The End of a Long Dream

[Ashley Lee]

It had been in a relatively remote area of the city but known enough that people took noticed. All the citizens knew was that the lab had suddenly blown up and it was assumed that Professor Lee and his daughter had died. As for the rest who worked there most made it out refused to say a word but they refused to let anyone near the rubble. After a while the police decided they were protected something and offered to have someone they could trust guard the rubble. It worked but they felt it was a waist of time. The moment they stopped checking on them they stopped watching unaware of the treasures buried there.

How long she had been there she didn't know. She couldn't have known as she was in a deep sleep. The true thing that was to be guarded was Ashley Lee now known as Andromeda, though dead but asleep under the rubble, waiting for someone to remove the rubble and remove her from her sleep mode. Still, whether it was good or evil who found her first was out of the hands of everyone now that they stopped watching. The cyborg was now unprotected for the first time in months but only two weeks after police guard, waiting for someone to come find her at long last.

[Eugene Mode]

It had been a month since Eugene had landed himself in this town and what did he have to show for it? Nothing, no job, no girlfriend, not even entering school thanks to the summer months. It was most likely the dullest time of his entire life, even with this new superpower business, he had no idea how to control it or how it worked. At least he had a place to live for the time being. The day started off fine enough with the sunlight dripping through the treeline into his bedroom window, awakening the teenager at noon with a yawn and a stretch. The day progressed with the cooking of bacon and some TV programming, just as it had been for days and days and... well it was getting rather repetitive. Taking some initiative the boy through on a hoodie and walked out the door of his townhouse, heading in the only direction that was uphill, north. Eugene didn't know why he wanted to head uphill, maybe it was because he took downhill routes on most walks and wanted something different today, regardless off he went.

The walk itself progressed an hour with a straight line, stopping for traffic and sidewalks took a bit out of the distance but he was amazed at how streamlines the city could be sometimes. The neighborhoods changed a couple times on the route but they always spelled out some kind of standard, suburban homes, strip malls, the like. It was another few minutes or so when everything started disappearing, the area he was in was a bit more secluded, kind of rich actually, a few mansions and high tech looking buildings around, so odd. Eugene took a right and continued into the neighborhood checking out what there was to see, something recognizable, a local gas station, though it seemed to shine more than others. Taking a quick detour Eugene went inside and looked for the soda, it didn't take too long, some kind of new lime flavor, worth a shot... or not as the cash register registered five dollars...

'Jeez this really is a rich neighborhood' Eugene thought to himself opening the dusty wallet and producing his last five not wanting to seem cheap, even if it was just a guy working at a gas station. As Eugene walked away he couldn't help but star at the bottle, not wanting to open it out of sheer value, but as the wind caught his face something else caught his attention. It was getting cold outside and the sun was starting to set, he had stayed out too late and needed to get back... now which way was it....

Eugene took a right from the gas station, that should put him in the same direction he came from, but he had gotten on a different street, oh well it should intersect sometime and he could always walk over the blatantly straight one right? Eugene realized as he walked just how wrong he was, this street curved and he soon found himself completely without direction. His mind raced with a choice in direction but nothing came to him, if only he could active his speed right now! Out of desperation Eugene stayed on the path and kept walking, but nothing and even less civilization was all that he found until... was that lot covered in a pile of rubble and police tape? Eugene darted over, it actually was! What had happened here? Eugene's mind played races of awesome superhero battles and some arch villain, but it was more likely some kind of gas leak, that's what always caused explosions in the movies right? Eugene took a chance and pushed under the tape, mounting the rubble like he was a conqueror, it felt odd to be at the site of wreckage like this... hey wait a second, wasn't this neighborhood kind of rich? Eugene looked at his still somewhat cold and unopened beverage, it certainly was and maybe he could find something valuable!

