Chapter One – “Flaws in the System”

Haley stared, mouth agape at her new assistant. When she had placed an ad in the local paper looking for an assistant to help her with the heavy lifting and physical work in her workshop, she expected that the person she hired would be a superman. Instead, she got Ziggy. This is what I get for hiring someone sight unseen, she mentally cursed. The interview process was filled with personality clashes. The few that she met in person seemed like incompetent frat boys that would probably drop, break or spill beer on her equipment, so when she interviewed Simon Fett over the phone, it was like a breath of fresh air. Simon sounded like he was genuinely interested in the work she was doing, and when their personalities clicked, Haley didn’t hesitate to hire him. Now, she began to think that her sentimentality had been a detriment to the hiring process.

“Is there something wrong?” Simon spoke in a reserved voice.

“Um… I just didn’t expect that you’d be so…” Haley’s eyes scanned the totality of the man’s height, which was little more than an inch more than her own.

“Bald?” 

“Yeah, that’s it. Sorry, it’s just a bit surprising.” She chuckled nervously, and put the fact that she could probably beat him in an arm wrestling match at the back of her mind.

“It’s not a big deal. I’m used to it.”

Haley sighed, finding no response that didn’t seem condescending. The silence seemed to go on for hours, though it was less than a minute in actuality. She searched the workshop, hoping that something would snap her out of the awkward moment. Slate-colored eyes stared back at her in earnest, and Haley’s apprehension melted away under the power of such a winsome face.

“Well then,” she started, “how about I show you around and let you get acquainted with the place?”

Simon smiled, following the fit twenty-year-old around her workshop. Upon first glance, it looked like it could have been the back room of any repair shop, albeit quite a bit more spacious. There were personal computers, televisions, vacuum cleaners, washer and dryer sets and a nice section of musical equipment all awaiting repair. There were spare parts lying around on shelves, very few of which were in boxes. It was all a bit disorganized. There was a secret hidden behind the walls of junk at Ravenlock Repairs though, and despite being told about it on the phone, Simon could not keep his eyes off it.

It was mesmerizing watching her arm move about as naturally, as if it were real. That was about the only realistic thing about the prosthetic though. It looked like it was grafted on at her shoulder, despite the fact that Haley told him she could remove it. The skin tone had a sheen to it much like a little girl’s doll might, though the joints were left mostly bare to the point that you could see the inner circuitry of the arm when it was bent a certain way. There was also a clear panel in her forearm that looked like it had a keypad and a small digital screen inside of it. Apparently, it was part of some special project. The man felt regret that he was spending so much time staring at a prosthetic arm when the girl before him had such lovely sandy blonde hair and Caribbean green eyes that would have been alluring on any other girl.

“Do you realize how complex an eye is?”

The question snapped Simon out of his stupor. They were standing before what appeared to be the girl’s workstation. Sitting front and center, beneath an adjustable magnifying glass and light was an eye. Wires spilled out the back of it like a hydra, and the iris was currently peeled back to show what looked like a tiny lens surrounded by circuitry.

“I’ve been working on this for months and I still can’t get a clear picture out of it. First it was upside down, then it was backwards, now there’s static…”

Haley continued to recite her list of problems with her newest project, when questions started to pop into Simon’s head for the first time. Here there was a girl, even younger than himself, who was working on projects that required millions of dollars of funding and years of research, and she was doing it out of a television repair shop. The more he thought about it, the more off-putting it became.

“Um… Haley, sorry to interrupt, but how exactly can you do all of this?”

“I’m Batman.” She responded with a straight face, though it didn’t seem to ease Simon’s sudden curiosity.

“Okay, I know that was a joke, but it’s really a similar situation. How can Bruce Wayne afford all of his bat-gadgets?”

“Not the money, it’s just… you’re my age.”

“I don’t know Simon. Don’t you have anything you feel like you were destined to do? As soon as I was old enough to pick up a screwdriver, I’ve been tinkering with everything in sight. I built my first computer when I was four. I spent most of my childhood reading books and watching the engineers in my father’s labs. Most girls want a new car for their Sweet Sixteen, I asked for my own workshop.”

