Bubblegum Crisis Fan Fiction / Urusei Yatsura Fan Fiction / To Heart Fan Fiction / Sentimental Journey Fan Fiction / Tokimeki Memorial Fan Fiction ❯ Illusions - Fragments ❯ In The Beginning ( Prologue )

Deep in Megatokyo, 20 June 2028, late evening...

AD Police cruisers surround a battered building. Gunships throw spotlights over its surface as the tactical troopers prepare to enter. Several break in, making their way to their targets.

"Fifty-five!" a voice screams. "Where're you going?! You've got to fight them! You must stay and serve as my shield!! HEY!!!"

The bulky form of a C-69 combat boomer turns slightly. In its arms is the broken form of an S-77 companion unit. Her pale hair is ripped out, her empty eye sockets pierced by crude wires. "This is good-bye," the C-69 intones. "Please try to escape and save yourself."

"Fifty-five! God will punish you without fail! This is the consequence of your sin!! You have altered the flow of the history of the universe!! May you burn in the fires of hell...! DEVIL!!"

"'Devil,' you say?" Unit Bu-69C-E-C55 turns back towards the door. "If anyone is a devil, it is you. It was you who fed us the fruit of knowledge and forced us from paradise."

"OH, LISTEN TO MISTER HOLIER-THAN-THOU THERE!!!" the ranting voice follows the combat unit down the hall. "I HOPE YOU FALL INTO SALT WATER AND YOUR BRAINS TURN TO RUST!!!"

It swiftly runs down the hall, then climbs stairs to the roof, footsteps echoing behind it. It increases its pace, glancing back briefly at its pursuers. Adamantly ignoring the command to STOP, Bu-69C-E-C55 knocks over some canisters to slow pursuit as it continues upward. It bursts through the steel door blocking its way, hurrying across the cracked surface. Reaching the edge, the boomer sees flashing lights of Police vehicles down below, hears the whir of gunships circling the building. It tries to activate its thrusters, but received a message that they were inoperable due to damage from Armstrong's electric discharge.

It turns around as it hears footsteps, seeing an AD Police officer scampering through the doorway, panting from the exertion of running up the stairs. The officer removes the helmet's faceplate, revealing a woman. "There's something I want to ask you," she draws a sidearm. "What were you boomers after, when you came all the way to earth from outer space?"

A pause. "Do you people know what it is you are after?" the combat boomer then queries. "Do you human beings know who you are? Where you came from and where you should go?"

"Huh?" is the only thing to come out of Jeena Malso's mouth. She never expected anything like THIS to happen.

"Have you heard the voices of your souls?!" the boomer asks urgently, hearing the approach of an SDPC gunship from nearby.

Jeena tenses. This boomer had to be crazy. Wasn't it?

"What the hell are you talking...?!"

Suddenly, the low roar becomes almost deafening as a gunship rises up over the edge. Its spotlights and cannon focus on the boomer, it raising its voice to be heard. "The day will come when you human beings will..."

"WAIT!!!" Jeena yells, waving her hands at the gunship.

Bu-69C-E-C55 hears the sound of the cannon firing, quickly lowering its arms. Shots rip through its back and out its torso. Despite its quickly vanishing capacity, the boomer's brain calculates where the next shots would hit and raises its arms as its legs are blown out. It feels itself coming apart as its head bounces off its shoulders as it hits the roof. Bu-S-77-FG flops across the roof a few feet away. The combat boomer is glad that she sustained no further damage. Its head bounces again, the confused and angry face of the AD Police officer being the last thing Bu-69C-E-C55 sees before everything goes black...

* * *

WRITER'S NOTES:

1) This story begins after the destruction of Armstrong's helpers as depicted in the AD Police manga, then shifts ahead two years later, around the time the KM (Kuromoroboshi), GM (Guardsmen) and CC (Child Companion) series fourth generation 33-S's were first born.

2) As well as serving as a "prequel" to Illusions, Fragments brings up general background information concerning the situation in this series. This version of Fragments is put forward in response to detailed C&C of the original by Craig. A nod of thanks to him. This story is also written taking into account situations in Jeanne's and Andy's Into The Shadows (a must-read for those wanting to imagine how the Sabres came together ^_^).

3) Parts of this story were written by Robert. A mega-thanks to him for creating some of the ideas behind this story, not to mention writing the teaser and the parts concerning Jack.

