Chapter Text
"Okay. You understand the plan now, right?"
Felix nodded, with one of his hands balled up into a tight fist behind his back. The other, he held out before him, letting it lay tensely on the metal table where the boss had the skin split through its triangular sets of scars to reveal the robotic hardware within. Whatever remained of his nerves, at the end of the flayed skin, tingled with an electric pain. The odd sensation of air brushing against the raw red skin left a perpetual shiver in Felix's bones. The plethora of robotic parts hidden beneath his flesh were cold, with intertwining wires of silvers, reds, and blues winding around and connecting to vials of green and blue liquids --- mysterious gels. What looked like thin metal needles stemmed from some of the vials. Felix had no idea what they were meant to do. He didn't need to, according to the boss. He had asked about the wires as a child and had been reprimanded for being obtuse and ungrateful. That had shut down the remainder of his questions.
Felix understood the exact functions of none of his mechanical parts, but he knew his life's sole function well. That was engraved in his artificial heart, pulsing through his wires and leftover veins. He lived solely for this. This purpose --- the task he'd accomplish tonight --- is what he was created to do. Felix's only purpose --- the only reason he was even alive --- was to bring Penny home, and here was his chance to succeed. He wouldn't --- couldn't --- fail. This was it, he told himself. This day, this moment, would make or break the rest of his life.
The plan wasn't overly complicated. Theodore Huxley was graduating in a few weeks time, so his very rich, very famous family chose to throw a massive party for the occasion. Since Theodore would soon have a respected position in the family's company, Applesoft, it also became somewhat of a business party, with high-ranking officials from the company and from its partners either helping with the event or sending their children there as a sort of marketing ploy. What was meant to be a fun grad party had become a huge ordeal, and it was the perfect opportunity to save Penny.
She was being held hostage by a close friend of Theodore's, Montgomery, ever since her capture twelve long years ago.
"Remember to steer clear of him at all costs," the boss warned. "He's no good. Callous, cruel --- know that he will tear you apart if he gets the chance. He'd have no mercy for someone like you, boy." The eerie smile on her face as she said those menacing words only further cemented Felix's image of Montgomery as a calculated, cold person. He shuddered at the thought of him. Montgomery had always described by the boss as having the sharp emerald eyes of a snake, with venomous verbal spit to match. Felix pictured an imposing figure, intelligent beyond belief.
Penny would be at the event, and Felix would be there to rescue her from those cruel people's clutches, just as he was told to do. With so many people being at the event tonight, from students to parents to business associates, Felix would be able to easily slip into the sea of people swarming the event center. Besides, Theodore Huxley was his twin brother, even if Felix had little to no recollection of who he was. If needed, Felix could use that uncanny resemblance to his advantage.
Penny's mother, Felix's boss, dressed in her usual bright pink pantsuit, finished up with some adjustments to Felix's robotic hardware. She had performed countless updates on Felix's android body over the past few months in preparation for tonight. This had to go perfectly. She'd ensure it. If everything didn't go according to her plan, well, she did mention to Felix from time to time that she had a few... backup plans. He tried not to think too much about them, especially considering the devilish glint in her eyes whenever that topic came up.
All Felix had to do was sneak into the party, plant a device in each corner of the main hall, and hit the blue switch on the remote in his pocket. The rest would be revealed in time, according to the boss. That simple set of events was all he had to accomplish for now. It should be easy.
Felix took a deep breath as the boss finished up with her final adjustments of his wiring, shutting the plates of slightly darkened pink flesh encasing it. Felix instinctively pulled his arm towards his body, rubbing at the scarred seams that separated him from a normal life. He didn't deserve a normal life, did he?
The boss put her tools away, slowly walking to the door. "Go get dressed before you make yourself late. You had better not make yourself stand out like a sore thumb either."
"Okay," he muttered with a sharp nod, sitting up from the chair and walking to the door leading to the descending staircase. He pulled it open, ignoring the grinding creak it made. Felix walked down the set of stairs to his room, deep in the basement. On his mattress, he had already laid out his clothes for the night in neat, folded piles. A long-sleeved, blue collared shirt lay on one end of the row of piles. Beside it was a pair of proper black pants. Next in line was a dark vest with gold buttons, which had been painstakingly annoying to iron out. Felix typically dressed somewhat formally, so it's not like the outfit was far out of his comfort zone. Still, he had never felt so paranoid over clothes. He couldn't stand out.
He couldn't jeopardize his mission.
Felix walked straight past the mattress, mindlessly running his hands through his hair. Oh, his hair. That might be important to fix up, he figured. Felix made a beeline towards his tiny mirror obscured by darkness. Eyeing his little reflection, Felix brushed out his long blonde hair. Surprisingly, it wasn't all that knotted.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Felix heard the boss stomping around upstairs and flinched at the sound, which led him to internally berate himself for doing so. He muttered under his breath. The boss' brash footsteps thrummed through the ceiling, and the piercing patter of her cane hitting the floor rattled the house. She moved with the precision of someone who had calculated each of her movements long ago yet with a kind of military might.