Another awkward silence was averted before it began as chimes sounded from the front of the shop.

“I’ll be just one second Simon, I’ll finish the tour after I deal with this customer.” Haley donned an orange and black track jacket to cover her arms as she headed through a curtain into the front of the shop.

“Customer?”

“Hey, I need some kind of income to keep the Dew flowing.” She smiled at Simon and then her head disappeared behind the curtain before the once again perplexed young man could object.

Simon questioned what sort of help he could possibly be to a prodigy like Haley. He was just an ordinary university student, and she was living a life one would expect from a comic book or a science-fiction novel. Gravity was quickly getting the better of him. He needed to sit down and found the perfect place where an enormous tarp was covering what he assumed to be a stack of boxes.

Even through the fabric of his jeans, and the tarp itself, he could feel the chill of cold metal beneath his posterior. The feeling quickly faded, but was replaced by the sort of pins and needles one expected from an electrical discharge. Simon stood up quickly, worried that he’d sat on some sensitive equipment. A low hum filled his ears, though like a rapidly approaching siren, the hum increased in volume. He cursed his bad luck. There was no doubt in is mind that he’d accidentally turned on something. Hoping to correct his mistake before Haley returned, Simon pulled back the tarp from where he was seated. There was nothing there though, just a large round object that almost looked like a foot. And the reason it looked like a foot? Well, that would be because it was attached to what clearly looked like a leg.

“Intruder.” A deep, ominous, inhuman voice echoed from somewhere above Simon’s head.

Red light emanated from behind the tarp, focused upon a single point. Simon stared at it until it started to smoke and smell of burnt plastic. A second later, a cyclopean beam fired upon the man. Simon counted his graces. For once in his life, he was glad that he was short and bald, because the beam missed by inches over the top of his scalp. Simon scrambled away as the soulless lens readied for a second shot, lighting up like Rudolph’s nose.

“Haley!”

The entire tarp lurched forward and advanced upon the frightened man, though only a step.

“Brute, enough!”

It stopped short and the lens powered down. Simon heard the panel on Haley’s arm snap shut and turned to look at her.

“What was that?!”

“That is going to be this year’s winning entry at the NOW Robotics Expo.”

***

The Triumph was a sign of the times in Gateway. The city was experiencing a population boom, and was becoming one of the premiere tourist destinations in the Midwest. It rivaled Chicago with its modern architecture and thriving shopping district, so it was really the perfect place to build what would become the blueprint for the mega-hotels of the future. The Triumph loomed over the riverfront and induced awe like something from a Stanley Kubrick film. It was everything a tourist or businessman could ask for in a single place. There was a cinema complex that doubled as a concert hall, restaurants, cafés, an expansive indoor garden, several swimming pools and a shopping mall. There were conference rooms aplenty and of course, the entire place was all interconnected via wifi. Then there was the convention center, expansive enough that it could have hosted Comic Con and E3 simultaneously at their peak attendance. This made it the perfect place to host NOW.

“Haley Ravenlock, welcome to the 11^th Annual NOW Convention, where fantasy meets the future,” a whimsical voice called out.

Haley turned, surprised to hear her voice called out from amongst the throngs of people. Then she saw an opening where the crowds parted and a young girl stood, accompanied by a man in a black polo shirt with a knight’s helm logo on it. EVENT STAFF was printed in large white letters across his back. The girl had deep red hair that reached her waist and was dressed in typical style for a French maid. It was easy to assume that she could have been a cosplayer, but Haley noticed the signs that she was something else. The antennae that protruded from behind her ears seemed to be attached directly to her head, rather than the pink headband she wore, though her skin was nearly flawless. Only small seams at the elbows betrayed her as being not human.

“She reads the bar code on your convention badge,” The man cut Haley off before she could ask a question.