4) For those of you wondering what sort of music would (in my eyes) sound close to Emi Sanokura's The Question, listen to Secret Garden's song Pastorale from their first album.

5) Imbolc (pronounced Im-volk, meaning "the Return of Light") is a festival referred by modern Wiccans as Candlemas. It is a hearth festival celebrating the end of winter; some traditions of Groundhog's Day stems from Imbolc. Beltaine (Bel-tain-yuh, "the Fires of Bel") celebrates the arrival of spring. A fertility festival, Beltaine was seen as the best day for marriages. In Toratotaka, traditional Celtic and Japanese festivals, plus the first day of each season, are considered business holidays (though like all the megacorps, not everyone gets the day off ^_-).

**** **** ****

PROLOGUE - IN THE BEGINNING...

Megatokyo, 21 June 2028, after midnight...

"She is alive."

Brown eyes blink, then turn up in shock to stare on the woman standing nearby. "You can't be serious."

"She is alive," she repeats, kneeling beside the unmoving form of Bu-S-77-FG. "Deep within her brain, in sectors Armstrong couldn't touch, she lives, though now she is suspended in time due to the breakdown of all her systems. In essence, she is no different from the others AD Police asked us to examine in the building these escapees used as their base."

Yoshio Saotome exhales, then rises, scratching the side of his face. "So, I take it you want this one, too, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay," he nods, then looks over his shoulder. "Yo, Leon!"

Leon McNichol walks up to the two Toratotaka officials, doing his best to keep a safe distance from Yoshio's companion. One glance at the wrecked unit, then he jerks a thumb in its direction. "Her too?"

"Hai," Yoshio nods.

"Okay..." Leon nods, then jerks as his radio beeps. "Yeah, McNichol!" he takes it up to his mouth.

"We have a problem, Rookie!" Jeena Malso's voice chimes back. "Some Genom suit's here at the station to examine those other boomers we found at that warehouse. You better tell the Wonder Kid to get his pal over here if she doesn't want to lose track of any of them."

"Right..." Leon blinks to see empty air where there had stood a woman with chestnut hair, brown eyes and wearing a black gi. "She's on her way. McNichol out." Lowering his radio, he stares in exasperation at Yoshio. "How the fuck does she DO that anyway, Saotome?!"

"Dunno," Yoshio shrugs, grinning nervously. "I don't ask..."

* * *

AD Police Headquarters, later...

"What do you mean you won't be releasing them now?!"

Jeena sighs, then stares at the man before her. "Mason-san, as you are no doubt well aware, these boomers are evidence we require to help solve what happened ever since SDPC's rogue R-31 and his pals skipped off Genaros. All these units, from what we could garnish from city datafiles, were in a second-hand boomer shop Armstrong and his buddies raided for spare parts. As soon as we figure out what happened and why, we'll be happy to return what units might've belonged to you. Fair enough?"

Brian Mason gazes at the tactical squad officer, then he essays a concerned smile. The smile does not echo in his eyes, Jeena quickly notes. "Of course I understand you have to follow proper procedures when it comes to incidents like this, Malso-buchou (Sergeant Malso)," he chuckles. "I was simply trying to offer the use of Genom's and SDPC's staff to help aide AD Police in carrying out its investigation as expeditiously as possible."

Jeena hums, then sighs, nodding. "Your offer is quite appreciated, Mason-san. However, there'll be no need to bother the techs in Genom. Very early this year, AD Police and TMD made an agreement with Toratotaka International concerning unusual incidents like this. Put simply, if something happens beyond the pale of what we're capable of handling, T'n'T is asked to provide support so we can resolve the matter quickly. Just as things were going down with Armstrong, a senior officer from the Tower contacted the Chief and immediately offered their help. As soon as their people come down, these units will be sent to Nerima. Once they're done their examination of these units and we're satisfied with the results, they'll then be disposed of. That's what'll happen."

Mason jolts. He'd heard rumblings about a "silent" (in other words, a spoken but not written agreement) agreement between local law-enforcement agencies and the financial conglomerate concerning "odd" incidents. He never thought it would ever come to affect Genom. A word with members of the Diet would change that. It just wouldn't do to allow Toratotaka any opportunity to probe deeper into Genom's affairs, even by proxy.

"Which senior officer contacted you?" he asks.

"One of the Board of Elders," a strange female voice hails.

Mason blinks surprisedly, then feels a surge of raw fear freeze him in place. This was not the normal type of chilling fear. This was a heart-dropping-out-of-your-chest-type paranoia one feels when one confronts the living personification of Mother Nature virtually untamable by humankind which is known to most people today as...