The tensions in the house were painstakingly high, and the pressure laid upon Felix's thin shoulders was even higher. He couldn't fail. he could hardly begin to imagine how he'd be reprimanded if he was to fail a task this crucial to his existence. After briefly shaking his head as if to clear his mind of the thought, Felix looked around the basement. Leaving this dank dark room felt different now. He was leaving it not for some confusing errand run or to follow the boss around like a pathetic puppy, but to accomplish something real. He was finally making up for being such a waste of space. If he could bring Penny home, then he wouldn't be just some worthless rat kept around out of pity. Felix took a deep breath. This was it.
His phone buzzed with life beside him, against the cold concrete floor. Felix snapped himself away from his thoughts. He pulled the phone up in front of him, and the screen lit his face in a light glow. He only had one contact, so he knew from the get go who the incoming text message was from.
[Billy:] Heyy, how's it going? :)))
It could only be Billy. After a few months of getting to know him, (entirely behind the boss' back, mind you) it had only recently set in that Felix had genuinely made a friend --- one who liked him as a person and not just as a tool. Felix smiled as he typed, barely noticing the dorky grin tugging at his lips.
[Felix:] I'm good. How are you?
[Billy:] Eh, bored
We're heading to a grad party later tnight, so ofc all we've done today is gEt ReAdY
soooooo boringggggg :')
Sometimes, Billy's abbreviations in texts confused Felix to no end. Thankfully, upon realizing that, there was a conscious effort on Billy's part to avoid using too many at once.
[Felix:] Oh, I'm going to one tonight as well.
[Billy:] REALLY? OOOOOOO :O
I THOUGHT YOU WEREN'T IN SCHOOL?!?
WAIT A SEC
IS IT THE BIG ONE AT THE EXPEN CENTER????
[Felix:] Yes, actually. Are you going to that one too?
[Billy:] AKHFDKSHFGJHKG
YUPPPP
Huh, well that could either make tonight a lot better or a million times more difficult. Sure, Felix would love to spend time with his friend, but he didn't want to distract himself and mess up his task. That was all that really mattered, right?
He checked the time, realizing that he'd have to get ready now or else he'd risk being late.
After putting on and scrutinizing every part of his outfit for the evening, Felix tied his hair back into its signature ponytail and trudged back upstairs. He pulled his favorite pair of black fingerless gloves over his hands as he scaled the staircase. With his hand buried in his pocket, loosely grasping his phone, Felix noticed that he was oddly aware of his own breaths, notably unsteady and shallow. Damn nerves. He'd need to stamp that unease out as quickly as possible if he wanted to succeed. Felix steadied himself as much as he could upon reaching the final step, momentarily freezing in place. Only when he was slightly less jittery did he dare touch the doorknob.
Then, upon opening the door once more, Felix saw the boss pacing back and forth across the living room. He shut the door behind him as quietly as possible, yet she heard the light squeak he made. She sharply spun her neck to look at him like an owl eyeing a rat. She scrutinized Felix's appearance with a judicial glare. Silent, Felix stood upon rigid feet with his hands clasped behind his back. She said nothing, and --- seemingly satisfied with his choice in clothes for once --- the boss gestured towards the little wooden coffee table with her cane.
"The remote and the wall devices are right there. Do you have enough pockets for them?"
Felix nodded, walking stiffly towards the table to collect his supplies. He grabbed the remote first, carefully flipping it over in his hand.
"There aren't many functions on that," the boss said, her eyes narrow yet gleaming with anticipation, "so even an incompetent rat like you shouldn't be able to mess this up."
After placing the remote securely in the pocket of his vest, Felix grabbed the small stack of circular devices he would need to affix to the walls of the event room. They were thin little disks, almost coin-like.
He could do this, Felix reminded himself. He had to.
"You remember the address, right?" The boss glared at him again as she sat down on the couch.
"Yes, and I have it written down." Felix nervously fidgeted with the set of disks, careful not to accidentally activate whatever programming they were intended to run.
"Good," she snapped, a grin peeling at her face and pulling the flesh of her cheeks into tight, worn wrinkles. There was little color in her face --- the skin all too uniform, too flat. Her smile was the exact same every time she plastered it on: artificial, cold, disingenuous... She breathed out a thick air of brutal intensity that fogged up any room.
Felix suppressed a shiver as he approached the front door. He could do this. He shot a final glance towards the boss, who kept grinning in his direction --- not quite at Felix himself --- with that typical harsh glint in her eye. She couldn't wait to get her precious daughter back after all this time.
"Don't keep me waiting," she bellowed, crossing her arms and leaning back into the couch, her gaze unwavering. Felix responded quietly as he stepped outside, the situation truly sinking in. His heart rate felt like it was skyrocketing exponentially. His hands became clammy and cold, and he could swear that his vision was starting to grow blurrier than usual. He had to get this right.
One thing that Felix learned over the years is that, if you don't draw attention to yourself, there's a surprising amount of acts you can get away with. Being polite also tends to help with that but not quite as much as just being discrete. Apparently, if you keep your eyes fixed forward and walk with enough calm and steady determination, bus drivers don't really mind you hitching a free ride, especially when you're alone. Felix hopped onto the bus, as he often did for long trips like this, without a word spoken or uttered to him. The Expen Center was far from the house, and walking would definitely be more inefficient than it'd be worth. The boss had told Felix to walk through a shortcut she had mapped out for him, but it seemed dangerous to him.