“She’s spectacular. Her synthetic skin is practically perfect. Who made her?”

“Damon Blake.” The man remarked, as he continued on about her task of strapping the girl to a dolly. “…and the only thing Amellia is perfect at is being defective.”

“Make sure to wear your badge at all times while taking part in convention activities. If you need a replacement badge, one will be provided for—Subject in range. DALnet activated. Transfer will commence in two hours. One hour, fifty-nine minutes, fifty-seven seconds.” The man whacked Amellia on rump and she went silent.

A camera flashed right as the man’s hand struck the girl. Both Haley and the man turned towards the disturbance.

“The lecherous, Robin Ericson gropes a bound and comatose young redhead. Photography Lad strikes again!” A man with a sandy-brown goatee exclaimed.

“Jason! Aren’t you supposed to be covering over at registration right now?”

“I go where photo opportunities present themselves. Besides, have you seen those lines? It’s not like they’re going to go away anytime soon. I have all day to take pictures of people standing still.”

Haley was prodding at the robot girl curiously. She wasn’t about to let an opportunity pass her by as long as Robin was distracted.

“You should at least be wearing the event staff uniform. You look like a stalker, slinking around in a trench coat like that.”

“This is my secret identity. I need to be able to walk as a man amongst the people, never letting anyone suspect that beneath my unassuming exterior lies–”

“Will you stop that?!” Robin cut in.

Haley had taken the next step and was now trying to access Amellia’s main control panel. There was a childlike sense of wonder in her eyes as she fiddled with a panel on the robot’s back. Robin caught her just in time.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

Robin looked at his watch and groaned. Quickly, he closed the back of the robot girl’s dress and strapped her back to the dolly.

“Okay, I have to get Amellia off the convention floor now. This has taken up too much of my time. I still have to brief the security staff before Miss Onymous’s panel starts. Jason, make sure to finish up here before then. We’re going to want photos for the website.”

Amellia was quickly wheeled away, leaving Haley looking disappointed that she didn’t get a better look at the girl.

“I guess I should go take pictures of the lines now.” Jason sighed apathetically.

“Oh! As long as you’re headed that way, can I follow you? I still need to pick up my badge, and I’m supposed to meet my assistant there.”

***

“That’s a great costume!”

Jason’s photography senses tingled. Two lines were moving slowly in front of him, which made for some very boring crowd shots, so any opportunity to photograph something else was welcome. The costumer he saw had done a great job indeed. She had huge bat-like wings anchored to her back. It was difficult to tell what they were made out of but they had a leathery quality to them. Her ears were pointed and there were two rather long curved horns coming from around her forehead, though Jason assumed they were somehow attached to the black headband in her red-streaked hair. Mesh netting encased her expansive bust, arms and legs beneath a short leather skirt and top.

“Have you seen my sister?” She asked one of the other convention goers that wanted to pose with her, which she seemed all too happy to do, even giving them a hug as she did.

Jason readied his instrument of choice, and right when he had the girl framed perfectly–

“Out of my way!” A female voice yelled at him, as the owner of it knocked him in the shoulder in her hurry to pass.

Jason’s finger slipped as the camera jostled. He took a picture of something, but it certainly was not what he intended. He grabbed the girl by the arm, angrily. He did not like missing his shot. The girl spun around and stared him down. The look in her sparkling blue eyes screamed ‘don’t fuck with me’, and the cross-shaped scar beneath the right one made her look more menacing than she actually was. The stare down allowed enough of a pause that she pulled her arm away and went running off before Jason could reprimand her.

His attention returned to the photo opportunity before him, though as it turned out, he was now too late to capture it. The girl in the realistic looking costume was now gone, and all that was left to photograph was a line stretching from one end of the hall to the other. He snapped a few more crowd shots and wondered why anyone would want to see pictures of a line, when most of the people in it were not even in costume.