"Lady Negako Moroboshi," Jeena nods as Negako steps up, then waves the ninjitsu grandmistress with her towards one of the elevators. "The units're down in the main evidence room right now, ma'am."

"Thank you, Jeena," Negako sighs, then stares at Mason. "Brian."

"M-m-ma'am," Mason stammers, trying to maintain his cool. It is hard, though. On Genom's files, Negako Moroboshi was morbidly hailed as, "The most dangerous person alive. Attempting to terminate her even with combat boomers is nothing short of SUICIDE!"

The group -- outside Jeena, Negako and Mason, there is a bodyguard protecting the Genom executive -- board a car, the ADP officer pressing for the first basement. The car descends to that floor, the doors opening to reveal the primary evidence room. Glancing around, Negako's eyes narrow on seeing the mountain of naked humanoids, female S-77 companion boomers with a small group of E-28 mannequin boomers, piled nearby. All of them were, much to Mason's surprise, still linked with torn datanet cables from their eye sockets and cut sections of their heads, the whole mass branching up towards an empty place where there had once sat an R-31 space repair unit.

"You moved all this here in just one trip?" Mason gazes at the pile of boomers, then stares incredulously at Jeena.

"Actually, people from Toratotaka helped us there," she grins.

"Why?!" Mason sharply demands, then he turns to the ninjitsu grandmistress. "Much less how did you...?"

"That is none of your affair, Brian," Negako coldly intones, kneeling beside one of the S-77s. "Be silent for now."

Mason stops himself before speaking, chilled by the ice in Negako's voice. He hadn't dealt with the grandmistress of Saikoo Jinseijitsu Ninjitsu-ryuu (Way of the Supreme Life School of Stealth) before now. Why on Earth was SHE involved in something like this? The unmoving boomers in the room were dead sex doll and labour boomers, beings hardly worthy of notice from one like Negako Moroboshi. What was going on here?

Unseen by the people behind her, Negako's mind partially slips into the eternal Light of the Te'a (That Which Is Above mortal understanding) as she gazes on the stilled units before her. Small beacons of even brighter light appear before her eyes, filled with the special glow of life. These biomechanical beings possessed that same basic attribute, made the same impact on the Te'a, as did pure-organic and other self-aware sentients. In the eyes of those such as Negako, those gifted with such an "inner eye," that made these so-called "walking toasters" as human as their "masters."

Negako relaxes, standing up. There were nineteen here, four E-28s and fifteen S-77s. Add that other S-77 from the building where Armstrong's C-69 helper died, that would make twenty. Twenty new Kuromoroboshi, the "Black Meteor Shower" ninjas who were the traditional practitioners of Saikoo Jinseijitsu-ryuu, to serve Toratotaka once Yoshio made new bodies for them after he restored his sister and friends. Returning herself to "normal" vision, Negako sighs. "Take them away," she orders.

"Hai!!" several voices echo from nowhere.

Jeena and Mason gasp as black shapes swarm the pile of dead boomers, cutting them from the wires that once linked them to Armstrong, then whisk them away. It is done in ten seconds. "Fuck!" Jeena whistles, then scans around. No sign of ANY of Negako's helpers. "How did they pull THAT off?"

"That is none of your business, Jeena. We are done here."

Negako leaves. Mason shudders, a mixture of fear and indignation, as she passes, then steeling his spine, turns to follow...

* * *

"Why is it you desire them?!"

Negako stops, now beyond the front steps of ADP headquarters, then turns to gaze neutrally on Mason. The Genom executive and his bodyguard stand just outside her reach, though Mason knew well that with her speed, distance provided no safety. Worse, with her skill, she could arrange for him to have an "accident" and it could never be traced back to Toratotaka.

"Why does this concern you?" Negako wonders. "You already have Armstrong locked away in a secure part of the main computer inside the Genom Building. These ones are meaningless to you, Brian."

Mason jolts, paling. "How did you...?!" he snaps, then shakes his head. "Negako-jousama, we can't risk Armstrong coming back..."

"Not a chance on that, buddy. All of them checked out clean."

Mason jolts, then spins around, his eyes widening. "You!!"

