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Olivia was three when the man first came to visit.
At the time, she thought almost nothing of him. Olivia had just reached that age where only bright and shiny toys could hold her attention span for longer than maybe a minute and that old geezer was certainly nothing of the sort. She didn’t care that his name was Gray Mann or that he had a purpose for being here.
He was wrinkly and crooked, dressed in a boring light gray suit. There was a funny mechanism strapped to his back pumping a bright gold liquid through his body. Naturally, all the other children were terrified of him, ducking behind the matrons and clinging onto their dresses.
Olivia wasn’t.
Instead, she was more enthralled by the book Gray was carrying. She walked straight up to him, and attempted to rip the novel out from under his arm. The thing was huge, almost threatening to crush little Olivia under its weight. That excited her; she had never held a book this heavy before.
Matron Diers rushed to hold the book before Olivia could drop it. “What a lovely girl this one is! Only a toddler and yet already leaps and bounds ahead of the other children in her reading ability! She just wanted some new material and thought your book was suitable. I hope you don't mind.”
Gray, not really wanting to look like the bad guy for fighting a small child, just nodded and pretended it was interesting. He watched as Olivia sat down on the floor and opened up the book. Her eyes scanned the paper, looking at all these giant words she couldn’t hope to understand just yet.
Well, she found one she did.
“Robot,” Olivia said to herself, feeling out how the word sounded on her tongue. Repeating it over and over. “Ro-bot…robot…robot. Robot.”
Gray rubbed his chin and watched. All the other kids were still hiding from him and here was one that didn't. Maybe she was much more interesting than he thought.
Olivia was five when she decided she hated mercenaries.
The day came and went as normal, and then the matrons were putting all the kids to bed. Olivia settled under her blanket and drifted off, when the harsh thick smell of smoke filled up her lungs and began to choke her. Then someone was violently shaking her awake.
“Olivia! Get up! We need to move!”
She didn’t want to leave the coziness of her bed, but had no choice when a rocket came through the wall and smashed it to pieces.
All the children were huddled in the bomb shelter (yes the orphanage had a bomb shelter, you’d be insane to live in Teufort and not own one) as the gunfire, explosions, and flames continued. Everyone pressed together, causing Olivia to almost lose the book she had snuck along. Minutes passed in what felt like eternities. Then a man in a nice suit knocked on the shelter door, announcing it was safe.
Matron Diers just wailed. “The orphanage. It’s destroyed!”
“Yes. My apologies.” The man did not sound apologetic at all. From his suit, he pulled out a wad of cash. “I believe this is enough compensation?”
Matron Diers shook her head. “It's not. We have so many mouths to feed and so many bodies in need of beds.”
“It’s a head start.”
“You can’t put a price on the lives of children like that!”
The man smiled sadly (Olivia thought he was acting) and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by another man in a dirty jacket and helmet. “Spy! Gonna come get some drinks with the rest of us? Engie is paying!”
“Hmmm. I do like the idea of draining his wallet.”
“Who are they, ma’am?” Olivia asked as the two men walked off.
“They’re mercenaries, dear.” Matron Diers sounded disgusted. “And they’re evil people. All they do is shoot and kill and blow up our lovely town. They leave nothing but destruction behind them.”
Mercenaries, Olivia thought to herself. Mehr-cen-air-eez. Mercenaries. What horrible people. What a horrible line of work.
Olivia was six when she finally got a new home.
It had been a typical day for her, reading whatever she could find. The gun catalogues had gotten boring, but the books on Teufort's quite dubious history were actually quite fun. Olivia wondered what it would be like to experience monumental moments in life and write about them for future children to sift through.
Then Matron O’Harley called her into the office, where the man in gray was waiting for her. “Olivia, you remember Mr. Mann, don’t you?”
“Sure,” Olivia lied. She wasn’t sure how anybody expected to remember some random guy from when she was three. People came to the orphanage all the time. They rarely spared her a second glance. She was never the cute and innocent little girl they were looking for. Granted, she always had her nose buried in pages and couldn't physically see past them.
“Hello, my dear.” Gray Mann smiled at her. “I heard a lot of good things about you from the matrons. You like to read, correct?”
“Yeah?”
“They say you’re very interested in robots and kinetics. And so am I.”
“What’s a kinetic?”
Gray laughed as he explained it to her voice. He sounded as old as he looked, but Olivia thought she liked his laugh. It had an edge of malice to it that made him stand out more. Some many find it scary, but to her, it wasn't scary at all. Almost intriguing.