***

They’re after me. I can feel their sulfuric breath beating down on me at every turn. Anibelle’s thoughts raced. She was huddled up in a bathroom stall, one hand pressed against her left eye as a sanguine mess seeped through her fingers. She wadded up a handful of toilet paper and tried to sop up some of the blood that was flowing from her now empty socket, the price of escaping from Hell. She knew her pursuers would not let her get off so easily though. Hell had loosed the hounds on her, and there was no escape from that. She was delaying the inevitable, but if there was even a small chance that she could stay on this plane, she was going to take it.

Her demonic features were concealed the best her powers would allow. Her horns were reduced to nubs that could easily be hidden by a the hood of a sweatshirt. Her skin had returned to a fleshy tone, and her feet had lost their cloven form. With her tail wrapped around her waist and a pink dress draped over her form, she looked just like any other human girl. Her black hoodie was zipped up to her cleavage, and she wore a pair of Converse All-Stars now rather than heavy soled boots. In fact, very few people had noticed her, even with blood gushing from where her eye once was, when she slipped through the crowds at The Triumph’s convention center.

The fact that she was back in the city that she was once incarcerated in turned out to be more fortuitous than she initially expected. Perhaps, Gateway was a convergence point that drew together people who shared destinies, because it could not have been anything other than fate that led Anibelle to an article in the local paper talking about a girl from the Northwest that would be showcasing her new ocular implant at NOW’s Robotics Expo.

The demon stuffed the wadded up toilet paper into her empty socket, filling it with as much as necessary as if it were just a bloody nose. Her hand sealed over the wound and she limped out of the bathroom once again and back into the crowd.

***

“You should have seen her Simon. She was so lifelike. It wasn’t just her movements either. Her voice, her hair, her skin! You should have seen her skin! I touched it. It didn’t feel rubbery or anything. If it wasn’t for the seals and her antennae, I would have thought she was human!”

Haley was pacing back and forth in Simon’s hotel room. Her assistant however did not seem to share her fervor at the moment. He was drenched with sweat as he sprawled out on the bed. While Haley was busy walking around the convention and toying with Amellia, Simon was left with the job of carrying all of their luggage up to their respective rooms. Considering all the tools that Haley brought with her, it was quite the task for the scrawny college student. On top of that, she’d left him to have Brute taken to the holding area for the Robotics Expo. It wasn’t exactly easy to convince the staff that he was supposed to be dropping off a ten-foot tall crate, nor was it easy on his nerves, remembering his last run in with Haley’s pet project.

“I’d love to find out how that skin was made. I could walk around in a tank top all summer if I could get some of that for my arm. Simon, do not let me forget to get some one on one chat time with Mr. Blake before the end of the convention. Oh man! Now I wonder what he’s entering in the expo if Amellia was just intended to be a floor model.”

Simon groaned.

“See, you just don’t get it. Here you are wearing baggy jeans and a sweatshirt on one of the hottest days of the year and you don’t even have to. I’d give my other arm for the ability to walk around in comfortable clothes without people staring.”

She looked down at Simon, her head hovering above his so that she looked upside down to him. She gave him a smile and he returned it with one of his own.

“I almost forgot. I got us V.I.P passes to the Anne Onymous panel. I saw you reading one of her books on the plane ride here. What was it? Miranda West and the Fated Flute?”

Simon nodded silently.

“Anyway, the panel starts in about an hour, so get cleaned up.”

***

A snake of people coiled its way around the hallway outside of conference room. It was the largest one that the hotel had, but as this was one of the biggest events of the entire weekend, it was no surprise that there was still great demand for seats inside. Robin already had corralled the line so that there was still space for anyone just trying to get by, and now was watching as other members of the event staff checked line tickets, just to make sure that everyone in it belonged there. Of course, there were those that would try and slip past, which necessitated that security stand at the door as well. The Tandy Gardens series were amongst the top selling books of all time, and the movies based off of them were amongst the top grossing films every year. It was a phenomenon that was hard to understand if you were not a fan. With a fan base that honed its skills waiting in line for midnight bookstore openings, Robin was on the edge right now. It would not take much for there to be a riot.

