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Melissa stands stiff and straight, metal arms behind her back.
Around her, uniformed V-Tech employees rush around, completing last minute tasks and fetching things. Either side of her, her handlers are watching her like a hawk. The only thing separating her from her freedom is a curtain. That, and years of training. She won’t run.
Verliezer strides over. “Everything ready?” He asks her handlers. “This needs to go perfectly.”
“She’s ready.” Savannah claps a hand onto Melissa’s shoulder. She wants to tense at the touch. She doesn’t. She bites the inside of her mouth and reminds herself to stay still, to look completely calm and neutral on the outside. Even when Verliezer comes closer, studies her with his cold eyes.
“She better be.” He says, examining her like she is a particularly pathetic piece of trash he found on the street. She keeps her head lowered, swallows down her reaction. “She knows the consequences if she screws this up. Don’t you, cyborg?”
“Yes, sir.” She says, stiff and neutral. When his hand moves towards her, she can’t help it. She flinches.
He grabs the arm with the weapon and yanks it roughly up to examine it. “There’s a mark here. Wipe it off.” He lets go, and she quickly puts it back at her side. “And do not flinch like that on stage. Even if someone punches you in the gut, you don’t react, or you will have it repeated ten times harder later. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.” She can feel traitorous tears building up in her head. She is an expert at keeping them there, off of her expression, out of her voice.
“Right. You need to be straight out when you hear your cue. Get ready.” He shoves her as he walks off to go on stage. She stumbles, but stays standing at attention. People buzz around her, working. She doesn’t react to anything. She waits with bated breath, with cold fear swirling in her stomach. Cold fear that she never lets breach her face.
She hears her cue. She takes a deep breath and marches forward. Out onto the stage.
———
Milo wiggles excitedly in his seat. “I can’t believe we’re getting to watch a V-Tech presentation!”
“I know, right? Getting tickets for these is like finding a needle in a haystack.” Zack agrees. “A needle that everyone else is fighting over.”
The lights dim. Victor Verliezer steps onto the stage, and the crowd goes wild. He stands, watching with a smile. When the applause dies down, he begins to speak. “Thank you all for coming. Presentations like these are an important chance for us to share what we are working on with you.” He walks around the stage. He speaks well, catching every audience member in his net. “And today, we have something very exciting to share. Something that is going to change how we all act, change how the world works.”
He stops walking. “So can I ask you all to welcome the fusion of flesh and steel, of nerves and wiring. The pinnacle of modern science: the V-Cyborg!”
Someone walks out onto the stage. The crowd gasps. Milo’s eyes widen. She looks like a girl around his age, with a mass of red hair. But she looks like she is part robot. Both of her arms are metal- one looks much thinner, with some kind of metal cylinder on the end instead of a hand. One leg, and her other foot, are also metal. Half of her face is covered with metal, her eye is a blue screen, and one ear is shaped like a large metal V. She marches to the centre of the stage and stops, arms behind her back like a soldier. She looks serious and neutral, staring straight ahead.
“Say hello, V-Cyborg.” Verliezer prompts.
She inclines her head. “Hello, citizens.”
A few people chorus hello back. Milo finds himself just staring. She really does look odd, nothing like a human. “The V-Cyborg is going to change the world. Why send a human into a dangerous tunnel or cave? The V-Cyborg doesn’t worry about danger. Why send a human into a gross sewer? The V-Cyborg doesn’t care about hygiene. And why send a human to fight a murderer or capture a criminal? The V-Cyborg is stronger and deadlier, and will never prioritise personal safety or morality over their orders.”
He rests a hand on the cyborg’s head. “In fact, as a V-Tech enforcer cyborg, this one here is the perfect weapon. No emotions, feelings, beliefs. Just power and skill. But she can make on the spot decisions and improvise, while a robot cannot.”
“So, the perfect worker.” Verliezer smiles. “And now we need a member of the audience to demonstrate that. How about…” He searches the crowd. “You there, in the sweater vest!” Milo jumps. Then he grins at Zack and hurries up. “What’s your name, young man?”
“Milo Murphy!” Milo smiles.
“V-Cyborg, can you greet Milo Murphy?” Verliezer orders. “Tell him a little about yourself.”
She inclines her head again. “Good afternoon, sir.” She says neutrally. Up close, Milo can see that her expression is like a blank sheet. Like, he supposes, a robot. Her eyes are dull. He feels… odd. Squirmy. “I am a V-Cyborg, a perfect fusion between a human and a robot. Is there anything you want to know?”
“Do you really not feel?” He blurts out, staring at her. She looks so human that he can’t imagine that.
“I have not been programmed to feel emotions.” She says simply. “I do feel pain, however I have no emotional reaction to this. Would you like a demonstration?” He is sure that he senses a strain in her voice when she offers this.
“No thank you.” Milo says hurriedly. Why would anyone want to see that? “Uh, you’re very cool.”
“Thank you.”
“Isn’t she? Now, one feature that this V-Cyborg has is that you can see what she sees through her robotic eye.” The screen flickers to lift. Milo looks up at it to see a footage of himself, Verliezer behind him, the rest of the stage. It is blue, and round. Clearly her eye. “Give us a wave, Murphy!”
Milo waves. On the screen, he also waves. The crowd laugh, and he finds himself relaxing. Ok, this is kind of unsettling, but it’s V-Tech. She is clearly ok, this is all clearly fine. He has no reason to be worried or uncomfortable. “To end our demonstration, we remind you that this V-Cyborg’s purpose is a weapon.” As soon as he finishes his sentence, she raises her arm into the air. A bright blue blast of light shoots up like a bullet.