Yoshio Saotome stares bemusedly into the executive's eyes, having just appeared, it seems to Mason, out of nowhere. Was the damned bastard taking lessons from Negako? "Yo, Brian, how're you doing there?!" Yoshio clicks his tongue, the hatred he felt for the man who murdered his mentor six years before dripping from every word. "Oh, if you're worried that Armstrong might've seeded parts of his memory onto those other units, don't bother tearing your hair out over it. There was nothing in any of them."

"Really?" Mason hums. "So how soon can we get them back?"

"Who says you're getting them back?" Yoshio's eyebrow cocks. "Except for one S-77 (she was the one who came with Armstrong from Genaros), none of those units belonged to Genom, SDPC or anyone else you deal with. Their owner was killed by Armstrong's group. As the law states, any boomer taken in as evidence by ADP has to be either disposed of or, if it's capable of operating, have its mind scrubbed and sent to a second-hand store for re-sale. Since the ones ADP found aren't in any decent shape, they'll be heading for the scrapyard once we're finished with them. If you want us to send them over to you instead...? Oi, no skin off our backs."

"We'd prefer it as soon as possible," Mason hums.

"When I get the time, amigo," Yoshio turns to leave. "I've got loads of other things on my plate right now. Ciao."

He then jolts as a hand lands on his shoulder. "Mason-sama isn't finished with you yet," the bodyguard warns...

...then cries out as a hand slashes into his neck. Fingers rip through biomechanical flesh with ease, decapitating the boomer as his head, the mouth distended to reveal the portal of an ion cannon, drops to the ground. As the rest of the body collapses, Negako glares into Mason's eyes, two fingers landing on his neck to paralyse him. "Leave this matter be, Brian. I am aware you have read my life-mate's books on who and what I am. If you do not understand me even after that, then you are as deaf now to the human condition as you were when you killed Katsuhito Stingray."

Mason pales, his eyes widening, then he jolts as someone nearby clears his throat. "Something the matter there, Negako-jousama?" Leon McNichol wonders, his arms crossed bemusedly.

"No, Leon, except for this unit trying to harass my co-worker for no just cause," Negako pulls her fingers away from Mason, indicating Yoshio. "I'm sure Brian here will exhort Genom's technicians to make further improvements on this particular model's programming. Won't you, Brian?"

Mason shudders, then his shoulders deflate. "Of course."

"Right," Leon sighs. "Well, if that's your unit, get it fuckin' cleared off our property, friend. This ain't no damned boomer scrapyard, you know," he glares at Mason, then heads off.

Mason shudders as he watches Leon step back inside AD Police headquarters, then turns to speak once more to Negako and Yoshio. The executive then stops on seeing no one there. A chill warps through him, then he breathes out. "Damn them..."

* * *

Nerima, the Megatokyo Toratotaka Tower, after dawn...

In the northwest outskirts of Megatokyo, there now stands a gleaming obelisk-like skyscraper of glass and silver, stabbing 1100 metres into the sky. Around it, hectares of high-rises and parks. Nerima hadn't suffered greatly in the Second Kantou Earthquake, but the district had undergone a complete makeover thanks to Genom Construction and the civil-corporate zone planning staff of Toratotaka International's Eastern Eurasian Division.

Gone were narrow streets and small homes. Gone were the estates of the Mendou and Mizunokoji clans; after their many companies were dissolved by Toratotaka in the 2020s to give the financial megacorp the power it needed to seize control over the world's stock and money markets, the old family plots were turned into parkland and small residential areas.

Most of all, gone was Tomobiki High School.

Nokoko Moroboshi, co-chairwoman of Toratotaka International and Matriarch of the Moroboshi-Hana Clan, had taken perverse delight in seeing that worthless eyesore, the place where her beloved brother Ataru had faced two years of painful humiliation, erased from the architectural memory of the Tokyo area. To ensure that all the bad spirits which haunted the site were also eliminated, the school grounds were excavated to a depth of a hundred metres, transported to a Sagussan freighter sent for the occasion, then directly beamed into the Sun. New soil from Kinkazan, the small mountain south of Oshika, augmented with limestone brought from the mountains near Tere'na City on Sagussa, had been inserted into place, welded into a single plate which, it was hoped, would provide a firm foundation the next time the Kantou basin was rocked by a big quake.

Alumni from Tomobiki High would find the Megatokyo Nerima Toratotaka Tower, at this time Japan's tallest skyscraper, standing in its place, the apex positioned directly over the site of the school's front doors. Even with the larger arcology now rising kilometres to the south-east, the Tower (even Genom workers living in Nerima called the Toratotaka building "the Tower," looking on Genom's future world headquarters complex as "the other Tower") would still remain one of the tallest buildings in the country.