Felix stood at the back of the bus, loosely holding the gross rubber handle above his head with two fingers. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up his news feed. There wasn't much interesting going on, although Felix's eyes locked onto the thumbnail of one particular article.
"Ted Huxley to Give Influential Speech at Starx Tech Conference This Weekend? Highly Likely," the title read. How Theodore would manage to give some widely-broadcast speech after an event like this tonight was beyond Felix. The picture by the headline was a well-lit shot of Theodore, wearing a crimson red suit and a dark blue tie, smiling warmly while surrounded by a group of other people his age. His hair was short, perfectly in place and naturally fluffy. His was a bit of a lighter blonde than Felix's. The girl beside him, with her arm resting on Theodore's shoulder, was in a light pink dress shimmering with rhinestones. Her blonde and rose pink hair was tied into two loose low buns. A slim boy with bright red hair wore a dotted light blue polo shirt as he stood next to a girl in a tight dark green dress. Their pinky fingers loosely intertwined. Other clusters of people, blurred in the image but still unquestionably lively, filled the backdrop. Theodore seemed so genuinely happy with them, and Felix could barely shove down the lump in his throat as he looked at the picture. Theodore deserved to be happy, and Felix didn't.
That simple reasoning didn't seem to prevent the empty feeling forming in Felix's gut.
All he knew of his twin brother was through news articles and videos of Theodore at broadcasted events. It was weird, to hear so much about the esteemed young man without any memory of him at all.
The fact that Theodore allegedly killed Felix in kindergarten didn't help. At all.
The bus eventually stopped only a short walk away from the Expen Center, leaving Felix with just bit further to go. Occasionally continuing to message Billy, he hopped off the bus and made his way to the massive building's front entrance, which was already crowded by well-dressed people. Some wore glittery dresses. Others wore velvet suits. Other others wore long flowy skirts, or whatever other stunning outfit they could parade about in for the cameras. There were so, so many people here.
Only now did Felix realize what exactly he'd be getting into tonight.
Beginning to feel more than a bit overwhelmed, Felix sought out a more isolated area in front of the venue. He set his sights on a dimly lit corner, near the door but not right where the crowds bustled, and walked there. From the shadows, he observed groups of well-dressed people as they arrived for the event, keeping his eyes out for Penny herself.
Soon after Felix settled into his spot, a group of five leapt out of a pristine white truck. Watching them was like watching fireworks erupt into the night sky. They moved with unstoppable, enthusiastic energy, their colorful clothes lit vividly by the warm evening sunlight.
One of them, a thin boy with flaming red hair, thanked the driver in a scrambled mutter as he adjusted the yellow flower pinned to the pocket of his gray-blue suit jacket. He moved in nervous bursts, his eyes darting back and forth. A girl with dark hair that seemed almost purple in the light, shook her hands excitedly in the air. She looked at the sea of people in awe, and as she mindlessly swayed back and forth, the elegant ruffles of her poofy green dress swished around her in glistening emerald waves. Unlike the redhead, she took up space with pride, and her thrill was infectious yet stable. A similar flower, adorned in light yellow petals, crowned the side of her head. Once the restless energy in her hands seemed to have settled, she lightly tapped the redheaded boy on the shoulder. When he turned to look at her, with his head tilted slightly, she grinned and offered her hand out to him. He hesitated but took it with a soft smile, squeezing her hand, which was a bit larger than his.
Following that young couple were three other teenagers their age, who somehow seemed even more chaotic to Felix than the excited girl in green. The shortest of them was a girl whose warm brown hair was half up, half down, with some parts tied together in loose, wide braids encircling her head and others loosely curled. She wore a much shorter dress than the other girl's floor-length gown. Her flowy dress was a deep dark purple, with a wide band of little fake flowers in slightly varied shades of purple covering her shoulders and chest. She moved with the rhythmic grace of a dancer but the mischievous energy of someone planning to commit several counts of arson. On her feet, she wore simple black flats with more cute little flowers spread over them. She bounced around the parking lot with springs for legs after jumping out of the truck.
Matching her energy perfectly was a boy in an ivory suit adorned in gold detailing. He also wore a maroon tie that matched his dark, reddish hair. Both he and the girl in purple seemed over the moon with anticipation, especially in comparison to the relatively reserved couple holding hands nearby. The final boy in the group had his many dark braids tied up in a bun. With one hand, he gently readjusted the edge of his black suit, decorated with pink and gold accents. While he kept one hand in his pant pocket, in the other he held the girl in purple's glittery cell phone. He handed it back to her a few seconds after getting out the truck, smiling widely as she shook him by the arm, humming to herself. He appeared to be much calmer than the others in the group but was still clearly excited to be there with them all.
It was nice to see a group like that so ecstatic to have a good night out. Felix totally wasn't jealous of them. Not at all. He didn't deserve to be.