The audience gasps, pointing. They gasp even more when part of the roof falls. The cyborg jumps into action, yanking Milo back so he doesn’t get crushed. “Whoa! Thanks.”
She stands back at attention. But all of a sudden, one of the screws pops off of her weapon arm. And then another. And then another. She yelps, grasping her arm with her hand. And then fear flashes through her eyes, which shoot up to look at Verliezer.
Milo stares. It was only for a few seconds, but it happened, he is certain. She was frightened, absolutely terrified. And she was completely taken aback by her arm breaking… she does have emotions.
He looks back at Verliezer, and sees emotions in his eyes too. Anger. Cold, furious anger. “Well, thanks for coming!” He pushes Milo away, gestures sharply for the cyborg to follow him offstage. She does, marching like a soldier.
Only Milo notices the slight flinch. The hesitance in her step.
As people file out, Zack comes to the side of the stage. “You coming, dude? We haven’t seen half of the exhibition.”
“Give me a second.” Milo says, glancing back at the curtains. “I need to check something.”
He pulls back one of the curtains to peek through. His eyes widen, and a noise slips from his throat.
The cyborg is crouched on the ground. Her partly broken arm is cradled by her other arm. She is trembling, face screwed up. Standing over her two people in old fashioned clothes, a man and a woman. In their hands, they have long tasers. Which they are using on the cyborg. She is clearly in pain, clearly frightened. Horror flashes through him.
“Hey, stop!” He blurts out before he can stop it. Every eye turns to him. The girl makes eye contact with him. Her eyes are wide and frightened, shiny. Not dull or neutral in the least. His head spins, trying to comprehend what is going on. She seems to be motioning with her eyes, motioning away.
“Ugh. Now look what you’ve done.” Verliezer rolls his eyes, and glares down at the cyborg crumpled beneath him. “See, what happens to this kid is your fault.” He kicks her. She winces, but she doesn’t look away from Milo. She looks utterly horrified.
The woman bends down and yanks her up by the arm. Verliezer is still glaring at her, a smirk playing on his lips. “Prove you’re more than a useless scrap of metal. Get him.”
Horror flickers in her eyes. She stands at attention, lowers her head. “Do you mean escort him from the premises, sir?” She asks neutrally. Milo can detect the emotion behind it.
“You know very well what I mean!” She is shoved forward. She makes eye contact with him.
He can see the shift in her eyes, a shift back to coldness. Dullness falls over them again as she lifts her half broken weapon arm. “Yes, sir.”
He throws himself backwards to avoid the shot.
He scrambled up and sprints through the curtains. He grabs Zack’s hand and yanks him behind. “What’s going on?!” Zack exclaims.
“I’ll explain later, for now run!” Milo yells. Another blast sails over their heads. Zack yelps and speeds up.
“What did you do?!”
“I upset Verliezer!” Milo explains. “He was hurting that cyborg!”
“What?!” Zack exclaims. “Why?!”
“I- left!” Milo shoves Zack around the corner, narrowly avoiding another blast. “I think we’ll have to go through the sewers.” They keep sprinting. Milo glances backwards, and notices that a piece of metal has fallen off of her arm. “She’s hurt!”
Zack dives in the nick of time. “She’s trying to hurt us!”
They dive into the sewers, sprint around a few more corridors, then stop. They wait, holding their breath. She doesn’t come.
"Ok, dude, explain." Zack asks, sinking onto the floor and panting like a dying dog. "Why were we being chased by a crazed cyborg?"
"Not crazed." Milo has an urge to defend her. "I don't think that she wanted to do it. I think that she was forced. I mean, I think I even saw her trying to get me to leave."
"Forced?" Zack looks up. "What do you mean?"
"When her arm broke onstage and she yelped, she looked... scared after. She looked scared of Victor Verliezer." Milo begins. He scratches his head, trying to add up everything he saw. "When I went backstage, I saw them hurting her. Like, with tasers. And she definitely does feel emotions, she was so scared and upset."
"So they're, like, mistreating their cyborg?" Zack asks. He looks as confused as Milo feels, as frightened as Milo feels. The truth, what this must mean, is sinking in. "And they tried to kill you because you saw?"
"That's what it looks like." Milo feels the pieces sinking in, swirling and shifting and then settling back down in a new pattern. A new truth. There is a hard, cold stone in his stomach. "Zack, we need to do something about this."
———
The boys disappear. Melissa looks around, but she can't see them. There are no corners, so the only place they could have gone is the sewers. She starts to move towards the entrance.
"Cyborg!" Her ear crackles to life, Handler's Savannah's voice blaring from it. "Retreat back to V-Tech immediately. Mission over."
"I can get them!" Her voice breaks, a rare display of emotion that is sure to be punished. She can't come back empty handed. She will be hurt enough for her failure onstage without failing to kill her targets.
"Your arm is falling to pieces." Savannah is as cold and professional as ever. Admittedly, it is. She has dropped screws and pieces of metal on the way, abandoning them in her focus on her targets. Now she notices she cradles it, trying to prevent any more damage. It doesn't hurt, her metal parts don't feel pain, but it is weird. "Verliezer is displeased as it is. Do not give him more reason to anger by ignoring orders.
"Yes, ma'am." Melissa begins to walk back, cradling her arm. She has to admit, as scared as she if of the consequences of failure, she is glad. Milo Murphy tried to help her, in a small way. He didn't want to see her hurt, when most people don't care. She doesn't want to kill him. Hopefully, for both of them, she never sees him again.