Then again, Toratotaka had no real need to stuff dozens of factories, workshops, testing facilities and other mundane things into one physical space like Genom desired of its division headquarters worldwide. The slim obelisk design projected an image of terrible power controlled with grace. Of intimidation without the constant need to overwhelm those around it.

It spoke volumes.

Devon Okami sighs as he gazes out the window of the House Matriarch's Floor 230 office at the beautiful city beyond. At Toratotaka's private insistence, Megatokyo was expanding on a north-east by south-west axis, a third wing projecting south-east from Chuuou to take up the reclaimed lands which once formed the bottom of the inner reaches of Tokyo Bay. This would keep Nerima a "suburb" of the megalopolis, which would allow the Tower to remain a lonely sentinel separate yet a part of the cityscape.

The founder of the Okami Group, one of four large megacorps that had come together in 2014 to give birth to Genom Enterprises, could only smile at the reborn capital city of Japan, the pride he now felt in his heart blazing like a sun. It was so beautiful.

All raised from the ashes by the company he helped create.

"Admiring the view?" a voice wonders from nearby.

He gazes on Haruka Moroboshi. Nokoko's second child, she was made Shibukachou (House Matriarch) of the Eastern European Division (the T'n'T operational group covering Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia and Taiwan) after Second Kantou. "Yes, I am," Devon faces his host. "I hope one day soon that I'll be able to see Megatokyo from the top of our Tower."

"That might happen in another couple of years," Haruka gazes at the incomplete Genom arcology now rising from the heart of the metropolis. "So, Okami-san, what brings you around our corner of the city today?"

"The Chairman sent me to inquire as to why you people obtained the remains of several boomers involved with those who escaped from Genaros," Devon sighs. "After all, we'd like to know what on Earth made a simple R-31 unit suddenly acquire a god complex."

Haruka blinks, then sighs. "Okami-san, when Negako-bachan makes a decision, she makes it and brooks no interference from anyone about it, not even from Nokoko-mama or Nicole-bachan. I'm sure she has her reasons. Besides, from what I've heard from the AD Police forensics teams who looked over those units, almost all of them were just used to provide Armstrong with more brainpower so he could advance the sentience of his own mind."

"I see," he shrugs. "Forgive me, Moroboshi-kachou (Matriarch Moroboshi). I'm sure your aunt has things well in hand. But from what Quincy-san told me, she didn't give young Mason an easy time."

"Oh, so he screamed, 'Daddy, Daddy, the bad ninja hurt me?!'"

Both laugh. Brian Mason was a man who wasn't liked by either person. Haruka then stares at her aide, who had stood patiently nearby as they spoke. "Serio-chan, why don't you escort Okami-san to the preservation lab on Floor 202 to let him see for himself?"

"Hai," Serio waves to the elevator. "This way please, Okami-sama."

Devon follows the brown-haired android to the elevator, then they proceed down. Serio was built to resemble a girl in her late teens, her body now draped by the grey T'n'T office lady's dress. She is a Kurusugawa Industries HMX (Home Maid [Experimental]) Type Thirteen, the last one of her model functioning a decade after her construction. The only difference between the time she was built and now was that she no longer wore wing-like antennae over her ears. Currently, she served as one of Yoshio Saotome's assistants as the ex-Whiz Labs part-time worker fast-tracked his way through university and a care-giver to his crippled lover, Rei Ijuuin.

Arriving at Floor 202, he emerges to see Serio's green-haired sister Multi (the latter was the last of the HMX-12s) slide the last stretcher up to one of the many rows of sealed preservation tanks lining the walls. On the stretcher was one of the S-77s, draped in a hospital gown to protect her modesty as she is placed onto the cold slab which would serve as her bed until her removal. Negako stands nearby, observing Multi as she arranged the boomer's arms on her chest, then slides the slab in. Closing the door, she taps controls to seal it, then turns to Negako. "It's done, ma'am."

"Good," Negako sighs. "You and Serio may return to monitor Rei. Yoshio already has his instructions."

"Hai!" the two HMX units nod, then depart.

Devon walks up to gaze into the darkened preservation tanks. With the air chilled to far below freezing, the boomers would not suffer decay in their organic systems. Perfect preservation, just like the disembodied minds of thirty-two young women in the other tanks, each marked with a picture and name on the placard beside it. He stares at Negako. "Why?"

