End of the Beginning

I reconvened with my aeronaut pals just outside of the place we called home.

“You know, Joseph isn’t sitting outside like he usually is,” Travis noted as we landed in the safe house’s front lot.

“Look at all the robot guts we left. I bet he wants us to clean…” Bernicia trailed off as we opened the door.

“What the – where’d all these bots come from!? Were they waiting for us?” I scratched my head. “Ah, whatever. You guys ready to rumble?”

“Way ahead of y–” Blake had taken the initiative, but right away we could tell that these things were not training robots. Immediately the cylindrical robot had Blake in a four-armed grip. “Gah… they’ve got nerbo!”

Nerbo?! “Guys, fall- argh!” A robot caught me. These things may have looked like metal tree trunks, but they were easily two meters tall. Their heads, being little more than a single camera eye, looked like they could see their targets even through walls. Even their stocky wheels looked like they could brave any terrain.

I tried to struggle, but then I was paralyzed as well.

Shoot, these things mean business, I angrily thought. What are they doing? Where are they taking us…? Wait, I know. Provided that whatever the Guy did to me wasn’t a fluke, I could make good use of it, right? Not like I can do anything else right now. Focus, Kit, focus… I have to get out of here!

The weird floating sensation returned.

(I’m… free. I’m free? It worked!)

So it wasn’t a hallucination. There was my body, and there were my aeronaut pals – Bernicia and Travis were on the defensive, but it looked like they wouldn’t last much longer, especially with this many strong opponents.

(I’ve gotta hurry. Need to find Joseph,) I told myself, flyffing to his office.

Argh! The room was full of robots! But I couldn’t see Joseph anywhere.

I was about to check out another room when suddenly the desk slid forward, revealing a hidden door. Then Joseph emerged, looking unfazed by their presence.

He clicked a button. “Do you have the aeronauts? Good. Bring them in.”

A phrase materialized in my mind: trust no one. Joseph himself had told this to us… but I never thought it would include him as well. I was being naïve this whole time!

Whoosh – suddenly, I was back in my body. We were being hauled into a hallway, the one leading to the office I had just left.

The four of us were deposited in front of Joseph’s desk. Despite still feeling paralyzed, we all rose to our feet, ready to smash heads.

“You’ve been trained well, children,” Joseph told us.

“Trained? You never trained us for this,” Travis retorted. “What’s going on?”

“From the moment you were manufactured,” Joseph began, “we had a plan for you. I think it’s time I came clean about it.”

“Manufactured? We’re not robots,” Bernicia protested. “Don’t we have you? You said yourself that we’re your children!”

“That is true, but there’s far more to it than that,” Joseph stated. “In a way, you lot are fortunate that you weren’t sold as planned. Along with the familial bond you four ended up forming, it’s given us a lot more time to perfect your model.”

“Sold? Perfect our model?!” Travis narrowed his eyes. “What are you saying? We trusted you!”

“Where are our real parents?” I demanded. “Tell us!”

“What do ‘real parents’ have to do with this?” He shook his head. “You always were one to jump to bizarre conclusions.”

“W-well, what is it, then?”

“I was tasked with spearheading this project, hence my personal involvement. Thanks to my diligent efforts and the support of my team, you are, for lack of a better term, a superior race.” Joseph clasped his hands together. “Better, I would say, than the other projects… heh, but I digress. Once we seal a proper deal, you’ll be able to storm the market, as you were all intended to. It’ll be the start of a new age, one where weapons grow and evolve.”

“Whh… wha…?” For some reason, I could not process what he was saying. I mean, it made sense, right? We spent all our lives learning to be fighting machines, aerial forces of destruction.

“So, like…” Bernicia rubbed her neck. “You said one time that I could do great things in the future…”

“Well, I wasn’t lying,” Joseph replied.

“But I… I thought you knew what I meant. You know I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.”

“You let me read those business management guides,” Blake mumbled.

Joseph stood up. “My children, you must remember your teachings. What you want must always come second to what is needed of you. And we need you to work with us to bring a new age of security.”

“Umm… that’s cool and all,” Travis muttered, “but don’t we get a say in this?”

“What more is there to say?” Joseph sat back down. “I thought I made it quite clear.”

“You’re… the same as all the others.” Bernicia spoke up, voicing our thoughts. “Just some white coat, looking to make a profit at our expense.”

“That’s what it was,” I nodded. “That’s why I couldn’t make sense of your words. I was still trying to see you as a father figure, but…” I crossed my arms. “Same madness, different method. Trust no one, right?”

It seemed that we all had the same idea. Travis led the way, busting through a window in the side wall, and immediately the rest of us followed behind.

The safe house was our home, the one place we could always return to… but at this point, it was clear that it was just another facility where no one really cared about us. I suppose Joseph deserved kudos for fooling us for so long.

We flew in silence for a while. Flappa, flappa, our wings went. Our inorganic, inhuman wings. Hmph.

“Who am I?” I gazed at the star-speckled sky. “Shurikit Lars, right? I am me!”

“Hey, come think, why DO we have actual names?” Blake wondered.

I glanced at him. “Identification, I guess.”

“Think about it! If that were the case, then we’d have numerical IDs, like Subject Eleven or XJ-whatever. But look! Real, unique, first and last names. It’s strange, isn’t it?”

“Well, we are supposed to be weapons when we grow up,” Bernicia speculated. “Maybe it’s to help us blend in better, like as double agents or spies.”

“Another falsehood, then,” I sighed. “This sucks.”

“Still better than numbers,” Travis mused. “We can use nicknames and stuff. Right?”

“I guess.” I gazed towards the horizon. The sun had set a while ago, but the full moon still illuminated the badlands quite nicely. “What do we do now?”

“No choice but to wing it,” Blake shrugged. “Who knows, maybe it’ll work out for us.”