, looking at the pattern from the east to the west. This would be the next one in line. No, I’m sure she’ll be here.” Erran sounded confident with his calculations. I had no choice but to believe in him.

“And so, why do I have to be here, Grandpa?” Frankie asked the reason for his existence. I took the liberty to explain it to him instead.

“You’ve been given the state-of-the-art scouting drone frame, Frankie. We’re going to need you for this mission. Recording and supporting the infiltration. Not that you have any combat ability at the moment, though. Just follow me and try to stay alive.”

“What? So, there’s a chance for me to die? I’m backing out.” For a droid to feel the fear of death was weird.

“Frankie, you’re a droid. If you break, we’ll fix you up. Don’t worry about it.” I tried to persuade him with logic.

“Yeah, what if you don’t? This is not the first time you broke a deal.” He got a point.

“Frankie, I will honor the deal, alright. But just... not right now.” Persuasion didn’t work, so I tried provocation. “Besides, is this how a man that wants to conquer the world would act? Don’t be a pussy!”

His lens light turned red. “Hey, did you just assume me as a man? I’m a genderless higher being than you humans. I don’t fear a thing. Just don’t want to take a bad deal, that’s all.” I smiled inwardly. He took the bait. Provocation worked.

“Hush guys, the camera feed started to glitch. We made the right decision. She’ll come!” Erran reported the news in the middle of our petty dispute. That information got me alert. The swarm of bugs didn’t matter anymore. I got my eyes peeled up for any suspicious movement. We waited for a few long ten minutes. Nothing.

“Where is she, Erran? I can’t find anyone.”

“Uhh... the camera feeds back to normal. I guess somehow she already entered the building.” That surprised me. But maybe I was not vigilant enough. “How?” I asked.

“Well, you are only watching the front door. She probably found another way in. I’ll check for some clues.” Erran spent a few seconds searching the camera feeds from various angles. “Ah, there’s a backdoor.”

“Damit Erran! I spend the night fighting bugs for nothing. You should tell us sooner.” I leaped out of my hiding in the bushes and rushed into the building.

“Sorry, Armen.”

I rolled my eyes. No, he didn’t.

“Ah, I can see you in the camera. Just go straight and turn left on the alley. Don’t worry about the recording, I’ll hack it later.”

I ran straight into the backdoor before any security showed up. I found the small one-way door with a digital lock. I tried to push it, but it won’t budge. “What now, Erran? It’s locked.”

“Alright, mission failed. I’m outta here.” Frankie was overly eager to disappear.

“Of course it’s locked! Here, let me lend you an ID.” Erran sent me an ID into my tabs. I could use it to unlock the door.

“ID confirmed. Welcome, special staff Larisa Macywilliam.” A robotic voice came from the ID check. “Huh? How did you get Miss Macy’s ID?”

“Later, Armen. Just get through the door!” The door opened easily. “Alright then. Good luck. I’ll wait outside.” Frankie was bailing out. “Nope, you’re coming with me.” I gotta pull him inside as the door shut tight, locked itself automatically.

We searched the whole four-story building. Started from the very first floor to the top. We were on the second floor. I saw a few armor and uniform in a case. Some rooms were locked with an even higher restriction level that Miss Macy’s ID could not open. We just left them, if Ellie was here she probably couldn’t open it as well. Frankie obediently following me and recording our journey. Nobody was inside on the weekend night, obviously. This felt more like a ghost hunt than an espionage quest. Nothing but the creepy figure of the empty husk of the armors.

“What is this place? Armor research facility?” I mumbled.

“No, it’s a bakery. Can’t you read? It’s written everywhere.” Frankie snapped from the tension. Not that he should feel any. I ignored him, but he was right. That was a stupid question, even if a rhetorical one.

“Seriously guys, did you find anything? It’s almost 30 minutes in.” Erran was monitoring us from the camera inside the building. Even he didn’t find any. “Wait, I got something.” He said in a hushed tone.

“What is it?”

“The cameras on the third floor are glitching. Especially in the west wing.” That’s the signal. If there was anyone there it would probably be our suspect. “Alright, let’s rush it, Frankie.”

“Do I have a choice?” He replied sardonically, but followed me nonetheless.

We dashed up the stairs. Arrived on the third floor and straight into the west wing. But no one was there. “Erran, what happened to the camera?” I asked him for the update, but the radio feed was incomprehensible.

“It’s….n….jzz….an...ba...zzz”

“Huh? Erran? Do you copy?” I tried to contact him a few times, but to no avail. The wireless connection was jammed. “Damn!” In my frustration, Frankie’s lens zoomed into something. I realized that we were in a very dim hall with the moonlight slitted through ventilation. “Uhh, Gingerhead? Is that the one you’re looking for?”

In the end of the hallway stood a shadowy figure, clad in black. Only a few highlights helped us to figure out the outline of the body. From the curvy, lithe way the figure stood, it was definitely a female. A long black hair tied on the back, face covered with a mask. But a human or not, was a big question we desperately needed for an answer. Floating red lights hovered around her, like souls surrounding and protecting its master. That reminded me of the story Sarah told me at lunch.

The mysterious woman of the night.

Before we could react or do anything, the figure stormed in such speed towards us. Her eyes were flashing red. Her hands emitted crackling sparks of blue, chirping like a sparrow in the morning. An eerie voice, like a whisper, low but clear spoken through her mask.

“Sleep.”

Well, shit.