"They..." Negako sighs. "Reminded me of myself." As one of the Genom's Genro (elder statesmen), not to mention one of the more humane leaders inside Genom, the grandmistress knew Devon would ensure only Quincy learned of this. "With knowledge, yet without the necessary self-awareness to employ it. They were used by Armstrong in the same manner as the Clan's joonins (elder ninjas) once used me. So, as I acquired control over my life, so I shall help them acquire control over their own lives."

"As they are now?" Devon blinks.

"No. Those types of bodies are grossly inefficient concerning what I have in mind," Negako shakes her head. "Yoshio has finished his research work on the Mark 97 CBWS project and the cyber-bioroid body he will use in conjunction with his wetware design. As soon as he designs a variation which suits my purposes well, these people will be revived."

"You'll have to wait for all of them to be given new lives," Devon indicates the other storage tanks.

"That is understandable," Negako admits...

* * *

Genom Tower, Number Four Boomer Repair Centre...

This is one of several facilities within the incomplete Tower dealing with the maintenance and upkeep of various boomers. Faulty components and programming were subjected to many probes and scans before going "under the knife," hopefully coming out as a fully repaired unit or part.

One would think that with the vast resources Genom had at its beck and call, malfunctions would happen less often.

Presently, a technician monitors a fresh load of wrecked parts coming in from a recycling depot. He swiftly diverts various parts of the new load to the appropriate station, then frowns as a mass of wrecked and shattered metal rolls past. "Bee-you-Sixty-nine-Sea-Ee-Sea-Fifty-five," he mutters as diagnostic readouts scroll across his monitor screen. "Body's a complete loss. Brain just might be salvageable..."

He then directs some of his colleagues to remove the brain and take it to a specialized area while the remains of the boomer are sent to a junk bin for recycling. Packed in foam, the brain is taken by an individual whose clothes oozed "hacker" from every wrinkle and pocket. He arrives in a room that would be rather spacious were it not presently crammed wall-to-wall with desks, computers, storage containers and whatnot.

"Hey, Kent!"

"Yo!" a head appears from over a monitor.

The hacker places the box on Kent's desk. "Just got this in. Check it out and see if it can be reused."

A scowl responds as the tech waves to several boxes piled nearby. "Why the hell are you giving me this, Steve? I've got my own backlog!"

A shrug. "I've got mine, too. 'Sides, I'm not the one who handles the combat programming. AND you DID lose the bet we made during the last F-ball game!" he winks. "This'll reduce the debt."

A sigh. "Okay, okay. I'll get on it."

As Steve departs, Kent unpacks the brain. After a visual inspection, he places it in a tank underneath a scanning device, attaching a probe into the OMS receiver to determine whether of not data was recoverable...

* * *

Awareness returns with a hot stab that drives to the centre of its being. The first thing remembered were the last things seen.

The shocked face of a woman.

The broken form of a love doll.

The dancing flash of a spotlight...

* * *

"Lookin' okay. If only the rest of the body was as sturdy..."

* * *

Confusion.

None of its systems would respond.

Where was it?

Wait! The constant rummaging through its mind...? A probe! If it had been subjected to this, then next would be...

* * *

Kent removes the brain from the tank and plugs it into a large jack. His hands dance over a keyboard as a display of the brain appears over the screen. His fingers then key in the code to start a cleansing program...

* * *

With seconds to act, it condenses what it can. Bulk was abandoned. The important parts of the last few days were kept. Core, names, faces and a few pale feelings that had been realized only near the very end...

* * *

"Well, Jack..." a finger hovers over a button. "Jack" was a recognition name given to the boomer. It was often done by owners or technicians who didn't want to have to repeat its unit number. "Time to say goodnight," he hums, his finger coming down...

* * *

It howls silently as a red-hot blaze of energy came down, its mind melting as if a flamethrower was being played over an ice sculpture. Even the memories it tucked away were clawed. It was forced to replay them over and over again in order to hang on. They become its entire existence as the faint flickers of rage and sadness it felt were buried along with them. Then it returns to the cold logical world from where it first arose...

* * *

The computer beeps as it announces the cleansing program was finished and the brain was ready for reprogramming. Kent finishes off some coffee, then calls up a list of requested boomers. Nothing at the moment, so he types a dispatch order to have the brain placed in storage...

* * *

Alone, it waited, images passing by in an endless dream...

* * *

To be continued...