“Does Miss Oneemouse knows magic like Mirander does?” A little girl tugged at her mother’s dress, looking up at her with the most innocent smile.

“You know, I think she might. Maybe if you’re good, you’ll get a chance to ask her yourself.”

The mother placated her child, who responded with an even more anxious grin than she had before. It was hard not to melt seeing a child so excited to see their idol. In fact, it was easy to ignore that her mother probably paid a scalper hundreds for the tickets they were now presenting. It was the rare event at the convention that was due to attract the mainstream crowd. Much like a Hannah Montana concert, that meant that there were plenty of kids and their parents in the crowd that felt they were entitled to be able to enter. It was often hard to tell who was more spoiled, the kids or their parents. The child Robin was watching however seemed to be one of the better ones, and it put a smile on his face.

The smile lingered for quite a few minutes more as he took the long walk back to the holding room where the famous author awaited. Robin had to admit that he was a closet fanatic of the series, and of the young woman that wrote them. He took a deep breath and then knocked on the door.

“Ten minutes Miss Onymous!”

***

The knock on the door came suddenly. Haley looked at Simon who just shrugged. They were less than a minute from leaving actually, as Simon feared that all the best seats would be taken, even if they had V.I.P passes.

“Whoever it is, we’re just about to leave, so if you wait one minute more we’ll be with you.” Haley called out, brushing through her hair a few more times.

Persistently, the knocking came again and a moment of frustration, Haley swung open the door.

“Listen–”

Standing before her was a hunched over succubus, clutching her left eye which was stuffed with wads of toilet paper, stained in crimson. She laughed a little and looked up at Haley with a grin.

“No, you listen. You’re not going anywhere until we do something about my eye.”

***

Jason sat, slumped against the large pane glass windows behind him. More crowd shots, that was his reward for showing up to the biggest panel of the convention early. With Jean Grey’s Phoenix insignia emblazoned on his t-shirt, he was regretting not coming to the convention as a fan. So far, it had afforded him little time to talk comics or pursue his own picture taking ventures, namely filling his camera with pictures of redheads in costume. It was however still the first day, and maybe once things calmed down he would be left to his own devices more often.

“Five minutes left, everyone be sure to be seated and wait your turn to ask your questions. Anne will answer as many as she can, but you should all be patient. Please turn off your cell phones during the panel and keep your voices to a whisper if you’re not asking a question.” A staff member that Jason did not recognized announced in front of the crowd.

This produced the standard rumbling of crowd noise as everyone tried to get in their last comments to one another. The steady rumble though continued long after Jason expected, and he highly doubted that any amount of people talking would make the glass behind him rattle. Are we having an earthquake? He wondered, though the thought occurred to him that earthquakes were rare at best in this part of the country. He stood and looked out the window, thinking he would see jet planes flying overhead. The rest of the crowd seemed to take notice that the room was shaking. There were panicked whispers until the rumble turned into a roar and a few people lost their footing. Panic was spreading like wildfire, though there was one person that didn’t seem to notice what was going on in the least.

Jason’s eyes focused on a redheaded girl standing outside as if she was watching the panic with glee. Her fashion sense seemed to be as out of place as her smile that shook Jason more than the ground. He stared at her with a morbid curiosity and rose his camera, putting her in frame. With a tilt of her head, she waved goodbye to him. With the flash of his camera, the world went white, the room stopped shaking and the panicked screams of the crowd faded.

Flecks of color danced in his vision for a while, as if he had been staring directly into the flash when it went off. This sensation however lasted quite a bit longer, and obscured more of his field of vision than his camera flash could have. His eyes fluttered as he tried to gain his perspective back, though once he looked out the windows again, he wished that he had never opened them. Instead of the city surrounding him that he expected, it appeared that they were smack dab in the middle of a rain forest that was quickly encroaching upon them.

Jason silently thought.  First person that says ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore’ is going to feel the wrath of my Akira collector’s tin.