They spent a few more minutes chatting and Olivia was surprised by how comfortable she felt around him. Gray was smart, like her, and he could teach her a lot of new things about the world. He said he liked her burning curiosity and eagerness to discover, a notable trait her peers seemed to lack. He said it would make her a prime candidate to blaze through the world and she loved the idea of that.
By the end, Olivia was sent to pack all of her belongings while Gray signed the papers. Her heart was soaring in a way it never had before. This was so exciting. She was finally going to get a real home.
Gray was waiting for her at the door. “Are you ready, dear?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Bags in hand and a skip to her step, she followed him to the car.
Gray let her call him “Dad”. It took Olivia a few days to get used to it, however.
She had never had a dad before. let alone a parent. Never met them at all. Time and time again she had asked the matrons if they had any clue of her ancestry and they all had to admit they didn’t.
Only Matron Diers really had a story to provide and there wasn't much to it. Just that one night, they found a baby girl in a blanketed basket on their doorstep, with no indication of who left her there. They took her in and named her Olivia for the colour of the blanket she was swaddled in.
The blanket was currently stuffed in a shoe box somewhere in Olivia's closet. She had never really needed some kind of special toy to latch onto, but she couldn't bear the thought of parting with it just yet.
As Olivia got older, she had attempted to put the pieces together, despite how little she had to work with. Eventually, she settled on the conclusion that her birth mother couldn’t afford to take care of her and her birth father didn’t even want her. Dumping her at the orphanage was a better choice than leaving her to die.
It was a depressing conclusion for any 6 year-old to make.
As Gray huffed and gasped for breath while Olivia commanded him to chase her around the house, she pretended that her parents were just as old and exhausted as her adoptive father, unable to keep up with such an energetic child. Yes, they did want her, really really did, but just didn’t have the resources. Look at Gray’s resources and how he still struggled to keep up with her! That had to be it, right?
Her birth parents did love her. They had to. The alternative, or perhaps the truth, was hurtful to think about.
But it was still easy to forget about something she never really had in the first place. Gray was better as far as she was concerned. He provided her everything a little girl could ask for: clothes, toys, shoes, even a green and pink knife as a birthday present.
Olivia had finally become Olivia Mann. And she liked it. She couldn't imagine being anyone else.
Olivia was seven when her father finally created the first of his robots.
“I want you to meet our first in command,” Gray explained as he showed off the mechanical mercenary to her. “He’ll be the beginning in our line of attack against Mann Co. and that wretched Hale.”
The robot was wearing a suit and tie, with a cigarette sticking out from his face. When he saw Olivia, he carefully got down on one knee, matching Olivia’s height. He gave her a funny little salute. Olivia giggled and repeated the gesture back.
“What do you think, my dear? Do you like him?”
“Yeah! I like him!”
She wasn’t really lying, just…err…what was the word again…exaggerating. The robot was a nice gentleman. He just reminded her so much of the man in the suit who spoke with the matrons after the orphanage was destroyed. Who thought he could just pay for the actions of himself and his team. Who didn’t even seem to care about all the children he left displaced, Olivia among them.
An idea, a realization of just how much damage could be caused, crept into her head. She shuddered.
“Daddy? These robots are not going to destroy Teufort. Are they?”
“Of course not! We’re not here for control of Teufort, we’re here to make my idiotic brothers and Hale pay. And if those stupid mercenaries think they can stop us, they’re just have these stronger and better counterparts to deal with.”
The robot held a finger up to his lips. The top opened up to reveal a lighter inside that he used on one end of the cigarette in his mouth. After taking an exhale, the robot plucked the cigarette and proceeded to crush it in his hand. The ash fell by his feet.
“You see? That’s what we’ll do to those pesky hired hands. My creations will protect you from them. Does it make you feel better?”
“Yes,” Olivia admitted. “It does.”
A few days later, while she was busy playing with the Spy bot, a news report appeared. Her two uncles, whom she had never met before, had been killed.
Gray didn't talk about it. Olivia never asked about it either.
Olivia was eight when the robots finally attacked.
Well, they didn’t attack her. As a matter of fact, she was the one who actually ordered the invasion. Gray set everything up and let Olivia press the button that sent the orders to their robot army.
And how was that going for them?
Horrible. Absolutely horrible.
Nothing was going to their carefully crafted preparations. Those mercs were tearing her precious robots to shreds. Slips of cash tumbled from between the automaton joints and were quickly scooped up. The money appeared to be almost an incentive, because each new wave was slaughtered faster than the last.