Tucking the drink in his jeans back pocket Eugene started taking rubble and throwing it aside, they're could be like an un-broken watch, or maybe even someones jewelery box? He really had no idea what he was looking for and... Eugene stopped, his mouth shivering and sweat beginning to raise from his pores... Is that... A human hand! It was sticking right out of the rubble, it looked like a girls too... Eugene was stricken with fear he didn't want to be anywhere near it... did he? But how could he just leave it like this... As Eugene slowly lowered his hand onto more rubble he shivered, this seemed so grim, but he would need to run to a house nearby if she was alive and call an ambulance... not that he expected a non found victim on a crime scene to be alive. As Eugene cleared more rubble away it got worse and worse, the girl it seemed was his age, kind of pretty at that, Asian he thought. After he had cleared enough rubble away he reached for her hand hoping to pull her away, as his fingers touched hers they felt cold, too cold for a hand and he dropped the slightly risen body and fell backward. The body landed on the jagged rubble with a little thud and Eugene on his ass with a loud one...

Suddenly he didn't want to be here anymore.

[Ashley Lee]

She remained motionless as she was lifted. Everything was slowly activating as it sensed the weight had been lifted from her. When the cyborg hit the ground her eyes snapped opened. Andromeda blinked, looking around herself in a daze. Slowly she stood up, wearing a white nightgown with sleeves that went to her wrist in lace and a skirt that went to her ankles also with lace. Looking at it it was clearly handmade cashmere, something that made it clear the girl belonged at least in that neighbor.

She slowly stood, robotic but realistic brown eyes looking at Eugene with little to no emotion. It wasn't that she wasn't feeling anything...it was that she couldn't express it. He seemed....pretty average. His clothing suggesting a standard 'geek' so to speak. But that didn't matter. He had saved her and in her mind she knew that meant she owned him.

Andromeda slowly moved onto her knees, bowing slightly. He was her rescuer...she was now his weapon. It's how Doctor Lee had been forced to make her to avoid suspicious. She now owed him her life and was going to obey his every order. "Thank you. I am Andromeda. I'm yours to command."

[Eugene Mode]

Eugene's vision and hearing was still a bit hazy from his tumble but he could swear the girl just said... It was all too confusing for him to process emotionally or mentally as he stood to stare down at the girls bow, she was shorter than he had imagined.

Wait a second! did a dead girl just come to life!? And what the hell was she doing standing up so quickly anyways? Even if the accident was recent she should be hurt. Eugene's eyes started scanning about the woman and her white nightgown, trying to decipher if she was injured... It was odd but he didn't really seem to occupy his mind with the fact the dead had risen, after all he had walked through a wall recently. Mumbling his word Eugene tried to speak,

"Are... are you alright?" his voice piped up a scale out of eagerness and puberty, he didn't hear his voice crack often and was usually terribly embarrassed, but he was too worried for that at the moment. He couldn't see any problems... not even a scar or a bruise... anything... she seemed so real and so alive, but at the same time there was the flawless characteristic that made her inhuman to him... it didn't make any sense at all as his mind went through the paces. Trying to remember what she had said Eugene scratched his curly hair, and added onto his initial remark.

"Whats this about a master?"

[Ashley Lee]

Andromeda slowly stood. Was she alright? That was silly to ask. "Of course I am alright. Everything seems fully functional so I believe I'm just fine." Her face remained blank, unable to express.

Hm, his voice was interesting. Probably at the peak of puberty but the lack of acne from that assessment was a hint to who he was as well. She would have thought he was about her age....if she knew her age. "I didn't say master. I said I'm yours to command but you may think of it as that. You activated me....that means I'm yours."

She blinked, still emotionless as many thoughts suddenly flowed through her. Wait.....where was she again? What was she doing here? And why was she in a white gown? What was with the ruins around her. It seemed all she remembered from before this moment was she was Andromeda and she was made to work for whoever awakened her. "Where...am I?"

[Eugene Mode]

Emotional State: Green

Eugene was still trying the process all of this, the girl was so cold and emotionless... like a robot. Was she real? Maybe he had hit his head on the rubble harder than it seemed and this was all an illusion of his conscious... perverted, yeah that must be it, some pretty girl calling you 'theirs' Eugene, what a character you are. Eugene's thoughts started running the situation into something of madness, he stopped caring about a dead girl rising, and started worrying about his own state of mind... it really was selfish.