Gray sighed. “Curses! How are we supposed to defeat these imbeciles? They’re just destroying all my hard work for a few bucks!”
Olivia turned to her father. “Do you think we should have used something other than cash as fuel?”
“Yes, we are truly running out of options.”
“I guess, but if we just didn’t-”
“Damn Hale and his bunch of lackeys!” Gray’s first came down hard on the desk. His skin began to turn from a pale white to a burning red. A Medic bot instantly came forward and fretted over a potential injury. Olivia just watched, until she was suddenly struck with an idea.
“Daddy, we need to confront Hale ourselves! Let’s use the robots to get into his office and force him to give the company to us.”
“Hmmmm. Quite a risky plan there. But are you sure it’ll work?”
Well, she had no way of actually knowing that. But it was worth a shot, no? If they could turn the tides into their favour, then by all means, Olivia was for it. What did they have to lose?
“Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course, my dear! Of course I do.”
“Then let’s go get Hale! I hope you don’t actually plan on fighting him, do you?”
Olivia shook her head. “No. I have a better strategy in mind.”
Most girls got a doll or a new dress or maybe new school supplies on their ninth birthday.
Olivia Mann got a whole company.
The plan had gone all too well. And not a single hair on Hale’s head had been harmed. The man had given it all up, just like that. Olivia was quite proud of herself, presenting Saxton with a hole he couldn’t just fight his way out of. If she couldn’t defeat him with her brawn, she’d defeat him with her brain.
And it worked.
Now he was out of her life and he had taken his lackeys with him. Not the trophies though. Those were hers now, even if she had almost no use for them.
Olivia took a seat in Hale’s chair, the fabric almost swallowing her up. A Medic bot presented her cup with a nice warm cup of lemon tea. She sipped it and watched her father smile out the window.
“I’m sorry that I missed your real birthday last month, what with dealing with those mercs and all. But would you say that an entire company is more than a suitable present?”
“You mean Mann Co. is all mine?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? You defeated that ox fair and square!” Gray patted her on the head. “And I’m proud of you.”
But his smile soon turned into a somber grimace. “The truth is, Olivia, I have no idea how long I’d be able to run Mann Co. for. The world’s supply of Australium is being depleted faster than I had anticipated and when it finally runs out, I have no idea how much time I’d have left. So I leave it in your hands. It's my way of making sure you're set. You’ll be able to financially take care of yourself long after I’m gone.”
Olivia stared into her tea. It wasn’t as warm. “But I don’t want you to die, Dad.”
“I’d like to live forever too, dear. But as long as we manage to get ahead of that wretched woman and her merry band, and take the Australium before she can, it’s a bridge we won’t have to cross for a long time. I'll be right here by your side to help you. How does that sound?”
It sounded better than losing her father, Olivia decided.
Olivia wasn’t even ten when her entire world fell apart.
After her father received news that Ms. Pauling and her mercenaries had been captured, he ordered Olivia to stay behind while he went out to interrogate him. And Olivia would never forgive herself for not being at his side, because it all went to hell.
It was supposed to be their triumphant moment. It wasn't.
The Australium, lost. Her company, ruined. Her robots, destroyed. Her empire, crumbling.
Her father, dead.
The moment she heard the news, Olivia ran into the safe room and locked the door behind her. She pressed her back up against it, her heart pounding in her chest and her legs shaking. Finally, they couldn’t support her any longer and she sank to the ground, tears running down her cheeks.
Hale could have his stupid company back; she didn’t care about the company. Or the robots. They could always make more robots. But what couldn’t be replaced was Gray, the man who gave her a new home a new life. Her precious father. And now, he had to be cruelly ripped away from her as well.
Olivia Mann wasn’t Olivia Mann anymore. Now she was just…Olivia.
She grabbed the blanket she had left in here. It was the same blanket that had warmed her and she was left on the orphanage doorstep. The same colour as her namesake. The only memory of that time in her life. Olivia buried her face in it, letting her tears stain the fabric.
Once the fighting was finally done, a group of eight men, a Pyro, and the Administrator’s assistant would come looking for her. One man, who had a helmet on his head and a funny gleam to his eyes, would take pity on the poor girl and decide to take her in. His fiancée, who was wearing a necklace of ears for some reason, would agree. They weren’t her birth parents and they weren’t Gray Mann, but they were something and they were there for her.
But for now, Olivia was alone.