Out of desperation Eugene pinched himself, nope not dreaming... He went to slap his own face but stopped before he could commit to hurting himself. There was another way to test this after all, Eugene stood still, and thought, trying to open up his powers and find wherever that friggen 'on' switch was. And just like before voila!

The green aura that spread from Eugene'es body was faint, kind of pale in the wind. But its effect... Oh that was noticeable. Eugene's head twitched down, shooting back up with a finger,

"Right, your the girl who rose from the dead! Keywords here let me think... Command, Functional, Activated, I deduce some type of robotic AI programmed to... hmmm" Eugene was stuck the only thing the robot had said was that it served him now, a smart programmer would make any type of robot obey with some type of prioritized 'service'... No that one wasn't leading anywhere...

In the midst of deep thought Eugene's head fell to a fist, giving him a philosophical pose of sorts, that looked absolutely ridiculous on a teenage geek. It was during this time it seemed randomly while he thought he shout out an answer to the woman/robots question,

"Your within ten meters of your previous hovel, I've no idea the name of the neighborhood but based on observation its both highly elevated and in the general shape of a crescent moon, lets go with Crescent Heights shall we?" Eugene awaited no answer and shot back to his thinking. It was amazing how much information he was processing all at once, even things completely irrelevant like his next six weeks schedule planned itself ahead of time in that small cranium. Raising his head for a moment with an uplift index finger it appeared the boy had come to a conclusion, but immediately his head shook and sank back down, it was the most overplayed thinking one could ever imagine. The girls body motions indicated some type of internal thought as she asked questions, confusion perhaps? Maybe she wasn't a bot at all, perhaps just some kind of emotionless zombie? nono that didn't fit the keywords he had listed...

"Girl, what is your name? Surely Andromeda is more of a Project title or codename no?" a simple enough question, no human girl would just be Andromeda, it would confirm her in his mind as what she appeared to be.

[Ashley Lee]

Andromeda looked at him as if she was again studying him. For someone like her his actions were actually fascinating. Why was he inflicting pain upon himself? Pinching and then almost slapping. It was strange. Was there something mentally wrong with him?

If she could have showed emotion her eyes would have gone wide with amazement once Eugene's skin started changing....but unable to she remained emotionless on the outside. His change in personality was even more surprising. What was he? "I didn't raise from the dead. I was in sleep mode waiting for someone to find me."

Crescent Heights? She felt a small spark in her head but wasn't sure what it was or what it meant. "Crescent Heights....it is a good, logical name. You realize I can hear everything your saying about me, correct?" The teenage boy certainly was an interesting one. Andromeda was caught off guard again by his question. Her name?

"My name....it's Andromeda." Inside she was searching her mind. That was her name, correct? She....she couldn't remember. She held some knowledge but....remembered nothing from before she woke up! "My memory must have been damaged from what ever buried me. Forgive me. But I know what I am and that I'm now yours to command."

Thinking she stepped forward, hearing a strange cracking. She quickly stepped back, seeing that she had stepped on....a bone? How was that....? "....how long....have I been here? I-I don't....." Her mind that she had no idea was human was buzzing in confusion as she tried to process everything.

[Eugene Mode]

Either this AI was ridiculously intelligent and capable of showing emotion, or it wasn't and AI at all. The girl had fallen back into some kind of confused and... almost afraid state after answering his queries. It would serve him better to know for sure, but as for spending time on a pile of rubble with human carcass underneath it was unsettling.

"Come now Andromeda, you can rest whatever read end you have on the curb" Eugene awaited no response, making his way even while speaking to the curb alongside the front of the house. Before sitting Eugene was forced to reach into his back pocket and grab the beverage, odd it was still cold, although five dollars for one drink it better have something good about it.

Waiting for the girl or robot... or whatever it was to follow him and sit Eugene yelled backward, not taking the time to look.

"I do not know of the exact timing of this houses explosion, but I can tell you their was fire and police here for some time, even a boot print with mud from the standard issue footwear on the sidewalk still" Eugene's left hand was pointing at an almost faded boot-print of an officers boot just off to the side of himself.